Officer Advances to Orange Belt
From Left to Right - Connor Essery, Sensei Ryan Suhr
On March 25th, Officer Connor Essery of the Des Moines Police Department tested for and received the rank of gokyu, earning his orange belt. This promotion comes five months after his initial promotion to rokkyu in November of 2025.
Conner is a frequent attendee of Monday and Wednesday adult judo classes, and occasionally stays for fundamentals classes as well. He takes a structured, thought out and longitudinal approach to his study of Judo. For example, after discovering he was having difficulty determining which techniques to use during randori, Connor made a weekly list of techniques to work on, limiting himself to approximately five throws each week, with only a few throws changing each weak in his schedule. This approach not only eases the burden of the decision making process, it also forces him to work on each technique to learn its application, and overall makes the learning process less burdensome. He can frequently be seen training with Adam Thompson.
As his training has progressed Conner has moved away from O-Soto-Gari, and become more fond of Tai-Otoshi, particularly the version he learned from Sensei Chaye Thompson in Fundamentals Class. He’s also picked up a liking for head-roll Juji-Gatame.
Second Fundamental’s Class Promotion Sees Three Students Rank Up
Des Moines Judo Academy’s fundamentals classes, originally developed as an experiment to make taking up Judo later in life easier for adult students, has continued to have great ongoing success. While individual class sizes fluctuate, most evenings see four to eight students practicing, with the heart of the group being a consistent core of students whose primary engagement is through the program. This program, helmed by Sensei Chaye Thompson, has experienced numerous successes, including increased student retention, and strong tournament performance among its attendees. It’s most recent success was had on March 9th, 2026, when a group of its students underwent the programs’ second round of promotions.
From Left to Right - Sensei Chaye Thompson, Rachel Salisbury, Audrey Wirth, Joseph Swedenhjelm
The promotion group consisted of Joseph Swedenhjelm, Rachel Salisbury, and Audrey Wirth.
Joseph Swedenhjelm (“Joe Swede” or “Swede” for short), is a married father, former wrestler, and regular competitor. He recently took silver in two divisions at the Governor’s Cup and gold at the 2025 Iowa State Championship. He almost exclusively attends fundamentals classes, with occasional visits to Thursday night classes with Sensei Leo. While his Ko-Uchi-Gari to O-Soto-Gari combination brought him a lot of success at the 2025 State Championship, and he continues to work on a tournament legal version of Kata-Guruma or “Fireman’s Carry,” due to its familiarity from his wrestling background, he has recently had success with O-Goshi and been developing his Sumi-Gaeshi. He’s also grown more expressive with his fellow judoka in class, though is still subtle and quiet. Swede was promoted to gokyu, receiving his orange belt.
Rachel Salisbury, a pharmacy technician whose passion for judo was ignited when she observed the 2023 Iowa State Championship, has been a frequent competitor with a ravenous training scheduled. In addition to fundamentals classes, Rachel also attends 5:30 PM judo classes on Monday and Wednesday, Thursday class, Friday and Saturday open mats, and open mat at our sister-school Grinnell BJJ on Sundays. This training schedule has fueled an explosive amount of growth, as well as consistent silver medals at the 2026 Governor’s Cup and 2025 State Championship. Rachel continues to develop her drop Morotre-Seoi-Nage, which, along side her O-Soto-Gari, has brought her much success at tournament recently. Similarly, she continues to cultivate her ude garami from guard, but has expanded her ground game to include a solid Kesa-Gatame and Koshi-Jime on opponents in turtle position. Rachel was promoted to gokyu, receiving her orange belt.
Audrey Wirth is the newest edition to the promoting class. A manga enthusiast whose passion grew into an interest in martial arts, Audrey first started judo several months ago. Originally having started in 5:30 PM judo classes on Monday and Wednesday, and Thursday class, Audrey found the fundamentals classes better suited to her needs and transitioned to primarily attending those. She is also a regular attendee of Saturday open mats. Audrey currently only knows a very limited number of “nage-waza” (throwing techniques), the majority being footsweeps, namely De-Ashi-Barai and Ko-Uchi-Gari, due to her small stature. Despite being small, she has also developed an explosive Hasami-Gaeshi (Scissor Sweep), allowing her to easily take Tate-Shiho-Gatame (mount) against opponents in her guard. Audrey was promoted to rokkyu, receiving her yellow belt.
Eclectic Instructor Promoted to Second Degree Black Belt
Left to Right - Sensei Chaye Thompson, Sensei Gary Hillesheim, Sensei Nick Formaro
In martial arts generally, promotions initially come at a furious pace and rapidly slow down with each progressive rank, with more stringent requirements for each promotion. At the Des Moines Judo Academy, rokyu, the rank associated with yellow belt, can generally be attained after two months, assuming you attend two classes a week, with gokyu, the orange belt, being achieved with an additional three to five months of study thereafter, assuming you train at the same pace consistently. After attaining Shodan, the first degree of black belt, advancing further requires further requires years of regular training for at least the next several promotions, as well as additional qualifications to be eligible.
On October 22nd, 2025, Sensei Gary Hillesheim qualified for and received his Nidan, or second degree black belt. Sensei Hillesheim is generally outspoken against shiai or competition, arguing that the restrictions on legal techniques disincentivizes learning the full curriculum of the Kodokan and thus stifles the creativity and development of the art, and thus chose not to qualify for promotion via competition. Instead, Sensei Hillesheim choose to meet the criteria for this promotion by learning and performing an additional Kata or “Form”, or pre-arranged routine of techniques used both for training and to demonstrate proficiency in a set of techniques or principles.
Sensei Hillesheim elected to perform the Katame-no-Kata, which translates to ”Forms of Grappling”, a routine consisting entirely of newaza or groundfighting techniques. To prepare for this, Sensei Hillesheim and Sensei Chaye Thompson trained outside regular class time to perform the Kata, and performed it as part of an examination on October 22nd, 2025. The choice of the Katame-no-Kata was in keeping with Sensei Hillesheim’s personal philosophy and teachings concerning Judo, in which he points out that there are there are five ways to win a judo match (throw, pin, strangulation, joint lock, and disqualification of opponent) but that must of competition focused Judo’s training is focused on a single method of victory (throws).
The Katame-no-Kata is deceptively challenging. Despite the tori (person performing the techniques) never having to lift or carry the uke (person on whom techniques are performed), and most of the kata being performed while kneeling, both parties actually exerted themselves enough to sweat while performing the kata. Maintaining proper posture while transitioning into and through the movements, as well as engaging in several stylized non-attack movements routed in Japanese history and tradition, adds to the challenge of performing this kata.
Left to Right: Top Row - Jacob van Cleaf, Sensei Ryan Suhr, Sensei Nick Formaro, Sensei Gary Hillesheim, Sensei Jeff Volcheck, Sensei Josh Pohl, Sensei Chaye Thompson
Bottom Row - Young White Belt Guy, Jake Kane, Adam Thompson, Zachary Strahl
Congratulations to Sensei Hillesheim and Sensei Thompson for performing the kata, and on Sensei Hillesheim’s promotion. Their diligence contributes to the ongoing success of the Des Moines Judo Academy, and reflects the attitude of excellence we strive to cultivate.
Graduate Student Judoka ends Absence with Promotion!
Left to Right - Sensei Formaro, Jaehyeok, Sensei Suhr
One of the constants in Judo is diversity. From the numerous variations on each technique, to the variations in strategy and style, to the judoka themselves, practicing judo is an exploration of diversity. Despite that, it’s often easy to forget that diversity also manifest in each person’s path of progression.
Jaehyeok’s (Jae for short) journey with judo has been eccentric. He first came to the Des Moines Judo Academy in early 2024, progressing through “gokyu” or orange belt. Unfortunately, at that time Jae’s situation led him to returning to school for graduate studies at ISU. While he was fortunate to be able to practice with the ISU judo club, Jae chose to continue to attend classes at our dojo, and delay promotion until he could do so at his home dojo. While this choice may have delayed his promotion, it finally came on Monday, June 9th, 2025, when he was promoted to “yonkyu” or green belt.
Jae has been a frequent competitor, representing and claiming medals across the Midwest since his earliest competitions. He favors a highly mobile style of play and high collar grips, often using foot sweeps to set up uchi-mata, harai-goshi, or o-soto-gari. Jae prefers to avoid newaza if possible, relying on his throws to seize victory. Outside of judo and his studies, Jae is a fitness enthusiast with an (over-)fondness for neck exercises, a love of parties and a taste for fine alcohol.
Jae is a true example of the adage “all that wander are not lost,” and we’re glad to see that, although his journey has taken him on a more meandering path, he is still progressing and moving forward. Congratulations!