Dojo Continues Pattern of Excellence at 2026 Governor’s Cup
The 2026 Governor’s Cup was held on March 7th in Ames this year at Teikiatsu Judo, with 61 total participants, a twenty-five percent (25%) increase over last year. Among the adult judoka who took to the mat that day, only three (3) hailed from the Des Moines Judo Academy: Logan Ballanger (yonkyu/green belt), Joseph Swedenhjelm (rokyu/yellow belt), and Rachel Salisbury (rokyu/yellow belt). The trio was coached by Sensei Chaye Thompson.
Salisbury awarded medal
Rachel fought in the women’s combined bracket, facing familiar opponents Zoe Mytides and Alayna Guschin. Rachel’s first match was against Zoe, and was characterized by Mytides alternation between powerful pushes straight back and rightward circular motion to create openings for footsweeps and reaps. Rachel demonstrated growth in the face of this aggressive style of play, focusing on maintaining good balance and posture, while waiting for the ideal opportunity to attack. Salisbury was taken down once early in the match during a failed attempt at a drop morote-seoi-nage (her preferred attack), which saw Zoe awarded a yuko before Salisbury obtained a half-guard and the pair were returned to their feet. After returning to the action on their feet, Rachel charged in for a chain of attempts at sasae-tsurikomi-ashi, throwing Zoe out of position, allowing Rachel to attempt to move into position for tani-otoshi. Unfortunately, Zoe caught on and slipped out of position, before scoring ippon with o-uchi-gari. Against Alayna, Salisbury scored a quick waza ari on her first attack (o-soto-gari) after obtaining a grip following some initial grip fighting. Salisury followed her waza ari up with an attempt at kesa-gatame that rapidly transitioned to koshi-jime, but didn’t quite secure the submission. After returning to their feet for another bout, Alayna was reluctant to grip with Rachel, who none the less secured a grip on her opponent and obtained a second waza ari via drop morote-seoi-nage, winning her the match. Rachel took home a silver medal from this competition.
Ballanger (on right) grips up with opponent.
Logan Ballanger competed in the heavy men’s novice (which was large enough to be split into two divisions), the master’s heavy, and the senior men’s heavy divisions. He fought seven (7) of his eight (8) scheduled matches before succumbing to injury and being forced to concede the final match, earning one silver medal and two bronze. Ballanger established dominance early, winning his first match swiftly by obtaining guard as the follow up to a failed sumi-geashi, then making his opponent submit with kata-juji-jime.
Left to Right: Referee Scheid, Logan Ballanger, Joseph Swedenhjelm
Ballanger’s second match was a dynamic battle with Joseph Swedenhjelm (“Joe Swede” or “Swede” for short), with Joe leaning heavily on his wrestling experience, adopting a thoroughly bent over posture. Ballanger leveraged his superior experience, first as a judoka, by using a lapel and over the back grip of the belt to gain control over the larger man and foil his attempt as sumi-geashi, and then as a jujistuka, by using a peterson roll when he ended up in the bottom on turtle after the scramble, to reverse the position and end up in ushiro-kesa-gatame. Swede rapidly escaped Ballanger’s ushiro-kesa-gatame via leg entanglement, resulting in the two being stood up. After being stood up, Logan immediately obtained a double sleeve grip and began playing defensively, until Swede freed one hand to secure a belt grip, prompting Logan to attempt uchi-mata, which took both competitors to the ground, with Swede landing on top. Ballanger was in good position and seemed like he might escape this as well, but unfortunately turned into Swede as he rolled to escape, rather than away from him, tightening his hold, allowing him to assume mune-gatame and secure the win via osae-komi.
Logan fought Erik Whiting of Sempai Judo, located in Nebraska, several times. In the first match between the two, Ballanger attempted to distract his opponent with antics, but failed in the attempt, being foot swept with de-ashi-barai in approximately 10.5 second, for the fastest adult ippon of the day. In their second match, Ballanger approached Whiting with more intensity and more defensively, dodging several foot sweeps and attempts to get inside or hip throws, while attempting, and at one point succeeding, at maneuvering Whiting to the ground without giving up a throw. After being stood up, and then receiving a shido for going out of bounds, Ballanger countered Whiting’s attempt at uchi-mata with ura-nage, securing an ippon and the win.
In Ballanger’s final match of the day, he fought Joseph Swede again. The match was much more dynamic, with the two clashing fiercely several times, only to end unfortunately. Swede finally managed to use his bent posture to maneuver into position for a hip throw, tossing Ballanger with o goshi for ippon, but landing on the side of Ballanger’s knee and ankle in the process. The resulting injuries temporarily stopped action, while medical staff check out Logan and determined him to be okay, before instructing that he sit out his final match of the competition.
Left to right - Joseph Swede and Erik Whiting awarded medals
Joseph Swede starting the morning with the first match of the day, a master’s men’s heavy match against Erik Whiting, an brown belt an experience competitor. Despite the difference in experience, Swede manage to counter an early attempt at uchi-mata by Whiting with tani-otoshi, earning Swede a yuko with a move he’d only learned approximately a week earlier. Once on the ground, the award of yuko caused some confusion for the competitors, who slowed briefly before succumbing to the crowd’s urging to continue, with Swede gaining the top position in the resulting scramble. Whiting obtained a half guard, which Swede passed with some difficulty, but not before Whiting was able to turn face down, a position he maintained until the pair was stood up. When action recommenced, the pair gripped up with Whiting applying the “sticky foot” method of de-ashi-barai, leading to a brief hopping exchange and Swede attempted to free his foot. While Joe was able to finally get his foot free, Erik capitalized on the moment, charging in for o-soto-gari, winning the match by ippon. Despite this, Swede left the tournament with silver medals in both the men’s master’s heavy and the men’s novice heavy.
Far Travelling Pair Promoted Together
From Right to Left - Sensei Pohl, Ian Schaff, Jon Milliedge, Sensei Hilleshiem
Ian and Jon, regulars at Saturday open mats, have taken the next step on their journey into the Way of Gentleness, by being promoted to “gokyu” or orange belt. The duo normally spend several hours every Saturday developing their skills from approximately 9:30 AM until the open mat host is done the day or events demand they yield (usually around 12:40 PM), so they can work master what they learn training with each other during weekday. On May 3rd, 2025, they chose to forego training to instead demonstrate what they’ve learned in the pursuit of recognition of their hard won skills. Testing was overseen by Sensei Hilleshiem and Sensei Pohl, who determined the two passed muster, while a few stragglers looked on.
Ian, a student of jujitsu, bujinkan, and kali-silat in addition to Judo. As to be expected his “newaza” or “ground fighting” (the portion of combat that takes place after one or more of the combatants has fallen to the ground) is more developed than his “nage waza” or throwing techniques, he not only demonstrated competence with the required number of throws, but demonstrated an affinity for tai-otoshi, o-goshi, and uchi-mata. When not training, Ian enjoys tabletop roleplaying games, making mead, hunting, and spending time with his beloved dog.
Jon, a judoka with an MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) and wrestling background, who also cross trains in jujitsu and bujinkan, has a more robust standing game of the pair, despite Ian having a better flare for technical details. Jon also posses boundless positivity and enthusiasm, which makes long training sessions go by and the blink of an eye. While his foot sweeps won him gold and silver in the Governor’s Cup earlier this year, and even earned praise from Sensei Parkhill, Jon chose to instead show off his o-soto-gari, ippon seoi-nage, and tani-otoshi, all of which he’s been drilling endlessly since March. When off the mat, Jon spends most of his time with his family, being married and a father.
Kids Kick Butt at 2025 Governor’s Cup
Des Moines Judo kids with Sensei Hanssen
On March 15th of 2025, nearly an hour before the adult competition, Sensei Ryan Hanssen led a squad of five (5) young Judoka from our children’s judo program as they took to the mat for the honor of our dojo and personal glory. Jayce and Brayden Hanssen, Cillian Nizzi, Brogan Lindsey, and Aurora Wright all took to the mat in their respective divisions to demonstrate the skill and athleticism developed through long hours of training, and test their mettle against the best competitors they could find.
While each competitor’s matches were action packed and worthy of review, this author would only expound upon each competitor’s best performance for his loyal audience.
Brayden and Cillian each rapidly defeated the third competitor in their bracket and met one another in a heated match to determine who would take gold or have to settle for silver. Brayden tried his best to bring his opponent down with Hanssen family’s signature Koshi-Guruma, but Cillian presented a competent defense each time, hipping in and posturing up. On offense Cillian demonstrated a far more mobile style of judo, using circular motion to disbalance his opponent to create openings for Uchi-Mata and O-Soto-Gari. Unfortunately for Cillian, Brayden, being a seasoned competitor was able to meet and overcome this tactic through strategic us of grips and defensive posturing. After a reset by the referee, both combatants switched tactics, opting for a brief exchange of foot sweeps, with Cillian bringing Brayden to the ground for a non-scoring Tai-Otoshi. The two continued in this fashion for a short while longer before Cillian was finally able to catch Brayden off-guard with a will timed Uchi-Mata for victory by Ippon. The two fought well.
Aurora’s determination and aggression allowed her to take a bronze medal in her division, with her most exciting match being against Isabella from Sempai Judo Academy. Both girls came out guns blazing, charging one another to immediately grip up and throw a flurry of O-Soto-Gari at one another. While Aurora was the first to fall in her match, immediately escaping her opponent’s attempt at Kesa-Gatame, she was quick to follow up with an O-Soto-Otoshi, scoring a yuko, and to capitalize on her success by using Kesa-Gatame herself. The next bout yielded a solid Waza-Ari for Aurora off O-Soto-Gari, prompting her opponent’s team of coachs to prompt Isabella to make a drastic change in tactics. After another hard fought bout with no score, Aurora and Isabella clashed again, with Isabella disbalancing Aurora mid-attack, knocking them both over. In the mad scramble for position, Isabella was able to out scurry Aurora and secure a firm pin via Kesa-Gatame, which she maintained long enough for Ippon. While Aurora might not have won this match, which lasted over three minutes, she was in the lead when the final bout began, had maintained a lead for most of the match, and fought hard to the bitter end. Aurora should take pride in her accomplishment and in that it took her competitor benefitting from the combined experience of Sempai’s extended coaching staff to overcome her.
On his path to silver medal, Brogan faced off against Luca from Teikiatsu Judo, in a match lasting only fifteen (15) seconds. Luca assumed an aggressive and forward stance from the onset of the match, immediately charging to grip up with Brogan. Rather than meeting Luca’s charge directly, as many of our other junior competitor’s would have, Brogan embraced the teaching of “Seiryoku Zenyo” or “maximum efficiency",” shifting to the side and out of Luca’s path as he attempted O-Goshi. Luca stopped his forward charge in time to spin Brogan in almost a complete circle, which Brogan responded to by shifting neatly into Harai-Goshi followed by Kesa-Gatame on the ground. The pin was unnecessary, as the throw’s satisfying “thawp” told both the referee and the crowd Brogan has scored an Ippon.
Lastly, Jayce got to meet his rival, Asher Bruner, in the most recent in a long line of contests between the two. The most recent match was a furious affair, both upright and on the ground, ranging across the entirety of the tatami. The first bought ended with Jayce up a Waza-Ari from De-Ashi-Barai, with the follow up on the ground resulting in no further score. The second bout, in which both competitors were making textbook demonstrations of the down then up method of kuzushi, saw Asher tie the score using Uchi-Mata, with neither judoka able to score on the ground as follow up. After two bouts with the young judoka’s duel ranging to the edges of the mat and yielding no score, the rivals clashed a final time. Jayce managed to get his lapel hand around Asher’s neck and began to drag him into the Hanssen’s signature Koshi-Guruma. As the two spun with Jayce creeping his hips into position to reap his final score, Asher, familiar with the familial technique from prior encounters, shouldered into Jayce and threw out a leg, brining Jayce to the ground with Tani-Otoshi for Ippon. Jayce took home a well earned silver medal, and this author looks forward to seeing what Jayce brings to overcome his rival when next they meet.
Honor and glory to our young competitors! We all look forward to great things from you in the future!