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.

Eager Giant Earns Promotion

From Left to Right - Karsten Lappe, Sensei Suhr

Karsten Lappe stands out not only in our dojo, but everywhere he goes due to his extreme height and boisterous personality. For those were present when he first came to our dojo, Karsten has long stood out for his drive and intensity; while many new students gas themselves out in their first training sessions, Karsten worked so hard he upset his stomach. While he has tempered his eagerness, his drive has never diminished. This fire has kept him on the practice mat, and carried him all the way to the gold in his first competition earlier this year, which he attended as a yellow belt.

On or about June 23rd, 2025, Karsten tested for, and earned, the rank of “Gokyu,” and the right to wear an orange belt. This promotion comes after approximately six months of study from his rank test.

When he first got on the mat at our dojo, Karsten called heavily on his past wrestling experience and preferred familiar attacks like O-Uchi-Gari. However, like many judoka, he soon became enamored with Uchi-Mata, which he has been working on since he was a white belt. Lately, he’s also been seen to demonstrate both familiarity and a refined level of control with O-Soto-Gari.

Congratulations to this dojo member. We look forward to seeing him develop further in the future.

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.

Mass Promotion on Monday

Four members who regularly attend Monday classes were all promoted on Monday, December 16, 2024.

Christian Wilson and Kasten Lappe both recieved their first promotion, moving from white belt, which has no Japanese name in the USA Judo ranking system, to yellow belt or “rokyu.” Both young men began training a few months ago, and have wrestling backgrounds, which have benefitted them in transitioning to judo. Both have worked hard, with Christian having already experienced his first competitive win at the Governor’s Cup in November of this year.

Logan Ballanger and Jacob van Cleaf both recieved their third promotion, transferring from orange belt or “gokyu,” to green belt or “yonkyu". The training partners and rivals made fast friends upon first meeting in their first week of training at the Des Moines Judo & Sambo Academy. Since then, they’ve committed to making this journey together, being consistently promoted at the same time, with each at times delaying testing to allow the other more time to prepare and be certain of success. The bantering pair can frequently be found training together, both in our dojo and attending open mats elsewhere to test and further develop their skills.

Both pairs are featured in photograph, along with several of the instructors who helped them make it this far.

Jujitsu Promotion

Logan Ballanger was promoted this past Sunday, November 10th, 2024, at an open mat, receiving his first stripe on his white belt. Logan currently holds the rank of “gokyu” or orange belt in Judo and frequently represents the Des Moines Judo & Sambo Academy at competitions through out the midwest. Logan’s recent use of ground fighting techniques at the 2024 Iowa State Championship the day before his promotion, no doubt contributed to the decision to award his first stripe.

Jujitsu, unlike judo, does not , typically issue a new belt with each rank, instead adding stripes to a black area on the practitioner’s belt until they accumulate their 4th stripe, after which their next promotion results in them being awarded a stripeless belt of a new color.

Dojo Represented at 2024 Paul Owens Memorial Tournament

The Des Moines Judo & Sambo Academy was present at the Paul Owens Memorial Tournament, held Saturday, October 12th, 2024. A sole Judoka from our dojo, Jacob van Cleaf, made the trip to the Lincoln Martial Arts center to attend this annual event. In addition to the hosting school, several other dojos were present in force, including Uprise Judo Club from York, Nebraska, and Sempai Judo Academy from the Omaha area, both of which were welcoming and willing to adopt the rogue attendant from our Academy for the day. Numerous competitors of all sizes were present, offering the super heavy weight competitor not only several matches with new opponents, but the rare opportunity to compete in the masters age bracket, had he chosen to do so.

Jacob, an orange belt or “gokyu,” competed in the novice and open divisions for his weight, earning a bronze and silver medal respectively.