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.
Four New Yellow Belts Following First Fundamentals Class Promotion
From Left to Right - Rachel Salisbury, Kellen Zander, Joseph Lily, Joseph Swedenhjelm, Sensei Chaye Thompson
Judo is brutal to the ego particularly of those who begin as adults, for several reasons. Earlier this year the Des Moines Judo Academy added its fundamentals class in an effort to make taking up the study of judo easier for those who only began to study the art later in life. Focused primarily on the needs of newer judoka, while offering more advanced students an opportunity to refine their technique or learn moves to which they had not previously been exposed, this project, helmed by Sensei Chaye Thompson, has steadily grown from one or two students on a single evening to numerous students spread across two sessions per week. On November 5th, 2025, the programs experienced further success when its inaugural group of white belt attendees were promoted to rokkyu, receiving their yellow belts, just in time for the Iowa State Championship.
The group promoted consist of Joseph Swedenhjelm, Joseph Lily, Kellen Zanders, and Rachel Salisbury.
Joseph Swedenhjelm (“Joe Swede” or “Swede” for short) a married father and former wrestler, is rapidly adapting his wrestling training to the gentle way, often grasping variations on moves he’s familiar with from his prior training after only a short demonstration. While Swede excels at O-Goshi, he has cultivated an enviable Ko-Uchi-Gari to O-Soto-Gari renraku-waza or combination that has won him a lot of success in randori. Since his promotion, Swede has made his debut in competition at the Iowa State Championship, and has been, when time allows, working on a tournament legal version of Kata-Guruma or “Fireman’s Carry.” Swede is a quiet man with subtle expressions, more likely to make his feelings known through the flash of a smile or fleeting expression than via words. However, once you learn to read him, a deep and broad sense of humor is quickly revealed.
By contrast Joseph Lily (“Joe Lily” or just “Lily”) comes from no grappling background, with his first venture into martial arts appearing to be judo. Despite this, Lily is often paired with Swede for drills and training due to their similar size. Lily is the more vocal of the quiet duo, with a dry sense of humor. Lily, who has an interest in becoming a police officer like several member of the Des Moines Judo Academy, expresses little interest in competition, instead being focused on personal growth. Lily has a penchant for Seoi-Nage, commonly called a “shoulder throw.”
Kellen Zanders studies bjj and karate in addition to Judo, as well as dance. The active man typically attends only one class a week, and has made substantial strides in doing so. Judo training has improved Kellen’s performance in all his physical studies by giving him a better understanding of the interactions between his own body and that of his opponent. This has translated to better rolls while at bjj and more effective practice at karate. Typically seen smiling with short interruptions for burst of laughter, prior to promotion Kellen’s initial preferred technique was Seoi-Nage. Since his promotion, Kellen has recently discovered that has some natural talent at O-Goshi, which this writer feels may develop into a general preference for koshi-waza.
Rachel Salisbury rounds out the initial promotion group. This is Rachel’s second round on the mat, having initially engaged in training for approximately two months around a year ago. Rachel’s initial interest in Judo was piqued when she observed a tournament in December of 2023. Since returning to the mat earlier this year, Rachel finally participated in competition herself in Minnesota, taking bronze and igniting a passion for competition. In addition to fundamentals class, Rachel frequently 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. As a result of this serious grind mentality, Rachel has developed a significant amount of skill in a limited time, but is also typically less than fully recovered at any point in time. Rachel is adept at drop Morote-Seoi-Nage, or drop “two handed shoulder throw”, Sasae-Tsurikomi-Ashi, and De-Ashi-Barai (Advanced foot sweep). She also demonstrates a skill at ude garami (kimura version to BJJ people) from guard when on the ground.
Congratulations to all the newly minted yellow belts, and may their futures have much success!