Jim Young

Instructor
A Navy & Marine Corps veteran, Jim trained & competed for UMass judo club. Then training in Kyokushin karate, he won 2 annual matches in Denver’s ‘Knockdown’ (Sabaki) tournaments.

Jim cofounded the Nortel Judokai and its ‘Kid’s Judo’ program near Dallas. He medaled in 4 annual Tamura Open judo tournaments, winning its 1995 masters division. Jim served as assistant coach for Rebecca Mendoza, a 1995 junior national judo champion. He earned judo promotion to nidan in 1996 and sandan in 1998.

Jim continued Kyokushin training near Oakland, CA, earning shodan in 1998. He medaled twice as a Pacific AAU karate senior champion. He is a 4-time national senior medalist in AAU National Karate Championships.

Jim attributes his amateur success to good coaches and helpful employers. Among his judo coaches are William Stevens, Noriyasu Kudo, Manmohan Chima and Barney Wick. His karate teachers include Joko Ninomiya (1978 All-Japan champion), Makio Nishida, Tyrone Wah and Gary White. With an MS degree in telecom, Jim held a senior engineer career at Nortel and AT&T.