National Judo Champ Trains in Cranford

After sleeping on a simple wooden bed for three months, lying on his mattress at home was heaven for Colton Brown, 18. Ranked the number one judo competitor in the country at the junior level and number two at the senior level, Brown endured that no-frills bed while undergoing training sessions in Japan, judo's country of origin.

It was Brown's passion for the sport that brought him there, where he trained for over six hours a day for three months from January to April at Nihon University in Tokyo.

"I made great friends there, but the training was so intense," he said. "Once I got home, I was the happiest person in the world."

Brown describes this martial art as similar to wrestling. Competitors win by pinning their opponents to the ground for 25 seconds, or executing a choke or lock. Throws are a signature part of the sport, and so is the competitiveness--Brown's favorite part.

"I like to win. It's kind of like a high. It's a high you get when you win," he said.

This summer he's training in a setting a lot more familiar – the Judo Karate Club in Cranford. This judo studio is a family affair, he added. He's trained there since age 8, when his father, who went for years along with his uncle, brought him to practice.

"I would just come home from school, I wasn't playing any sports, and I was just being lazy," Brown said, smiling. "My dad said, 'you're going to do judo.'"

He added that he didn't like it at first, but warmed up to it when he started participating in competitions. A decade later, sporting a black belt and national rankings, he's really glad he continued to pursue the sport. He was also recently recruited into San Jose University in California.

"That's the number one college in the country for judo," he said. He added that he met recruiters for the college at the senior national championships, where he took third place.

While he will be flying out to California in the fall to continue his studies there, this summer he will be stepping into the Judo Karate Club five days a week. 

"I guess you could call it my second home because I'm here so much," he said.