It’s only about 10 o’clock in the morning at Josh Reim’s NDG home, and the 12-year-old, his tousled hair as red as an early sunrise, is demonstrating just how strong he is.
Josh Reim displays his array of judo trophies and medals.
At a doorway chin-up bar in the basement, he is pulling himself up, over and over again, effortlessly. Or at least it looks that way to a visiting – and much, much weaker – reporter. Then he does it with one arm, again seemingly effortlessly.
At his father Max’s urging, Josh shows his abs. It’s not a six-pack, but an eight- or 12-pack (I lost count) and is more chiselled than a Michelangelo sculpture.
Josh’s fitness level is an indication of the regimen he follows as one of the strongest Judo players in the province for his age. The summary handed out by dad on a sheet of paper and the pile of trophies and medals on the coffee table bore all the testimony required that all this metal was part of this kid’s mettle.
In other words, don’t let the slight stature and appearance of this St. George’s School student fool you. Josh has been studying judo all of six years and has already amassed seven gold medals, one silver and one bronze.
His very first medal, in 2002 was gold. He garnered gold at the 2008 Coupe Gadbois championship and is ranked number 1 in Montreal and the province in his category, cadet.
He won a gold medal at the provincial 2006 championship in Repentigny, Que., and a bronze at the AmCan 2008 in Buffalo, N.Y. Now bronze may not gold, but when you consider that Josh was one of as many as 1,200 participants from 12 countries (including Israel) – many if not most of them taller, heavier and older than he – then the achievement is just as burnished.
Josh has defeated opponents older, larger and heavier than he, like “David and Goliath,” kvelled dad.
“He’s at the highest level for his age,” Reim said.
Josh is part of a high-achieving family. Dad travels around North America revitalizing whole cities as a commercial planner and developer, while mom, Laurie Plotnick, is a physician, a pediatric emergentologist at the Montreal Children’s Hospital.
Meanwhile, Josh’s younger sister, Erin, 9, is making a name for herself in judo in her own right. With hair as red as her bro’s, she is ranked number 2 in the city and province in her category, called benjamin.
As for Josh, he’s got a slew of other passions, chief among them guitar-playing and music, but also rock-climbing, skateboarding and basketball.
Despite this blur of activities and achievement and his competitive spirit, Josh came across as decidedly self-effacing, genuinely polite and totally grounded.
Josh acknowledged that entering a big tournament facing competitors who are bigger and heavier can be slightly intimidating, but that honing technique combined with a supreme sense of confidence are huge factors in determining the outcome.
“You have to be,” he said. “It is much more mental than physical. I really have to be overconfident.”
Judo, noted his dad, is more popular – and followed – worldwide than other martial arts made popular through movies, such as karate or kung fu.
The uniqueness of judo, son and dad said, lies in the technique, which does not allow punching or kicking, but does allow flipping, tripping, grappling, and choking moves. The main focus is on the throwing and the groundwork, with a key element being the use of leverage.
Josh’s coach – or sensei – from the start has been Canada’s best, Hiroshi Nakamura of Shidokan, the Judo Club of Canada (Canadian judo Olympian Nicolas Gill is also a Nakamura protégé). It is Nakamura who will be leading the Canadian Judo team to Beijing.
Josh, for his part, is at the club a few times a week for a couple of hours each. It’s all about practising and building up your body, he said. Josh, who stands four feet six inches and weighs only about 27 kilograms, said he will have to gain about 13 kilograms in the next couple of years to continue to be eligible to compete (at age 12 there are no such restrictions).
Josh’s judo ambitions include competing at the Maccabiah Games, the Pan-Am Games, the World Judo Championships and, of course, the Olympics.
But closer to home, he seemed perfectly content to sit on the sofa and demonstrate his other honed technique, in guitar. Jimi Hendrix, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Led Zeppelin and the Who are among his favourites.
And if he had to make a choice between judo and guitar, what would it be? The answer came easy.
“My biggest passion is guitar,” Josh said.
