Member News

September 11, 2007

Reser Named OTC Athlete of the Month for August

In the Colorado Springs Olympic Training Center Athlete Newsletter, released last week, Ryan Reser (73kg) was named the OTC August Athlete of the Month along with gymnast David Durante, the 2007 Visa Championships All-Around gold medalist, who received July Athlete of the Month honors.  

Reser was recognized for his outstanding performance at the Pan American Games where he won the 73kg title and earned both the Ippon Trophy and the Male Outstanding Competitor Award.  

Reser took a few minutes recently to chat with www.usjudo.org:  

Q:  So, other than the obvious honor of being named Athlete of the Month, did you get anything fun?  

Reser: (Laughs).  You know the parking spot right in front of the Athletes’ Center?  I got that for a month and a pair of great Broncos tickets for the pre-season game against Cleveland.

Q:  You should’ve told me earlier…  that’s a great spot!  Ok, so now you’re going back to Rio after doing so well there at the Games, what are your thoughts?  

Reser: I’m excited.  I think that they’ll put together a good World Championships. The Pan Am Games was a good event and the crowd loves judo.  They’re always loud and enthusiastic, but you know that going in.  It’s been like that since I was five! (Laughs).  

Q: Since this is your second Worlds, what did you learn from your last experience?  

Reser: Cairo was a little high stress…  I think I’ve learned really just to relax a little bit more because really these are the same people you fight at all the A-Level tournaments… Hopefully I’ll still be thinking that way when I get to Worlds!  

Q: You’ve received funding from USA Judo and the USOC this year for training.  How has that helped in your preparation for the Pan Am Games and Worlds?  

Reser: Obviously it’s opened a lot of doors for me in terms of getting more fights in internationally to get ready for the Worlds and the Olympics.  Financially it’s helped me quite a bit because it lets me focus on training and not necessarily working a 12-hour day just to pay the bills.  

Q: How has your training been different this year?  

Reser: We took kind of a different approach this year, just focusing on getting lots of matches in and getting used to different styles of fighting and attacks.  It meant that I wasn’t as nervous at the Pan Ams.  Plus you get all styles, Russians, French guys, all different styles.  If you only go to a couple of tournaments you only get to see maybe one or two particular styles and the goal was to see as many as possible.  

Q: Why do you think it’s so important to train and compete internationally?  

Reser: You gotta figure, the United States is huge and we all live all over, so I can’t just go to California to train with Chuck and then back to Boston to train with Jimmy and those guys and that’s the advantage the Europeans have.  In Europe , they do central training once a week where the best guys in a country all get together to work out.  More than likely it’s going to be six long matches at Worlds to win it and it’s important to travel so you can get people to push you, whether it’s the Russians or the French or whoever to do more, whatever gets you ready to do your best.  

Q: Has winning the Pan Am Games improved your confidence going into Worlds?  

Reser: Definitely winning that caliber of tournament and having a great final against Brazil gives you a lot of confidence, but you just have to remember that anyone who’s having the best day is going to win and you hope that you’ve trained hard enough that that person is you.  My focus has been on getting in the best shape I can and working on my technique and hopefully it’ll all pay off.