History of my achievements in Judo

Donato Di Pierro


I started practicing Judo when I was 7 y.o. with my teacher Sensei Giambattista Guglielmi, 5th Dan Black Belt of Judo and 6th Dan Black Belt of Karate and official regional teacher responsible for Judo Kata in Apulia.


In 1990, during a Judo's stage at Fiera del Levante in Bari, I was present to a Judo demonstration done by Sensei Ezio Gamba (actually technical director of the Russian national team). He won the gold medal in Moscow Olympic Games in 1980, and his demonstration let me very enthusiastic in practicing Judo: since that day I had new objectives in Judo. To remember that event, I embroided both my name and surname on my Black Belt using an orange wire, due to the fact that in 1990 I was orange belt graduated.

I had a short competitive experience during my youth, then a stop period of 2 years in Judo but during that period I started practicing Karate.

I restarted judo in 1997 and I was the best executor to the black belt exams on 23th december 2002: I was graduated 1st Dan Black Belt of Judo.


In 2003 I followed the regional course to became a Technical Teacher and during that period I started writing my book about Judo due to the fact that I noticed how it was difficult to find all the informations needed for the exams' session. On 3rd january, 2004, I become a Judo Technical Teacher.


Since that day I had a quick escalation: I was graduated 1st Dan Black Belt of Karate (Shotokan Style) in 2004, then 2nd Dan Black Belt of Judo in 2005 and, at the same time, I become a member of the regional teacher team to teach Judo Kata in Apulia.

I won the qualification for the Italian Kata Championship in 2006, then I started with Sensei Giambattista Guglielmi and Sensei Giulio Valente, the team for studying Judo Kata in Apulia, and in the following years the regional Judo Kata Team was found. Actually, the "Team Kata Puglia", is active in practicing national and international competitions.


I won the gold medal and then the qualification to the Judo Kata Italian Competition, during years 2006, 2007, 2008, 2011, 2012 practicing Katame-No-Kata as Tori (who executes the techniques) and I partecipated to a lot of Final Italian Championships with my Uke Sensei Giulio Valente.

Since 2008 I am also a regional referee for the Kata Competitions specialized in Nage-No-Kata, Katame-No-Kata and Kodokan-Goshin-Jutsu.

On 22th of march 2009, in Castiglion Fiorentino (AR) I won the Silver Medal in the Final Italian Judo Kata Championship (first medal for Apulia in a Final Italian Kata Championship), and I entered in the National Italian Team, partecipating to the 2nd International Judo Kata 'EJU-A' Tournament representing Italy, on 14th of november 2009 in Lignano Sabbiadoro (UD).


During my freetime, I wrote the technical book 'Judo Tecnico', for which the first edition was published in 2009 and had a quite success.


On 3rd of january 2010 I was graduated 3rd Dan Black Belt of Judo.


© 2002 - Donato Di Pierro. All rights reserved.