SUBSCRIBE: Missing news on social media? Subscribe to CHAT News Today's DAILY newsletter and stay up to date with your city.

Ivey on the path to success

Aug 30, 2017 | 6:25 PM

 

MEDICINE HAT, AB — Several critical pieces must come together to create a world-class athlete.

It takes more than the endless hours spent in the gym, managing your diet to a tee, and showing up to practice every day.

Inside the mind of an athlete is where it all begins — the hunger to be better than anyone else, and never accepting second place.

That’s the desire which lies in 16-year-old judoka Kayen Ivey, according to Medicine Hat Judo Club Instructor Donovan Hoggan.

“Motivation,” said Hoggan when asked about the defining characteristic which separates Ivey from the pack. “And the beauty of that is it will guide him, it will carry him through everything else that he needs. It’s the motivation that leads to the conditioning. It’s the motivation that leads to the increase in his skills.”

Ivey is one of three local judo fighters setting their sights on the Canadian Open Judo Championships in Calgary next May. He’ll square off against the best competitors in his age category alongside teammates Ethan Cobbe-Hoggan and Stev Young.

“It’s like our Olympics starting out,” said Ivey. “It’s what every tournament leads up to.”

The under-73 kilogram fighter made it into the second round of the round-robin event last year, eventually bowing out to the tournaments second place finisher Kace Callaghan.

This year, Ivey is returning to a Medicine Hat Judo Club loaded with several more instructors. This gives the young Hatter more one-on-one training with his assigned coach.

“Rather than him just teaching five or seven people at a time where he can’t pick up on techniques that I’m doing wrong, we’re doing more one-on-one which is a lot easier,” he said. 

Ivey says working one-on-one is helping him dial in his ground work ahead of the competitive season, which swings into full force in November.

“(Our training) is a bit more competition based rather than technical,” he added. “So what that means is more fighting. Getting in the habit of more sparring.”

“He’s a great athlete, he brings a huge work ethic, he’s in remarkably good shape,” said Hoggan. “Conditioning is a good strength for him. And his ground work, his ground work is second to none.”

Ivey carries experience in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and wrestling, which greatly benefits his ground work.

But if he didn’t have the mental toughness and motivation to push himself through each workout, the chance of reaching the national stage again wouldn’t be possible.

“With any sport if you don’t have the motivation to stick with it and deal with the disappointment and the frustration, to get up and go to the gym when you’d really rather sit back and relax, then you really aren’t going to succeed,” added Hoggan.

It’s safe to say Ivey is well on the path to success.