Judo training In 1940, adult males (16–35 years) of Belgium were sent by German occupying forces to
Germany to work. In 1940, De Smedt and his father returned to Belgium and were sent to Berlin. Between December 1940 and January 1941, while in Berlin, De Smedt came across a
jujutsu and judo demonstration which was being held in the open air along the famous Berlin boulevard,
Unter den Linden, as part of a larger German charity event called Das
Winterhilfswerk. The group was practicing under the guidance of
Erich Rahn. From 1903, Rahn had studied Japanese jujutsu with Katsukuma Higashi who regularly visited Germany, and had opened Germany's first jujutsu school in 1906. In 1912 and 1935 Rahn's jujutsu school was visited by
Jigoro Kano. Inspired by Jigoro Kano, Rahn opened a judo division in his school. De Smedt was impressed the demonstration and in January 1941, he became a member of the Jujutsu and Judo Verein Erich Rahn, which was located in a Berlin movie theatre. Later that year, De Smedt, opened a second judo club, Ojigi, in Kiel,
Antwerp at the request of Camiel Van Haesendonck (the brother of François Van Haesendonck). It operated in a backroom of Van Haesendonck's parents' cafe, De Familiekring. De Smedt and Van Haesendonck increased their expertise under Maurice Van Nieuwenhuizen (Dutch) and
Jean de Herdt (French national and first and multiple European champion). In November 1949, de Herdt promoted De Smedt to blue belt 2nd kyu, and in June 1950 to brown belt 1st kyu.
Judo black belt exams The presence of de Herdt in Brussels led to a schism among some Flemish clubs in the region around Antwerp who, until that point, had been working with De Smedt, Van Haesendonck and a Dutchman, Van Nieuwenhuizen. In October 1951, the first Belgian judo
shodan black belt exams for members of the AFBJJ, were held in Brussels, presided over by de Herdt. De Smedt and Van Haesendonck, who were not members of the AFBJJ, were not informed of the exams. Thus, several of their pupils became judo black belts before they did. BEL.A.J.A. attracted Jean Beaujean (a former colleague of de Herdt) as their visiting expert. In February 1952, the first BEL.A.J.A. black belt exams were held. Again, De Smedt was not informed. Thus Van Haesendonck and Victor Van Gich, the BEL.A.J.A.'s president, became black belts before De Smedt. De Smedt was promoted to shodan black belt in September 1952 by Ger F. M. 'Opa' Schutte (Dutch), a student of Tokio Hirano. De Smedt was introduced to Tokio Hirano by Schutte, and became a first-generation and dedicated student of Hirano from 1952 until Hirano left.
Later career De Smedt pioneered
judo instruction to the police in Belgium starting in the early 1950s, as well as creating children's and women's judo programs. Among his students are: Gustaaf De Waele, François Van Onckelen (-60 kg),
Jeannine Meulemans (women's -56 kg), Carl De Crée (-78 kg), and Sonja Maes (women's -72 kg). In 1993, disappointed with the commercialization of judo and federal policies, De Smedt left the Flemish Judo Federation (the Flemish regional sub-federation of the Belgian Judo Federation). From 2001 he transferred his club's judo instruction to others, but remained active as his club's president. == Death ==