There's more than one way to skin a cat.

As the saying goes, there's more than one way to skin a cat. There are many different judo training systems in the world and there is no "one size fits all" system that works for everybody.

I'm a product of the Western training system. I learned my competition training primarily at the Los Angeles Judo Training Centre and later at Camberley Judo Club and Russelsheim Olympic Training Center (in Germany). I also did some collegiate wrestling while in university.

Naturally, my outlook for training is very Western. The Japanese approach obviously works as they have produced many champions but I believe their system is only suited for their conditions, which is one where you have hundreds of players on the mat and at university level, you have training twice a day and up to 15 randoris a day with a new partner each time.

Under such conditions, the randori alone will provide ample opportunity for the players to develop good gripping skills, throwing skills and mat sense and so on. The one area that the Japanese are not very good at is strategy and they sometimes lose out when they go up against a strong strategic player from the West.

Even world champions have been toppled by excellent strategists. The reason is that no amount of randori will not prepare you for strategic play. Only drills will do that. The Japanese dislike strategic play. They think it's not proper judo. They like to throw for ippon and sometimes, that is enough. But sometimes not. Even the great Toshihiko Koga lost due to strategic grip play by his opponent in the final of the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.

I believe in drills and I believe in randori.

For drills, I break it down to three things:
a) gripping and strategy
b) newaza
c) tachiwaza

For gripping, it's doing drills of different gripping scenarios and how to deal with different types of grip fighters. For strategy, it involves simulating different scenarios to get a leg up on your opponent.

For newaza, I believe a player should identify what core newaza techniques they want to develop and do it over and over again. Firstly without resistance, then with some resistance, then with full resistance. This needs to be done repeatedly over a long period of time until the technique becomes second nature.

For tachiwaza, the same thing. The player must decide what are the two or three techniques he wants to develop and do these over and over again. First without resistance, then with some resistance, finally with almost full resistance.

Once a player is confident he knows the technique well, he has to try it in a randori situation where there are many variables. The opponent is not letting him get a grip, the opponent has an awkward grip, the opponent is resisting and not cooperating, the opponent is moving in a funny way, and so on.

I am a strong believer in randori. The great South Korean Olympic and triple World Champion Jeon Ki-Young says 10 randoris per session, 5 minutes each. I believe in that. Players must build up their stamina to a level where they can sustain 8 to 10 randoris per session.

Every player needs a training partner he can work with. The partner might not be ideal -- not the right height, not the right weight, maybe even not the right gender -- but having a partner is better than having none. Throughout my competition career I always sought out partners. Sometimes they were aikido players who took on judo, sometimes karate, sometimes wrestling, sometimes non-athletes... anybody who was willing to train with me. I provided them with a gi, gave them some basic training and trained with them. It was not ideal but to me, some training is better than none at all.