Judo in the time of Covid-19: William Schrimsher (USA)

William Schrimsher (right) is an American judoka and part-time coach based in Atlanta, Georgia.

Q: Can you tell us a bit about yourself?

A: I'm based in the greater Atlanta, Georgia area now but I'm from North Alabama. I work out at several judo clubs, namely Striker Fight Center, Miki Judo Club, Fit to Fight Atlanta, CMAC Judo, and a couple other places when I have time. I travel pretty frequently back to Alabama and help coach at Decatur Judo Club and Huntsville Judo Club.  I try to be doing judo at least five or six days out of the week, and here in Georgia I managed to get in at least one workout every day.

Q: What are these clubs like?
A: Most of the clubs have between five and 10 adults on the mat for any given practice. Usually at least three of them are shodan or higher. Most of the places only meet two or three times per week, which is why I go to so many clubs.  

Q: How's the Covid-19 situation where you are at?

A: The number of confirmed cases is relatively low, but I think that's because not a lot of people are getting tested. Most of the stores in Atlanta have sold out of microwave meals, fresh meat, pasta, toilet paper and hand sanitizer. 

Q: Are the clubs closed now? By order of the government or voluntarily?

A: Every place that I train at has voluntarily closed. I think in South Carolina the government has restricted gatherings larger than 10 people. 

Q: If the clubs had stayed open would you have trained?

A: If the gyms had remained open, I would absolutely still be training but I would not train if I felt sick and I would hope my training partners would do the same. That's probably not particularly prudent though, given that from what I understand of this particular virus, you can be sick for quite some time before you feel sick. To be frank, I think the odds of me getting it are pretty high because my work as a field technician in an environmental company puts me in contact with lots of people and I’m always out and about. So, I don't think that the gyms have made the wrong decision. They're probably protecting me from myself because I wouldn’t have stopped training though I know I should.

Q: Do you think the clubs will get through this shutdown intact?

A: I don't know. Maybe some places can open back up if the shutdown is only for a couple of weeks but if this things lasts longer than a month, I think some places are going to go out of business. I don't know if that's the case for any of the places I work out at, but I suspect that this is going to be pretty devastating to judo clubs in general. The judo club in Decatur is paid for by the city, so that one probably has the best chance of surviving a long shut down. Privately run judo clubs will have a harder time.

Q: What are you doing judo-wise now that you are not able to train?

A: Several different websites and judo personalities have made training material available online for free, so I'm digging through that and trying to keep my brain sharp and learn some new things. It's very hard for me to stay motivated to stay in shape without other people around, so I expect a struggle with the fitness aspect while the gym is closed. I should probably do jogging or running, which is my least favorite activity. One solo activity I do enjoy practicing is ouchi-gari into a forward breakfall. It ends up being like a burpee and is very exhausting. I can go to the park and do that and jog.

Q: Are you watching a ton of judo videos?

A: I'm trying my best but my work schedule is still really full. I have some free time in the evenings because classes are cancelled and I'm using that time to watch judo videos, but it's just not the same. I think watching too many videos in a short period of time can just overload your brain and you won't remember hardly any of it, so I'm trying to keep it balanced.

Q: Do you thinks the Tokyo Olympics will be cancelled?

A: My gut says that it will be cancelled. I do not want that because I was really looking forward to watching the judo, but I have this nagging feeling it will be called off. If this Covid-19 thing goes on for six to eight more weeks I don't see how they can justify keeping it open.

Q: Anything you'd like to say to Malaysian judokas?

A: Mutual welfare and benefit takes many forms. I think we should not forget that  judo is a means to help us be our best self. In times like this, judo may look a little different but we can still be good judokas.

Things clubs can do during the shutdown

Clubs around the world are beginning to shut down. Some do it voluntarily while some do it by government order.

In Malaysia, the shutdown of all business, social and sporting activities is for two weeks but it could be longer if the Covid-19 situation worsens (or doesn't improve).

In Germany, my judo friends there say they expect clubs to be closed through much of April. Of course that too could be extended depending on the situation.

Whatever the case, there is not going to be any judo activity for a while. What can judo clubs do during those shutdown period? I read online that some of the more famous BJJ clubs are offering instructions via livestream. It's just the instructor and his uke showing some moves.

I'm not so sure that's very useful because in judo, as in BJJ, you really have to do the technique to learn it. Just watching a move doesn't really work. It gives you an idea of how the move works but without trying it yourself, it's kind of impossible to learn. So, I don't really see the point of offering a livestream of some techniques.

Besides, if people want to study techniques, there are plenty of sources online (some free, some paid) so if students want to watch techniques, they can do so. There are plenty of options out there. So, that's not something we're going to do at our club.

I've also read about some clubs planning to have some joint video watch party online during club training times. It's a nice sentiment but not very practical. If people are not on the mat training they will be doing other things with their lives. Maybe cooking or attending to chores or working or exercising. I don't think they particularly want to sit down in front of a computer screen to watch a video together with other members. They can watch on their own time, whenever it's convenient for them.

So, there's really not a lot that clubs can do but there are some things which I think are useful and interesting for members.

1. Share some levity. During these grim times, it's important to cheer people up. If there are funny memes relating to judo, this is the time to share them through the club's Whatsapp Group or Facebook Group, etc.

2. Keep members up to date with latest developments regarding the club closure. Nobody really knows how long it will stay closed as the situation is changing day by day. Club owners will have to negotiate with the landlord on how to make up for lost time etc. Keep members updated, don't keep them in the dark.

3. Share short video clips with members. Some people might not want to sit down and watch a 20 or 30 minute video but everyone can appreciate a short one or two minute clip. Whether it's an excerpt from an interview with a top player or coach, or a clip of some exciting competition action, giving people some bite-size morsels of judo content is a good idea.

4. Share interesting news about judo from around the world. Will the Olympics be cancelled? Are any top players infected with Covid-19? How are athletes in Italy coping with the shutdown? What are other clubs doing during this time?

5. Share judo stories. Whether it's personal anecdotes or it's famous stories about great champions or famous incidents in world judo. Share these with your members. During normal times everybody is so busy focusing on actual training, there's not much time to indulge in judo stories. This is a good time when nobody is able to train.

6. Share judo thoughts. Coaches now have a lot of time on their hands. They can use this time to share more about their coaching philosophy or their thoughts about how the club should evolve etc.

7. Plan for the future. It's a critical time for judo clubs. Some are facing the very real possibility that they might have to shut down. Or even if they don't face such dire prospects, they are likely to lose some members. What can clubs do to give more value to members and indeed to reward members for their loyalty to the club? These are things club owners and coaches have to think about. And for once, they have lots of time to think.

8. Share motivational memes and clips. These don't have to be about judo per se. Anything that's motivational would be relevant to judo players. It can even be content relating to other sports. Everybody loves an inspiring story.

Just because there's no judo activity on the mat doesn't mean the club has to be inactive. There's Facebook, there's Whatsapp. These are platforms that you can use to share things with your members and keep them engaged.

Training with lower skilled players

John Danaher is a renowned BJJ instructor. SHe has an interesting perspective on the idea of training with lower skilled players.

Most people would think that in order to improve, you need to train mainly with people who are better than you are or at least the same level.

Surely, there's not much to be gained by training with lower skilled players, right?

Perhaps that's true if all you do is do your favorite techniques on them over and over again. Then you learn nothing. But if you use the opportunity instead to try out new techniques, new combinations, new counters, etc, you can gain a tremendous amount from training with lesser skilled players.

Here's what Danaher has to say about the matter:

People have a mistaken impression that you should always be training with the toughest guys which is not true at all I believe. About 80 to 90 percent of your training should be people who are significantly of a lower level skill level than you are and as you get into competition mode, you start rolling with guys who are your own skill level or a little better but I do believe that it is a common misunderstanding that you should always be training with people better than yourself. It’s very very hard to develop your technical skills on people that are better than you. You will develop your defensive skills but ultimately the point of Jiu-Jitsu is to defeat people and not to become difficult to submit. 

So the salient points of Danaher's arguments are:
a) If you want to try out new techniques, your best chance of getting them to work is against lower skilled players, not those better than you.

b) If you spend your time training with those better than you, you will develop good defensive skills but you won't learn to do offensive techniques (because it won't work on them).

I'm not sure I would agree with 80% to 90% of your time being spent training with lower skilled players though. Maybe 30% to 40% might be more suitable.

I think at least another 30% to 40% be spent training with those who are of equal level than you. Then, it becomes a realistic challenge for you. It's not so easy for you to throw them but it's not so easy for them to throw you either. Judo is also most fun when fighting someone more or less equal to you.

I feel at least 20% of the time should be spent training with someone better. Someone superior can be a source of motivation for you to work harder. Defeating them can be a goal that you can work towards. And, as Danaher had pointed out, you will naturally develop good defensive skills fighting with someone better. So there is great value in doing so.

The important point to remember is that it is not at all a waste of time training with someone not as good. If it's super easy to throw them with seoi-nage, don't throw them with seoi-nage! Try instead ashiwaza, which might not be so easy. Or if it's easy to throw them with osoto-gari, why do you want to waste your time on a technique you already know well? Try instead, perhaps uchimata or sode-tsurikomi-goshi or some other technique that you haven't yet mastered.

3 judo-related things to do during the lockdown

1. NYT's 7-Minute HIIT: This is a simple way to keep your aerobic fitness up.

Do these in sequence, 30 seconds each with a 10 second break in between.

2. Shadow randori: Visualize yourself doing randori with your training partner. Imagine the gripping involved, the movements, the entry, the finishing and even the follow up in case the technique doesn't work. Visualize the whole thing as if it were real and move around as you do so. It's not quite randori but it's the next best thing. It takes visualization to another level as there is body movement involved.

3. Watch judo videos: Don't just watch and enjoy the videos though. Analyze how top players do their techniques. Look at how they grip, how they do the set up, how they get past defences, etc. Then visualize yourself doing it. Unfortunately, you will have to wait until the lock-down is lifted to try the techniques.

Trying times for judo clubs

After a long gestation period of about three years where it was nothing but struggles, we entered our growth phase in our fourth year. We were getting lots of new members and our players were winning  medals in every competition we went to. As we headed toward our fifth year, we had reached a tipping point whereby we could safely say we were an established judo club.

Majlis Sukan Wilayah Persekutuan (Federal Territories Sports Council) had decided to work with us to promote judo in KL and Putrajaya. Alice Smith Primary and Secondary School had also decided to collaborate with us to grow their judo program. When the Jeju (South Korean) state team came to town, they asked to train at our club. Whenever judo people from abroad came to holiday in Malaysia, our club would be one of their destinations.

The first two months of this year saw a spike in new members joining. And we were getting tons of inquiries from working adults who wanted to pick up judo as well as from parents who wanted their kids to learn judo the modern way. Then the Covid-19 pandemic happened.

One by one, international judo competitions were being cancelled. Judo activity at the club level carried on though, for a while. As the virus continued to spread, judo clubs around the world struggled with whether to keep their club open or to shut it down temporarily.

In Europe, which is now described as the epicentre for the virus, clubs started shutting down. But in this part of the world (Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia) many clubs were still operating. It's not that judokas here are reckless daredevils. It's just that the situation here could not compare with what was happening in say Italy or Spain or France.

For sure, if the situation had worsened, clubs in this neck of the woods would close down too. The question of course is when? How many people would have to be infected or died before it was time to shut down temporarily?

There's no easy answer to that. But on March 16, the decision was made for us. The government here decided effective March 18 through March 31, all non-essential businesses would have to shut down. Yes, that includes judo clubs (even though we'd like to think of them as essential!). If the situation doesn't improve, the lock-down could very well be extended. Things are very uncertain right now.

As a person who knows only too well how difficult it is to start and run a judo club, it's painful for me to watch judo clubs around the world struggle with how to deal with the Covid-19 crisis. Ours is not a popular sport. It's difficult to recruit new members in the best of times, what more in a climate when full-contact sports are viewed with caution and even fear. "Is judo a safe sport?" takes on a new, darker meaning in the age of the Covid-19 virus.

The harsh reality is that there is a risk of being exposed to the disease in all spheres of public life
– not just in judo training – now that Covid-19 has become a pandemic. As such, we have to accept the government's lock-down with an open heart, knowing that this action will probably make a big difference in slowing down the rate of infection.

It is often said that every crisis represents an opportunity. If we look at the bright side of life, we can see that this crisis can actually do some good for our club.

In the past week, we had introduced the concept of cleaning our feet and hands before getting onto the mat and we even decided to disinfect the mats after each training session. This is something that probably should have been done even in the absence of the Covid-19 scare and I expect we will just make it a regular practice long after this crisis has subsided. It is a good practice that will be ingrained into our club culture.

Our members really like our training sessions but sometimes, attendance can be low because we have sessions almost every single day. Our member are spoiled for choice when it comes to training days. If they miss Tuesday, no problem, there's always Wednesday. And if they miss Wednesday, there's Thursday and Friday and Saturday and Sunday. Now, there's no training at all. As they say, you don't miss the water till the well runs dry. Hopefully when we reopen, our members will miss training so much they will want to come more regularly.

A player who came to us from another club, once told me what he likes about our club is that we are constantly looking for solutions. That was an interesting comment because I never thought of it from that perspective but when I pondered upon his statement, I felt it was true.

Whenever there is a problem or a challenge, instead of lamenting about it or dismissing it, we find ways to improve the situation. For example, there are very few competitions held in Malaysia but in order for our players to improve in judo, they need to get competition experience. We decided to hold a monthly shiai so they can experience a reasonably realistic simulation of competition.

Maintaining growth in these uncertain times will probably be the biggest challenge for us in the short term and possibly medium term (there may not be a long term if we don't confront this challenge properly). Going forward, we have to come up with innovative ways to attract new members as well as to retain existing members. If the Covid-19 situation had not come along, we might have made the mistake of taking things for granted. Now, there's zero chance of us getting complacent.

Our club is special. We've got so much going for us right now. We are located in a place that's easily accessible to anyone; we have superb infrastructure (excellent mats, wide mat space, plenty of crash pads) and we have a great reputation, locally and internationally. But most importantly, we have the most incredible members. I often think about the diversity of our membership and the individuals who make up KL Judo, and it never ceases to amaze me how lucky we are to have the people that we have, training with us.

With the support of our members, I am confident we will be able to weather these trying times and continue to innovate so that we can look forward to having many more days of fun judo training ahead of us.

The challenges of taking in experienced players

The bulk of our club members started judo with us as beginners. For those players, our judo training program is the only system they've ever known. They trust our system, they are used to it, and they like it.

It can sometimes be a challenge when am experienced player from another club joins us. That's because players tend to prefer what they are used to and are wary of things they are not.

I should say that we do have quite a few players who came to us from other clubs who have integrated well and have become part of our judo family.

Usually these are players who had proactively sought out our club because they were looking for something better. They saw our videos and felt that's the kind of training they wanted to have.

But we've also had a few cases (fortunately not many) where an experienced player came into our club expecting it to be like their old club. These are usually players who weren't inclined to join us in the first place but just didn't have much of a choice due to circumstances.

There was one who was kicked out of his old club (which he actually liked) due to some dispute with the head coach, and was forced to find a new place to train. Another one joined us after moving from another state to further his studies in KL. From the get go, it was obvious in both these case, they very much preferred their old club but were not able to train there anymore.

Both those players did not last long, just a few weeks. Even so, it's a painful experience for us having to deal with them. But we have learned from those experiences and these days, if we have a situation where a player from another club wants to join us because of circumstances (not because they had seen our videos and wanted to join us), we recommend they come for an extended trial -- maybe for a week.

This will allow them to gauge our club better and find out:
i) Is the training system suitable for them?
ii) Is my coaching style suitable for them?
iii) Can they get along with the other players?

If after a week, they don't quite like it, they can save themselves, and us, a lot of grief by looking for another place to train. If, however, they like it, we welcome them to join the club.

A place where visitors can train

Shin Inho (4th from right) posing with our senior players.

When I was a competitor in the early 90s, I trained in the UK. One of the clubs I regularly trained at was the Budokwai in London. What impressed me about that club was not only the fact that their membership was quite cosmopolitan, they also had a lot of regular foreign visitors. If a judo player from abroad was visiting London, they'd go to the Budokwai to train.

Well, KL Judo has a pretty cosmopolitan membership base (we have players from France, Hong Kong, Russia, The Philippines, Great Britain and the USA) and we also get a lot of visitors. Recently, we've had visitors from France, Australia and Brazil come train with us. I guess we're not doing too bad if we're successfully following the Budokwai's lead in attracting international judo players.

Yesterday we had yet another international guest, a South Korean player named Shin Inho, who was in Malaysia for just a short visit. He wanted to do some judo and we were delighted to have him do some training and teach us some stuff too.

Having international judo players train with us is good for our members. They get exposed to different types of judo and different types of players. Judo is an international sport. You cannot expect to become good at judo by staying insular. That's why we are so lucky to have international members and visitors at our club.

We are able to attract international players because of a variety of reasons. Firstly, we are active on social media. We post pictures, video clips, livestreams and blog articles on a very regular basis. Such information give people a really good sense of what to expect if they come to train at our club.

We have a very nice program, with lots of technical instruction and plenty of randori. We also have a critical mass of adult members. We have many beginners and we have many senior players too. Having that mix is fun for visitors. They can see all that through our social media postings.

Inho with his female fans!

There is also word of mouth. It's well known that our players are very warm and friendly. I have a judo friend from the UK who tells me he finds most judo clubs to be cold places where people don't warm up to you until you've been there for quite some time. Not at our club. Our players are incredibly welcoming in that sense. They're joking and laughing and taking pictures with new members and guests straight away.

A good judo program with lots of warm and friendly members to train with. And we're not shy about sharing our thoughts, pictures and videos with the world. And that's how we managed to attract international judo players.