A dream comes true...

I've been a judo player all my adult life. I've been Malaysian National Champion at -60kg, twice Malaysian National Open Weight silver medalist (despite being a lightweight), represented Malaysia in the Asian Judo Championships in New Delhi (I was also selected to compete in the Asian Games in Hiroshima but was injured just prior to the competition) and in two World Championships (in Hamilton & Tokyo).

I began my judo at the University of Austin (in Texas) Judo Club and got my first taste of competition judo training at the Los Angeles Judo Training Centre under an American national coach John Ross. Later I trained at the Camberley Judo Club in the UK under British national coach Mark Earle. I also trained briefly at the Russelsheim Olympic Training Centre in Germany under former Germany international player and coach Franz Fischer. It was also in Russelsheim that I met a German national player named Hans-Jorg Opp (Oppy) who later became my matside coach at the 1993 Hamilton World Championships where I had three fights and ended up with 13th position. For Oppy and I, this was a great success and more than what we had hoped to achieve. Til today, that experience is still a fond memory for the both of us.

Although I've been to Japan to compete, I've never trained there and all my judo training has been in the West (USA, UK and Germany). As such, my judo style and my approach to judo training is very European. I also did some collegiate wrestling while at the university so wrestling moves (especially Greco-Roman wrestling) fascinates me, especially those techniques that are applicable to judo.

Through the years, even during my college days in UT Austin, I had taught players who wanted to learn some techniques from me. But I had never formally formed a judo club. I always just taught people on the side whenever they asked for some training tips etc. That's going to change with the formation of the KL Judo Training Centre.

The opportunity to create this new club came when Lim Poh Fatt, the father of an up-and-coming, young judo player, decided to found a new martial arts training centre. We got into a conversation about judo training, one thing led to another, and here we are, about to launch a brand new judo club.

Much like Camberley, which has both a recreational program as well as an elite training program, I hope the KL Judo Training Centre will be able to cater to those who want to play judo for fun as well as those who wish to compete nationally and internationally. It will not be an easy balance to strike but we shall try.

 The tatami mats should arrive sometime in the coming week. The crash pads have already arrived though (see left). Crash pads are really important for training because in order to learn to throw, it is not enough just to do uchikomi (loading up an opponent). You must also do nagekomi (throwing practice where you actually finish the throw).

The problem with traditional nagekomi is that it's done on the tatami, which are quite hard. When you get thrown during randori (sparring practice), you've got adrenaline flowing in your system so it doesn't hurt to get thrown. But during nagekomi practice, there is no adrenaline and after a few throws, it hurts like hell. That's where crash pads come into the picture. With these thicker and softer mats, you can throw your partner as many times as you like and it won't hurt them. There are also some throws (especially sacrifice throws like ura-nage or soto-makikomi) which involve a heavy impact. For such throws, the only pragmatic way to practice them is on crash pads.

I told Lim about the importance of crash pads and to my pleasant surprise, he ordered not one but eight crash pads. That means up to eight pair of players can practice throwing at the same time. Fantastic!

The white mats you see are actually styrofoam. They will be used as the underlay for the tatami. Some clubs use rubber tyres. Some use wood. We'll be using styrofoam. It's basically to provide a cushion between the tatami and the hard cement.

The metal grills you see resting along the walls will eventually be mounted on the bottom of all the windows. We don't want anyone to be accidentally thrown out the windows, so having those metal grills will protect against that.

Two other things we'll be having which I don't believe any other judo club in the country has are a big screen TV monitor and some speakers. The TV is important as I will be showing some actual competition clips of techniques I will be teaching. As for the speakers, this is to play music when we are training. In a traditional judo club, having music is a big no-no. But KL Judo isn't a traditional judo club. At Camberley, there was always music blasting when we trained and it was great for motivation, so we will have that too. (I can already picture many traditionalists shaking their heads in disapproval).

KL Judo Training Centre
66-3, Wisma Alam Damai,
Jalan Alam Damai, Cheras,
56000 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: +6016 6262004 or +6013 9833148

Stay tuned for regular updates on the club's progress. Click here for the club website. And click here for the club's Facebook Page.