New Year's Eve Training (31.12.17)

For our last training of the year, we focused on yoko-sankaku, the triangular technique that can be used to obtain a strangle, armlock or hold.

Sankaku is a complex technique and not one that can be taught quickly. It's because of this that I focused only on hold downs from sankaku for this session. The strangle and armlock from sankaku, I'll return to another time.

Bo learning how to do kesa-gatame on Winson.

Prior to the formal session starting, the players worked on a set of techniques (standing and groundwork) that's designed for yellow belt grading.

The group got a bit of a Japanese lesson on New Year's Eve.

Many players tend not to bother learning the Japanese names for techniques and instead, try to describe them in English. I've always emphasized the importance of learning proper Japanese terminology if they want to learn judo.

A smaller group than usual but all enthusiastic and all went away with some new newaza knowledge.

A look back and some plans for the new year

Another year will soon be over and a new one will soon begin. We tried out some new things this year, which worked well. For example, we live-streamed portions of our training session and surprisingly, we got quite a lot of views. We also did a lot of highlight videos showcasing different aspects of our training sessions: technical instruction, drills, randori -- and again those got quite decent viewership. I guess judo enthusiasts like to see what's going on at other clubs.

We're delighted at the number of people who came for our free trial sessions. Among those newcomers are some who are our now most ardent and keenest players.

As a club it's impossible to be everything to everyone. For sure, we will end up disappointing some. For one thing, we are a pure judo club so we don't mix in other martial arts in our training program. Those who hope to have some form of cross-training where other martial arts come into play will not find it here. At KL Judo, we do judo.

We also emphasize hands-on experience and as a result our training sessions are quite intense. Our Sunday sessions are three hours long with only a few water breaks in between. From the moment we start, usually with judo games, through the technical training, drills and randori, it's pretty much non-stop action. We're not a theory-based club but a practical-oriented one. Our players are totally spent by the end of each session. Again, this approach is not for everyone but our players like it.

Many of our players are working adults. The economy's not that good and everyone's busy trying to make ends meet. Some of our players have to work on weekends. Time is a scarce resource. With our members putting aside three hours for training (plus the travel time, to and fro), it's incumbent upon me to make sure that they get their time's worth of training, that they learn something new and that they get a good workout. At the end of each training I hope they will go away with the feeling that those three hours was time well spent.

I've written in the past that club culture is very important. Although we want to grow the club it's important we get the right type of members. There's no point having many people sign up if they don't like our style of training because eventually they will drop out. It's much better getting the right types who will stick with the club for the long run.

Plans for 2018
We head into the new year with a really solid group of members. I'm very heartened and grateful that we do have a really good mix.

Diversity
We don't have many kids but we do have enough that they can partner each other during training. What's great about our kids is that they are able to follow along with the adults class, which is not an easy thing. I think it helps that our sessions is very action-oriented so they are always kept busy and have no time to get bored. We do make a conscious effort to keep the activities interesting. So, there's no endless, mindless uchikomi at our club but rather, we do practical, purposeful drills that are designed to build "muscle memory" for techniques and moves.

Most judo clubs have a problem attracting female players and that was a challenge for us for a long time, even throughout most of this year. As our male membership grew, our female membership stayed stagnant. Fortunately, towards the tail end of the year, a few new female players signed up and now we have a small but enthusiastic group of female players to build upon going into the new year. Plus, we have teens and some light adult males whom they can train with.

Asians are generally smaller-sized than our Western counterparts. As such, bigger sized guys (90kg and above) usually have difficulty finding training partners. That was a problem for us for a while too but we were lucky to have a steady stream of bigger-sized guys joining us this year, so the big ones do have training partners to work out with.

What this means is that while we are by no means a big club, we do have a critical mass of players. Everyone now has training partners who are more or less their size. This is important because people need partners of the same size to do drills with and especially to do randori with. While it's possible to do some drills with different sized players, it's hard to get proper randori when there is a huge size difference. Imagine if a 48kg girl were to randori with a 90kg guy. The disparity in size, weight and strength is simply too large and it doesn't benefit either of them. So, having that critical mass is so important. It's something we have to maintain and build upon further in 2018.

Randori
Randori of free sparring is arguably the most crucial aspect of training. Yes, other components like technical training and drills are also important of course, but without randori, you can't really improve your judo. In contrast, even if some players have minimal skills but do tons and tons of randori, they will naturally become better over time.

The best of course is to have technical training and drills as well as randori. The first two is easy enough to do. All you need is a coach or YouTube and you can learn techniques. Drills, you just need one partner to do it with. And it doesn't even really have to be a partner of the same skill level. It's possible to do very specialized drills with anyone. But randori is different. For good randori, you need three types of partners and ideally more or less of the same size. At KL Judo, I'm delighted that currently, most of our players do have these three types of randori partners at every session.

Many of our players, including the beginners who started from scratch this year, are now at a level where they have some techniques that they can use and can do proper randori. As such, in 2018 we will increase the randori component in our training sessions. This will be crucial for improving our players' mat sense and fighting capabilities and frankly, it'll be more fun. Everyone likes to do randori (but only when they have some techniques to use).

In fact, for some of our Elite training sessions (not on Sundays, which is more of a General session but on some weekday sessions), we can have randori-only sessions. That will be really good for our players who want to get more fighting experience. (And again, it'll be more fun too!).

Grading
Many of our players are beginners and early next year, we will have our first round of grading. At KL Judo we don't really emphasize belt color so much. What's more important, in our opinion, is that our players are effective at what they do. That they are good at throwing and groundwork; that they have good mat sense and possess a sound grasp of fight strategy. Belt color is useless if they can't fight properly. So, we emphasize a lot on practical skills.

But grading is useful because it forces people to learn the proper names of techniques. I noticed that many players tend not to bother to learn the Japanese names of techniques but judo is conducted in Japanese so it's important to learn Japanese terminology.

Grading also requires players to learn a broad range of techniques which they would normally not be inclined to do because it's human nature to stick to what you like and not try something new. All of us know of players who can only do one or two techniques and nothing else. If left to their own devices, that's all they'll ever do and that's all they'll ever know.

While being an expert at one or two techniques may be enough to get you through some competitions, it doesn't make you a proper, well-rounded judoka. At KL Judo, we want our players to be knowledgeable and capable in judo. Not just in one or two techniques.

Competition
KL Judo is a competition-oriented club. It doesn't mean all our players are aiming to become national players but we do encourage our players to compete because competition is an integral part of the judo experience. Yes, judo is about mastery of technique. It's about strength and conditioning. But it's also about overcoming fears and bouncing back from setbacks and defeats. This is what competition gives you. And a judo player's training is incomplete without it.

There are not a lot of competitions in Malaysia alone but if you include neighboring countries like Singapore and Indonesia, there are quite a lot of competitions to go to in 2018. Some will be harder than others. Some are small, friendly tournaments while others are designed to be international. So there will be something for everyone in our club.

Management
In light of the fact that we plan to bring the team for training trips and competitions next year, we plan to establish a management team for the club so that things can run more smoothly. A big group of us went to the Penang Fescom competition recently but it was a very last-minute, ad hoc affair with different people taking different modes of transportation (trains, planes and automobiles) and having different accommodation arrangements.

For 2018, when we go for training trips or competitions, we really should travel together and lodge together. Further to that, we will be establishing a small management team for the club. There will be a travel manager in charge of sorting out all the logistics for trips and there will also be a team manager to help with the admins side of competition so that I can focus on the coaching bit.

I'm certainly looking forward to 2018. I think it'll be a great year for our club and hopefully our players will continue to grow and improve in noticeable and significant ways. And ideally, we'll have a lot of fun in the process. Happy 2018 and if you are in the KL area, drop by and join us for training on Sundays!

2018 Judo Events (Tentative Dates)

January 13/14: Singapore Workshop (Kashiwazaki '81 World Champion)

February 10/11: Nittadai Workshop (Japanese Physical Education University)
February 24/25: Singapore Open Championships

March 24/25: Junior Nationals (KL)

April: The Dojo Championships (Singapore)

May 6: Penang Invitational

July: Bali Open (Indonesia)
July 21/22: ATM Invitational (Lumut, Perak)

August: Jakarta Competition (Indonesia)
August 10-12: President's Shield (Singapore)

October: Senior Nationals (KL)

December 7-9: Jagsport (Singapore)
December 8/9: Fescom (Penang)
December 8/9: Sabah Invitational

Judo - A niche sport

Everybody's heard of judo. Judo is an Olympic sport. Judo is practiced all over the world. All that is true. But the harsh reality is that judo is still very much a niche sport. You hardly see it on TV (although there's a tremendous amount of judo on YouTube) and in most countries, it's not that easy to find a judo club (Japan, France and Brazil are exceptions).

Here in Malaysia, there are whole states without any judo clubs and in most states there's usually only one club or perhaps two, if you're lucky.

So, what are you to do if you're a judo player who aspires to be a champion? To do well in judo competition, you need three things:
a) a place to train
b) good coaching
c) training partners

If you happen to be in a state where there's no judo club at all, it's unlikely that you would have even started judo in the first place. But if you are a color belt judo player aspiring to be a black belt and maybe a national champion one day, it's likely there is at least one club that you can train at -- the club where you got your start in judo. So, (a) is taken care of.

Most clubs would be headed by a black belt who probably knows his/her stuff and can teach you traditional, basic judo. Of course to do well in competition, you need to know competition techniques and sometimes old, traditional teachers can't offer that, especially with way judo rules have been changing in recent years. It may be hard for them to keep up because with each change in rules, new strategies and even new techniques emerge to cope with them.

So, finding a good competition coach may be difficult. Thankfully, there's YouTube which is a treasure trove of judo video clips. Some are instructional in nature. Some are competition footage. Whatever the case, there's plenty of useful reference material for you to learn about competition judo.

Watching video alone is not as good as having a proper judo competition coach, of course, but it's certainly better than nothing. When I was starting out in judo in the early 90s, there was no Internet even so the only source of information were judo books and judo videos (on VHS tapes). That's what I used and it helped a lot. Later on, I benefitted greatly from having a proper competition coach but in the early years, books and videos were what I relied on. So, if you don't have a competition coach, make use of judo videos. There's plenty of them on YouTube. That takes care  of (b).

How nice if we could have so many players on the mat for randori sessions but alas this is not the case in most clubs. 

The last component is the most challenging: (c) training partners. In order to develop techniques, you need to be able to try them out in randori. All the uchikomi and nagekomi in the world will not help you if you can't try techniques out on fully resisting partners. While it's possible to do uchikomi and nagekomi with players who are not the same level (lower, for instance) as you, it's hard to get good randori unless it's with an equally-skilled partner.

In the Malaysian context, one state has a critical mass of players: Terengganu. Judo is part of its sports school program there and the players there have many training partners. To a lesser extent, Johor, which also has a sports school and the Angkatan Tentera Malaysia team (based in Lumut, Perak) also have a critical mass of players. Not to the degree of Terengganu but enough that their players can have sufficient training partners for randori. All three (Terengganu, Johor and ATM clubs) are government-supported.

The other clubs in other states are mainly private initiatives and these all face challenges when it comes to bodies on the mat. Of the private clubs, Penang seems to be the one that is thriving. It has a lot of players, although mostly at junior level. At senior level (above 21), they also don't have that many players.

Actually, at senior level even the sports schools are lacking. After the students graduate from secondary school and go on to college or enter the workforce, they don't really have a place to train anymore unless they happen to stay near the sports schools.

The private clubs also tend to focus on children and young teens. There may be an adult here or there to train with but the problem with many of the private clubs is that unlike the government clubs, they don't emphasize randori. In fact there are some that have whole sessions without randori or a just 15 or 20 minutes of it, which is not enough. I once visited a club that trained for 2.5 hours and not one minute of it was spent on randori.

So, if you're a senior player and don't live near any of the government clubs, you're out of luck when it comes to randori. And that is the biggest challenge Malaysian senior players face.

Of course we are not alone in this. Speak to judo enthusiasts in many other countries and they will tell you the same thing: Not enough suitable randori partners.

You'd be surprised, I was told this even by a county coach from Germany. Yes, Germany may have World and Olympic champions but there are also many small county clubs where the players are mainly kids and young teens. Seniors have difficulty finding randori partners. That county coach once told me about a senior player who would drive to another city hours away just to have a good session of randori. He would stay overnight and drive home the next day.

So what can you do if there are not enough suitable training partners where you're at? The answer is you improvise and think out of the box.

I once knew a Korean student who told me that when he was studying in the US, there was hardly any judo where he was at so he used to convince his friends to take up judo and even loaned them judogis just so he would have someone to train with. I have a British friend who took up BJJ just to get more training because there was not enough judo where he was at.

Both their stories resonate with me because it's more or less my story too. When I was doing my university studies in the US, I used to convince anyone I could find to take up judo and loan them judogis just so I would have someone to train with. This included karate people, Aikido people, football people, badminton people, my roommate at the time... whoever was willing. And, for a while, I also took up collegiate wrestling just to get more training. It's not the same thing but close enough.

The natural question is can you get proper randori
i) training with non-judo people
ii) doing other forms of grappling sports

Well, doing randori with non-judo players will never be as good as doing randori with experienced black belt competitors, of course. But if that option is not available to you, then you have to make do with what you've got.

The key is to teach them the basics and do some drills with them first. You teach them what to do and you do the drills with them. That way they learn and you get to practice. After a few months, they get pretty good at it, enough to give you some resistance.

As for doing other grappling sports, you have to go into it knowing what you're after. When I did wrestling, I focused on those techniques that are applicable to judo. In today's context, doing Greco-Roman Wrestling would be great for learning ura-nage.

US Olympic silver medalist Travis Stevens told me that there was one time when the only player he had to train with in preparation for the Dusseldorf Grand Prix was a white belt. So he formulated some drills and did what he had to do, training with the white belt for three months. Like I said, be creative, think out of the box and make the most of what's available to you. Later, when he got injured and could not do standing judo for a while, he took up BJJ which he could do off his butt. He improvised. He made the most of what was available to him. And he's a champion because of that.

At KL Judo, we have a nice dojo and we provide up-to-date competition instruction. Those two are constants. The one variable that we have to constantly look out for is making sure there are enough training partners for our players.

We have an open policy and welcome players from out of state and other clubs to visit us and train with us but we can't rely on external factors. Ultimately we have to make sure we have a critical mass of players in terms of gender (usually lacking in females) and size (sometimes not enough small guys and other times not enough big guys) so that all our players can get sufficient training partners.

It's not easy and it's not something we don't take for granted. I plan each session carefully in terms of the techniques I want to teach but I also take care to try to do match-up of training partners to ensure each player who is attending has a partner that is more or less equal in size and ideally in terms of experience and capabilities. I don't leave anything to chance.

This is necessary if you want to build up a successful club for the long term. 

Sunday Program (24.12.17)

1. Warm Up: Judo Games

2. Tachi-Waza: Yoko-Tomoe-Nage

3. Newaza: Koshi-Jime

4. Group Activity: Dojo Cleaning

Elite Training Summary (20.12.17)

We started out by going over New IJF Rules for 2018 and how that's going to affect competition.

Then we did some analysis of our players' performance at the recent Fescom competition in Penang. I went over some tactics to foil drop seoi-nage and ways to prevent common osaekomi turnovers.

For drills, we started with Reverse Seoi-Nage. I gave the players an overview of this very unique throw and showed them clips of top Korean players using this technique (Lee Kyu-Won, Wang Ki-Chun, An Changrim & An Baul).

Next, I taught them the right grip for this throw. After that, it's the turning-in movement (which many people tend to get wrong). I explained that there were five different types of finishings (drop, roll, drive, throw and leg-assisted). Tori can't really dictate which one to use and that it very much depends on how uke reacts to the throw.

For newaza, we worked on the Matsumoto Roll. Again, we started by watching video clips and then we proceeded with the drills. Although most of them were new to this move, they picked it up quite fast. Many people have told me they can't make head or tail of this move even after watching it on video multiple times, so the fact that our players could get it down so fast is a positive sign.

Towards then end, I showed them the "Reverse Matsumoto Roll" that I saw World Champion Clarisse Agebegnenou of France use in a competition. Although we didn't practice this drill (I wanted to save it for a future session), a few of the players decided to try it and managed to do it quite well in no time at all. A very positive sign indeed. 

Elite Training Program (20.12.17)

1. Competition Analysis:
- Drop Seoi
- Osaekomi
- Shido

2. Gripping (for 2018 rules)
- Strategy (4 point gripping strategy)
- Drills (securing the sleeve, high grip, 2-on-1)



3. Tachi-Waza: Reverse Seoi-Nage (See above)
- Drop
- Roll
- Drive
- Throw
- Leg Assisted


4. Newaza: Matsumoto Roll (See above)

5. Freeflow Randori (Tachi-Waza & Newaza)

Sunday Program: 17.12.17

 Groundwork Drills
1. Osaekomi Drills:
- Fending off with hands
- Getting past the legs
- Extracting leg
2. Alligator Roll
3. Matsumoto roll

Standing Drills
1. Gripping Drills:
- Fight for Sleeve Lapel
- Fight for High Grip
- Korean Wave
2. Ippon-Seoi Family of Techniques:
- Seoi-Nage
- Seoi-Otoshi
- Ippon Osoto
- Kouchi-Makikomi

Randori
1. Newaza
2. Tachi-Waza

Judo competition is an integral part of the judo experience

Competition is an integral part of the judo experience.

Is it possible to train in judo without competing? Of course it's possible. A player could just attend lessons, go for grading and never compete a day in their life. But such a player won't go very far.

For one thing, in terms of belts, many clubs don't award higher color belts and certainly not black belts unless the player competes. But even if belt color is not important, a player who never competes misses out on a lot of things that judo has to offer.

I've trained in clubs where some players are adamantly against competing. "I just do judo for fun," they'd usually say, as if competition and fun are mutually exclusive. But I understand what they are saying. They don't want to train so seriously. They just want to take it easy.

Fair enough but those very same players surely wouldn't like staying stagnant while others are improving. Unfortunately, that is what will happen if they don't compete while others do.

When you commit yourself to competing in a tournament, you naturally train harder and with more focus and purpose. And because of that, your judo will naturally improve. If there's no competition, there is no impetus to improve.

Those who don't compete will also miss out on a lot of other side benefits. Judo is supposed to be about building confidence and overcoming your fears. Make no mistake, there is a lot of fear involved in competition. I'm not even talking about the fear of getting injured. Injuries can happen anytime during regular practice. The fear I'm talking about is the fear of losing. And that's one of the worst reasons for not competing.

Not competing because of the fear of losing is all about ego and pride. Instead of rising to the challenge, the fearful person prefers not to participate. If that person cannot overcome their fear in judo, how are they going to do so in real life? Imagine always running away from life's challenges because of the fear of failure. That's no way to be a judoka and no way to lead a life.

I want to quote former American competitor Todd Brehe who wrote this about the importance of competition for recreational players:

In the short time we’ve had our judo club open, we’ve witnessed a deep-seated fear and reluctance by many of our recreational athletes to fight in tournaments. On the chance that we do encourage these kids to participate in a competition, even a novice division, they’ve often built up such a strong fear that they struggle to function at all during a match.

He goes on to say...

My personal belief is that competition is nothing less than beautiful. It’s important, valuable, and a critical element of our society. Every child, during the course of her lifetime, must compete at home for attention, in school for grades, on the playground for friends, in the work place for advancement, etc. Why then don’t we teach our kids better, more empowering philosophies and beliefs about competing?

Yes, it's true that competition is stressful and there are some things about it that are unpleasant, such as cutting weight (every player naturally wants to fight at least one weight class below their natural weight) and the nerves you feel leading up to the competition.

But there's also a lot of great things that you'd miss out on if you don't compete. The camaraderie with your teammates on competition trips is invaluable. Even cutting weight together and witnessing each person's progress at the start of each training session can be a fun, bonding experience. Yes, weight cutting is suffering but at least you're suffering together!

Going for competition, rooting for each other, having meals together, consoling and celebrating each other after each match -- these are all things only competitors will experience. The judo player who only comes for club training without ever giving competition a try will never know what this feels like. And what a waste that would be because these are some of the most memorable aspects of the judo experience. Why miss out on all that just because of fear and pride?

Sunday Program: 10.12.17

We'll start the session with a postmortem of the Penang Fescom competition. Our players did well there but of course there's always room for improvement. We'll look at the common mistakes made and then do some drills to rectify them for the future.

Newaza
1. Defences Against Turnovers
2. Arm Trap Roll
3. Matsumoto Roll

Tachi-Waza
1. Drop Seoi-Nage
2. Defences Against Drop Seoi-Nage
3. Ashiwaza

A great end-of-the-year competition experience

The KL Judo delegation, comprising players, coaches and supporters.Missing from the pic are our junior players Sami & Annabel, who had to leave earlier to catch a flight back to KL.

Trains, planes and automobiles. That's how KL Judo Club members made their way to Penang for FesCom (Festival Combat), Penang's annual, end-of-the-year judo competition. But make it we did and it was a really good experience for everyone involved.

FesCom is not a big tournament although there was variety with competitors hailing from various clubs including Angkatan Tentera Malaysia, Perak, Terengganu, Melaka (from two separate clubs) and Johor.

KL Judo is a small but growing judo club. Many of our players are either those coming back to judo after several years away or brand new beginners. Three of our players had done competition before but it was during the time before all the IJF rules changes were introduced. So, it was quite a while back. They had to reacquaint themselves with the rules again. Four of our players were completely new to judo competition. Only one had competed in another tournament earlier this year. So, this was really a way for most of them to get their feet wet in judo competition.

During the course of the competition, I received two recurring comments from other players, coaches and officials:
i) Your beginners (white belts) are really fighting well
ii) Your competition team seems to growing

Many found it totally surprising that our beginners had been doing judo for just a few months. Usually white belts with about two or three months' experience can do little more than breakfalls but our beginners fought well against coloured belts and in one case lasted a whole match against a black belt. That's because at KL Judo we treat judo as a sport and our approach is a very practical, competition-oriented style of training.

Our competition-style approach is also a natural vetting system which weeds out those who are not suited to our club culture. We do have a recreational class at KL Judo and competing is not compulsory. But even those who prefer not to compete have to train competition style just like the rest. So far it's worked out well. Not everybody competes but the majority of our members do. Which is why we were able to bring more players this time. This trend can only grow.

But going for judo tournaments is not just for players to gain competition experience. It's also great for team-building as well. Two of our members, Winson and Kenneth, who did not compete, chose to tag along to help out with videography and to give moral support. In the process they also managed to glean some insight into what judo competition is like.

Two of our players were juniors, Sami aged nine and Annabel, 12. Kudos to their parents for taking them to Penang to take part in their very first judo competition. Parents' support is crucial for a kids' success in judo.

I really appreciate the good folks at Penang Budo Academy for organizing this competition. In Malaysia, the Penang club is the one that's most active and most capable in organizing competitions and it's because of them that our players, and those from various clubs in the country, get to compete in judo.

We look forward to the next one in May 2018 and hopefully we'll be able to bring an even bigger team to Penang then.

Sutemi-Waza Essentials

Sacrifice throws are gutsy techniques where you throw yourself down in order to fling uke over. Good newaza skills are recommended if you want to do these throws.

Tomoe-nage
Sumi-gaeshi
Hikkomi-gaeshi
Ura-nage
Yoko-guruma
Tani-otoshi
Yoko-otoshi
Soto-makikomi
Uchi-makikomi

Koshi-Waza Essentials

A huge array of hip throws here:

Ogoshi
Koshi-guruma
Tsuri-goshi
Tsuri-komi-goshi (competition version)
Sode-tsuri-komi-goshi
Harai-goshi
Utsuri-goshi (competition version)

Tewaza Essentials

These days tewaza (hand techniques) is the smallest category of techniques in judo. After the IJF banned leg grabs, many hand techniques were considered illegal (e.g. morote-gari, kuchiki-daoshi, te-guruma, kata-guruma and so on). What's left are the following:

Ippon-seoi-nage
Morote-seoi-nage
Tai-otoshi
Seoi-otoshi (ippon & morote grips)
Uchimata sukashi

*Note, technically there are other hand techniques like sumi-otoshi and uki-otoshi which are so rarely seen in competition that I have not included them.

Ashiwaza Essentials

This 8-minute video covers:
De-ashi-barai
Okuri-ashi-barai
Hiza-guruma
Sasae-tsuri-komi-ashi
Harai-tsuri-komi-ashi
Ashi-guruma
Oguruma
Osoto-gari (ai-yotsu & kenka-yotsu)
Kosoto-gari (& kosoto-gake)
Ouchi-gari
Kouchi-gari (kenka-yotsu & ai-yotsu)
Uchimata

Other dojos: TSV Hertha Walheim

Clubs Featured So Far… Huntsville Judo Club TS Hertha Walheim

In our first installment of "Other Dojos" we featured a smallish judo club in the US which has 20 to 25 members. For this installment, we'd like to showcase the other extreme, a huge judo club in Germany, which has about 170 members.

Sven Thelen is a long-time member of that club and is also an kids/teens instructor there. He trained at the KL Judo Club two years ago when he was doing his internship in Malaysia. He is now back in his hometown and trains regularly at his club.

This is our conversation with him.

In Germany players often wear different colour  judogis for German League competitions. 

Tell us a little bit about yourself and your experience in judo.
My name is Sven Thelen and I have been doing judo since I was six. I am a competitor and I have participated in many competitions, both as an individual as well as a member of my club's team. I have also been coaching kids between the age of three to 17. In teaching kids, I've had to analyse and figure out how to break down a technique and this has actually helped to improve my own judo.

What is the name of your judo club?
TSV Hertha Walheim 

How long have you been with your club?
Since 1998, so it’s been about 19 years.

How many instructors are there at your club?
A total of 11.

Are children and adult sessions separate?
Yes, we offer different training for different age groups as well as skill level. But it’s possible for ambitious kids and teens to do randori with the more senior players, if they want to.

So you have separate sessions for beginners and experienced players?
Yes, we do.

And there are also separate sessions for recreational and competitive players?
Yes, we do have some special classes for recreational senior judo players and different ones for the competitive types.

What are the fees like?
Kids pay €12.5 and adults pay €14.50 per month.

That’s a relatively low fee. How is your club able to survive? 
We have many members. Currently there are about 170 paying members.

Are the coaches paid or are they volunteers?
Some get paid a small fee while others are there as volunteers, so it’s a mix of both.

Does your club take part in the German League?
Yes. We have four teams. First Bundesliga (1st Division), Regionalliga (3^rd Division), Landesliga (6th Division) and Bezirksliga (7th Division).

Can you explain a bit about how the German League works?
The system is basically the same as in soccer. All in all, there are seven leagues. The lowest is the Bezirksliga and the highest, the Bundesliga. The first two leagues can be considered national level while the rest are regional level. The fighting schemes may differ. For example, in the lower leagues there are only five weight classes (for men, it is -66, -73, -81, -90 and +90). This will help smaller clubs to build a team and attend league fights as they tend to not have many players who are very light or very heavy. 

TSV Hertha Walheim  is a big club with a huge membership. On a good day, there could be up to 40 players training on the mat. 

How long does a typical adult session last?
A typical adualt session is about 1 hour and 45 minutes. It starts with a warm up, some uchikomi or technique training. After that some free throwing or preparation for randoris. The randori sessions last between 45min to 75min.

What do you like best about your club?

I have been with the club for my entire judo life. The great thing is that I am not the only one. A lot of my training partners started with me when we were kids. We all take part in a lot of team, league and mixed-team competitions. Fighting alongside your training partners is always a very enjoyable thing. At my club I’m able to do it all – learn techniques, get some fitness training and best of all, to do this with a lot of different people. This is what makes me stick to this club all this while. 

Sunday's Program (Nov 19, 2017)

Newaza Warm Up
1. Keeping Down Drill
- Guard position
- Straddling position
2. Catching & Keeping Down Drill

Newaza Training
1. Leg Extraction
2. Obi-Tori-Gaeshi (Oshima Roll)
- Perpendicular
- Straight back
3. Obi-Tori-Gaeshi (Resistance Drill)

Tachi-Waza Warm Up
1. Pushing Out Drill
2. Gripping Drills
- High Grip
- Two-on-One
- Korean Wave

Tachi-Waza Training
1. Ogoshi
2. Koshi-Guruma
3. Soto-Makikomi

Randori
1. Newaza
2. Tachi-waza

Running an adults judo class

Once when I was visiting a Singapore judo club, a coach there told me an interesting story. He said he had a player in his kids class who was really into judo, so much so that earlier in the day when he announced that they would be playing some games she came up to him and said, "I don't want to play games, I want to do judo."

I replied, "Where can we find more kids like that?" 

"This is very rare but I knew you would like the story," he said. 

Most judo clubs in this country (and in many countries around the world) are dominated by kids. Parents want their kids to learn judo for a variety of reasons. Many feel judo can give their kids discipline. Some want their kids to learn how to defend themselves against bullies. A few want their kids to become champions. There are different reasons. But the kids usually don't have a say. When they are 7 or 8 years old, they go to judo because their parents want them to, not because they necessarily want to.

No doubt some kids grow to love judo. But when you are talking about kids below the age of 12, usually what they want to do is run around the dojo, tumble about with their friends and play judo games. They don't really want to learn judo per se. And who can blame them? Which kid would want to do endless uchikomi, nagekomis, drills, etc. That's not fun!

It's different with adults. And I'm not even talking about those adults who grew up learning judo as a kid and ended up loving it. Even adults who start out as absolute beginners are there with a different mindset. They are there because they themselves want to learn judo. They wouldn't invest time and money coming for judo class unless it's something they really want to do.

If you have a three-hour session, like we do at KL Judo, and it's serious training all the way (except for the warm-up where we play some games), you'd be hard pressed to maintain the attention of most kids. They generally lose interest after the first hour. But with adults it's really a different story. They train intently until the end.

Of course there are exceptions. We have three kids under the age of 12 who train with us. When their parents first approached us, saying they want their kids to do competition judo training, I told them that our class was full of adults and their kids would have to follow along with the adults training program. I wouldn't be able to modify the class to suit the kids.

That means one hour of newaza training, one hour of tachi-waza training and one hour of randori (with water breaks of course).

So far, they've been able to follow the program. Maybe it's because they are naturally competitive so they appreciate the training. Or maybe it's because of peer pressure -- all the adults in the dojo are doing the drills properly so they just follow along and are now used to it.

I've taught a children's-only class in the past and I can assure you it would be close to impossible to do one hour of newaza drills, one hour of tachi-waza drills and one hour of randori if it was a room full of Under-12 kids. But our three kids, training among adults, are able to do the full three hours of competitive training, which I think was a pleasant surprise to their parents.

I refer to my class as a "competition class" not because all my players are competitors. Far from it. In fact, most of them are recreational players who do judo for fitness or for self-defence reasons. But the training we do is competition-oriented.

Yes, we do a formal bow-in and we observe judo etiquette of course but other than that the training is far from traditional. We play music during training, for example. We do practice uchikomi when the players are introduced to something new. Uchikomi is important for them to get the feel of entering into the technique. But we don't do it endlessly like in many traditional clubs. Once they get the feel of it, we move onto nagekomi -- not the landing-assisted type but on crash pads, where they are expected to throw with full force.

We emphasize a lot on gripping which is not something usually taught in a traditional class. We look at throws from ai-yotsu (similar stance) and kenka-yotsu (opposite stance) scenarios, again not commonly taught. We spend a lot of time doing situational drills, with tori attacking and uke resisting. This is the kind of training I did when I was a competitor.

Why is this good for recreational types? Well, I want them to learn judo! I want them to be able to throw and to catch people on the ground. There's no point if they can do beautiful uchikomi and nagekomi if their techniques don't work against a resisting opponent.

Anyone can do beautiful judo when their training partner is cooperating. The challenge is to pull off techniques when your training partner is fully resisting and trying to catch you with their techniques. Everything we do at KL Judo is practical. It's stuff that actually works.

Of course this approach might not sit well with some people. It would be hard for most kids to take this approach. But even some adults may not like this. Those who want to do easygoing judo and do minimal randori will hate our class.

We not only post up highlights of our class on our Facebook Page but we also livestream the entire session so you can see what our training is really like.

Our training is intense! It's not for everyone. Those who like our system stay with us. Those who don't end up leaving. It's a natural weeding out process which works very well because those who stay really want to be there and they train wholeheartedly.

Different types of judo clubs exist for different reasons and cater to different needs. There are clubs that teach very traditional judo and do very little randori. Perhaps those are suited for those who prefer to take it easy. There are clubs that like to mix things up with BJJ, no-gi wrestling, MMA etc. I guess those are suitable for those who like cross-training among different martial arts. At our club, we do competition-style judo.

Judo has been very good for me and has enhanced my life in profound ways. I want to share the joy of doing practical, realistic judo with others who really want to experience what that aspect of judo is like. That usually means adults who have elected to join such a class after attending a trial session. But it can also include some exceptional children like the ones we have.

I could teach an easygoing judo class that emphasizes uchikomi over drills and nagekomi over randori. I could teach a children's-only class that focuses more on tumbling and games. I could even teach judo for BJJ or MMA. My club would probably generate more income if I did any of those things. But I have to be true to myself and do what I find to be meaningful. And that's why I conduct an adults competition training class (even though it has mostly recreational players and a few kids). 

Judo Distance Learning

At KL Judo, we try to make full use of technology, both to promote judo and also to help our players learn.

We are probably unique among judo clubs in this region in using judo videos as training aids and every technical session involves the use of videos where we show competition footage of techniques that we will be working on. We think it's important players get to see how the techniques they are learning can be applied in a real contest or randori situation.

For the past two months, we've been experimenting with video for our Facebook Page too. We weren't sure whether anyone would be interested in a livestream of our judo sessions but we tried it anyway. Who knows, maybe a handful of people might be interested to see what we do during our trainings. Turns out, our livestreams typically get over 100 views each. This is shocking (although pleasantly so) to us but it shows that people are hungry for judo information.

We have also been making very short highlight videos of some of our technical sessions and randoris. These are highly condensed. A technical session, whether for standing or groundwork, typically lasts 1 hour each but we cut it down to mere minutes for the videos. They are just a sampler of what we do. Yet they are really popular. Some of our technical videos have over 1000 views, with audiences from throughout Malaysia and many parts of the world. We even have judo clubs in the US and UK sharing these videos.

We will continue to do all these things but there's something new we plan to do in the very near future, which is to enable online distance learning of judo skills through the use of video.

We have one member who lives in Kemaman (that's right, he's based in Terengganu) who travels to KL a few times a month just to train with us. Given that he lives so far away, it's inevitable that he will miss some live classes.

There are also players I used to train who currently live elsewhere (I have one in Penang and one in Perak). They watch our sessions online but livestreams are not the best way to learn new stuff. Livestreams are great for giving you a broad overview of what's going on but not-so-great for serious learning. Purpose-made lessons would be far more effective and useful for those who wish to learn judo online.

I also have contacts in Canada, USA and UK who sometimes chat with me about technical stuff. Having some technical material available online will make it easier for me to share my knowledge about judo.

Right now, I'm still undecided on whether to make this online channel public or private. At the moment, I'm inclined towards the latter as my central aim is to provide distance coaching to specific people. Perhaps some portions of it might be made public. Let's see.

Sunday's Program (Nov 12, 2017)

Newaza Training
1. Obi-Tori-Gaeshi (2 variations)
We usually refer to this as the Oshima Roll and when done right, it's incredibly powerful as a tool to turn uke over onto his back for a hold-down.

2. Extracting the Leg
It's important for uke to learn how to secure tori's leg to prevent a hold-down from happening. And it's important for tori to know how to extract his legs to get the hold-down started.

Tachi-Waza Training
1. Ai-Yotsu Osoto-Gari with Tenri Grip (Revision)
2. Kenka-Yotsu Osoto-Gari (3-step motion)
3. Cheng Osoto (an alternative Kenka-Yotsu Osoto-Gari)

Armtrap Roll

This is often referred to as a "Junior Roll" because it's something taught to kids and beginners. But it works remarkably well even in randori and competition amongst adults. Many people complacently place their arms near tori's armpit area and get caught with this.

Ai-Yotsu Osoto-Gari using the Tenri Grip

The Tenri Grip is a unique way of gripping a lapel that is useful for throws like uchimata and harai-goshi. It is said to have originated at Tenri University, a top judo university in Japan. The Tenri Grip is particularly useful for Osoto-Gari in an Ai-Yotsu (same sided, e.g. right vs right) situation.

The gripping approach allows tori to bend uke's head and thus put him in an unbalanced situation -- an ideal situation for a throw. Osoto-Gari can be a dangerous throw because if you don't unbalance uke properly, he can easily counter you with Osoto-Gaeshi (basically Osoto-Gari you back). The Tenri Grip allows you to thwart such a counter.

Sunday, Nov 5 Training Program

Our practice this Sunday starts at 3.30pm.

Warm-Up

Newaza
1. Alligator Roll
2. Armtrap Roll

Tachi-Waza
1. Osoto-Gari
- Ai-Yotsu
- Kenka-Yotsu
- Cheng Osoto

Randori
1. Newaza
2. Tachi-Waza

The importance of video

In an interview for his Fighting Films DVD "Total Judo", Olympic Champion Mark Huizinga talks about how video played such an important part of his judo development.

Like Huizinga, video was a very important part of my competition training as well. When I first arrived at the Los Angeles Judo Training Centre (now defunct) the late coach John Ross gave me a video tape of the great Japanese Champion Toshihiko Koga and told me to watch it.

In particular he highlighted how Koga adopted a lapel grip instead of a sleeve grip for his seoi-nage and how he entered into the throw with a straight leg. He also told me to watch how Koga starts his lift as he enters into the technique so that by the time he completes his turn to the front, uke is already on his back. "Watch and learn this technique," he said.

I lost count of how many times I watched that tape but I was at the LA Judo Training Center for three months and I'm sure I watched it at least once a day, so I would say perhaps I watched it 90 to 100 times during that summer of total immersive judo competition training.

Of course it wasn't just Koga that I watched. My coach had a big library of judo videos and I watched plenty of footage from the Olympics and World Championships. Sometimes my coach would ask me to pay particular attention to something. Other times I would notice something and ask him about it.

And so, judo video analysis became a part of my judo training. Through watching videos of the best players in the world, I got to learn a lot of stuff. Much of my gripping training was learned through watching the likes of Koga and Neil Adams and how they came to grips with their opponents. Interestingly, the former had an unorthodox style (he gripped left-handed but mainly threw to the right), the latter had a very traditional sleeve-lapel grip (which was somewhat unusual for a European).

Later, when I went to Camberley Judo Club in the UK to further my competition training, I watched a whole bunch of Fighting Films videos. Camberley was a full-time training facility and it was located in a small town with nothing much to do. So, when I wasn't training, eating or sleeping, I was watching judo videos (back then we didn't have the Internet to kill time with so there was no e-mail or chatting or browsing).

The interesting thing about judo videos, for me, was that each time I saw the same footage, I learned something new. I might have seen a clip dozens of times but the next time I watch it, I see something that I didn't notice before. It could be something the player did with their grips, or their stance, or how they reacted etc... There was always something new to learn. So, I couldn't get enough of it.

I usually start the training by letting the players watch some videos on the TV screen mounted on the wall. The clips serve to emphasize the points I'm trying to make to them. As they say, seeing is believing.

As my judo progressed, I continued to watch and analyze judo videos. Not surprisingly, video is a part of our training system at the KL Judo Club. Early on when we just started the club, a judo player from France came to visit and commented how innovative it was for us to incorporate video into our training.

Last Sunday we had a lot of beginners so I showed them a clip of what happens when you try to prevent a throw by stretching out the arm (disaster happens). It was a clip of World and Olympic Champion Yoshida breaking his arm.

I never thought of it as innovative because video has been a part of my training since the very beginning of my competition training journey so many years ago. But his comments made me realize how uncommon it is in judo clubs. If you notice, most judo clubs don't have TVs mounted on their walls.

At KL Judo, I would usually explain some concept before teaching a technique or skill set. After I demonstrate something I would usually show some clips from top-level competitions. I pride myself in teaching real-life, practical techniques and not some theoretical mumbo jumbo. So, it's important to show the real-life examples.

The players also watched clips of  World and Olympic Champion warding off newaza attacks. Koga doesn't like to engage in newaza but his opponents have a difficult time keeping him down on the ground. 

The purpose of showing the videos is not for them to analyze the clips. I've already done that for them and will be showing them how it's done in detail, in person. But it's to let them wonder at the brilliance and mastery of top level competitors doing their favorite techniques and to be inspired to learn such techniques.

I've been lucky to have been able to attend many top level competitions including the Olympics (as a volunteer official) and the World Championships (as a competitor and later on, a journalist). But most judo players in local clubs have not had that opportunity. So, through video compilations that I edit myself, I'm able to share with them some of the best judo out there.

The tachi-waza technique we worked on was ouchi-gari so I should them clips of top players doing this verytechnique at various international competitions from recent years. 

The video viewing portion is a small part of our training. Usually the clips I show are five or six minutes long. But they are an essential part of our training. I believe they add great value to the training and help players to better understand the technique they are about to learn for the day.

Other dojos: Huntsville Judo Club

Schrimser (bottom), an instructor at Huntsville Judo Club.

I always find it very interesting learning about other judo clubs. Through my activities in judo, I've gotten to know many judo players and coaches from around the world and I'm going to start a series highlighting different judo clubs.

Some will be high-level, competitive clubs and some will be small, community-based, recreational clubs. But all are run by people passionate about judo.

We start the series with the Huntsville Judo Club in Alabama, USA. My contact there is William Schrimsher, an assistant instructor at the club.

William competes nationally and is very passionate about judo. He spends almost every night drilling, teaching, or studying in some way to help grow a sport he feels is the perfect balance of effectiveness and respect.

How many members does your club have?
About 20 to 25 people, mostly pre-teen kids. I'd say 70% of our members are kids.

How many instructors? 
There's one chief instructor and three assistant instructors.

Are coaches paid or volunteers?
The head coach is paid. Other instructors get free training but not me. The original agreement with the facilities owner was that instructors would not need to pay to train there but I was not at the club at the time so that provision did not apply to me. I don't mind, as I believe it is good to pay for instruction. I benefit greatly from the classes and consider myself much more a student than an instructor

How much is the fee?
US$45 per month

The mixed classes at Huntsville Judo takes place in a gymnastics facility. About 70% of the members are kids. 

What are the facilities like? Do you use tatami mats?
We are actually located in a gymnastics facility so the mats are gymnastic mats on a spring-loaded balsa floor. These are 2-inch carpet mats. Very easy to work on and even hard falls are OK on them.

Do the adults and children train together?
Yes, we have a mixed class.

How long are the sessions and how long is the randori? 
Two hours each. Randori is about 30 minutes. But some people arrive early or stay back late to do more randoris.

Many competitors?
Not many. Competition is not discouraged but it is not required.

If not for competing, what are the main reasons the adults join judo?
I would say fitness and a bit of self-defense. But mainly fitness.

The concept of mat sense

There are many things that contribute towards your success as a judo player. For sure you need strength and stamina. You need to have gripping skills. You need technical skills for throwing and groundwork. You need mental strength -- patience, perseverance and self-belief are all important. But there's one other element you need that is often overlooked. You need mat sense.

Mat sense -- or knowing instinctively what to do in any given situation -- comes from spending hours and hours on the mat.

What is mat sense, exactly? It refers to instincts and abilities that allow you to react to situations during a randori or shiai. It's not something you can train up doing uchikomi or nagekomi. Those are usually done from a static situation and do not contribute to mat sense. Even when done in a moving situation, there is no resistance involved and it's usually done in a very controlled situation. So that doesn't really help either.

To develop mat sense, you need to do a lot of randori. You've gotta spend time on the mat, doing newaza randori and tachi-waza randori. And of course ideally, you do randori with a lot of different training partners (always a challenge in Malaysia where most clubs don't have many members).

When you look at judo players from sports schools, they have excellent mat sense. Whatever their opponents do, they know how to react instinctively, without hesitation, without having to think. In a flash, they react appropriately to win the match. If you were to ask them afterwards what they had in mind when they did their move they probably couldn't tell you because they reacted instinctively.

There's no way around it. You've got to do lots of randori.

It's because they spend a lot of time on the mat. Sports school players train twice a day and at least one of those sessions involve randori. When you're doing randori everyday you can't help but develop good mat sense.

What do you do when you don't have many training partners? Of course that's not an ideal situation but you've gotta work with what you've got. Sure, it gets a bit stale after a while, always doing randori with the same partners but it's better than not doing it.

Also, as your training partner gets used to your moves, they get better at defending, which forces you to get better at attacking. So it's not a bad thing at all to have a regular training partner, even if it's one whose moves you know very well and vice versa.

It helps if the both of you have an exploratory mindset where you don't just stick to the same game plan every time. You try out new techniques, new maneuvers, new grips, new combinations. When you do that, it helps to mitigate the fact that you don't have many different training partners to do randori with.


Many things, you can do at your home club. Uchikomi, nagekomi, strength training, stamina training -- all these things you can do back home. You don't need to travel for that. But randori, you'll need to. There's really no way around this. You will need to travel to get some variety in your randori.

Halloween Open Day Program (29.10.17)

This Sunday, we will be having several guest from out of town (Penang, Melaka & Terengganu) and a couple of  foreign players (Senegal & France) visiting us for our Halloween Open Day training. A whole bunch of female beginners will be trying out too.

As usual, we'll start with groundwork where we will continue to work on the four foundational hold-downs and ways to escape them. In the second hour, we'll do standing work on ouchi-gari and its counter. Finally, in the last hour we'll end with both newaza and tachi-waza randori.

If you know of any friends who would like to give judo a try, please ask them to join us on our Halloween Open Day training.

Time: 3pm to 6pm
Free Trial!

Sunday Nite Training (22.10.17)

We went back to he basics and for newaza, we worked on:
a) kesa-gatame
b) yoko-shiho-gatame
c) kami-shiho-gatame
d) tate-shiho-gatame

Each technical segment was followed by a drills segment.

For tachi-waza, we worked on footsweeps:
a) de-ashi-barai
b) okuri-ashi-barai
c) tsubame-gaeshi

To allow the players to get a real sense of ashiwaza we did ashiwaza randori.

Sunday Nite's Program (22.10.17)

Prior to this, we have just been training a mishmash of popular techniques. Starting today we will start going through the syllabus that I've created to teach the players all the most important techniques in judo, standing and newaza. For today, I hope to cover three standing and four newaza techniques.

Newaza
As always, we will start with newaza. Today, we're going to go through the absolute basics, the first four foundational pins in judo: Kesa-Gatame, Yoko-Shiho-Gatame, Tate-Shiho-Gatame and Kami-Shiho-Gatame.

We'll have tori hold down uke and do drills with uke fully-resisting the technique and trying to escape. I'll also teach one roll into a hold-down and some tactics and strategies how to avoid being caught in a pin. Prevention is better than cure. Once caught in a hold-down it's very difficult to escape.

Tachi-Waza
For standing, we will revise Ippon-Seoi-Nage which the players are already somewhat familiar with. New techniques I will introduce to them today are De-Ashi-Barai and Ouchi-Gari. Each has its challenges.

De-Ashi-Barai is a "finesse" technique that requires good timing to pull off. In that sense it's one of the hardest techniques to teach. You can teach the mechanics of a technique easily but can you teach timing? I guess only to a certain extent. You can teach how to set up uke so that they would be in a vulnerable position and that is when you strike. But it's easier said than done. I guess the only way to master it is to understand the theory and to try it over and over again until you get the feel of it.

The counter to De-Ashi-Barai is called Tsubame-Gaeshi and it's just as subtle and very much a "finesse" technique as well. Timing is crucial and like I said, this is something that's hard to teach. We could do some drills that will help though.

Ouchi-Gari is a much less subtle ashiwaza but it's one that can be easily countered (unlike De-Ashi-Barai, which is a pretty safe technique). Many beginners come in carelessly or less than fully committed and end up being countered with Ouchi-Gaeshi. Timing is less of an issue here compared to De-Ashi-Barai. Proper entry and correct use of the hands is crucial to its success, as is full commitment to the throw.

 Although it's an ashiwaza, which people tend to think of as "light" techniques, Ouchi-Gari is one of the heavier ashiwaza, like uchimata, where the fall is quite hard. Quite often, you end up landing on uke too, to ensure that it's an ippon. Unlike De-Ashi-Barai, we will use crash pads for this because I want the players to throw with full commitment.