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!
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