Sticking with it

When I first picked up judo, I was among a whole bunch of white belts. Perhaps there were about a dozen of us. After three months, there were about five or six left and by mid-year, there were only two of us left (and the other guy didn't even come regularly).

Judo is a tough sport. It takes a lot of commitment and effort to get good at it. There's also a lot of frustration because you won't be able to throw anyone for a long time. It took me about nine months before I could throw anybody. And that's with daily practice!

Groundwork generally progresses a bit faster. If you put in the same amount of time for groundwork as you do with standing work, you'll see improvements in the former much faster. But even so, I think it took me about half a year before I could catch anyone on the ground.

After a year of training really hard, I was still a babe in the woods when it came to competition training. When I joined a competitive club after a year of training at my university club, I found myself unable to throw anyone again. And in one of the first few sessions at groundwork, I nearly got my arm broken when someone did an unexpected armlock on me (I didn't even know what an armlock was at the time).

I could have stopped training for a few months but instead I wrapped up my elbow and continued training. I was on a mission. After three months of daily training, I managed to choke out the guy who had armlocked me.

I'd like to think that the perseverance I've learned in judo has helped me in life as well. Knowing how hard it was for me to get good at judo, I face life's challenges knowing that nothing good comes easy and that I have to be patient if I want to achieve my goals.

When you run a judo club, you will see players come and go. Sometimes even the ones who seem the most gung-ho end up dropping out. While you would generally like to retain players, it's important to remember that those who choose to drop out are probably not cut out to do judo in the first place. So, it's better for them to find another sport more suited for them.

For those who choose to stay on, I push them hard because I want them to excel. And excel they shall if they stick with it. For those who decide to quit, I wish them the very best and hope they can find something else that they can sink their teeth into.