Sunday's Training (1.4.18)

We are going to try out a different approach this Sunday. As usual there will be group techniques that everyone will work on. But we will start to get the players to work on individual techniques as well.

I always feel it's important for each player to have three core tachi-waza and two core newaza techniques. What those techniques should be would depend very much on factors like body type, temperament, agility, etc. So it really varies from player to player.

The choice of techniques should be a mixture of advice from the coach and the player's own preferences. When I was training for competition in the US, for tachi-waza my coach assigned me ippon-seoi-nage and yoko-tomoe-nage. Later, I added side takedown (yoko-sutemi-waza) on my own, which I picked up when I trained in the UK. For newaza, I was taught techniques like the trap choke and sankaku. Juji-gatame, I picked up on my own. So, it's really a mix of stuff your coach advises you to learn and stuff that naturally appeals to you.

Oshima Roll

The group technique for newaza will be Oshima Roll, a variation of obi-tori-gaeshi. Yuma Oshima does this technique very well and has a particular strategy for getting the grip he wants. I'll be showing this with video examples as well.

Yoko-Tomoe-Nage

The group technique for standing will be yoko-tomoe-nage, which is the dominant form of tomoe-nage done in competition. This technique requires quite a bit of finesse to pull off. It's not one of those techniques that can be forced. While seoi-nage came to me immediately, yoko-tomoe really took a long time for me to master. But a lot of players like this technique so I think it's worth getting them started on this so they can learn to do it properly. As usual there will be video examples.

Tuesday Training (27.3.18): Koshi-Jime, Kaha-Ha-Jime & Yoko-Tomoe-Nage

A post shared by KL Judo Centre (@kljudo) on Mar 27, 2018 at 9:53pm PDT

On Tuesday, we worked on two strangles. The first one was Koshi-Jime. It's called a hip strangle because it involves using the hips to apply pressure when applying the technique.

Koshi-Jime is very common and popular because the situation to do this often presents itself in competition. It's the perfect counter to a failed drop seoi-nage (and lots of people do drop seoi-nage in competition).

After that, we worked on Kata-Ha-Jime which can be transitioned into from Koshi-Jime. It's a very powerful strangle those less common than Koshi-Jime.

For tachi-waza, we revisited yoko-tomoe-nage. This is a technique that requires finesse and takes quite a lot of time to master. It took me years, literally, to successfully incorporate it into my repertoire.

Super Sunday class

For warm ups we like to play judo games. This Zombie game is a favorite among our players. #FlamesKLteam #KLJudo #MuayfitDP

A post shared by KL Judo Centre (@kljudo) on Mar 25, 2018 at 9:43am PDT

Warm ups are usually boring affairs but not at KL Judo. We like to play judo games instead. Yesterday we played the Zombie newaza game which is always popular because it requires teamwork and strategy. It's damn fun (and tiring too).

For newaza, we revised the "Black Panther" sankaku used by T'Challa in the movie of the same name. Then, we worked on the "Lethal Weapon" sankaku used by the Mel Gibson character in the movie of the same name. Most players got it down quite well.

For tachi-waza, we worked on three related techniques: Ogoshi, Koshi-Guruma, Soto-Makikomi. I got each of the players to do uchikomi followed by nagekomi on the crash pad. Since we have only one crash pad everyone had to share. It worked out well though.

Finally, randori. A full hour's worth. We started off with motodachi, having some senior players out front for three consecutive randoris before changing. This one included newaza. Then we move on to free randori where everyone just paired up and sparred with each other. This one involved standing only.

We had a great turnout with 21 players on the mat, although three had to leave a bit earlier.

Our biggest turnout yet with 21 people on the mat (three are not in the picture as they had to leave early)

Yoko-tomoe-nage & trap choke on a Friday night

On Friday, we worked on yoko-tomoe-nage and trap choke.

A post shared by KL Judo Centre (@kljudo) on Mar 23, 2018 at 11:56am PDT

Sunday afternoons always see the biggest crowds but our Tuesday and Friday training sessions are starting to gain traction too. Since we moved into Muayfit DP at the beginning of the month, we've had an average of 10 people or so for our Tues/Fri trainings.

Today, we had three people who had to cancel in the last minute but we still had a nice group of 11 people on the mat.

We started off with yoko-tomoe-nage. I began by explaining why yoko-tomoe was more effective in competition compared to the traditional version. Then I showed the entry. Many of the players managed to pick it up quite fast, which was impressive.

Next, I taught them how to tip uke over to the side. I had them do drills on that from a "lying down" position so it was very static. The reason is I wanted them to focus exclusively on the "tipping over" action rather than be distracted by the entry and falling into the right position etc.

When they got the tipping over bit down, I had them do nagekomi where they did the full action. After 45 minutes of tomoe-nage training, most of them had a working version of it.

Next, we worked on the trap choke. They all managed to learn it very quickly so I showed them two variations. One was what I called the "Matsumoto" version because it involved flattening out uke and climbing across uke's back to get into the position you want, which is reminiscent of the Matsumoto Roll.

The other version I taught was one where you use both of your legs to push hard against uke while maintaining the trap choke. There is no roll involved in this version.

By the time we finished the technical bits it was already 10.30pm. We extended the training by another 30 minutes so we could do a bit of randori before we ended.

Trap Choke

The trap choke is both a strangle and a hold down.

The sankaku is the most versatile strangle because from a sankaku position, you can also do an armlock and a pin. The "trap choke" comes a close second to sankaku in terms of versatility. It's both a strangle and a pin (at the same time).

The reason I refer to it as a "trap choke" rather than by some Japanese name is there doesn't seem to be a Japanese equivalent to it. When I was taught this technique, I was told it was called the "trap choke", so that's what I still refer to it as.


It's interesting to note that in the US, shimewaza are often referred to as "chokes" whereas in the UK, it is typically referred to as "strangles". (With the exception of the trap choke, I tend to refer to shimewaza as strangles, probably because I trained longer in the UK than I did in the US).

From what I can tell, the trap choke is very much a Western innovation. I originally assumed it was American as it was in the USA that I learned about it but later on I saw a video by a Frenchman who did many different variations of this technique.

The closest Japanese technique to this is gyaku-juji-jime and indeed there are elements of it in this strangle but the gripping, the entry, the execution and the completion of this strangle is completely unlike how gyaku-juji-jime is traditionally taught.

In its traditional form, gyaku-juji-jime is done with tori gripping both of uke's lapels when tori is in a "guard position" underneath uke. The trap choke's "gyaku juji" (reverse cross) grip is done in a completely different way with one hand on the back of uke's collar and one hand cross gripping uke from underneath his armpit. So there's already a huge difference right from the start of the technique (everything else about it -- the entry, the execution and the completion of it -- is different too).

I like the trap choke very much, for many reasons. Firstly, it's not that well-known and not that commonly seen in competition. Secondly, when you apply it right, it's a very difficult strangle to resist. Thirdly, even if uke is somehow able to resist, he is unlikely to be able to escape the hold down. It's really a double whammy -- a strangle and a hold-down at the same time.

We'll be working on the basic version of the trap choke on Friday. If the players make quick progress, I'll show them a couple of variations of the trap choke that work really well. It's really a great technique.

Yoko-Tomoe-Nage

Tomoe actually refers to a "swirl"

There are few judo throws that captures the general public's imagination more than the tomoe-nage. You see it in many cowboy movies and it makes a pretty regular appearance in action films of all kind.

Tomoe-nage is often referred to as the "stomach throw" because that's where tori places his foot (or feet) -- on uke's stomach -- when executing the throw. But that's not a correct translation.

A more accurate translation would be to call it the "whirling" throw or if you want to be even more precise, the "swirling" throw. But I guess "stomach throw" rolls off the tongue a lot easier than "whirling" or "swirling" throw.


In its traditional form, the tomoe-nage is done with tori falling onto his back and pulling uke on top of him as he places his foot (or feet) directly on uke's stomach. He then throws uke straight over.

This was the tomoe-nage used by the great Shozo Fujii of Japan. Toshihiko Koga of Japan also favored the traditional form of tomoe-nage.

However, this form is seldom seen in competition these days, where the yoko-tomoe-nage prevails. Almost all tomoe-nage is done in this fashion nowadays.

It's called the yoko-tomoe-nage (side tomoe-nage) possibly because instead of falling straight back, tori drops with his head aimed at uke's far leg. If done properly, tori's body would be at an almost 90 degree angle to uke's body. The "yoko" aspect of this throw could also possibly refer to the fact that uke is usually thrown to the side rather than over the top.

I suspect that the reason this technique is more popular than the traditional one is that it's actually more effective and easier to score with.

The main dangers of doing this technique is if it fails, you could potentially get a shido for false attack or you might get pinned. You very rarely get countered although it has happened on some occasions at top international competitions, where uke actually sweeps away one of tori's legs as tori executes the tomoe (this is very rare though because it requires perfect timing).

The yoko-tomoe is most effective when tori and uke are in a kenka-yotsu (opposite) stance situation. For example, tori is in a right-handed stance and uke is in a left-handed stance. It's an unusual technique in that the throwing leg is usually the weak leg. For example, if tori is right-handed and has a right-handed sleeve-lapel grip, he would throw with his left leg. Similarly, if tori is left-handed and has a left-handed sleeve-lapel grip, he would throw with his right leg.

There are exceptions of course. Karen Briggs of Great Britain was right-handed but she threw with her right leg. This bucks convention wisdom though and I should say the overwhelming majority of right-handers would do tomoe-nage with their left leg.

Tomoe-nage is more often seen in lightweight matches. Many seoi-nage specialists use tomoe-nage which is a good complement to the throw. It's worth noting that both Fujii and Koga are seoi-nage specialists.

However, there are some heavyweights who can do tomoe-nage. France's Jean-Luc Rouge (President of the French Judo Federation) was one of the few heavyweights who used tomoe-nage regularly in competition. Like Fujii and Koga, he used a more traditional version of the throw. Russia's Tamerlan Tmenov was another heavyweight who used this throw but he did the more modern yoko-tomoe-nage.

Yoko-tomoe-nage was one of the techniques my first competition coach taught me when I was starting out in competition training. I guess it's not surprising given that my main technique was seoi-nage. Tomoe is a good complement to seoi.

I'll be teaching the yoko-tomoe-nage to my players this technique on Friday. I have the technique broken down into its constituent parts already.

1. Firstly the stance
2. Secondly the grip
3. Thirdly the drop onto the mat (it's a sacrifice technique)
4. Fourthly, the execution of the throw

Each component has got to be done right. There is a certain amount of finesse and timing required to get it right. It took me literally years to learn how to do it right. It's not an easy throw to do but nothing good comes easy, right?

Tuesday night's all right for fighting...

Two new players showed up on Tuesday night. Although it was their first judo class, they did randori with us because we are that kind of club. They loved it and say they will be back on Friday and Sunday.

Tuesday night is supposed to be "Judo Fundamentals" night but the people who have been showing up are mostly competitive-spirited fighters so we are using Tuesdays for randori now.

Of course not the entire session was for randori. We spent about 30 minutes doing some drills: some newaza drills and some gripping drills. Then we moved on to the main event of the night: randori, which lasted about one hour. 

Two new players, Omar and Edwin, decided to give judo a try. Both are competitive-minded so we threw them into the deep end and had them do some randori. Of course I paired them with experienced players who could take care of them.

Relying just on their basic instincts and their athleticism, they were able to grapple and hold their own. It was an impressive performance by two athletic new members, who are a welcome addition to the team.

Side Takedown & Black Panther Sankaku (March 18, 2018)

Another amazing Sunday session. For Tachi-Waza, the players worked on Side Takedown. This is a popular competition technique developed mainly in Europe. #flamesklteam #kljudo #muayfitdp

A post shared by KL Judo Centre (@kljudo) on Mar 18, 2018 at 11:18am PDT

We normally start our Sunday sessions with newaza but I turned things around a bit this time in order to give the players some variety in their training regime.

So, we started off with Side Takedown, which is an extremely popular competition technique largely developed in Europe. Not many Japanese do this technique although it's a specialty of Takato (JPN).

I had the players work on the mechanics of the technique. Then I got them to work on securing the grip for it, which is not easy. Lastly, I had them to a "Side Takedown" randori where the only technique they could do is "Side Takedown".

After short break we did some work on "Straddling Sankaku", a version of which can be seen being done by T'Challa in the Black Panther movie. This is a completely new Sankaku for  the players but many of them managed to get it working quite fast.

Next week, I'm gonna show them another Sankaku from the movies: the "Lethal Weapon Sankaku" (Mel Gibson did in that movie).

As usual, we ended randori -- a full hour's worth. What a tiring workout it was. But very fulfilling. Our next training is Tuesday. It's actually designated as a Judo Foundations Class but if no beginners show up, we'll just do randori.

Beyond randori

Anyone who knows me knows that I am a BIG fan of randori. As a competitor, I always felt randori was the most important component of my training. As a coach, I emphasize randori a lot. Every training session must end with randori. At my club, even beginners on their first day of judo do randori.

I've said this before but one of the biggest challenges any judo competitor faces is the lack of randori partners. At KL Judo we are extremely lucky to have a critical mass of randori-inclined players. That doesn't mean we have a huge team. But the players that we do have, all like randori. And at every session we always have enough players of different sizes that everyone gets to do plenty of randori. This is something to be thankful for and I remind myself to be grateful about it every time I step on the mat.

Randori is indeed critical but it's not enough. For our competitors, they need many other things in order to be successful in competition:

i) Perserverance
It takes time to become a champion. Many players give up hope before they even give themselves a real shot at becoming a winner. Some give up after they lose in a few competitions and some give up even if they don't do well in randori. Unfortunately that happens a lot in judo. As a coach, it's important to prepare players not just physically but mentally too.

ii) Throwing skills
It goes without saying that technique is important. Strength is also important but you can go only so far with brute strength. One mistake many players make is once they get one good throw to work for them, they stick with that one throw only and are not interested in learning anything new. While it's not necessary (and quite impossible) to be an expert at dozens and dozens of throws, it's important to have some versatility and not rely on just one technique. As a coach I always tell my players, develop at least three core throws and ideally they should somehow be related techniques, meaning one can easily flow into the other (ippon-seoi-nage and kouchi-makikomi are good examples of related techniques)

iii) Gripping skills
Without gripping skills you can't throw your opponent. It's as simple as that. If you get outgripped, you've already lost the match because there's little you can do and it's just a matter of time before you get thrown or taken down to the ground. Good gripping skills can come naturally if you've been doing judo for many years and you have tons of experienced training partners -- like in Japan or France or Brazil where judo is very popular. But if that scenario does not apply to you, you need to be taught gripping skills and you need to do plenty of drills. Which is what we do at KL Judo.

iv) Groundwork skills
It is true that judo players generally prefer to throw rather than do groundwork. That's why being good at groundwork gives you an advantage in competition. At KL Judo we devote half of our training time to newaza. During randori, people tend to get up after a throw but our dojo is big enough that up to six pairs can do randori safely even if they follow up in newaza after a throw or an attempted throw. And following up in newaza is something we encourage in randori.

v) Drills
As mentioned at the beginning of this blog post, randori is very important and we are very fortunate to have a critical mass of players in our competition team that nobody who trains here are short of randori partners. But that doesn't mean we are anywhere near like the situation in a top dojo in Japan where there could be 50 black belts on the mat for you to train with. When you have many, many different training partners, like in Japan, France or Brazil, you will encounter all kinds of gripping situations and deal with all kinds of attacks. But if you live in a country where judo is not that popular and you don't have the luxury of 50 different partners to choose from, you will have to do drills. Even if you have five suitable training partners in your club, you would be considered extremely lucky. How many judo players in Malaysia can truly say they have five regular training partners who are more or less of the same weight class and same experience level? But let's say you do have five or six or seven. That's not enough to give you the variety that you need to become familiar with all kinds of situations. In such a situation, drills will give you the variety you need. Let's say a player only has three training partners and all are right-handed. That player will not be ready to fight lefties because in a normal randori, he will only face right handers. What needs to be done is for that player to do drills whereby he is force to confront a left-handed situation. The coach can implement a drill that requires his partner to purposefully attack him from the left. This is why drills as so very important. It simulates situations that you normally would not come across, precisely because you are not in a dojo in Japan with 50 black belts on the mat to train with.

vi) Strategy
A fellow instructor from overseas recently asked me if I always immediately taught my players new rules whenever the IJF introduced them. "Of course," I said. He was shocked. He then asked if I would apply those rules in randori. Again my answer was "Of course," and again he was surprised. Why wouldn't I? Judo is a sport and every sport has its rules. If the rules change, as a coach it makes all the sense in the world for me to explain it to my players and make sure they play under those rules. There's no point giving away free shidos or getting disqualified just because you are not up to date with the rules. But beyond just obeying those rules, it's important to know how to make the most of them. What that means is how to play to rules to your advantage. And that is something we do a lot of at KL Judo.

KL Judo launches Judo4Everyone campaign

Our first Judo4Everyone trainee was supermodel Amber Chia, who proved to be quite a natural at judo.

Our competition training class is coming along swimmingly, with a critical mass of our competitive players on the mat training and sparring every Friday and Sunday. Of course, if possible, I would like to grow this team from our current base of about 20 players to an ideal core group of about 30 individuals.

But to grow judo into a popular sport, we need to reach out to more people, including those who may not be thinking of competing but would like to take up judo recreationally -- to keep fit and also to develop some self-defence skills.

It is with this in mind that we have launched our Judo4Everyone program where we will invite personalities from different walks of life to try out judo. We kicked off this campaign last Tuesday with supermodel Amber Chia coming in for a judo tryout.

To everyone's pleasant surprise and admiration, Amber proved to be quite a natural at judo. She was able to pick up basic judo skills very quickly and was very aggressive when doing the drills and during randori (sparring session).

In the coming weeks and months, we will invite many other personalities to come and try judo. We hope that through this program, the general public will see that judo is a fun and healthy activity not just for elite athletes but for everyone. If you are interested in giving judo a try, give us a call.

Basic & Advanced Class Schedule

Whether you an absolute beginner or an experienced competitor, we've got the class for you!

It's taken a while but we've finalized the schedule for Judo Fundamentals and Competition Training sessions at KL Judo @Muayfit DP.

Our Competition Training class is well-established with the session broken up into three segments:
First hour: Newaza
Second hour: Tachi-Waza
Third hour: Randori

Note: This is a restricted class suitable only for those who intend to compete.

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The Judo Fundamentals class is something new that we are embarking on and is still a work-in-progress as we are not sure what the response will be like for such a class. Nevertheless we have set aside time on Tuesday evenings and Saturday afternoons for this purpose.

The fundamentals class can be useful for the following:
a) Absolute beginners who would like to take up judo.
b) Practitioners of other martial arts who would like to learn judo techniques
c) Recreational judo players who do not plan to compete but just want to practice judo.
d) Competition players who would like to learn grading techniques for belt promotion.

Sunday program (18 March, 2018)

Straddling Sankaku

Last Sunday, we worked on juji-gatame. This Sunday, we will return to sankaku. We need to do more drills for both yoko-sankak and reverse sankaku until muscle memory sinks in. But to make the session more interesting I will introduce one new sankaku technique, which I call "straddling sankaku" which is done when you are riding on top of uke who is in a turtle position. This is not a very commonly-seen technique but it's worth knowing.

After we have learned "straddling sankaku" we will do some drills on both yoko and reverse sankaku.

Before we work on tachi-waza technique, we will do some "newaza to tachi-waza" drills again. This is to acclimatize our players to the new IJF ruling that aims to lessen the "matte" breaks in a competition. From now on, judo will be more flowing, from standing to ground and ground to standing.

For technique, I will teach a special variation of ouchi-gari called "whirling ouchi" which is used most notably by Lien of Taiwan. Double World Champion Udo Quellmalz of Germany also does a variation of the whirling ouchi.

We will end with randori. Hopefully can get an hours' worth of randori before time is up.

Amber Chia's 1st Judo Lesson

I've known Amber for more than a decade and I've been asking her to try out judo for years but she never got around to doing it. When we re-opened our dojo at a new location, I told her about it and to my surprise, she decided it was time for her to give judo a try.

Everyone was impressed at how well she took to judo. It usually takes beginners a long time to learn how to breakfall and forward rolls but she was able to pick these up quite fast. When it came time to do newaza (kesa-gatame) and tachi-waza (ogoshi and osoto-gari), she managed to learn those very quickly too, so much so that one of our instructors, Nigel, was sure she had done judo before. But she says no. I'll take her at her word. I guess she's a natural. She even managed to do a bit of randori. Not bad for a first timer!

Watch the video, be impressed and enjoy!

Judo Fundamentals Training - Dry Run

The training sessions at KL Judo have always been competition oriented and our mission has always been to build up a strong competition team. That is still our focus and our goal. But now that we have teamed up with Muayfit Damansara Perdana, we are also looking to popularize judo to a wider audience, which could include practitioners of other martial arts as well as recreational players.

We are scheduling Tuesday nights for our Judo Fundamentals Training class. Through this class, absolute beginners can learn the basics of judo, starting from break-falls and forward rolls to basic principles behind the popular techniques in newaza and tachi-waza. And of course each class will end with a little bit of randori. There's always got to be randori, even for beginners otherwise judo would be no fun.

We have no idea how much demand there would be for a class like this. Theoretically there should be some interest because over the years there have been people from other martial arts asking for judo training and there have also been people who didn't want to compete but wanted to do judo purely as a recreational sport.

That doesn't mean this class isn't suitable for those interested in competition. It's not really a beginner's class as much as a fundamentals class where the core principles behind judo techniques are taught. As such it would also be suitable for competitors who are keen on grading or improving their fundamentals.

We plan to launch this class very soon but before that we will have a dry run. Tonight we are having a private session with two very special guests. We will also have a few other players on the mat, including some members of the competition team and some members of the Muayfit management. I will be joined by Nigel who will be on hand to provide guidance and instruction.

This session is not open to the public as it is just a dry run but if you are keen to see what this class is like we will be livestreaming it tonight at 9pm.

"Judo" is defined as a way to optimally utilize the powers of both body and mind. The purpose of Judo training is to teach physical and mental discipline through the practice of attack and defense, leading to an understanding of the essence of the way. One thus attains completion of self, and contributes to the wellbeing of society at large.

Sunday Competition Training (11.3.18)

A happy bunch of judo players

Newaza Training
We got things started straight away by practicing juji-gatame rolls and arm straightening drills. Then, we spent some time on Ecky-gatame, the hold down done from a juji-gatame situation.

We usually start with watching video clips related to what we'd be working on that afternoon

I start by demonstrating the technique

Then I guide the players

Making sure they get all the principles right

Tachi-Waza Training
For tachi-waza, we didn't have enough time to work on techniques so we just worked on transitional drills (newaza to tachi-waza). The video below is self-explanatory.

Randori
Lastly, we had randori. It was very free-flowing with a lot of throws being done.

10 Things about KL Judo @Muayfit DP

1. We are the only judo club in Malaysia with a European approach to training.

2. Our dojo is air-conditioned.

3. We have a water cooler (which dispenses really cold water) so our players don't have to bring their own water.

4. We have a gym downstairs for strength training.

5. We are located in a nice neighborhood with lots of restaurants, cafes and retail outlets (and not to mention two shopping malls) nearby.

6. We believe in using crash pads for nagekomi (especially when it involves big throws)

7. We like to play music when we do drills and randori.

8. We are very international, with French, Syrian, Senegalese, Filipino, Indonesian and British players within our ranks.

9. Most of our players are adults (we do have a few teens though). 

10. We are housed within Muayfit Damansara Perdana, the only MMA gym in Klang Valley with an in-house judo club and judo competition team!

Sunday's Program (11.3.18)

Newaza

Juji-Gatame is a popular groundwork technique, especially in Europe.

Last week we did drills on sankaku-gatame. This week we will work on juji-gatame. Since almost everyone in our team is already familiar with this technique, I will not be spending too much time on the mechanics of this technique. We'll just do a quick overview of the three entries into the juji position from a Figure-4 Grip (Neil Adams' Grip).

We'll break the drills into three modules:

1st Module: The roll
- Roll to the back
- Roll to the front
- Sitting back

2nd Module: Straightening the arm
- Pull towards the head
- Arm lever

3rd Module: Ecky-Gatame (The English Hold-Down)

Tachi-Waza

Takato setting up to do side takedown

For standing, we will work on Side Takedown. This is not really a traditional technique although it bears some resemblance to yoko-otoshi. Many of our players have expressed an interest in learning this. It so happens this is one of my main techniques which I specialized in (I learned this in Camberley when I was training for competition). There are actually multiple versions of this technique -- multiple grips, multiple entries and multiple finishings. I'll go through the basics and show some of the more common versions. Should be very interesting for our players.

Randori
We'll try to have at least an hour of randori. If we're lucky and everything goes on time, we can have 1.5 hours or randori. I'm a strong believer in randori so we must have many rounds of this. And with about a dozen players set to be on the mat on Sunday, I think we can have a good session of randori.

Why we don't have walk-in options

Back when we operated out of a dojo in Cheras, we had a "walk in" option where people could pay a nominal fee to train just for that one day.

We wanted to give people a cheaper option in case they were not able to train on a regular basis. This proved to be problematic, however, especially with beginners.

Back in Cheras, we had "walk in" players who would show up for training perhaps once a month or once in two or three months. Can you imagine that? How on earth can they hope to improve in judo if they only come so infrequently? It's impossible.

Not only do they not benefit from such infrequent training, their lack of progress is also disruptive to the players who are training regularly.

Our training program is not modular but progressive. We don't have standalone sessions but rather, each session is linked to another. For example if I want to teach a particular variation of juji-gatame, that lesson can spread over three weeks, with the first week focusing on the roll; the second week on straightening the arm and the third week on how to switch to a hold-down.

If someone drops in on the first week only, all they'd learn is how to roll the person over. They won't learn how to straighten the arm or switch to a hold. If they drop in on the second week only, they wouldn't know how to roll the person into the juji position in the first place. And if they drop in on the third week only, they would be totally lost.

So, you can see how disruptive this can be. What tended to happen is we'd end up spending considerable resources teaching them to catch up with the rest. It doesn't just eat up the instructor's time, it is also unfair to their training partners who are up to speed with the techniques and are ready to move on with the lesson.

But beyond the disruption to our flow of training, there is another downside to "walk-in" players. Their irregular presence doesn't allow them to build up camaraderie or bonding with the rest of the team. And what we are building up is a team, not a loose collection of trainees.

A natural question people may ask is aren't we missing out on potentially talented players if we don't have a "walk in" option? A person might have natural talent but if they are not prepared to train regularly with the rest of the team, they will go nowhere as a judo player.

Judo is not a sport that you can pick up by training once a month. It's impossible. And although judo is an individual sport, you need teammates to train with. They are also the ones to cheer you on in competitions and provide emotional support when you're feeling down.

This is why we have done away with the "walk in" option. If you want to train at KL Judo @Muayfit DP, you have to be a member.

How to break down a throw

Guitar players often say one of the ways they learn to play is to go to concerts and watch close up how their heroes played the guitar. There's a lot you can learn by watching and analyzing a movement. And all the more so now that we have video, which not only allows us to watch the same technique over and over again but in slow motion. We can even zoom in for a close up look at the grip or some movement that was crucial to the throw.

Back when I first started learning judo, I supplemented my training sessions with judo books. Later, when I was at the LA Judo Training Center, my coach gave me a bunch of video tapes to study. One of them featured a young Toshihiko Koga, before he was famous, doing his famous ippon-seoi-nage in the Shoriki Cup and Kano Cup in the mid-1980s.

My coach told me that there were three things that Koga did which bucked convention:
i) His legs were straight upon entry into the technique and remained straight throughout the loading and unloading of his opponents. At no point did he bend his knees. (Most textbooks will tell you to bend your knees)

ii) He adopted a left-handed grip, holding uke's right lapel with his left hand and did his seoi-nage off the lapel rather than the sleeve (granted, this is how most people do their seoi-nages but this is not how it is taught in the textbooks).

iii) He didn't turn and load uke onto his back. He began lifting and loading uke as he enters into the throw. By the time he turns towards the front, uke is already fully-loaded onto his back. Learn to lift and load your opponent as you enter, my coach told me. Again, this is not what is taught in books.

He told me to watch the videos over and over again to see if what he said was true and sure enough, multiple viewings proved to me that all his observations about Koga's seoi-nage was absolutely spot on.

He gave me many other videos to watch but didn't spoon-feed me with detailed breakdowns of each technique I was supposed to analyzed. He left it to me to do my own analysis. So I watched the videos over and over again, each time trying to spot something different or special that the player did to make their techniques work.

I became good at it. And when I returned from three months of training there, I began to make my own analytical tapes to study. I would take clips of techniques I wanted to learn and not only loop them many times but also in slow motion. I didn't have the ability to zoom in (this was pre-digital so my editing process involving connecting two VCRs together was very primitive).

In later years when digital editing was possible, I would not only loop and playback in slow-mo but I would zoom in to specific areas so I could study every aspect of the throw. This really helps a lot.

These days, whenever I see something exciting or different, that I want to learn, I would gather as much footage of that technique as possible. If the technique was not a fluke, it's very likely the player that did it would have executed it many other times before. So I would go to my archives and look for clips of that player in competition. I'd meticulously comb through all his fights and collect clips of that technique in question.

Then, I'd edit them so I could see the technique in slow motion and close up. After watching several examples of that same technique I would be able to identify common factors that made that technique work. Oftentimes it's a special grips. Sometimes it's a feint that the player would make before attacking. Other times it's situational, meaning the player only does this technique when a certain situation presents itself. Whatever it is I learn the theory behind it first.

Then I would go to the dojo and try it out on my training partner. At first without resistance. Then with some resistance. And finally I'd try it in a randori situation where there is full resistance. Sometimes a technique would work on the first try. Sometimes it doesn't work at all. But I would keep at it until I cracked it. But getting it to work once could be a fluke. So I try to figure out what I did that made it all come together like that and I try to replicate it during another randori.

One thing that is crucial though is that when you try it on the mat in a full-resistance situation (randori), you have to be willing to get countered. Leave your ego on the door and be prepare to be thrown flat on your back.

I remember when I was learning ura-nage and yoko-guruma, I had to put myself in vulnerable situations and many a time I got thrown by uchimata. But it was only by allowing myself to be pulled in tight with a high grip that I was in a position to actually try ura-nage or yoko-guruma. Over time, I figured it out and managed to incorporate these techniques into my repertoire.

This is how I pick up new techniques. It works really well for me. I hope it works for you too. 

Special Promo for KL Judo @Muayfit DP

To celebrate the launch of our new dojo, KL Judo @Muayfit DP, we are delighted to offer a special promo package deal for new members.

A standard membership at Muayfit Damansara Perdana is RM259 per month, which gives you full access to the gym plus any of the martial arts classes they have there.

During the two-month promo period of March and April, you can sign up for judo classes plus full access to the gym and any of the other martial arts classes for RM220 per month.

Note: If you wish to sign up for judo classes only the monthly fee is RM180.

Instituting "Randori Night"

The importance of randori for competition skills development cannot be emphasized enough. Yes, technical training is important, drills are important, strategy is important, fitness and strength are important, so is flexibility etc. But at the end of the day, none of those things will help you in competition if you don't have enough randori.

To become good at a sport, you have to play it. That's true whether it's football, badminton or rugby. You can't just do drills and exercises. You have to play the game to become proficient at it. And so it is with judo as well.

That's why I find it astounding whenever I hear about judo clubs with training sessions that include very little randori (like 15 minutes of it) or none at all (yes, such clubs do exist). I guess that's okay if you took up judo to learn kata but not if you wish to become a competitor.

In Japan they have tons of randori. According to former US coach and World Champion Jimmy Pedro, who has spent considerable time training in Japan, sometimes they have up to 15 randoris in a single session. The South Koreans are really into randori too. World and Olympic Champion Jeon Ki-Young says they typically do up to 10 randoris in a single session.

It may be too ambitious to aim for 15 randoris per session but I do think it's realistic and pragmatic for players to aim for between eight to 10 randoris in a session, especially when there are lots of partners around.

Sometimes achieving those numbers may be difficult due to lack of training partners. When you have only one partner to train with, a realistic target is to aim for five or six randoris in a single session.

The ideal of course is to have a room full of training partners so you have more variety. I've always said, in order to get the best out of your randoris, you need three kinds of randori partners:
i) those who are higher level than you
ii) those who are on the same level as you
iii) those who lower level than you

Higher level
A higher level player will push you to your limits. This is necessary for improvement. Enough said.

Equal level
It's good to fight someone of equal level because they can give you the right amount of resistance to make it hard for you to throw; they can potentially counter you when you are careless; and of course, they can potentially throw you, which gives you a chance to develop defence and countering skills. Do not make the mistake of treating the randori as a shiai though. Fight hard but don't be afraid of "losing". It doesn't matter if you get thrown or countered. Randori is the time to try stuff. If you treat it as as shiai, you will be conservative and be afraid to try anything for fear of opening up and getting thrown or countered. Then you won't learn anything. So treat randori as randori.

Lower level
If the people you fight are all better than or equal level with you, you won't have many opportunities to feel what it's like to throw someone, especially with new techniques. The less experienced player is the one whom you should try new techniques on. This will give you the feeling for the throw. And then you can slowly learn to get it to work for you, even against stronger players.

Fight Night
In view of the fact that randori is so important, we will be having a randori night every Friday. What that means is the entire Friday session will be dedicated to just randori. We might do a bit of gripping drills at the start but essentially Friday night is fight night.

Our dojo is big enough that we can have four pairs on the mat at once and still safely allow them to transition from standing to ground (and ground to standing). This is important given the new IJF rules. This is what we will be practicing -- a holistic randori that flows seamlessly between tachi-waza and newaza and vice versa.

If you are in the KL/PJ area, considering joining us. If you are not in these neck of the woods but would to see what our sessions are like, we will be live-streaming our Friday session starting at 9pm. See you online!

KL Judo -- Our Journey Continues

It was almost exactly three years ago that we embarked on a journey to build a different kind of judo club in Malaysia. We made some mistakes along the way and we've learned a lot of things during that time too.

One thing we're convinced about is that you've got to have the courage of your convictions and stick to what you believe is the right approach. At KL Judo, our core has always been -- and will always be -- competition judo. That doesn't mean all our players are aiming to win the National Championship. What it does mean is that our members train like competitors, even those who don't intend to compete anytime soon. We believe this is the best way to learn real, practical judo.

Along the way, we've had inquiries about all kinds of judo classes. Some asked about children's classes; some about women's only classes; and quite a few asked about judo to complement other martial arts (BJJ, MMA, Taekwondo, Karate, Muay Thai etc). We even had an inquiry about judo for older folks!

In the past, we had to say no to these niche classes because we wanted to focus on the competition class. Now that we have relocated to a new place, where we have more slots available for additional classes, we might just launch some of these classes. It helps that the Muayfit management is 100% behind the idea of expanding the range of judo classes that we offer and will be helping us to market these ideas.

We have many ambitious plans now that we have a bigger dojo and a collaborator that believes in our vision. We hope to organize a judo competition later in the year. This is something that, in the past, we could only dream about. Now, it may come true as our collaborative partner really wants to do this and will help with the different aspects of organizing a competition.

When you change your club's location to a different part of town, you're bound to lose a few members but we are very happy to note that we have managed to retain most of our members. These are the really keen ones, the ones who believe in our approach to judo and who like our training system.

Over the past three years, we've had members come and go. What we've learned is that while quantity is important, quality is even more so. Having the right club culture will ensure the survival and success of a club. The coach may set the broad direction and ethos for the club but it's the members who make up the culture of the club. We are delighted to say that our current team is absolutely awesome. No coach could ask for a better bunch of guys and gals to train.

The past three years was Phase 1 of our journey, which was the start-up stage. Phase 2, which we've just entered, is the growing phase. There's no way of knowing the future but we believe, with a lot of confidence, that the next three years is going to be a very exciting time for our club and our players.