KL Judo 3.0 coming soon!

Come September, KL Judo Centre will be at a new location, inside the C5 Fitness Gym.

With the move, we will achieve a few firsts for a Malaysian judo club:
1. First and only judo club in Malaysia that comes with gym membership.
2. First and only judo club in Malaysia that is located inside a mall.
3. First and only judo club in Malaysia with a covered, open-air concept.

But beyond that, we also have a few other firsts:
1. First and only judo club in Malaysia with a judo program designed for adults.
2. First and only judo club in Malaysia with a European-style training system.
3. First and only judo club in Klang Valley with a university program.

At KL Judo, you will be able to train up to 5 times a week!
Tuesday: 7.00pm to 9.00pm (competition training)
Wednesday: 7.00pm to 9.00pm (beginners' training @ Sunway University)
Friday: 7.30pm to 10pm (competition training)
Saturday: 2.00pm to 5pm (free practice)
Sunday: 2.00pm to 5pm (general practice)

For details on your fees, please click here.

The insanity principle

Albert Einstein is credited with saying that the definition of insanity is "doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results."

Malaysian judo has been stuck in a rut for nearly four decades, failing to produce a single gold medal at the SEA Games in all this time. Most recently, we sent only a single athlete to the Asian Games who crashed out in the first round.

We can analyze the situation to death and come up with a million reasons why Malaysian judo is in such a dire state but it fundamentally boils down to two things:

i) We don't have a system for players to train properly after high school
ii) Malaysian judo is fragmented with top athletes scattered throughout the country (and no centre of excellence for them to congregate and train together)

Until and unless these two items are addressed, nothing's going to change. There's always talk of importing a foreign coach from Japan or South Korea or Mongolia. But you can have the best coaches in the world and still not produce any results if he doesn't have the players to work with in the first place. And, until (i) and (ii) are resolved, there will never be a critical mass of players to train up.

Secondly, somebody should inform the powers-that-be in Malaysian judo that our judo demographic isn't exactly like Japan, Korea or Mongolia. There are hardly any judo players here. Instead of looking at how the Japanese, Koreans and Mongolians (all of which have big judo programs and plenty of players) do it, we should be looking at how countries with a small judo population do it. I'm talking about the likes of Kosovo, Slovenia and Israel, which have managed to produce world class players (yes, World and Olympic champions and medalists) despite not having a lot of judo players to work with in the first place.

It's even worth looking at how former US Olympic coach Jimmy Pedro did it with his players. MMA and BJJ might be popular in the US but judo is not. And it's really fragmented there with three competing governing bodies for judo (only one, USA Judo, is recognized by the IJF). Yet, despite all that, Pedro was able to produce World and Olympic champions (he himself is a World champion). He didn't do it by trying to copy the Japanese or the French. Those are countries with huge judo populations.

When you're working with a small judo population (and in Malaysia, we are talking about an absolutely tiny judo demographic), you need to think out of the box. Stop doing the same old thing, stop trying to copy the Japanese. Think about resolving issues (i) and (ii) and then maybe we might have a chance at building up champions.

Sunday's Program (25.8.18)

Drop Seoi-Nage

Program
1. Warm Up Games
2. Gripping Exercises
3. Newaza: Koshi-Jime
4. Tachi-Waza:
- Drop Ippon Seoi-Nage
- Kouchi-Makikomi
5. Randori
- Newaza (6 sets)
- Tachi-Waza (6 sets)

All set for Baku!

I've just received my flight tickets to Baku, Azerbaijan and my visa has also been approved. So, I'm all set to go to the 2018 World Championships!

This will be the fourth time, the Oon Yeoh/David Finch team will be producing a book about the World Championships for the IJF.

The first one was in 2013, then 2014 and after that 2015. We missed the 2017 edition (there was no book produced that year) but now we're back for the 2018 edition.

Besides covering the judo competition we'll also be covering the 2018 IJF Hall of Fame ceremony where a new bunch of judo heroes will be inducted.

I plan to livetweet the competition and at the end of each night, I'll produce an analytical overview of the day's competition. My articles will be published on top judo sites around the world, namely JudoInside (international), 100% Judo (international) and eJudo (Japan).

The main reason I'm there though is to write a book about the competition. That will be published very soon after the competition is over because I'll be taking extensive notes throughout. Pictures will be supplied by legendary judo photographer David Finch. Below are the previous books we worked on together for the IJF:

Sunday Training (20.8.18)

Our Sunday trainings are three hours long but even so, we don't have enough time to get everything done. We got most of what we wanted done though.

1. Warm Up Games by David was fun an well-received as usual
2. Newaza Technical: We straight away went into a newaza scenario where uke is in a turtle position and tori is straddling him (on top of his back). We did a Alligator Roll into Kami-Shiho-Gatame and also into Tate-Shiho-Gatame.
3. Gripping Drills: We worked on drills for preventing the high grip and the Korean shake.
4. Tachi-Waza: We got players to work on their favorite techniques in a kenka-yotsu situation.
5. Randori: We started with newaza and then did tachi-waza.
6. Shiai: Mock contests for our players.

What we didn't have time to do were Ashiwaza Drills and Transition Drills. As I said, three hours is not enough. Some of our players stayed back after training to do more training -- for their upcoming grading.

Sunday Training Program (19.8.18)

Korean Gripping

1. Warm Up Games (led by David Potts)

2. Gripping Technical: Korean gripping system

3. Ashiwaza Drills: The focus will be on smaller ashiwaza such as kosoto-gari, kouchi-gari, de-ashi-barai and sasae-tsurikomi-ashi.

4. Newaza Technical: We will work on the alligator roll against uke in a turtle position. This can end in kami-shiho-gatame, tate-shiho-gatame and yoko-shiho-gatame.

5. Tachi-Waza Technical: Everybody chooses a favorite move against uke in a kenka-yotsu position and then in an ai-yotsu situation. Start with static uchikomi, moving uchikomi, then nagekomi.

6. Transitions: First, standing to groundwork. Then, groundwork to standing.

7. Randori: Newaza randori followed by tachi-waza randori.

Key groundwork moves

Newaza or groundwork tends to be neglected by some judo players. It is a fact that many judo players tend to favor throws. Judo, after all, is a throwing sport. But newaza is an important aspect of judo. When a player is good at newaza, he/she is more confident on the mat because they know that whenever both players tumble to the ground -- whether as a result of a successful or a failed throw -- they have the advantage.

Newaza is very exciting as it has seen rapid evolution and there exists many different variations of techniques, some of which have no real Japanese names because they are so unique. Traditionally, newaza is classified under pins, strangles and armlocks. Sankaku is typically classed under strangles but from the sankaku position it's possible to also pin or armlock so I consider it a class on its own. But rather than present newaza techniques according to category of technique it makes more sense to present them according to scenarios (positioning of tori and uke):

Newaza Grid

See Also
KL Judo's Training System
Major Throws

Major throwing techniques

There are a lot of throws in judo. Some are major techniques that are seen over and over again in competitions. Some are minor techniques that are seen frequently but are used to either get smaller scores (nowadays that would be waza-ari) or to unsettle your opponent and set them up for the big throw.

Then, there are the obscure throws like sumi-otoshi, uki-otoshi, yama-arashi and even hane-goshi which are almost never seen in competition. If those are worth learning it's only for historical reasons as they are what I'd call very theoretical throws which are okay for demonstration purposes but have no practical use.

Tachi-Waza Grid

See Also:
KL Judo's Training System
Key Groundwork

KL Judo's Training System

Now that many of our players have gotten their grading (after several years of training), we will ease off on grading training for a while and start to focus more on practical, competition-style training.

This is how we will be approaching our training, starting this Sunday:

1. Warm-up games. We hadn't done games in a while but one of our instructors, David Potts, re-introduced this recently and it's been very well received so we should continue with this. It sure is a lot more interesting than traditional warm ups.

2. Gripping. There is an art and a science to gripping and very, very few instructors teach gripping. Many players who are good at gripping learn it through trial and error over many years of randori. We will do it more systematically so that it doesn't take years for our players to learn effective gripping.

3. Ashiwaza. I'm talking about the small ashiwaza like  de-ashi-barai, kosoto-gari, hiza-guruma, sasae-tsuri-komi-ashi and kouchi-gari, not the big ones like uchimata, ouchi-gari and osoto-gari. Small ashiwaza is not used enough by most players so we will have ashiwaza drills aimed at getting players to utilize these smaller foot techniques in the course of their randori.

4. Transitions. Most judo players are familiar enough with transitions from standing to ground (though not that many do it -- judo players tend to stand up after a throw has failed). But as of 2018, the IJF allows transitions from ground to standing (as long as the referee does not say matte). This is something that has to be drilled to stimulate muscle memory.

5. Tokui-Waza. I will get each player to identify three tokui-waza for standing and three for groundwork which they will work on for the coming weeks and months. Besides learning the main techniques, they will learn combinations into and from those techniques and they will learn counters for them. It will be a very comprehensive technical training for the development of favourite techniques. We have not done this before but I believe it's the right step towards getting players to develop their own family of techniques.

See also:
Major Throws
Key Ground Moves

Where do judo players go after high school?

Many states have judo teams training for SUKMA. These are usually secondary school students. Their clubs can get allowances for them to train and travel to competitions etc. Many promising athletes emerge from these programs.

The question is: Where do they go after they finish secondary school? If they go to college or university, chances are there isn't a judo club at their institution of higher learning. This is not Singapore where practically every university, every polytechnic and every junior college has a judo club of some sort.

We run a fledgling judo program at Sunway University but we don't know of any other college or university in the Klang Valley that has a judo program. Maybe there are others but we haven't heard of it. Even UPM which has at least one national player studying there has no judo program (as of yet). So, how?

If a SUKMA player happens to go to college or university that's located in the same city as their home club, they could still train there. But more often than not, these students will end up moving to another city in another state to do their tertiary education. Where can they go to train if they want to still continue competitive judo training.

Let's look at the Klang Valley, were most of the top public and private universities are. As mentioned before, other than Sunway, we don't know of any colleges/unis that have a judo program.

There are several judo clubs in the Klang Valley but almost all of them focus on children. A promising athlete in his late teens will not be able to get into good fighting shape training with a bunch of 10-year olds.

The absence of judo clubs in colleges/universities and the fact that most judo clubs in the Klang Valley are children-oriented means that top athletes in their prime have nowhere to train. They can jog and do weight training but they can't do judo.

This is a problem the powers-that-be in Malaysian judo need to address if they hope to build champions.

Will Malaysia ever have centre of excellence for judo?

If you talk to people in the Malaysian judo scene you will hear them discuss things like, "How can we produce a SEA Games champion?" or "How can we get a player to qualify for the Olympics?"

One of the key challenges is that Malaysian judo is so fragmented. You have strong clubs in Penang, Perak (ATM), Terengganu and Johor (sports schools). And you also have some good players here and there from a few different states. In short, our promising athletes are all over the place.

Even in places where they have a critical mass of judo players, the people there train with the same folks day-in  and day-out. It's hard to improve when you're just training and sparring against the same people all the time.

It would be ideal if Malaysia could have a centre of excellence where players from various clubs could come together for training at a central location and experience sparring with other players. I know there have been attempts by people involved in Malaysian judo to do this and to have it based in KL but so far nothing has come to fruition.

Granted even if a centre of excellence were established, it would still be hard for players from the far ends of the country to come to KL for regular training. A bus trip from other states will take between two hours to four hours depending on where you are coming from. But it's not impossible to imagine a team taking the trouble to travel even four hours for a good joint training session perhaps once a month. If they felt the training was worth it, they could do it. But will it happen?

Until it does, we can all stop dreaming about getting a SEA Games champion or qualifying a player for the Olympics. Players training in silos in different parts of the country is no way to build up top athletes.

Children's class, grading training, randori, free-and-easy....

As mentioned in the previous post, we will have Sundays for general classes and Tuesdays & Fridays for competition-style training. We will also have Wednesdays at Sunway University, also for general classes.

On top of all that, we will have an additional day on Saturday, which we can use for a variety of purposes, depending on the demand. These could include:

a) A children's class. Children and adults don't mix well when it comes to judo. The needs of children and adult judo players are completely different. So we could have a dedicated day just for a kids' class, if the demand is there.

b) Grading training. On our regular class days (Sun, Tues & Fri) there is hardly enough time for us to go through our regular program for the players. There really isn't much time to do grading training. Those who want to grade have to come on Saturday to practice their respective belt syllabus.

c) Randori. Some people just want to have a good workout and randori. We can use Saturday for that too.

d) Free and easy. Sometimes players want an informal setting where they can ask seniors about different techniques and principles. Again, during regular classes there's no time for this. So, Saturday could be good for this.

Which of the four things above (a, b, c, d) will be implemented will depend very much on what the demand is. Currently there isn't huge demand for a kids' class. We sometimes get inquiries but not much. If there is an opportunity to have a kids' class we can have one but really only if there's demand.

We know people definitely want to grade, and we won't be engaging in the practice of eating into regular training days' time for grading training anymore. So, Saturday could definitely be used for this purpose. If someone wants to grade and wants to work on their techniques, they can come on Saturday with a training partner to do this.

Some judo players can't get enough randori. Well, now there's an extra day for this. Enough said.

Free and easy is a good concept. Usually after training, players like to go up to seniors to ask a variety of questions relating to moves and techniques. But whether they would like to come all the way to the dojo on a Saturday afternoon to have a free and easy session with a senior is a big question.

If I had to guess, I think the likely scenario involves (b) and (c), i.e. grading training and randori. But, let's see.

With the move...

Our partners, C5 Integrated Training (formerly Muayfit Damansara Perdana), will be moving to a new location, just down the road from the current location. We will be moving with them. Here's the address:

P118 & P118A, Tropics Shopping Centre,
Jalan PJU 8/1, Damansara Perdana,
47820 Petaling Jaya, Selangor

We should be in the new place by Sept 1. With the move, we will be adding an additional day and tweaking the structure of our judo classes somewhat.

Sundays (2pm to 5pm)
Sundays are our general class days when we have the most number of people, from beginners to advanced players. We will continue to maintain it as a general class with a wide range of modules including some warm up games, newaza technical, newaza drills, tachi-waza technical, tachi-waza drills, newaza/tachi-waza randori and shiai at the end of the session. Three hours is quite a long session but some of our players can only come for training once a week so we want to make sure they get a really good workout.

Tuesdays and Fridays (7.30pm to 9.30pm)
Our weekday trainings have been in flux all this while. There has been no set approach to weekday classes because the composition of the class has changed and evolved so much. There was a a time when children came on weekdays. So, we had to adjust to that. Other times we had mainly beginners. Yet on some days, it's mainly experienced players. So, it's been difficult to set a fixed formula or approach to weekday classes. But lately, we've seen that the ones who come consistently on weekdays are those who are more into -- if not competition, at least competition-style judo where the emphasis is on learning very practical skills that work against resisting partners. As such we will use our weekday classes for that.

Wednesday (6pm to 8pm at Sunway University)
KL Judo provides the instruction at Sunway Judo Club and several of our players go there for additional training and to help out and make new friends. It's a much lighter training with an emphasis on grading techniques rather than competition techniques. It's very suitable for recreational judo players. All KL Judo members are eligible to join Sunway Judo sessions.

Saturday (2pm to 5pm)
The time is not fixed yet but we are planning to have a slot reserved for us on Saturdays to be used for miscellaneous purposes. It could be used for those who wish to practice grading techniques. It could also be used for a new children's class. Or it could be used for personal training or for a pure randori-only session. What we will ultimately use it for will be determined in the near future.

The onset of grading

Four promotions this time around.

KL Judo has been around for more than three years now. For much of that time, we hardly did any grading. In fact, it was only earlier this year that we had our first grading, for a yellow belt. The reason for our apparent "stinginess" in grading is that we were so caught up with teaching players practical mat skills that we didn't put aside time for teaching grading techniques.

For players to grade, they need to know a set of techniques for standing and groundwork. They need to practice those over and over again so that they can demonstrate them flawlessly. It's almost like kata. Not quite as formal or as unrealistic as kata but still a demonstration of forms nonetheless. This was something I really didn't care about. I wanted my players to learn practical judo -- judo that would work when their partner is resisting with all their might and trying to defeat them with their own throws and ground moves.

But lately, we've had a spate of gradings (relatively speaking) because many of our players have done judo for so long and are now so skilled at fighting that it would be ridiculous for them to continue to stay at whatever belt level they were at (in many cases white).

And so we started to carve out time for players to rehearse sets of techniques -- standing and groundwork -- as well as some Japanese terms. In formulating our grading system, I decided to make ours tougher than is usually the case. Some clubs seem to be very lax when it comes to belt gradings. We didn't want to be that way. For a player to even wear a yellow belt, he or she must have mastery over at least 10 techniques (five standing and five groundwork) as well as 10 Japanese phrases.

I think keeping our standards high is the right move. If a player has a yellow belt from KL Judo, he or she needs to be at least as capable and knowledgeable as an orange or even a green belt from other clubs. From a technical standpoint, I require my brown belts to know as much as (and possibly more than) black belts from other clubs.

But there are things that I don't require them to know that some black belts might know. I don't teach them kata-guruma (in its traditional leg grab form) for example, because leg grabs are banned. There's no point in teaching that. I also don't teach them things like sumi-otoshi or uki-otoshi because frankly, those techniques are just too unrealistic. They might look good in a kata setting but not for the kind of judo we practice at the club.

Of course when it comes time for them to learn kata, they will learn kata. But for lower level belt gradings, there is no need for kata. Just simple, practical judo.

In the coming weeks and months, I expect to continue holding grading sessions as more and more players mature and develop a strong grasp of the techniques they are supposed to know for their belt levels.

Rolls Galore (14.8.18)

In judo, we all know what hold-downs (osaekomi) are and they are easy enough to learn and remember. The harder thing is to get into the hold down in the first place. When an opponent is in a turtle position, how do you roll them? Today, we will go through five competition-oriented turnovers.


Pinewood Roll
This is called the Pinewood Roll as it was popularized by the Pinewood Judo Club in the UK. In the clip below, we see Georgina Singleton, who trained at that club, doing a class example of the Pinewood Roll.

Funakubo Roll
Somewhat similar to the Pinewood Roll is the Funakubo Roll, named after Haruka Funakubo who is known for using it extensively in both domestic and international competitions. In this clip we see her using it in the recent 2018 Zagreb Grand Prix.

Matsumoto Roll
Although the Matsumoto Roll -- named after Olympic and double World Champion Kaori Matsumoto -- may at first glance look almost identical to the Funakubo Roll, the gripping situation is completely different. No one does it like Matsumoto.

Huizinga Roll
Olympic Champion Mark Huizinga is good at sankaku but when he can't get the yoko-sankaku on the head, he goes for the arm instead. His variation, now copied by many international athletes, is widely known as the Huizinga Roll.

Paischer Roll
Like Huizinga, Olympic Silver medallist Ludwig Paischer is good at sankaku but when he can't get the head, he goes for the arm. His roll is somewhat different from Huizinga's even though it involves using his legs to sankaku the arm as well.

Training Program (12.8.18)

This Sunday we will try to introduce more elements into the training. That requires us to start on time and to move efficiently from one segment to another. Here's the planned segments for tomorrow:

1. Warm up games (led by David Potts)
2. Groundwork: Yoko Sankaku
- Yoko-Sankaku Entry
- Yoko-Sankaku Finishing: Keylock, Strangle, Armlock, Pin
3. Ippon-Seoi-Nage
- Standing version
- Ippon-Seoi into Kouchi-Makikomi
- Ippon-Seoi into Osoto-Gari
- Ippon-Seoi into Seoi-Otoshi
- Osoto into Ippon-Seoi
4. Newaza Randori
5. Tachi-Waza Randori

If there's a will, there's a way

It's human nature to want an ideal situation. For example if you want have a judo club, you would want to have a great location with the best tatami mats and plenty of students, including many black belts, enrolled in the club. Wouldn't that be great? Of course. But outside of Japan, France, Brazil and other big judo nations, where do you find such clubs.

Most clubs around the world are small. Some don't even have proper tatami. And it's probably not a stretch to say that most club struggle with membership. "Not enough randori partners" is a common refrain you hear among judokas. It's a problem around the world and most certainly so in Malaysia.

So what can you? You can lament about how unpopular judo is compared to MMA, BJJ, Taekwondo, Muay Thai, etc and do nothing about it. Or you can get something up and running and do the best that you can with it.

I always believe that action is better than inaction. So, when the opportunity to instruct at the Sunway University Judo Club came up, I decided to take it on. There are not many students in the club and there's not even a dedicated room or proper tatami mats. But it doesn't matter. The few students who do want to do judo are very keen. And that's the most important thing. If there's a will, there's a way.

Because the mat area is small we need to have players stand guard around the boundaries of the mat during randori.

Yes, it's troublesome having to assemble and disassemble jigsaw mats before and after training, respectively. And because the total mat area is quite small we need to have students standing around the borders of the mat area during randori to ensure the one pair doing the randori does not accidentally fall outside the mat area and onto the concrete. All of this is not ideal. But what's the alternative? Not have judo? To me, it's better to have something than to not have it at all.

So we make do and we make the best of it. The players are learning and progressing well. A trio of players recently got their well-deserved yellow belts and soon a few more will get theirs too. I invite players from KL Judo to attend and help out with the sessions and for most sessions I have at least one or two of them on hand to assist. They usually enjoy the sessions.

In time, I believe the club membership will grow and hopefully there will be better facilities for the club. But we have to take one step at a time. Right now, my focus is on training up these players, making sure they are technically sound players with good skills. And of course, making sure they enjoy the training. If we focus on the right things, I'm sure things will work out well in the end.

Stance, Grips, Hands, Legs

For kouchi-gari to work, many elements must come into play seamlessly. This is true of any technique in judo.

Judo is a very technical sport. For a move to work, it requires many factors to come together seamlessly.

For example, if you want to do a kouchi-gari. You need to be clear first what stance you and your opponent have. If it's a kenka-yotsu (opposite) stance, you can do a skipping kouchi-gari. If it's an ai-yotsu (same) stance, you could consider kouchi-gake. The stance determines the version of the throw to use. You'll then need to take the appropriate grip to make this technique work. Lastly, although kouchi-gari is a leg throw, the hands are crucially important. You'll need to know what the tsurite (lapel) hand and the hikite (sleeve) hand should be doing.

It doesn't matter what classification of throw you do, whether hand throw, leg throw, hip throw or sacrifice throw, all these things come into play:
a) stance
b) grip
c) hands
d) legs

Certain variations of a throw work only in a certain stance situation. And if you don't have the right grip, it won't work. If only your hands or only your legs come into play without the other, again, it's unlikely to work. So everything has to come together seamlessly.

That's what makes judo so hard. I've heard so many beginners say judo is the hardest thing they've tried. It takes a lot of hard work over a course of a long period of time to master judo techniques. Perhaps that is why judo is not that popular. People don't have patience and tend not to stick around long enough for their techniques to work. They give up.

But for those who want to excel in judo, they need to bear in mind that it takes many different elements coming together in harmony for a technique to work.

New modules: Gripping, Combinations, Counters & Transitions

In the course of teaching techniques to our players I have introduced elements of gripping and there are passing references to combinations and counters. But so far we have not really done any structured training of these things. Now that the players know the fundamentals of the most commonly used techniques, perhaps it's a good time to teach these things in a very structured way.

Kumi-Kata (Gripping)
Gripping is critical to successful judo. Yet, gripping is often not taught. Players with experience pick up gripping tactics and techniques through trial and error and osmosis (when fighting more skillful players). But they are usually not taught.

I was taught gripping when I was starting out as a competitor. My coach taught me some gripping fundamentals and some gripping strategies too. Later on I did a more systematic study of judo gripping, analyzing the techniques used by top players. Eventually I developed my own gripping style and have formulated gripping methodologies that can be applied to any gripping situation. I think it's time I start teaching these to my players.

Renraku-Waza (Combination Techniques)
It's not easy to throw a person or catch them on the ground when you just do one direct attack. Sometimes it works, especially if your technique is strong and your opponent is not very skilled. But if you are up against a tough player, direct attacks (whether standing or on the ground) will not work so well. This calls for combination attacks. You start with one and follow up with another. Sometimes it's three attacks in a row, one after another.

Combinations are sometimes taught in dojos but usually it's just a passing mention. Not that much time is devoted to it. More time is usually spent on working on a specific technique rather than a combination of techniques. I think we need to start working on combinations. When it comes to combinations, there are two approaches: combinations from a core technique and combinations into a core technique. Let's say your core technique is uchimata. A combination from uchimata could be uchimata into kouchi-gari. A combination into uchimata could be ouchi-gari into uchimata. Players who like uchimata must learn both approach (from and into).

Combinations can be applied to newaza too although this is less common. Generally speaking, players can only defend against so many techniques. If they defend against a strangle, perhaps their arms are vulnerable. If they defend against an armlock, their necks might be vulnerable. And if they defend against armlocks and strangles, perhaps they are susceptible to pins. You get the idea. Players must be able to switch from one groundwork technique to another. This need to be drilled so that muscle memory seeps in.

There is a special category of combinations that involve transitions. The new IJF rules allow transition from ground to standing as long as there is no break in the action and grips. This definitely needs to be drilled as judo players are not used to doing transitions from ground to standing. Ground-to-standing transitions can come in various forms. It could be tori attacking uke with uke landing on the ground and tori following up with a throw. It could also be tori attacking uke with tori landing on the ground, getting up and following up with a throw. It could be uke attacking tori and tori falls down but gets up and follows up with a throw. It could be uke attacking tori and uke falls down and tori follows up with a throw. So there are four core variations that need to be drilled.

Kaeshi-Waza (Counter Techniques)
Like combination techniques, counters are also usually taught in passing only. Not much attention or focus is paid to it. So, again, this is something we need to work on in a more systematic and structured way. For almost every technique there is a counter. Some are more obvious than others.

Martial art or sport?

Yes, judo is a sport.

Yesterday, after training one of our players mentioned that when he was young, his parents didn't allow him to do "martial arts" when he was younger. Nigel, one of our instructors, replied, "Judo is not really a martial art... it's more of a sport."

It's a sentiment that I agree with totally. Our approach at KL Judo is very much that of "sport" rather than "martial art". The way we train, our adherence to IJF rules, our very ethos in the club is very sports-oriented.

Of course different clubs have different approaches. Some prefer to focus on kata. Others prefer to focus on the martial arts aspect and emphasize self-defence, etc. We like judo as a sport.

What that means in terms of how we approach training is:

1. Our training sessions are intense. On Sundays, for instance, we have one hour of newaza training, which consists of technical instruction, drilling without resistance, followed by drilling with resistance. Then, we have about one hour of tachi-waza (again technical & drills). Finally there's one hour of randori (newaza and standing). Our players are exhausted after training.

2. We do adhere to IJF rules. If judo is a sport, then you have to play by the rules. If the rules change, we change our style of play with it. I know there are judo clubs out there that still practice leg grabs and so on because to them judo is a martial art and there should be no artificial restrictions about where you can grab and so on. That's fine... for them. But we play by the rules.

3. We do lots of drilling. Drills are important when you don't have a lot of players. We are not a sports school. We don't have tons of players. As such, our players will not be exposed to many different types of situations during randori because the number of randori partners they have is somewhat limited. In order to prepare them for different kinds of scenarios, we have to do different types of drills to simulate that situation. That way they will be prepared for different scenarios (against a leftie, against a rightie, against an upright opponent, against a crouching opponent, etc).

4. We watch videos of actual competitions. This is important so that our players can get to see how judo is done in real competition environment. There are not many competitions in this part of the world so videos help a lot. Seeing is believing. If they can see a technique can work even against a resisting opponent, they will believe that they can do it too.

5. We do lots of randori and shiai. Technical instruction is important, drills are important but so are randori and shiai. These are necessary so the players can truly test themselves. You can't know if a technique works until you try it against a resisting opponent who is also trying to defeat you. Randori gives you the freedom to try different techniques without any fear of "losing" or getting countered. Shiai trains you to fight under realistic situations (pressure).