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.