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).