I always liked the phrase "the whole is greater than the sum of its parts". A simplistic way to look at it is 1 + 1 does not always equal 2. Sometimes it can equal 3 or 4 or more. Here's why. When we collaborate with the right partners, the results can be significantly better than what any of us could have expected.
In recent weeks I've been hunting high and low, looking for the right place to house our judo club. Finding the right premises is quite a challenge. Finding the right partner is even harder. Call it good luck, or perhaps good karma, but I've been fortunate enough to have found both.
Our new location is going to be in Bangsar, which as central as you're gonna get when it comes to finding a middle ground to please the folks who live in KL and those who live in PJ. In Bangsar, it's fair to everyone. It's also a nice, upper middle-class neighborhood with plenty of amenities nearby, including an LRT station and lots of food outlets.
My partner-in-crime in this new endeavor is a fitness studio owner with vast experience in the fitness industry, both as a personal trainer and a group fitness instructor. Her studio offers a slew of programs including Airflow Yoga, Barre Body (postures inspired by ballet), TRX (suspension training), Pound (full-body cardio inspired by drumming) and Piloxing SSP (Pilates meets Boxing meets Dance), among others.
To be honest, judo doesn't naturally fit in with the range of fitness programs the studio offers, which is not combat sports oriented. And since what I was looking for was just a place to conduct my competitive judo classes, a simple way to do it would have been a simple rental arrangement.
We could have done it that way but as we explored different possibilities, new ideas quickly emerged. After an initial meeting, I sent her a PowerPoint with four ideas on how to make judo more accessible to a broader demographic.
A follow-up brainstorming session resulted in a brand new idea that took a few elements from my original proposals and added in new elements that she felt would make judo more appealing to the masses.
I have to say, it's not something I would have thought of myself. I don't think it's something any judoka would come up with because we are too deep into the sport to be able to really think outside the box. It takes a non-judoka fitness professional to be able to look at judo with fresh eyes and come up with a brand new approach, simply called "Judo Fitness".
It's sort of like if you want to come up with a Chinese fusion dish, you won't be able to do that by having a Chinese chef brainstorm with another Chinese chef. They can come up with some amazing new Chinese dishes but don't expect it to be fusion in any way. If you want that, you'll need to ask a Chinese chef to brainstorm with say, a French chef or an Italian chef or a Japanese chef. Then you will get something truly unique.
So, what will this new Judo Fitness program be all about? That, you will have to wait and see. I'll be revealing more details about it and the studio we'll be moving into, in future blog posts.
Just to be clear, the hardcore, randori-oriented judo training that KL Judo Centre is well-known for will carry on three times a week at the new place. But there will also be the brand-new Judo Fitness classes offered there as well.
Basically there will be two types of judo classes there. Judo for competitors and judo for everyone else. :)
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