Judo handshake

Traditionally, Japanese judo players do not shake hands before or even after a judo match. They bow and that's it.

However, in international competitions there emerged a tradition of competitors shaking hands both before and after matches. Perhaps out of deference to Japanese traditions the IJF banned handshakes before matches (only a bow is permitted before the match) but it still allowed handshakes after matches.

If you watch Japanese domestic matches, quite often players still do not shake hands after matches although some Japanese players with international exposure have begun to do so, especially when they have just fought their top domestic rival in the category.

When I used to train in Europe, I noticed a tradition where the coach would make a point to shake everyone's hand after a hard, successful training session. It's a tradition that I'm glad to carry on in our club and I'm glad it's taken root among our players.

Judo is a hard sport and we fight each other very hard during randori. But it's important to always show respect to your training partners and to your opponents. Shaking a person's hand conveys that respect and your gratitude for them showing up and giving you a chance to train with them.

Respect and gratitude

A super productive session (23.12.18)

We had the smallest Sunday class in a long time yesterday. Perhaps this was due to the upcoming X'mas celebrations but only six players showed up.

This could have been a disaster. Instead, it turned out to be arguably the most productive session we've ever had.

With very few players on the mat, we were able to give personalized attention to each of them. And that really made a difference.

We started off with ippon-seoi-nage, followed by a lighter technique: de-ashi-barai. Then, it was a big technique again: ogoshi, followed by a technique that requires a mix of finesse and brute strength: ouchi-gari. That's four standing techniques that we covered. We've never been able to cover that much in past sessions.

For groundwork, I asked them to do a series of hold-downs without letting go of uke. So they would start with kesa-gatame, then switch to yoko-shiho-gatame, then to kami-shiho-gatame, then yoko-shiho again and finally, tate-shiho-gatame. At first it was done without resistance, then later with resistance.

For randori, we did a few rounds of newaza, followed by standing. It was very tiring but at the end of it all, everyone felt that they had a heck of a session.

In general, it's always nicer when there are more people on the mat but sometimes having fewer players on the mat can result in more productive sessions. And these are fulfilling in their own ways.

Our players are not just good judoka, they are good actors too!

The revolving door of judo

Whether we like it or not, every judo club has a proverbial revolving door.

I read with interest an article written by a Canadian coach about the topic of people quitting judo. In it, the coach quoted his own sensei stating the following pearls of wisdom:

Building judo clubs is like building sandcastles. You build them up, and they get washed away. Then you rebuild.

Anyone who has ever tried to start and run a judo club knows what he says is so true. Sometimes when the chips are down and the membership has dwindled, it is easy to succumb to the fallacy that it is only your judo club that suffers from this. But I have been in touch with many judo coaches around the world and this is a problem almost all private judo clubs face.

There are many challenges in building up a judo club. You need to find the right location, you need to get the right equipment, you need to get the right instructors but the most challenging of them all is getting people to sign up for judo and sticking with it. Every coach, every sensei, every experienced player who has been in judo for more than a year will tell you that recruiting members is indeed the single biggest challenge any club faces.

When I first came back to Malaysia, I joined a judo club where the membership at one point dwindled down to two people: me and my long-time judo friend, Jason Lim. For a sustained period of time, it was just the two of us coming to the dojo to train. Over time the membership recovered somewhat. So I know what it's like to struggle to keep a club alive. 

Even with KL Judo we faced a similar situation. At one time, the membership was reduced to just two players, Shen and Eric Chung (one of our pioneer members who has been with the club the longest). She was a -52kg player while he was a -90kg player. Imagine the mismatch. But they kept training and kept the club alive, just like Jason and I did before that with the other club we were at.

The blog posting I referred to lists 10 reasons why people might quit. Some of the reasons are more convincing than others. Injury is a common reason. If a newcomer gets injured early on, you can be sure they will quit judo. That's why it's important to have a culture of safety in the club. Dangerous players who tend to injure everybody need to change their ways or eventually leave the club.

Discouragement or demoralization is another. That one is harder to mitigate because it really depends on that person's own psychology. When I was a beginner, the fact that everybody else in the club was better than me served as motivation. Each time a black belt (or any colored belt for that matter) threw me, it made me more determined to improve myself so that one day I could stop their throws or even actually throw them. It took me nine months of dedicated training before I could throw anyone in the club but not once did I waver in my resolve.

But not everyone is made up that way psychologically. I have met many, many aspiring judokas who gave up before they even got their yellow belt because they were frustrated about their inability to throw others in the club. Sometimes it happens after their very first session, believe it or not. I recall a visitor we had (a black belt from another martial art) who visited us to learn judo. After his very first training, he shook his head in frustration saying his techniques are so bad.

I wanted to tell him, "What are you talking about? This is your first session. You don't have any techniques!" But instead, I just encouraged him to come for more trainings. He came for one more and after failing to throw anyone he quit. This is an extreme example but it is quite common for beginners to quit out of frustration because they expected to master judo skills much faster. When a player has that kind of attitude, its hard to help them.

There is also a group of players who drop out for mysterious reasons. They show a lot of keenness at the start. Sometimes they are the keenest of all. Then they suddenly drop out without giving any reason. That happens too.

I call this the "hangat hangat tahi ayam" syndrome. It's inexplicable and I've learned not to try to figure it out because there really is no logical reason for this behaviour. Nor is it worth getting perturbed by it. In the words of Paul McCartney, I just "let it be".

Then there are those who you are actually glad to see gone because either they are too reckless and dangerous or they have a bad attitude. We occasionally see those types too. But I won't devote too much time writing about bad apples here. I'll save that for another post. There are many more interesting topics to explore regarding players who quit.

The blogger I referred to posed a few imponderables. For example, what do you do with someone who is just visiting for a short period of time? Do you invest time and effort into training them even though you know they will only be with you for a few weeks or a few months? (Usually these are students who have come back during school break from their overseas studies).

The answer, as far as I'm concerned, is absolutely. I do not discriminate between my "permanent" players and visiting players. If someone has chosen our club as the place they want to learn judo, we owe it to them to give them the very best instruction possible. It doesn't matter that they will leave in a matter of weeks or months.

The other imponderable the blogger posed concerns newcomers who don't seem that certain about judo. Do you invest time and effort into training them given that they might just quit a few weeks down the road? The author says he would generally "err on the side of generosity".

For me, it's simple. It's not an issue of whether you are new or not or whether you have potential or not or even whether you are likely to stay or not. It's all about your commitment to learning. If you show me that you really want to learn, I will teach you. Simple as that.

Lastly, there is the issue of dedicated members who have to leave the club for reasons beyond their control. Usually it has to do with them moving away to another city, state or even country. It's always sad when you lose a dedicated member and we've had that happen in our club in the past. I always view it philosophically though. Rather than be sad over the fact that we won't have them anymore I'm happy that we had them around for the time that we did. They contributed positively to the history of our club and helped to make it what it is.

Two teens that I have been training over the past year will be leaving the country by mid-year. It's sad to see them go but I am glad that I got the chance to train them and build up their judo. Who knows, they might return someday and re-join the club. Anything is possible.

The harsh reality of our sport is that judo clubs have revolving doors. People come in, some stay for a while, some stay for a long time, and some leave very quickly. You can't lament the fact that many people will come and go, and only a few will end up sticking around for the long run. The best that you can do is make the most of the time you have with them. If you think about it, this reflects life itself.

Successful personalized training

Our Tuesday class was a lot smaller than our Sunday class and this allowed us to conduct more personalized training.

Nigel helped teach the beginners some basics like break-falls and rolls as well as ogoshi (on a crashpad). Meanwhile, I worked with the others on transition from ground to standing and how to make full use of the new IJF rules that allow you to throw off the ground.

Midway through the session, we worked together as a group and everyone worked on okuri-eri-jime followed by osoto-gari from a kenka-yotsu (opposite stance) situation.

After that we did randori and wrapped up around 9.50pm. That gave us 10 minutes to roll-up the mats and get out of there!

It was a good session. Players got more personalized attention, nobody got injured and everyone had a good workout. This will be the template for future weekday sessions.

Dec 18, 2018 Session Program

Our plan with the new club is for Sundays to be group training and weekday trainings (usually a smaller turnout) to focus on more personalized training.

For Tuesday's session, for the first half of the class we will divide the groups into two. One will be the beginners who will learn the basics. The other group will focus on some competition skills and tactics.

For the second half of the class we will all work together on Okuri-Eri-Jime and Osoto-Gari.

Okuri-Eri-Jime & Osoto-Gari are the techniques for Tuesday's session.

We've only just begun

We've finally re-opened after a two-month hiatus. Not all of our members could attend. A few were overseas and some had other engagements. But we still had a good turnout.

The good thing about having a critical mass of members is when even as many as a third or even half of your members can't make it, you still have a good number of players on the mat.

That's what I've been aiming for all this while and I'm glad to say we are nearly there with our good mix of old and new members.

It was the first time being in the studio for most of the players and the feedback was  very positive. The space isn't huge but they really liked the ambience and fittings. The lighting is elegant and the aircond much appreciated. The high-quality roll-out mats were a big hit too. Too many of us have had bad experiences training on hard, thin mats and having quality mats that provide adequate cushioning makes a big difference.

I had set a modest and simple training program for our first session, taking into account that most of our players are not in shape, having not trained for two months, and the fact that we have some beginners among us. Because the program was not overly ambitious, we managed to get all the things we wanted done and on time.

Videos are important training aids

Iatskevich Rolling Juji-Gatame

Gripping

Skipping Kouchi

Fantastic group of people.

We are off to a good start. I'm hoping we can sustain this momentum so we can achieve greater heights in the weeks and months to come.

Dec 16, 2018 Session Program

Our roll-out mats are finally here.

Warm Ups
a) Rolls
b) Durian Ball Game

Newaza: Iatskevich Roll

Gripping: Aerial Judogi Challenge

Tachi-Waza: Skipping Kouchi

Randori:
a) Newaza
b) Tachi-Waza

Judo for the rest of us

Amber was quite a natural!

It's not often a supermodel visits your judo club but Amber Chia dropped by KL Judo earlier this year to give judo a try. She was a real good sport about it and did all the exercises and drills just like the other members of the club. At the end of the session she even took part in some sparring.

The feedback she gave us was really instructive. She liked the training because it really made her sweat. She found the session intense but satisfying. Overall, she felt it was a really good workout.

When I was brainstorming with Wenisa about designing a fitness program based on judo, one approach I took was to think: What kind of program would someone like Amber enjoy?

Ultimately, what non-competitive judokas want out of a judo session is a good workout. And with that in mind we came up with Judo Fitness which is basically judo without the brutality. To borrow a phrase from Steve Jobs, it's judo "for the rest of us".

Below are highlights from Amber's first judo session:

Growing club membership

Judo is a niche sport in Malaysia. It's not easy recruiting members but thankfully, we already have a critical mass of players in our club so we are in a good position to grow.

It's important to have a critical mass because when newcomers check out the club for the first time, they'd get turned off if they see only three or four player on the mat.

There are a few ways we plan to attract new members:

1. Social media is something we've utilized from the start and it is a key differentiating factor. Most judo clubs around here hardly have any online presence. No website, no social media pages, no blog. We have all three. So this is a differentiating factor for us. Through our online presence people can get to know more about our training philosophy and they can also get a sense about what our club culture is like. We will continue to create more online content.

2. Starting in January, Activ Studio will be running Judo Fitness classes, which are fitness training classes based on judo moves and techniques. These won't be judo classes per se but exercise programs for people who want to build strength, fitness and agility. Will some of these participants migrate to judo proper? Maybe a few. But even if it's just a few, it's good.

3. There's not a lot of judo in schools right now. Although I don't have ambitions to go into a lot of different schools, if some schools were to have a interest in having a judo program, that's something I'd like to help out with. The students from school programs might want to take their judo to a different level and when they do, KL Judo Centre will be there for them.

4. It helps that we are located in KL, the capital city of Malaysia. Lots of foreigners come to KL to work. Some of them might have a judo background. Lots of students from other states (and indeed other countries) also come to KL to further their education. If they have some judo background, KL Judo Centre is the ideal place for them to continue their training.

Grand Re-Opening (Dec 16)

After a two-and-a-half-month hiatus KL Judo Centre is almost ready to re-open. We're just waiting for the mats to arrive from China. Actually, they should be arriving by today but it will take a few days to clear the customs and get them delivered to the studio where our club will be housed.

If all goes well, we can have a soft re-opening on Friday just to try out the mats. It'll be a chance for our players to get their judo feet wet again. Then on Sunday, Dec 16, we'll have our proper first session.

I'm delighted to say that most of our "legacy" members have decided to follow us to the new location and we've also had a few new members who have decided to give our new club a try. Together, it's a really good mix.

We will have classes three times a week, twice on weekdays (Tues & Fri) and once on the weekend (Sun).

The plan is for Sundays to be very much a group training situation where everyone works on the same thing. Sundays usually see the biggest crowds so I'll design activities that the whole group can do.

Weekdays will be when players can focus more on what they want to achieve. For example, some might want to focus more on belt grading techniques while others might want to focus on competitions. We can have small groups working on different things. So, weekday trainings are a little more personalized.

That's the plan anyway. We'll adjust and adapt as we go along.

Ev'rything You Want Is Here

If you're looking for bluebird, look in a tree
If you're looking for an oyster, look in the sea
If you're looking for a pebble, take a walk on the beach
Ev'rything you want is here and all within reach
~ "Ev'rything You Want Is Here" by Michael Feinstein

Everything you want in a judo club is here and it's all within reach!

Imminent move (get ready for KL Judo 3.0)

KL 1.0 in Cheras. We've come a long way since then.

If all goes well, our first session at our new location in Activ Studio (Bangsar) will be on Dec 9. All of this depends on whether our mats arrive on time. We had ordered some roll-out mats from China which are on their way to Port Klang at the time of writing. They should arrive early this week. But then there's the paperwork and customs clearance, which may take some time. Hopefully, we will get them delivered to Activ Studio in time for Dec 9.

If not, Dec 9, then it would be Dec 11 that will be our first day. But of course Dec 9 is better because it's a Sunday and more people are able to attend on a weekend. So, fingers crossed. Let's hope the mats get here on time. For our grand re-opening, it would be nice to get as many of our members together as possible.

The first iteration of KL Judo, based in Cheras, came about more than three years ago. We started really small and at one point, our membership consisted of three or four students only. The fact that we focused on training working adults made it pretty hard to grow the club. No other judo club in Malaysia has managed to build their membership based on that demographic. All the other clubs are aimed at juniors, not seniors.

But just because something is hard doesn't mean you shouldn't do it. Sometimes, you do it because it is hard. So, we stuck to our guns and pursued our vision of building a judo club where adults could come together and enjoy training judo with each other.

Over time, through hard work, perseverance and a bit of luck, we did manage to build up a critical mass of players, mainly working adults but also a few teens who are happy to train with grown-ups. In order to take KL Judo to the next level, we felt we need to collaborate with a partner that could offer us more value and who supported our vision for the club.

KL 2.0 was when we moved into Muayfit in Damansara Perdana. The cost was higher but the benefits were good. Below the dojo was a gym with exercise equipment that our players could use (the fees included use of the gym equipment). The mat area was big and they had nice roll-out mats that provided good cushioning. They were very flexible and accommodating when it came to scheduling and use of the mats. They also expressed a lot of interesting in helping us grow the judo club. Although they didn't end up promoting judo all that much, we were generally happy with the location and facilities. Our membership grew, a bunch of our beginners got their belt promotions and training was good.

We thought we'd be there for a long time. Then, out of the blue, the gym closed down and relocated to another place where the facilities were just not suitable for judo. With a higher rent and unsuitable facilities, we really had no choice but to move yet again.

I'm not one who believes in fate. I don't believe in the notion that "things happen for a reason". But I do believe in the notion that sometimes, not getting what you want is a wonderful stroke of luck. Being forced to look for another venue led to our partnership with Activ Studio, which will be KL Judo 3.0.

How will it be different? Our core mission of building up a judo club for grown-ups is still the same. Our values and club culture will of course still be the same. The training program will also be pretty much the same, although training methods are always a work in progress. I am constantly fine-tuning the training modules so our members can learn effectively and have fun in the process. What will be different is that we will have a Judo Fitness program that will run in parallel with the regular KL Judo Centre's competitive judo training. In a nutshell, it is an exercise program based on judo movements and techniques but is not judo training per se. The objective is fitness not fighting.

The thinking is that this approach will make judo more accessible to the general public. Of course we do hope that those who try this will become intrigued with judo and will over time, decide to try out judo proper. This is something completely new and we don't know if it'll work but our partner in this effort, Activ Studio is keen to give it a try. And so are we.