Competition training begins in earnest

We've decided that the first competition of the year that our club will go to is the Penang Invitational in May. This gives us about 3.5 months to get our players ready for it.

With this in mind, starting this week, the Tuesday and Friday sessions will be run on two clear tracks: Grading Training and Competition Training.

Prior to this we had experimented with three tracks: Grading Training for Beginners, Grading Training for Advanced Players and Competition Training. At the time, only two players, both brown belt, were very keen on competing.

Since then, there has been a rise in interest in competing from other experienced players as well as several beginners. Rather than have the unnecessarily complicated approach of having four tracts:
Grading Training for Beginners, Grading Training for Advanced, Competition Training for Beginners and Competition Training for Advanced, we will streamline it to just two tracks: Grading Training and Competition Training.

The former will have a mix of both beginners and experienced and it will be led by Nigel. The latter will have a mix of beginners and experienced and it will be lead by me.

For grading training, it will be pretty straightforward. There is a club syllabus that they can refer to. In addition to the instruction they will have in class there are also video resources they can refer to. We'll have our first grading exams at the end of March. That should be enough time for them to learn what they need to learn for a promotion.

For competition training, this is how I will approach it. For each individual player, I will identify their tokui-waza (favorite techniques) and we will have them work on those for the next three and a half months. In addition to technical training they will also have to learn gripping strategies, competition strategies, combinations, counters, and transition from groundwork to standing. That's a lot of stuff but we have 3.5 months. It's enough when you are focused. I have told the competitors to temporarily put on hold their grading training. They can resume that after the competition. For now, let's focus.

I believe the next few months will be rewarding for both groups. The grading group will feel the accomplishment of getting a belt promotion and the competition group will feel the thrill of preparing for and taking part in a competition. This is a special feeling that is hard to describe but it's very fulfilling.