So far, so good

Ever since we started keeping track of attendance, we have managed to have at least 12 people on the mat for each session (12 is our internal goal). Here's what the attendance has been like so far:

Friday (Feb 22): 16 players
Tuesday (Feb 19): 18 players
Sunday (Feb 17): 14 players
Friday (Feb 15): 17 players
Tuesday (Feb 12): 17 players
Sunday (Feb 10): 17 players
Friday (Feb 8): 17 players
Sunday (Feb 3): 15 players
Friday (Feb 1): 19 players
Tuesday (Jan 29): 13 players
Sunday (Jan 27): 15 players
Friday (Jan 25): 20 players
Tuesday (Jan 22): 13 players
Sunday (Jan 20): 19 players
Friday (Jan 18): 18 players
Tuesday (Jan 15): 16 players
Sunday (Jan 13): 13 players
Friday (Jan 11): 21 players

************************

February has just begun and we got a new member: Jairaj, a 14-year old student who is quite big (81kg). He has good potential for the future.

We have another prospect trying out next week so hopefully she might join too. Our women's team is growing slowly but steadily.

Judo for life

(Adapted from an essay by Trevor Leggett)

When we are young, many of us are encouraged to play games such as football or netball and we are told to try and win! But the main purpose is to encourage competitiveness and develop our fitness. It's not for most school children to become professional footballers or netball players. In the same way, for most of us, taking up judo is not for the purpose of becoming a national champion.

Dr Jigoro Kano, the founder of judo, regarded judo as a training for life. He thought judo was much better for this purpose than ball games which are not natural activities. But fighting is a natural activity and if that natural activity can be spiritualized and made rational, so that instead of making enemies, you are making friends, it will give you something valuable for life.

Formal manners for rough players

Some players are naturally rough.

(Adapted from a story by Trevor Leggett)

Among the judo fraternity in Japan, the roughest are the medical school students. I once practiced with such a man who was visiting our dojo.

Normally in Japanese dojos, people just come up to you and ask “O-negai?” (“Will you?”). But this chap came up to me and made a deep formal bow. Then he uttered, “O-negai-itashimasu” (“May I have the honour of practicing with you?”).

I was perplexed and just replied, “Oh, all right.”

When we started our randori he came at me like a typhoon. His style of play was very rough. After a while, he managed to throw me. As I was getting up, he came up to me and said, “Please excuse me.”

I thought to myself, “Why is he apologizing?”

Then when I managed to throw him, he picked himself off the floor and said, “Thank you very much.”

I thought, “Whoa, what is this?”

It was only later that I realized the sensei in the medical school dojo knew that such formal manners was just what his rough players needed. He insisted on very strict politeness so that it would restrain them a little bit, just for a moment, in the middle of all the excitement of randori. By holding them to something formal it would remind them to always respect their opponent. He knew how easily they could lose their temper, so this restraint allowed them to practice in other dojos without things getting out of hand.

Enjoying the physicality of judo

It's obvious to anybody who knows me that I'm really into judo. What might not be so obvious is why. That's because different people take to judo for different reasons.

Usually there are a variety of reasons involved and so it is for me too. I like the fact that judo is a gentlemanly sport with a lot of good sportsmanship on display all the time. I like the fact that you get to meet a lot of different people through judo training. I also like the mental aspects of judo, because it trains you to strengthen your resolve.

But most of all I like the physicality of judo. All those other things I mentioned earlier are real reasons why I like judo but they came much later. What initially attracted me to judo, from Day One, was the physicality of the sport.

I liked grappling and taking on an opponent in unarmed combat (but in a safe way). It's just you and the other person, battling it out using your strength, skills, stamina and agility to force the other  to submit. It's very primal but that's probably the reason for its appeal. Deep down inside, we are all still cavemen!

Some clubs require you to learn ukemi for weeks or even months before you can even start to play judo. I went to a club where I was exposed to randori on Day One. I still recall how a skillful player named Brendan foot-swept me across the mat. And how a French student named Dominique threw me all over the place with standing morote-seoi-nage. I was pretty athletic so I was able to take the throws and it really ignited the fire within me.

I couldn't accept that people who are more or less my size could take me down almost at will. Never mind that they were black belts with years of experience behind them. My stance was "They are not supermen, they are flesh and blood just like me." So if they can be so good at judo, so can I.

Until today that's what still drives me in judo. During training if I find it hard to overcome someone it drives me to be more innovative, to fine-tune my existing techniques and to develop new ones. There are always new challenges in judo because other people are constantly improving too. You might be beat someone today but tomorrow they might beat you. That's what makes judo so fun and interesting.

The importance of tokui-waza

Although as a complete judo player you need to know a wide range of techniques, as a fighter you can at most have a handful of techniques that you can rely on. These favorite techniques are called "tokui-waza".

Typically, I advise my players to develop three tokui-waza for throws and two for groundwork.

Determining the tokui-waza of a player is a process that takes into consideration:
a) the player's size and body type
b) the player's natural inclinations
c) the player's temperament

It's important each player has their own tokui-waza so they have some throws and ground moves to focus on and become really good at them. Otherwise they will become a proverbial Jack/Jill of all trades, master of none.

Having at least one really good throw and one reliable ground movement will give a player confidence that they are making progress. Starting this Tuesday, we will begin to encourage players to work on their tokui-waza, both for standing and ground.

It feels great to fight hard

The beauty of judo is that you can fight hard -- really hard -- and still not injure yourself or your training partners. At KL Judo you can do light judo if you want to take it easy but you can do harder judo if you are the kind who likes to rumble. We have a real diverse group of players here. There's something for everyone.

Using randori to try new things

Randori is supposed to be a time when you try different things. Unfortunately not many people do that. There are usually two reasons for this:
i) They treat randori as shiai and therefore fight very conservatively, taking no risk at all
ii) People are creature of habit. They prefer to stick to what they know instead of trying something new, which will inevitably fail a lot when you first try it. 

Last night, there weren't many lightweights for Aziz to fight with so I ended up doing four rounds of randori with him.

It was not by design but we both ended up adopting a grappling-style of judo which involved getting a high grip (and in many cases, a belt grip) on uke. Perhaps this happened out of necessity. We already knew each other's judo so well that our usual favorite techniques weren't working on each other anymore. So we had to try something new.

That something new for us happened to be a grappling-style of judo which really doesn't look or feel like the traditional judo we all are used to. But it's good to try new styles and new techniques to see if they work for you.

Randori is meant to be a time for experimentation and that's exactly what we did.

Tuesday's Training Plan (19.2.2019)

Warm Ups
- Sukui-Nage
- Bear Hug Walk
- Over Unders
- Crawling Eight
- Back Control Switch
- Butterfly Lift

Gripping: Korean Shake

Track 1: Grading Techniques

Track 2: Tokui-Waza (Standing)

Group Newaza: Arm Roll (Video Belgian Roll)

Randori

Video Gear

Even since the early days of our club, we made lots of videos which we posted on social media for others to see. We felt that videos were a good way to attract new members and indeed this has proven to be a good strategy. Most of our members found us through social media and several of them have told us that it was the videos that convinced them.

The three most common feedback we've gotten:
a) Our training sessions seem like a lot of fun
b) The technical sessions seem very sound and modern
c) We do a lot of randori!

In the early days, our video efforts were very basic and somewhat amateurish. We just shot the videos using our mobile phones, which were handheld and shaky. But it was still more than what other clubs were doing. Most clubs don't even post pictures of their sessions let alone videos.

These days, our video set up is a lot more sophisticated, and it allows us to make much nicer videos. We can also do a lot more types of videos because of the gear that we have.

For each session, we use at least three cameras and sometimes four. Here are the details:

Two of the cameras are Yi Discovery cameras, one on each end of the dojo. These cameras allow us to capture footage for the following purposes:

a) Full technical sessions which we capture so our players can revise techniques that are taught in class. It's also useful for those who had to miss class but want to learn what they missed out on.
b) Full randori footage so our players can analyze their performance.
c) 1-minute technical highlights for Facebook and Instagram. These are purely for promotional purposes.
c) 1-minute fun, promotional highlights, also for Facebook and Instagram. These can be taken from our warm up drills, our uchikomi/nagekomi exercises, judo games or any other fun and funny scenese.

The Yi Discovery cameras are pretty basic cameras but they can shoot in HD and are sufficient for the purposes above.

We also have a Yi 4K+ Action Camera on a Gimbal. This is a high-end camera and is used for handheld close-ups that we shoot for special promotional videos we wish to make. We don't always use this, only when we have something specific that we want to shoot

Fans of our Facebook Page would know that we livestream all our sessions. To do that, we use a special livestream camera (arguably the best camera in the market for livestreaming) called Mevo. This is normally set up on a tripod in an elevated area and we position it to capture the entire dojo.

We used to have a problem with our livestream getting cut off due to the fact that we play music during our training. Facebook is super strict about copyrighted music appearing on livestreams so quite often our livestream would get cut off even though I had put masking tap on top of the Mevo's microphone. Apparently even if a little bit of music seeps through, Facebook will cut off the livestream. It's happened to us so many times. I finally figured out a solution, although it's not an elegant one, which is to mute the audio via the mobile app that controls the camera. So, there is no sound at all. This is not great because it would be nice if people could hear the sounds of the dojo but you can't have your cake and eat it too. We want to play music during training (our players claim they can't randori properly without music!).

Through the use of Mevo, we can stream via Facebook live at 720 rather than the default 480 when you stream through a mobile phone. Mevo also allows you to save a copy of the video on an SD card. So the livestream feed is a useful back-up video for the Yi Discovery cameras. If the Yi somehow malfunctions or a particular action was at a bad angle for the camera, the livestream could offer and alternative clip that we could use.

The livestream is very important because when some of our members can't attend training for some reason, they can still follow the class via livestream. So the livestresam is not just good for attracting new members but also for providing a useful service for our members.

Overall the camera gear that we've invested in is quite pricey (when you add it all up) but it's so worth it. Without the videos, many of our members would not have discovered us at all. Setting up the cameras for each session also takes up a lot of time but again, it's worth the effort. Our videos is what makes us stand out. It's how people get to know us. But just as importantly (and possibly more so), the video footage is useful for our players to refer to, study and analyze. It's something we can offer them that no other club (to my knowledge) provides.

I often do wonder why other clubs don't do this. Even if they don't have the time or skills to edit and produce well-done promo videos, how hard is it to livestream your session? A basic set up involves a tripod and a mobile phone. That's literally all you need. You can start a livestream via Facebook just like that.

So why don't other clubs do it? Who knows. What we do know is that our training sessions are damn interesting, innovative, fun and very different from what you'll find any other judo club. That being the case, it makes all the sense in the world for us to share our livestream with anyone who wants to tune in and check out our training sessions in real time.

Fruitful Sunday session

We had a very productive session on Sunday. As usual we started with some warm-ups and played some games, which were fun and always a good way to get everyone into the right mood for training.

For newaza, we worked on the Neil Adams armlock. I showed them how to do the roll in two directions. Then I showed them how to use the arm lever to straighten the arm. Next weekend we will work on Ecky-Gatame and what to do when uke flattens out.


The juji-gatame segment took up a lot of time because it's quite a complicated move, so the players needed a lot of time to learn this technique.

Then we spent some time having each player work on their tokui-waza. They did lots of nagekomi which is very important (much more so than uchikomi). For the lighter throws, the nagekomi was done on the mats but for heavier throws, we used crash pads.

I wanted to make sure they had plenty of time for randori. Every player got at least four randoris and in some cases six or seven. So that was very good. Over time, as our players' stamina improve, I hope to get them to do up to eight randoris per session.

It was a smaller group today (14 players) but we had a very fruitful session. Everybody learned a lot, everyone got a lot of randoris and nobody got seriously injured. There's little more you could ask for.

Judo and street fights

Judo in civilian clothes!

One of my players recently asked me an intriguing question: Am I ever concerned that someone who learns judo might use it in the street?

By that I don't think he is referring to a self-defence situation (where it would be warranted to use whatever means to escape) but rather he means someone who uses his judo skills in an unnecessary brawl somewhere.

That thought never ever crossed my mind before so I can't say that it is of concern to me. I guess there are several reasons why:
a) We teach judo as a sport not as a "martial art". Any fighting that goes on is meant to happen on the mat where players bow and shake hands afterwards.
b) There is a strong moral code in judo. I would like to think our players are better people because of the judo training they undergo.
c) The members of our club, in particular, are good people.

I guess if (a), (b) or (c) were not the case, there would be a cause for concern that someone might use their fighting skills for street fights and bar brawls, etc.

Shiai and randori

Randori should not be confused with shiai

The reason we have shiai (mini internal contests) at our club is that there are not a lot of competitions in this country. So the opportunity for our players to experience competition is very limited. But competition is important to a person's judo development. So, we've created our own.

We also have a lot of randori at our club. Sometimes when we are running late because the technical portion has taken a bit longer than expected, we have 45 minutes of randori but we try to have as much as 1 hour, when possible. It is during randori that players get to try our their skills.

Randori and shiai are two different things although they may look the same. In randori, there are no winners and losers. It's a time to try things. You should not be afraid of getting countered. It's a time to experiment. Through the process of experimentation you learn things. Shiai is a time to test your fighting skills. It's about winning. So, it's very different from randori.

A common problem is that players easily fall into the trap of treating every randori like shiai. They don't want to "lose". So they resist all the way and don't give any openings at all. They don't try things for fear of being countered. This is no good.

If a player wants to improve, they need to leave their ego at the doorstep of the dojo and come onto the randori mat to experiment and try different things. Then during shiai, they can go all out and try to defeat their opponents. This is the best way to improve.

Sunday's Program (17.2.19)

Neil Adams' Armlock

Part 1: 30 mins
Warm Up: Animal Movements
a) Shrimp
b) Crab
c) Alligator
d) Kangaroo
e) Monkey
f) Duck
g) Frog

Games:
a) Piggy-Back Randori
b) Tug of War

Part 2: 45 mins
Newaza:
a) Adams' Armlock
b) Arm Lever
c) Ecky-Gatame

Part 3: 45 mins
Gripping:
a) Grip Breaks
b) Korean Shake

Tachi-Waza: Tokui-Waza Practice

Randori: 60 minsa) Newaza
b) Tachi-Waza

Our fast-growing women's squad

Girl power!

These are some members of our growing female squad (three are missing from the pic: one is injured, one is temporarily out-of-state for work, and one just couldn't make it last night). All in, we currently have nine female members.

The girls are still vastly outnumbered by the guys (they currently make up roughly 1/3 the membership) but all indications are that this ratio will improve over time. That's because a virtuous cycle has been set in motion.

Previously, there was a vicious cycle. When there was only one or two girls on the mat, whenever a new girl joined, she would get discouraged and eventually drop out. And because they never stay long enough to help build up a critical mass of girls, whenever a new one joins, they would see so few girls on the mat, they too would not want to stay on.

Breaking that vicious cycle is not an easy thing to do. But we've done it. Now, we have nine, which is a sort of critical mass. Certainly enough that if a new girl were to join, she wouldn't think this is a club just full of guys. In fact, she would be delighted to see a sizeable number of girls on the mat and therefore more inclined to stay on. 

Girls just wanna have fun!

One thing great about our female players is that they are all very competitive, in the best sense of the word. By that I don't necessarily mean they want to take part in competitions (though many of them do). What I mean is that they constantly strive to improve themselves, their stamina, their technique, their fighting skills. They really want to improve with each practice. That's obvious and it's really great.

The last thing you want, as a coach, is an apathetic player, or a bunch of apathetic players, who don't really care if they improve or not. Believe it or not, there are many people like that. I've seen my fair share of judo players (not from our club) who don't really care. It's a wonder to me why they are in judo in the first place. I guess some people just like the idea of being involved in judo but don't really want to work that hard at being good at it.

I'm very thankful we don't have those types. On the contrary, our female players are tops when it comes to motivation and the desire to improve. And because they are all like that, they serve as a source of motivation for each other. There's nothing like fierce competition from your peers to spur you on.

17

Our lucky number?

17. That is the number of players we've had on the mat for the past four consecutive sessions. That might not seem like much for some sports clubs but for us, a judo club, it's a lot.

I'm hoping we can keep this up, of course. But if not, I hope we can get at least 12 players on the mat for each session. That's been my internal target ever since we moved into Activ Studio.

There's no reason to suggest that we can't meet our internal target going forward (and in fact, consistently beat it). Of course certain periods will be challenging. The fasting month, for example, is a time when some of our Muslim members might not want to train so often (or in some cases, at all). The end of the year is also a time when many of our international members will go to their home countries for the holidays.

But we are growing all the time, so our membership should continually increase with each month. When you have more members, it's easier to maintain a critical mass of players on the mat for each session.

For sure there will also be some drop-outs too but on balance we should see more gains than losses when it comes to membership. The growing membership means that the prospects of having a mat full of people are bright.

People who are not into judo will never be able to understand why we are so concerned about numbers. The reason is simple. Judo is a niche sport and it's always a challenge to get enough people on the mat.

I know a judoka from Austria who told me for a while, he was just one of three players in his club. Three players!

Travis Stevens, the American Olympic silver medalist, told me that there was a period during his competition career when he had absolutely nobody to train with so he hired a white belt (actually paid him) to be his full time training partner. And for a period, that players was the only person he had to train with.

I've got tons of stories like this. Almost every club struggles with membership, especially clubs for seniors (adults).

So, now you know why numbers are so important to judo club. It's not enough that we provide good instruction for our members. A good judo club must be able to provide its members with adequate training partners. And that's what we've, thankfully, managed to achieve with KL Judo Centre.

Is this a trend?

They say, "One swallow does not a summer make". For a long time now KL Judo Centre was the only judo club designed for working adults. Now, we see a second one has emerged. Penang has just started a judo class for working adults. Wow!

Is "judo for working adults" going to become a trend in Malaysia? Still too early to say but I'm heartened to see Penang is also making judo accessible for grown ups as well.

Penang has done a great job of building up judo for children and teens. Here's wishing them the very best for their adults class!

Sunday's program (10.2.19)

Games by Dave Potts

Newaza: Arm Roll

Tachi-Waza: Side Takedown

Shiai

Randori

The joy of competition

Agbegnenou (FRA) and Gerbi (ISR) -- fierce rivals and good friends.

(Adapted from a story by Trevor Leggett)

Some people say competition only creates discord. If that is the case, should we not avoid competition altogether?

If people play golf or soccer or judo, without counting points, that is not sport but merely healthy exercise. This approach may allow you to get fit without creating any discord but it is also tasteless and ultimately boring.

The essence of sport is that two parties agree to PLAY at being enemies, on a fixed field under fixed rules. They try with intense seriousness to defeat the other. One of the few pleasures in life is to be able to adopt the role of antagonist seriously, yet after the match, shake hands and smile at your opponent. Regular contests between closely-matched opponents should make a strong friendship.

True competitive sport is a temporary, make-believe discord in an underlying real concord, and it is a good way of refining the instinctive drives in human nature.

Friday's Program (8/2/19)

Warm Ups
1. 3-Person Push-Ups
2. Belt resistance Run
3. Leg Raises
4. Moving Crunches
5. Korean Shake

Newaza
1. Arm Roll (Liparteliani)

Tachi-Waza
1. Kosoto-Gari (Suzuki)

Randori

The judo cherry blossom tree

A judo player's growth is like that of a cherry blossom tree

(Adapted from a story by Trevor Leggett)

An experienced teacher looks at a number of keen students and notes how their body types differ. They all have physical and psycho-physical habits, some good and some bad. For a time. the training tends to be the same. It is concerned with all-round development of body, balance and anticipation. Much of the training is ironing out bad habits. Later, the teacher will bring out the natural facilities of that student.

Now, suppose the teacher feels a particular student could excel in a specific throw. He may show the student the throwing action and say, "When you have practiced this throw 100,000 times you will get the feeling of it."

There's a sort of knack of timing which can't be imitated or taught. It can only be felt. And that requires a lot of practice. If you practice the throw enough, you'll eventually get it. Note, the practice must not be mere repetitions which will soon become mechanical and sloppy. They must each have a keen edge of trying to achieve the inner feel of the throw.

If the students attempts the throw 100 times a day, assuming a six-day week, the student could get 100,000 practice throws done in three years. By then, it would have become a part of them; it will feel as natural as blinking or sneezing. But does it really take three years and 100,000 attempts for a student to master a throw?

It would be quite wrong for the student, after one year of practice, to say "Of course I still haven't mastered the throw yet, I've still got two more years to go." This is not the case at all. The student might get the throw at any time during the course of the training. Remember, the teacher did not say the student had to do 100,000 throws in order to master it. What the teacher said is after 100,000 throws you would most certainly have mastered it. It could happen much sooner. But for that to happen, the student must continually practice that technique.

Failure and failure and failure. Then suddenly (it usually happens very suddenly) the breakthrough happens. This may occur well before that 100,000 figure has been reach. From the student's standpoint it is like a sort of wonder, like sunlight breaking through the clouds. But the teacher's view is different. To him, the thousands of failed attempts at the throw and the eventual success are not two different things but a unity.

On the judo cherry blossom tree, the failures are the roots and the success is the blossom. The tree is not failing and failing and failing, and then suddenly succeeding. The roots were growing deeper and deeper and deeper all the time. There was just very little surface change to be seen.

It takes confidence in order to practice like this. It is not just a question of confidence in the teacher. The student must realize that the the teacher has confidence in the student, otherwise he wouldn't have bothered to teach them the technique in the first place. When the student has confidence in the teacher's confidence, they will carry on with the training despite the failures and setbacks.

Is it safe for beginners to fight each other?

A black belt training with a white belt is the safest option but sometimes it's fine for white belts to fight white belts.

It's often said that white belts should not fight other white belts or even lower ranking belts like yellow belts or orange belts. The reason is that these less experienced players don't have such good control and could end up hurting each other. Is this true and should white belts never fight each other?

The answer is nuanced and not a clear yes or no. It is true that beginners have far less control over their own actions. They also lack the gripping experience to control their opponents. This can be a recipe for disaster.

Among the mishaps that could happen:

a) An illegal technique is done. A beginner might not know that a waki-gatame done with a throw is illegal, for example. It's something they might do instinctively in the heat of the moment. Or in newaza, a beginner might arch their opponent's back or do some movements that hurt the spine, not out of malice but simply because they did not know better and did this during an aggressive newaza exchange.

ii) Limbs get entangled. Sometimes beginners might get their limbs entangled when trying to do a technique and do not know how to abort or disengage. When both fall to the ground, one or both could get injured.

iii) Spatial awareness get lost. Beginners are usually very keen to score and can easily get so lost in the moment that they don't realize they are near other pairs doing randori or near a wall. As a result they might crash into another pair or worse still, crash into a wall.

Does that mean beginners should never fight each other? No. It really depends. Some beginners are naturally safer than others, while some are naturally more reckless. If you put two relatively safe beginners together, it's fine for them to do randori under the watchful eye of an experienced player who can intervene if it looks like something dangerous could happen. If, however, you have a reckless one, it's best to pair them with experienced players.

I once had a harrowing experience with a beginner in another club that our team was visiting. That beginner, who was a heavyweight, first had a randori with one of our black belts. I was also doing randori at the time but through the corner of my eye I noticed him doing what looked like a waki-gatame. Fortunately our player was experienced enough to break free and avoid the waki-gatame. He got through that randori uninjured.

Then that heavyweight white belt asked me for a randori. That's when I realized how incredibly dangerous he was. It was only my experience that prevented me from getting injured. I basically fended off his more dangerous attacks through tactical gripping. I was especially careful to not allow him to be in any position to do a waki-gatame.

Shortly after that randori was over, I saw him go over to one of our lightweight girls to ask for a randori. Even though that girl was a high-level player, she was a lightweight. I intervened and stopped that randori from happening. I didn't want to have to carry her out of the dojo on a stretcher.

I couldn't help but imagine what damage such a player would do to a fellow white belt, even one his size. Actually I wonder why the sensei of that dojo didn't do something about that heavyweight beginner's fighting style. His play was beyond reckless. It was dangerous. When you have someone this hazardous, you need to do more than just pair him with experienced players. You need to correct their judo.

KL Judo is turning four this year

The Chinese believe four is an unlucky number but for KL Judo Centre our fourth year looks to be our best one yet. The past three years have been the start-up phase for us. Now, in our fourth year, we are entering the growth phase.

Judo clubs experience highs and lows, and we've certainly had our low points over the years. There were times when our membership was so low it really made us wonder whether we could survive. But if you have the courage of your convictions, you carry on with your program believing that people will eventually come around to appreciating your approach.

I've always been clear about how judo training should be conducted. I've had the good fortune to have been taught by some of the best coaches in the world and trained with some really top notch players in my time. I've traveled the world because of judo. So, I know what I'm doing when it comes to judo training.

My judo background has always been that of competition training, even from the very beginning. When I started my judo journey as a white belt at my university judo club, my coach was a competitor who emphasized competition training. Later, in Los Angeles, I trained under the late John Ross, a US national coach. After that it was Camberley where I trained under Mark Earle, a UK national coach. I also briefly trained in Germany under Franz Fischer, a top-level coach who had competed in the 1971 World Championships.

It shouldn't be to anyone's surprise that my training approach would naturally be competition-oriented. And that's fine if you're coaching only competitors but it's not suited for recreational players. For a long time, this was a challenge for us at KL Judo. How do you make the training universally appealing to everyone when different people join for different reasons?

For sure there are some players who are competition-oriented but you also have those who join for purely recreational reasons, with no intention of competing.

One approach would be to put everybody through the same training program, and the recreational guys would just have to keep up. That approach doesn't work so well. That's why we now have a two-track approach whereby on weekdays there is a "grading track" and a "competition training track".

The grading track folks focus on learning the techniques in our grading syllabus. They are encouraged to do randori but it's not a requirement. The competitive track folks are taught modern competitive techniques. There's bound to be overlaps with grading techniques of course but there are some stuff that you just won't find in the Gokyo, especially when it comes to newaza.

Having this two-track system is crucial to ensuring that no one is left behind and that the club is able to cater to all the members' needs. This is now a part of our weekday training system. On Sundays, we have only one track as weekend trainings are a time for the whole club to come together and train as a group. It's good for bonding and it builds camaraderie.

New programs
For the club to grow we need to try new things. One new offering is Judo Fitness which is a one-hour exercise program based on judo warm-up drills and judo movements. There's no randori involved though there will be some resistance drills. And it can be done without a judogi.

Some people have asked us if we plan to start a kids class. I think it's safe to say that this is something in the pipeline. Something else I think is worth doing in the future is to introduce a beginners' class, i.e. a class just for white belts.

Video
We have always have made full use of video to promote our judo club. At first we would just make highlights videos to give people a sense of what our training is like. Later, we would livestream entire training sessions. Who would want to watch another club's training session? you might ask. A lot of people it turns out.

Our livestreams regularly get over 100 views, which is not bad considering what it is. Interestingly, fewer than 10 of those views are from our own members who couldn't make the training but wanted to follow the session. That means easily 90% are those viewing the livestreams are not from our club. Clearly there is interest in what we are doing and that can only be good for our club. We still make highlights videos but these days we keep the clips mainly under a minute -- suitable for the Instagram generation.

For our members, I've started video-taping entire randori session and entire shiai sessions, shot on multiple angles, so they can analyze their own fights (and those of others). This is an important part of learning. Something else I'm going to do for our members is to start taping very detailed technical instruction. This will be useful for those who had to miss class due to work or exams or some other reasons. These clips would be useful even for those who have been attending training sessions as a form of revision material.

Judo Family
The main challenge for any judo club has been (and always will be) getting enough members on the mat for training. This is not just a Malaysian problem but one faced by many judo clubs around the world, including in countries where judo is quite strong.

I'm not talking about clubs attached to national sports centres or clubs linked to sports schools. Those clubs would have tons of players. I'm talking about privately-run, commercial judo clubs. Those are the ones that struggle because judo is not a trendy combat sport like BJJ, MMA or Muay Thai.

I've asked many judo friends around the world about the average number of players on the mat and the general consensus is around 10 players. That seems to be the case whether it's in the USA, Canada, Germany, the UK or South Korea.

A club could have as many as 40 members in their books but at any one time, they can only get 10 players to come for training. That's a sad state of affairs for judo but that's how it is, around the world. 

Officially we have about 30 members and our average over the past 11 sessions has been 16 members (so, more or less 50% attendance). This is not great but by judo standards, it's pretty good. My next goal is to grow our membership to 40 people so that at any one time we would have about 20 people on the mat (assuming our 50% attendance rate holds). I think we'll get there sometime this year.

We were lucky that almost all of our players followed us from the previous location to our new home at Activ Studio in Bangsar. Because of that, we didn't have to start from scratch. We could get off the ground running with a critical mass of members even on Day One.

Since moving into Activ Studio, we've had some new players join us. Although they are brand new to judo and to the club, they have integrated really well with our "legacy" members. Not only that, their enthusiasm and high spirits have reinvigorated the club and are injecting a social element that until recently, was not present.

Traditionally, our players tended to view the club as a good place to learn judo, nothing more, nothing less. They were friendly and respectful towards each other but they saw the club as just a place to train, not really to socialize. Today, because of the new members, our club has become a more jocular and joyful place to be, on top of being a great place to train. And this is good as it fosters a community spirit that will help to keep the members together for the long term.

A period of growth
As mentioned earlier, the past three years was our start-up phase where we had to learn many things through trial and error, where we experienced a lot of ups and downs, and where getting enough players on the mat was a constant struggle.

I'm happy to say that that phase is now over. We now have a good sense of what training style works and what doesn't. And having achieved a critical mass of members, our training sessions are always well attended.

The year ahead will be one of growth for the club. I would be surprised and disappointed if we didn't achieve 40 members by year's end. That might not seem like an ambitious target but context is everything. I'm talking about 40 grown-ups, not kids. No other club in Malaysia has even close to half of that number in terms of senior players.

One of the unique dilemmas Malaysian judo faces is that after junior players grow up and go to university, or later when they graduate from university, they don't really have a place to train. Most universities do not have judo clubs and most judo clubs don't have many senior players at all. So, what is a competitive player to do if he or she wants to continue their training beyond high school?

A lot of them end up not training at all but still going for competitions now and then and relying purely on their past training and experience to get them through. Sometimes this is enough for them to win domestic competitions but it doesn't allow them to do well regionally, let alone internationally.

KL Judo is really the only place in the country for senior players to get proper competitive training and ample randoris. Our members have known that all along but now word is spreading far and wide about the quality of training at our club as well as the number of bodies on the mat that you can find on any given training day.

As we turn four years old, we are now located in a superb location, affiliated with an top fitness studio, and have the best facilities of any judo club in Malaysia. Our mats provide excellent shock absorption, we use crash pads to prevent injuries during heavy nagekomi practice, and we train in an air-conditioned environment, allowing our members to last much longer in randoris than if they had to train under the sweltering Malaysian heat and humidity. Most importantly, we have an excellent membership, both in terms of quality and quantity.

Having survived the grueling start-up phase, there's no question in my mind that going forward, we will only grow from strength to strength. It's an exciting time to be at KL Judo.

The joy of being a beginner

Being a beginner in judo can be a frustrating thing. None of your techniques seem to work. All the colored belts are "beating" you in randori. Some of them seem to be able to throw you at will. We've all been there before. Even the most skillful black belt was once a beginner and had to go through all the frustrations white belts typically experience. But together with those frustrations come a lot of joy. And when I look at some of the beginners at the club now, I recall many of the blissful experiences I had when I was a beginner.

Learning new skills
When you are learning a new sport, every session is interesting because you are learning new things. Some sports require learning only a few moves but knowing them very well. Other sports require you to learn a heck of a lot of things before you can play them well. Judo is one of those sports. There are so many throws, so many different types of groundwork moves, different grips, counters, combinations, strategies. And to top it off, there are the rules which are frankly, quite complex though fascinating to learn. You will literally learn something new with every session you attend.

Learning about your body
You will use muscles you never used before. You will feel aches in places you didn't know was possible to ache! And you will discover things your body can and can't do that you didn't realize before. Through judo you will get to know your own body really well.

A change in mindset
People often say judo is not just a physical endeavor but a mental one too. It sounds cool to say that but it also happens to be true. I was delighted when one of my beginners told me about how judo is now an important part of her life. That sounds like a rather over-the-top thing to say but I realized she was being sincere when she explained to me how judo has really knocked her out of her comfort zone. She said before, she was always one to take the easy way out in all things. Judo has made her realize that if you want to attain something, you need to work hard for it. There's no shortcut, no easy way out. Perhaps not every beginner who takes up judo experiences this positive change in mindset but even if one of my players benefits from this, I feel a great sense of fulfillment.

Understanding human behavior
In judo you don't train alone. You train with colleagues. For two or three hours while you are training with them, you get to see how they are like and how they respond to success, challenges, failures. You see the many different quirks that different people have. And you'll be exposed to all kinds of people because judo attracts a diverse crowd. Through the judo club, you'll get to know people whom you would never mingle with in the "real world" where most of the time you'd just be with colleagues and people from your industry.

Personal growth
If you stick with training, you will improve. With judo, it's something very clearly observable by you, yourself, and those around you. As you get fitter, stronger and more skillful, it will be obvious. Seeing such progress happen before your very eyes on a weekly and monthly basis will be a great boost to your self-confidence. You will feel anything is possible if you put the right effort into it.

3 types of randori partners

Randori is a super important component of judo training. It's during randori that you hone your skills. So, I'm a big fan of randori.

To get the most out of randori, you need three kinds of partners:
a) those weaker than you
b) those of equal level to you
c) those who are superior to you

Weaker
You need weaker players so that you can try out your techniques and feel what it's like for those techniques to work. Against equal or stronger partners, you will have difficulty pulling off new techniques so you need weaker ones to for this purpose.

Equal
Partners who are more or less equal level to you are the ones that will push you to the limits. Throwing them will not be easy but not unlikely either. You will probably enjoy this kind of randori the most because it will be a battle of equals.

Stronger
It's important to have partners much strong and more skillful than you are to push you to greater heights. Having someone that much better, who can literally throw you at will, gives you a benchmark to aspire towards.

When you are first starting out in judo, you won't have weaker opponents. You might have equal-level opponents if there are other beginners there as well. You will have a lot of stronger opponents and that can be frustrating. That's where perseverance comes into play. You will need to stick to judo long enough to develop some strong skills. Over time you will see the "weaker" category growing and the "stronger" category diminishing.

Sunday's Session (3 Feb, 19)

Judo HIIT (3pm)
- Push-Ups
- Crunches
- Tricep Dips
- Side Jumps
- Leg Raises
- Parallel Cycling
- Over Unders

Judo Games
- Hula Chases
- Black & White
- Snake Game
- Circular Game
- Piggy Back Tug of War

Gripping Training: Korean Shake

Tachi-Waza: Seoi-Nage Family (3.30pm)
- Ippon-Seoi
- Ippon-Osoto

Newaza: Trap Choke Series (4.00pm)
- Basic
- Necktie

Randori (4.30pm)

Shiai (5.15pm)

Judo HIIT a hit!

We'd done judo-related warm ups for a few weeks now so I decided to inject something fresh into the training by introducing some HIIT exercises designed to be done in pairs.

We did just six types of exercises for 30 seconds each. It worked out well. The warm ups were short and they were tiring. I think people enjoyed the fact that they were done with a partner.

Time flies when you're having fun. Two hours flew by just like that. We didn't really have much time to learn stuff. I wanted to do so much more, including groundwork but there was only enough time for ippon-seoi-nage.

I made the decision to keep it at that one technique rather than to try to rush through some other stuff I had planned. We'll push those to Sunday, I guess. There wasn't much time for randori also. So hopefully we can make up for it Sunday.