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.