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.