If there's a will, there's a way

Terence is one of my students who started judo at the end of last year, at the age of 50. He was not very confident at first and the fitness regiment required for judo was something he was not used to. But he's stuck with it and now, several months later, not only has he got more skills but he's also fitter. And, I'm sure, he's enjoying judo a lot more because of both those factors.

A key success factor in judo is simply sticking with it. When you first start judo, it can be very frustrating because you don't have any techniques and your fitness level is probably below those who have been training for some time already. Even if you are a generally very fit person, the anaerobic nature of judo is something that aerobically fit people are not used to. And most people who are "fit" are aerobically fit, not anaerobically so.

So it takes time to get used to judo fitness and it takes even longer to develop skills and techniques. If you don't stick with it, how are you ever going to get there? So, it's important to stick with it.

Terence could have very easily given up in the first month. Many beginners do. But he stuck with it. I'm sure at first, judo training was not that enjoyable for him. It probably was interesting because he's constantly learning new things but if you don't have fitness and don't have technique, it is hard to find the training enjoyable. It only starts becoming more fun once you've been in it for a month or two. Of course the longer you do it, the fitter and better you get and the more enjoyable training becomes.

This past Sunday, he was not supposed to be at training. He told me after Friday's training that he would have to give Sunday a miss because he would be in Johor Baru over the weekend. Then, on Saturday evening he sent me a message saying that he plans to drive back Sunday morning and if he can make it back in time for judo session he would like to attend, even though he might be a little bit late.

I told him that would be great and if he has to be 30 minutes late, so be it. Just come for training. He said he would. As it turned out, not only did he show up, he was there before class started and he stuck with the training for the entire three hours! I know how tiring it is to be driving just for an hour. Imagine driving all the way from JB to KL and then coming straight for judo. That's dedication. That's what the fighting spirit of judo is all about.

When people think of fighting spirit, they often think in terms of the aggression one shows during a randori or a shiai. That is one aspect of fighting spirit. But there's more to fighting spirit than just how you fight. It's also about your commitment and dedication to training. Some people will skip training with the flimsiest of excuses. Some people will come for training even if they have to drive from another state to do so.

Speaking of driving from another state, Nigel, one of our black belt instructors, used to drive all the way from Melaka to attend our trainings when we were based in Cheras. At times he would stay overnight in KL but there were days when he would drive back to Melaka after training. Melaka may not be JB but it's still two hours away. To drive all that distance to attend judo training takes commitment. It takes fighting spirit.

Terence reminds me of Mark Law, a newspaper editor whom I met at the Budokwai when I was a competitor in the early 1990s. Mark was 50 years old when he started judo as a white belt. The last time I visited the Budokwai, in 2011, Mark was still training and was, of course, already a black belt.

It must not have been easy for Mark in the early days when he was a white belt, at the age of 50, training among some of the toughest players in London. But he stuck with it and eventually got his black belt. He even wrote a book about judo called The Pyjama Game.