Monday, April 29, 2019

Tuesday's Program

Going back to the basics tonight.

Now that the pressure of competition is over, we will have some breathing room to revisit the basics, which will be useful not just to our beginners but also our experienced players. It's even good for instructors to refresh themselves on the basic principles of judo.

Here are the core areas we will work on tonight:

1. Stance & Gripping (these are inter-related)
2. Posture
3. Body Movement
4. Action Reaction, Feints & Using the Edge (to provoke a response)
5. Defenses
6. Counters
7. Transitions (Standing to Ground/Ground to Standing)
8. Triche (Standing and Ground)


Wednesday, April 24, 2019

How to build a judo club for adults

When we first started KL Judo in 2015 people thought we were crazy trying to start a club for working adults. Everybody focuses on children, they say, because children are so much easier to attract and retain. Parents like judo because it teaches discipline and respect. Parents send their kids to judo classes, so their attendance is all but guaranteed. In contrast, working adults typically have all kinds of work and family obligations that often get in the way of training. It's much harder running an adult class.


Well, as I always say, we don't do something because it's easy. We do it because it's hard.

Four years later, and despite all odds, we have managed to make it work. When we first started out, we had just three core members. Today, we have nearly 30 active members. Visitors from other clubs (including foreign ones) always marvel at the number of senior players we have on the mat.

How do you guys do it, they always ask. With a lot of hard work, we always reply. But in case anyone should want to do something foolish like us and actually build a judo club for working adults, here's the formula that works for us:

1. Web presence and social media are crucial

If you believe in the mantra "Build it and they will come" you will be sorely disappointed. You have to do proactive and consistent marketing. And the best platforms for that is the web and social media. So have a professional website done with lots of information on it. Also constantly update your social media pages. We usually stream our sessions and also post pictures and highlights. This gives prospective members a good sense of how active we are and what our training program is like.

2. Forget the politics and focus on developing your club
Judo politics is a scourge and a bane that seems to be universal. I talk to my Singaporean judo friends and they say there's a lot of politics there. I talk to my Indonesian friends and they say there's a lot of politics there. I talk to my American friends and they say the same thing. So this is not exclusive to Malaysia, where judo politics is also rampant despite the fact that judo is such a niche, tiny little sport. I've always steered clear of politics and instead focused my energies on improving the judo club so that my players have a good program and a good place to train.

3. Provide proper infrastructure
Yes, it's possible to train in a bare bones environment, in a dingy room with flimsy mats. But it's much nicer to train in a place that's properly furnished with good equipment. That costs money but if you want your players to have a good training environment, you can't be a Chinaman about it. These are the key things we've invest in for our players:
a) Big Screen TV: Useful for showing competition clips for demonstration and illustration purposes
b) Good Mats: Nobody likes to fall on hard or thin mats. We have 5cm mats so our players' falls are well cushioned.
c) Crash Pads: For big throws, you need a crash pad for nagekomi practice. Otherwise forget about practicing big throws.
d) Live Cameras: You could do live streaming using a mobile phone but the video will be grainy because through mobile, the highest resolution you can get on Facebook Live is 480p. We invested in a special livestream camera called Mevo that allows Facebook Livestreams to be 720p. That's why our livestreams are so clear.
e) Air Conditioning: This is the one thing that is probably considered more of a luxury than a necessity. But we have it. (Yes, we spoil our players).

4. Have a structured training program
For players to progress, the club must have a training system. Unfortunately in far too many clubs, the system is called "the whims and fancies of the sensei on that day". They don't come prepared with any training program in place. That's no way to run a judo session, but in my time I've been to many clubs like that, and many of my judo friends around the world complain of the same thing. So, again, this is something rather endemic to judo clubs. It takes a lot of time to plan and prepare for a class. Working out what to teach and what drills to do and editing video examples from competition to show your players, all this takes time. But I can't imagine not doing it. Perhaps it's because I have taught academic classes in colleges before (not judo but journalism) and preparing a lesson plan is absolutely crucial. Just showing up and winging it is a waste of everyone's time.

5. Ensure a diverse and critical mass of players on the mat
One of the biggest challenges any player has is the lack of training partners. That's why it's important to have not just a critical mass of players but broad diversity as well. You need players of all sizes and ideally have both genders well represented. No lightweight likes to train in a club where everyone is big and heavy. No heavyweight likes it when everyone else is a lightweight. And no girl likes to train in a club full of only guys. Resolving that goes back to proactive marketing and recruitment to get a regular flow of new members. Realize that turnover in membership is normal. Players come and players go. Over time, you will have people drop out. So, you need to regularly get new players in or your club will shrink.

6. Have enough randori
I realize that there are some clubs that focus on kata or very light judo with minimal randori. There is probably a niche market for that. But most active people who join judo want to spar. You don't join badminton just to do drills. You don't join basketball just to do drills. You don't join soccer just to do drills. And so it is with judo. Technical training, uchikomi, nagekomi, drills -- all of that are necessary for your judo development. But without randori, not only will your training be incomplete, you won't have any fun. Playing judo means randori. I'm always surprised when I visit a club that has only 20 minutes of randori or sometimes no randori at all. We do at least 45 minutes of randori (newaza and tachi-waza) and sometimes even longer than that. That's because we want our players to actually have a chance to play judo.

7. Foster a good culture

When we first started his club, I was guided by the idea of building a club that I, myself, would love to train in. That means having the right infrastructure in place but it also means having players with a good attitude on the mat. To foster the latter, you need to establish a strong club culture. If some new players come in and is disruptive to the club culture, you will need to intervene and do something or risk losing it all because of one bad apple who negatively influences the others. Judo is such a niche sport, with so few people interested in it, you generally don't want to lose any members. But if a particular member is problematic and disruptive to the class, it's much better to lose them. That means less money going into the club and fewer players on the mat but losses like that are necessary to maintain the club culture.

8. Focus on your players.
This goes back to my point about judo politics. Instead of wasting your time on politicking and jockeying for positions and power, focus on building up your club and focus on the needs of your players. Your players are what makes up your club. Without them there is no club. So focus on their needs. They don't need you to hinder other clubs or get some high-ranking position in the sport's governing body. What they need and want is good training. So that's what you should provide. Focus on that. Always.

Tuesday, April 23, 2019

Tuesday's Program

Billy Roll

We will try to cover a lot of ground today. It's a smaller class so usually we can get a lot done. Here's the ambitious program:

Warm Ups (20 mins)
a) Alligator Roll
b) Knee Roll
c) Korean Shake

Newaza (20 mins)
a) Billy Roll
b) Reverse Billy Roll

Tachi-Waza (20 mins)
Tani-Otoshi

Tokui-Waza Training (20 mins)
a) Newaza
b) Tachi-Waza

Randori (40 mins)
a) Newaza
b) Tachi-Waza

Saturday, April 20, 2019

Children's judo classes

We're starting a kids' class soon.
KL Judo is about to turn four years old in less than a month. All this while, we've been focusing on building up an adults class. It's been a challenging journey but we not only survived but managed to thrive. We now have a critical mass of adult judo players training three times a week. This is no mean feat. We're very proud of what we've achieved but we won't be complacent. We will continue to grow our adults class, which is unique in the Malaysian context.

We've been thinking of starting a children's class for some time now but we kept putting it off because there was so much to do trying to foster and build up an adults class. No other club in the country focuses on this demographic. Why? Because it's really hard getting working adults to come train regularly in judo. But at KL Judo we don't do things because they are easy. We do them because they are hard.

Now that our adults class has matured and we have a steady critical mass of adult members, we think it's a good time to start looking at a children's class. From Day 1, we've had inquiries about children's classes. One person even asked if his three-year old could start judo.

Three years old is pretty young for judo. You could probably do a rolling and tumbling class with a three year old but to learn judo, I'd say a good starting age is around six. I would define a children's class as that for kids aged six to 12. (Those aged 13 and older can join the adults class).

Everyone and anyone who has visited and trained at KL Judo has told us our sessions are quite different from any other sessions they've experienced before (and they mean that in a good way). In this spirit, we will make our children's class different too.

I'm still working on the structure for our children's class but this is what I can tell you so far:

a) It will be fun, fun, fun. It's gotta be fun or children won't stick with it. That doesn't mean it will only be games throughout the whole session but games will be a big part of what we do. They will be enjoyable activities for active young bodies but they will also help to teach some skill sets or principles. So, yeah, expect lots of games.

b) There will be some technical stuff taught. After all, it can't be a judo class if you don't teach any judo techniques. So we definitely will teach them core techniques. But it will be done in a fun way.

c) It will be very hands-on and practical. One of the best ways to bore a kid (or anyone, for that matter) to death is to have them do endless uchikomi without the chance to do any actual physical activity. We will have lots of physical activities that will give them the chance to roll about, tumble, grapple and wrestle. Like I said, it will be fun, fun, fun.

If you are a parent and you want your kid to learn judo, contact us and we can arrange for a free trial. We aim to get our kids' class going sometime in May.

Sunday, April 14, 2019

Attacks from Guard Position



3 strangles
2 osaekomi turns
1 armlock
1 sankaku

Saturday, April 13, 2019

Sunday's Program

Omote-Sankaku

1. Warm Up Drills

- Various rolls
- Durian ball game
- Durian reaction game
- Belt tug-of-war
- Keeping down drill

3. Newaza (Guard position attacks)
- Gawthorpe Roll (sumi-gaeshi from the ground) for osaekomi
- Gyaku Juji-Jime for strangle
- Armlock
- Omote-Sankaku (for strangle, armlock & hold-down)

4. Tachi-Waza
- Hiza-Guruma
- Sasae-Tsuri-Komi-Ashi
- Ashiwaza Randori (Kouchi, Kosoto, Ashi-Barai, Sasae)

5. Randori
- Newaza
- Tachi-Waza

Monday, April 8, 2019

Tuesday's program



We'll continue our work on Kosoto tonight:
a) Kosoto-Gari
b) Sticky Foot Kosoto
c) The Twitch
d) Nidan Kosoto

After that, we'll revise yoko-sankaku as some of the players have not mastered that yet.

We'll end with newaza randori and then finally, tachi-waza randori.

Sunday, April 7, 2019

3 key elements


There are three key things that allows a person to become a successful judoka:
i) Natural talent
ii) Technical mastery
iii) Hard work

Natural talent is the factor that we have least control over. Technical mastery requires two things to be present: a good coach and aptitude. Hard work is the element that a person has full control over so there should never be an excuse for this element to be missing.

Let's look at each of these elements in detail, staring with natural talent. Some people are naturally more athletic, tougher, faster, more flexible and so on, than others. These people have an advantage because physically they are just very suited for the sport. But what do you do when you are not born with such "good" genes?Answer: You work on technical mastery and you work really, really hard.

I was pretty average when it came to having the physicality for judo. I certainly wasn't naturally talented. I made up for that with by working on technical mastery and lots and lots of training.

As mentioned earlier, technical mastery requires having a good coach. I was lucky to have had one in the form of the late John Ross, a former US national coach with broad experience. I really learned a lot from him, about gripping, about the importance of newaza, about fighting spirit. I also bought a lot of judo books and collected whatever videos I could find about judo. I was hungry for judo knowledge and absorbed judo information like a sponge.

I also trained very hard. I was literally the first to arrive at the dojo and the last to leave. When I was at university, I trained every day. And to get more training, I even joined the university wrestling club. During summer vacations I would do full-time training in the UK and Germany where I trained three times a day for a stretch of three months.

Reverse Sankaku & 3 types of Kosoto


Yoko-Sankaku & Reverse Sankaku


3 Types of Kosoto

Friday, April 5, 2019

Skipping Kouchi-Gari Breakdown



Tuesday, April 2, 2019

Yoko-Sankaku Breakdown



Monday, April 1, 2019

... because it is hard

JFK: We choose to go to the moon.

Over the years, we've had many people from all walks of life (and some with martial arts experience) try out judo. Their reaction has always been the same: Judo is a lot harder than they expected it to be.

Actually learning judo is relatively easy. Mastering judo is hard. Demonstrating a technique on a cooperative partner is easy. Executing a technique against a fully-resisting opponent who is trying to throw you... that is hard!

Many judo players feel intense frustration after a few months because nothing they do seem to work against a resisting partner. And despite all their training and hard work they can't seem to throw the higher-ranking belts.

As a result, some throw in the towel and give up. Many will give excuses. Oh, grappling is not for me. Oh, punching and kicking is more my kind of thing. Oh, work is getting too busy and I don't have time for training anymore. But a few will be brutally honest and admit: "Judo is too hard."

Yes, judo is hard but that shouldn't be a reason not to do it. On the contrary, it should be a good challenge for us to take up.

Whenever I hear someone say, "Judo is too hard," I am reminded of JFK's iconic speech about the US ambition to go to the moon, delivered on September 12, 1962:



We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win...

Belts Part 3: Good for holding the gi together



One amusing story that I heard when I was training at Camberley Judo Club in the early 90s was about a trip some of the boys had made to a Russian training camp.

They said when they arrived they noticed a bunch of Russian players wearing all kinds of colored belts. Some had yellow belts, some green, some blue, etc.

And they thought, how hard can this be? (All the Camberley boys were black belts).

Turns out, very hard. Perplexed, the boys couldn't understand how a bunch of colored belts could be so good.

Then during a break in the session, they noticed the Russian players take off their belts and dump them into a bin. When training resumed, the Russian players would randomly grab belts from the bin. The one previously wearing yellow was now wearing blue and and the one wearing blue was now a green belt!

It turns out the Russians were all top competitors (all certainly black belt level) but at that camp, they just used whatever belt was available.

I don't know if that story is true or just a tall tale but it illustrates an important point. Ultimately, how respected you are as a judoka has little to do with the color of the belt you wear. What's important are the skills you have, the knowledge you have and how you conduct yourself on the mat.

If you wear a black belt but can't fight properly, would anyone respect you? Or if you can fight well but have a very poor knowledge of judo, would people say, "That's a really knowledgeable judoka"? Or if you are good at fighting and have a sound grasp of judo but behave arrogantly, would people respect you?

The answer is no to all of these.

Belt color is an indication of your progress in judo. It's not a very accurate indication but it is an indication that you have some experience. It doesn't however say anything about your fighting skills, your judo knowledge or your behavior on the mat.

Ultimately, a judo belt's main purpose is to hold the judogi together. The Russian players understood that very well. We should too.

Belts Part 2: Contest Skills or Technical Knowledge


The other day, my long-time judo friend, Jason, asked me an interesting question while we were having supper after a judo session. "Back when you were a competitor did you know the names of all the Kodokan throws?"

He's referring to the 68 official throws that the Kodokan recognizes. He was surprised when I told him, "Yes". That's probably because competitors usually do not bother to learn the entire range of Kodokan throws, many of which are rather obscure (and some of which are actually illegal).

My judo training had been competition-oriented from the start and it was competition that I was interested in. But I always made it a point to learn the Kodokan throws, even the obscure ones.

I think back then it was because I was hungry for knowledge and wanted to learn as much about judo as possible. There weren't that many resources available back then. There was no such thing as YouTube and there were not that many books or videos by famous world champions. What was readily available were the Kodokan throws in the form of books. The Kodokan itself had also released an official video guide (VHS tape), which was very helpful.

Today, there are plenty of resources available online so someone who wants to learn only competition stuff can focus on that aspect of judo exclusively, and never run out of material to learn from. They wouldn't have to refer to the Kodokan's list of official throws which, as I had mentioned earlier, contains many obscure and irrelevant techniques as far competition judo is concerned.

So, is it worth learning still? I think so. Certainly more so than kata, which is even more irrelevant to competitors than the Kodokan throws. I've heard some people claim that kata is relevant to competitors because it will teach them the basics. I think that is a bunch of hokum. If somebody has reached the level of being a top competitor, that person would have mastered the basics. Besides, if they want to have a good, well-rounded understanding of judo, learning the 68 official Kodokan throws would be more useful than kata.

Note: I'm not saying kata has no value. Kata has value for those who want to learn kata. But it's just not relevant for competition, that's all. That doesn't diminish its value. It is what it is. And it isn't what it isn't. 

So, what can a competitor learn from the Kodokan throws that is relevant and useful? Well, certain principles are well defined, for example the difference between a throw and a drop (nage vs otoshi). In Europe, the term seoi-otoshi tends to be used to refer to any situation where tori extends his leg to block uke and throw him over. In the Japanese understanding of seoi-otoshi, it's not whether the leg is extended or not but whether uke is thrown or dropped. What is commonly known as drop seoi-nage can sometimes be seoi-otoshi if tori doesn't spring upwards after dropping underneath uke. If all tori does is unload uke or roll him over, it's seoi-otoshi (according to the Kodokan).

As for the leg block, if tori extends his leg to block uke but still hoists him up into the air (the way Angelo Parisi used to do), in Europe this would be referred to as seoi-otoshi. In Japan, it's seoi-nage. It doesn't matter whether tori's leg is extended or not. What's important is whether uke is thrown or dropped.

This distinction is also why what we commonly know as "reverse seoi-nage" is referred to in Japan as gyaku seoi-otoshi (reverse seoi-otoshi). Why? Because when this technique is done, uke is usually dropped (or rolled) and not thrown into the air. If you go by the Japanese understanding of seoi-otoshi, "reverse seoi-otoshi" is a more accurate description of the technique, although I must say "reverse seoi-nage" rolls off the tongue better.

This kind of stuff, I learned from studying the Kodokan throws. And I think to be a complete judo player, you should know these kinds of things. It might not necessarily make you a better competitor but it will give you a better, holistic understanding of judo.

So, if someone were to ask me, what should be emphasized for grading: contest skills or technical knowledge, I would say both. You need both. If all you know is how to win contests, it doesn't make you a complete player. Similarly if all you are able to do is to demonstrate throws with a fully-cooperative partner, it doesn't make you a complete player either. You must be able to fight and to demonstrate techniques well. That makes you a complete player.

Belts Part 1: High standards


New yellow belts

Many of our players came to us as white belts. In other words, absolute beginners. But a few have come to us from other clubs where they had already obtained their colored belts.

In almost every single case of those coming to us with colored belts, the level of judo technical knowledge and grasp of Japanese terminology (which is the language of judo), is shockingly low.

This is true even of colored belts who came to us from overseas. After experiencing this over and over again, it really made me wonder what it is they actually learned when they got their yellow or orange or green belts, etc...

When I created the syllabus for our belt grading system, I set a pretty high standard because I want our yellow belts to be capable judokas. If someone has a yellow belt from our club, they must have sound technical knowledge and are capable of sparring.

Last year, one of our players asked me why our yellow belt grading is so hard. He said other clubs have a much simpler syllabus for yellow belt. I replied, "We are not other clubs."

On occasions I have wondered whether it might be better to dumb-down our syllabus. We could easily do so and still be far more advanced than other clubs. But looking at what our recent crop of new yellow belt holders are capable of doing, I know we are on the right track.

Will I tweak the syllabus from time to time? Probably. These things are not set in stone and you have to make adjustments along the way. But will I dumb down the syllabus? Probably not and certainly not in a significant way.

Given the good results we got from our players taking on our syllabus, I'm inclined to keep the syllabus tough and our standards high.

Tuesday's Program

Yoko-Sankaku

1. Gripping Drills (15 mins)

2. Newaza: Yoko-Sankaku
a) Two types of belt grips to turn uke over
b) Two ways to secure the keylock to disable uke's free arm
c) How to position your top and bottom legs to effect the strangle
d) Two ways to strengthen the strangle if uke is able to resist
e) Three ways to secure a hold-down from a sankaku position


3. Tachi-Waza: Skipping Kouchi-Gari

4. Randori
- Newaza
- Tachi-Waza