Friday's Program: Tai-Otoshi

Tai-otoshi has been described as a safe but difficult technique to do.

It's safe because it's not such an easy technique to counter. If it fails, you can abort and get out rather safely.

But it's quite a difficult technique to do. This principally has to do with the hand movement, which is quite complex and tends to be overlooked.

Because tai-otoshi involves tripping uke over tori's extended leg, many people think of it as a leg technique and focus mainly on the legs movements.

Actually the key to a successful tai-otoshi is the hand movements, especially the tsurite (lapel) hand. There's a lot of confusion about what it's supposed to do. The body positioning is also important. These are things we will look at in detail tonight.

The traditional tai-otoshi is done with a sleeve-lapel grip and it's done from a kenka-yotsu (opposite stance) situation. In its traditional form, tai-otoshi cannot be done from an ai-yotsu (same stance) situation because the angle is all wrong. To deal with that, we have to look at some competition variations, in particular the sleeve version.

There are many other variations of tai-otoshi that we could look into such as the cross-grip version and the drop version but for tonight, we'll stick to the classical version and the sleeve version as we want the players to have time to work on their tokui-waza,

Tuesday is newaza night

With our new training structure, Tuesdays will be reserved for newaza while Fridays will be tachi-waza.

For this Tuesday, we will continue with our tokui-waza development modules with tori and uke working on three key scenarios (as can be seen in the pictures above).

For each of the scenarios there are multiple things tori can do (osaekomi turnover, strangle, armlock, sankaku). Each player has to decide which technique they want to specialize in for each scenario.

I will be going through the whole range of things tori can do for each of the scenarios:
a) Tori head-to-head
b) Tori riding turtle
c) Tori in guard position

This will be a good refresher for those who are already familiar and an eye-opener for beginners who will surely marvel at the wide range of techniques available to them for each of the scenarios. Don't let anyone tell you judo doesn't have much groundwork. Actually there is a rich array of moves for you to learn if you want to.

Some players, especially the more advanced ones, would know already what they want to do. So their task is to perfect their moves and to do repetition drills to build in muscle memory. For beginners, we will help you identify the best techniques for you to try.

Toku-Waza development

Small group but we got a lot done this Sunday.

On Sunday, we tried out a new training methodology that I'd been thinking since last year. This approach to training is designed to develop tokui-waza (favorite techniques). It basically involves getting players to think of set techniques they would do when faced with certain scenarios (in groundwork and standing).

Of course, in order to do this kind of drill, your players need to have some basic techniques to work off of in the first place. For four-and-a-half months, since the beginning of this year, we've been teaching our players (including absolute beginners) a variety of techniques. Now, they are equipped with enough basic techniques that they can start looking at developing tokui-waza for different scenarios.

Newaza
We started off with newaza. I had the players do, without resistance, three different scenarios:
a) turtle, head-to-head
b) riding the turtle
c) guard position

After they'd worked on their tokui-waza for each of these scenarios, I had them do resistance drills. That was much harder work but it's what's necessary to acquire mastery of the techniques.

Tachi-Waza
For tachi-waza, I had them work off only two basic scenarios (we didn't have time to do more). One was when uke has a left-hand stance and the other was when uke has a right-hand stance. From there, they were asked to do uchikomi followed by nagekomi on crash pads.

Randori
There was not much time to do randori so we just did some sets of newaza randori.

Assessment
The players responded well to this approach and I believe everyone benefitted from it. I noticed during randori, the natural tendency for most players is to forget what they had just practiced which goes to show that it really does take time for most people to adopt new moves. It takes time for muscle memory to sink in.

Going Forward
Normally on Sundays, we won't work like this. This tokui-waza development modules will be done during weekday trainings (Tuesdays and Fridays). In order to the get the most from the players, I'm thinking of breaking up the Tues and Fri trainings to newaza for Tues and tachi-waza for Fri. Then Sunday will be general training where we do more games, general technical development and so on.

Sunday's Program

Muscle memory is crucial in judo

We will work on everybody's tokui-waza.

Newaza
We will approach this from three scenarios:
a) tori and uke both in turtle position; head-to-head
b) tori riding on top of uke, who is in turtle position
c) tori is in guard position

Each player will work on their favorite technique for each of these scenarios. Working on these scenarios repeatedly will build muscle memory so that tori will be able to respond immediately without having to think when confronted with a certain groundwork scenario.

Tachi-WazaWe will work from four scenarios:
a) Uke in right stance
b) Uke in left stance
c) Uke has left high grip
d) Uke has right high grip

This is designed to get tori to think about how to react to different standing scenarios. Tori will have to think about what to do in each case. This drill will build muscle memory which is important in judo. Oftentimes in randori and in competition, you don't have time to think. You have to react to situations instantly.

Elite training

In a world that's in permanent motion and which is rapidly evolving, judo clubs too must change with the times. One of the things we will be doing in the second half of this year is incorporating kids into our training program. This is really a long time coming. We've had a lot of requests for this over the years and it's about time we finally extend our groundbreaking judo training system to training kids as well.

The other thing that we will work on introducing is an elite training program. As mentioned in a previous blog posting, our club is primarily a recreational judo club for adults. Unlike the sports schools and other government-funded clubs in the country, we are not primarily a competition-oriented club. We only have a handful of really serious competitors and the rest would be best described as recreational competitors who do it just for fun. That said, over the years we've also had various inquiries about expanding our competition training program. As with the children's classes, perhaps it's high time we looked at offering dedicated elite training sessions.

I've long held the view that for a country like Malaysia where judo is very niche and where there are very few elite judo athletes (those who are serious about competition), we cannot follow the Japan model which is designed for a country where there is huge judo grassroots and where top training centres can easily have 30 to 40 black belts on the mat.

When you don't have mass, by definition your players won't have a wide variety of randori partners. To make up for that, you need to do a lot of work on situational drills, strategic gripping, seamless transitions and competition tactics. We have exceptionally strong modules for each of these things.

As for techniques itself, of course you work on enhancing and improving your players' existing tokui-waza but you also supplement these with modern moves used by international players. Competition judo is evolving at such a rapid clip and interesting new trends (in tachi-waza and newaza) can clearly be observed from the IJF World Tour.

If someone says "Mollaei's side takedown" or "Baker's reverse seoi" or "Funakubo Roll" or "Modified Gerbi Choke", you should be familiar with these. If not, don't worry because we are. In fact, we are fully up-to-date with all the notable competition techniques being practiced in top dojos around the world as we are constantly exchanging information with our wide network of contacts in all the top judo countries.

We also believe very strongly in visual aids in the form of latest competition video clips. We use these to illustrate latest moves and strategies but also to illustrate latest IJF rules, which all competitors must be aware of. We also shoot videos of our sessions so our players can revise what they learned. And we provide them with footage of their randoris so they can analyze their performance. At KL Judo, we believe strongly in video.

Lastly, randori, randori, randori! World Champion Neil Adams says that top competitors should aim for at least 70 quality randoris per week. That's an average of 10 per day. That sounds like a lot but the Japanese elite players do up to 15 a day. There's no way you can get anywhere close to that kind of volume with recreational classes only. That's why elite sessions are needed. And on top of that, you'll probably also need to have one session a week dedicated just to randori.

So, to recap, our elite training program would cover:
a) Modern, competition techniques
b) Situational drills
c) Gripping strategies
d) Transition practice
e) Competition tactics
f) Video analysis

Sounds interesting? This is just a teaser. We hope to launch this exciting program in the second half of this year. Stay tuned for the highlights (Yes, we will share some video clips. At KL Judo we always do!).

If you're interested in this program, contact us.

Balancing different interests in judo

Finding the right balance is never an easy thing.

The character of judo clubs vary from club to club and even from country to country. There are certain countries where the bulk of judo clubs are recreational in nature. There are not many clubs that are competition-oriented. The USA is an example of that.

There are also countries where recreational judo doesn't really exist and the people who do judo are athletes training for competition. Israel is an example of that. I was told by a Russian coach that in Russia it's that way too. There's very little recreational judo.

Then you have countries that have a mix of recreational and competitive judo clubs. France is an example. Some clubs there are very recreational and some are very competitive.

In Malaysia, the active clubs are competitive because of their nature. Terengganu and Johor have sports schools where the training is competitive-oriented. In Perak, you have the Angkatan Tentera Malaysia team, which is also competition-oriented. Penang is a bit of a mix as there is recreational and competitive training but a lot of their players are competitive.

KL Judo is primarily a recreational club. We have a handful of players who are serious about competition but most are there to do judo recreationally -- to learn how to fight, get fit and have fun at the same time.

I would say that in general, there are three categories of players. There is a small group that wants to compete seriously. This is just a handful of players. There's a group I refer to as recreational competitors. They are there to do judo recreationally but they wouldn't mind occasionally competing in judo just for the fun of it. Then there are those who just want to do judo recreationally. They don't mind doing randori but they do not want to compete at all.

How do you cater to all these different interests? Answer: with a lot of difficulty! (But hey, we never shy away from difficult challenges).

In the run up to the Penang Invitational, we ran two-track classes, where a big group would focus on learning grading techniques and a smaller group of competitors would work on competition drills etc.

This worked pretty well but we need to tweak the formula further. We wouldn't be doing our members justice if we had just these two tracks: competition and grading. There also needs to be another track that straddles the line between competition and grading.

Grading training only teaches you how to demonstrate techniques (on a cooperative partner). It doesn't teach you how to fight against a resisting opponent. On the other hand competition training focuses on teaching you how to win contests. This entails focusing on a narrow, few techniques that you do very well. It can mold you to become a good fighter but not a well-rounded judoka.

So, we need to have track called "practical judo training" to address that issue. It'll much broader in scope than competition training but as its name implies, it will emphasize practical techniques and skills so that players can do more than just demonstrate a technique.

To fit all of that into our weekly training schedule, this is how we will be conducting the classes

Tuesday Class (2 Hours): Practical Training (Emphasis on Newaza)
Friday Class (2 Hours): Practical Training (Emphasis on Tachi-Waza)
Sunday Class (3 Hours): Practical Training (2 hours): Competition/Grading Training (1 hour)

Children's judo coming soon to KL Judo

We have a lot of adults training in judo at our club. Perhaps it's time to get children involved too?

Ever since we started KL Judo four years ago, we've been getting inquiries about children's judo. As you all know, our focus has been on judo for adults so we have resisted starting a children's class all this while.

Now that our adults' class is mature and running smoothly, we can start seriously considering teaching children.

Judo is a great sport for children. It's fantastic for overall physical development and it also teaches discipline, respect and fighting spirit. Parents know that. That's why parents want to send their children to judo classes. The challenge is to get the kids to know that too (and for them to want to come for judo).

That is a task we are ready, willing and able to take on. We are confident that once the pioneers of our kids class come for their trial sessions they will love it. That's because our judo classes are very action-oriented and fun. No boring stuff at KL Judo. Ever.

We hope to get this started in June. If you have a kid or know parents who have kids who might interested in judo, contact us to schedule a free trial.

Friday's Program

Sumi-Gaeshi (Left) and Hikkomi-Gaeshi (Right)

On Friday we will work on two very similar techniques: Sumi-Gaeshi (Corner Reversal) and Hikkomi-Gaeshi (Pulling Down Reversal).

The main technical difference between these two techniques is the right hand grip. In Sumi-Gaeshi, the grip is a high back grip whereas in Hikkomi-Gaeshi, it is the belt grip.

In terms of throwing direction, Sumi-Gaeshi tends to be thrown to the side corner (thus its name) whereas in Hikkomi-Gaeshi, you typically roll uke over the top.

For newaza, we will have players work on their individual tokui-waza from three scenarios:
a) Tori and uke both in turtle position and facing head to head
b) Tori is riding on top of uke, who is in a turtle position
c) Tori is in a guard position with uke in between his legs

Cracking the sode code

Sode-tsurikomi-goshi is one of the most spectacular techniques in judo. It's also a very difficult move to do because of a variety of reasons.

Firstly, it requires a switch of direction. In its traditional form, right-handed players would throw to the left while left-handed players would throw to the right. That's not easy for most players to do. Secondly, the lifting (tsuri) action required in the traditional version of the technique is very difficult to achieve, especially when uke has a tight grip on tori's sleeve or (worse still), lapel. These two factors -- the switch to the other side and the difficult "tsuri" -- is why it is not such a common technique like more straightforward techniques like seoi-nage or osoto-gari.

I've been breaking down the sode in order to teach my competitors this technique. This is what I found to be helpful in breaking the sode code.

Eliminate the change of stance
As mentioned earlier, traditionally, the way sode is done is that tori will throw to the opposite side of the stance that he adopts. So, a right-handed player, who would normally have a right-handed stance, would throw to the left. Certain sode experts like Naohisa Takato (leftie who throws to the right) and Kaori Matsumoto (rightie who throws to the left) follow this convention. Hifumi Abe though has defied convention and although he's a right hander, he does his sode to the right.

The gripping is all wrong for that of course because as a right hander, his left hand would be on the sleeve (sode) and right hand on the lapel. From there, he normally does his morote-seoi-nage. Typically, if someone like him were to do sode, it would be his left hand that does the lifting as he turns left into the technique. Abe doesn't do that though. Instead, he changes grips so that he has a double sleeve grip. When he throws, it's his right hand that does the lifting as he turns in right sided.

I believe this is a better way than the conventional one because tori always throws better when throwing to the side that he is more used to. Righties are used to throwing to the right. They are also naturally stronger when throwing to their right. To do sode to the right makes a lot of sense, even if it defies convention.

Eliminate the lifting sleeve action
Lifting the sleeve as per the illustration above is incredibly difficult to achieve in a randori or contest situation as uke would be resisting such a movement. Even if uke's target arm is loose (not holding onto tori's sleeve or lapel), it won't be easy lifting up that sleeve hand when uke is resisting. What's worse is when uke has a good grip on tori's sleeve or lapel. Then it's close to impossible to lift uke's target arm. There are two ways to deal with this so that you don't have to lift that target arm. The first is the way Takato does it. The second is the way Abe does it.

Takato often folds his throwing arm ala morote-seoi-nage so that when he comes across uke, his throwing arm (left arm) looks almost like he is doing morote-seoi-nage. Abe also folds his arm as he enters into the technique but he does more of a rotation with his sode grip and leads strongly with his right elbow. Usually it shoots slightly upward and forward as compared to Takato's version which folds under like a morote-seoi-nage. If Abe's version resembles a morote-seoi, it would be the "elbow over" version.

Pulling entry
In seoi-nage, you typically step in towards uke but in sode, you can do it by pulling uke onto you. That's the way Abe does it. He doesn't come in close when doing sode, instead, he pulls uke strongly with both his arms to load uke onto his back. In other words, his entry is not a "step-in" movement but a "pull-onto" movement.

Foot placement
It's interesting watching where Abe puts his driving leg. Typically, he would insert his driving (right) leg in between uke's legs, the way Koga does it during his ippon-seoi-nage. Occasionally though, Abe would step wide with his right leg and do a kind of tai-otoshi movement. Then, instead of hoisting uke up and throwing him, he takes him down tai-otoshi style.

Drop version
If rotating the sode or folding it under like in morote-seoi-nage is too difficult to achieve, not all is lost. You can still try drop sode, which is very similar to look and feel as drop seoi-nage. The rotation on the sode is still needed for this but it's much easier to do when you do it while dropping under uke. There is no lifting involved anymore but more of a pulling (komi) action, forcing uke onto tori's back.

So, there you have it, a complete breakdown of the way I teach sode-tsurikomi-goshi to my players.

Advanced Competition Training

These are the components that go into an advanced competition training program.

1) Technical training:.I like each player to have at least three tokui-waza for standing and two for groundwork. They must do repetition drills and resistance drills for these techniques so that muscle memory sets in. I'm not big into uchikomi. I think it's useful only when you are learning something new. Once you understand the technique, you need to do lots of nagekomi, which is much, much more useful. And you should use a crashpad so you can throw uke with all your might.

2) Grips: players need to know gripping strategy and gripping skills. They must know how to deal with any gripping situation and must be familiar with how to fight both a rightie and a leftie.

3) Drills. We are very big on situational drills, done at first with no resistance and later with full resistance. Drill are especially crucial when you don't have a big mass of players on the mat like in Japan. When the number of players you have is small, your players will not get to experience the variety of scenarios that they would get if they had 30 training partners at their disposal. If they have only three training partners, how on earth will they get the necessary experience to deal with all kinds of situations? The answer is situational drills!

4) Randori: This is a must. Ideally, I would like my players to have around eight to 10 randoris if they can. In a small club, you will have to do several rounds of randori with the same training partner to fulfill the eight-to-10 randori quota. But that's okay. I've been in situations where I had only one training partner and we did five or six randoris with each other. You won't get any variety like this but that's why situational drills are important.

Different types of training

Grading training is just one of several types of training we do at KL Judo Centre.

There are various types of training that we do at KL Judo Centre.

Grading training prepares players for their belt promotion tests. Belt gradings basically test how well a player can demonstrate a throw on a cooperative partner so in a way it's like kata (though less formal and archaic).

Belt grading training doesn't really teach players to fight, just how to demonstrate throws. For that, they need to do more practical types of training which involves resistance drills and lots of randori.

Being good at randori doesn't mean you can win contests though. For that, you'll need to do competition training. These are very specialized drills that are designed to help a player get ahead in competition.

Going forward we will continue with the dual-track approach that we've experimented with whereby the class is divided into two groups: one focused on grading and practical training while the other focuses on competition training. This is the best way to make sure everybody's needs are taken care of.

Why we livestream

We try to livestream our sessions as much as possible.

There are many things that differentiate us from other judo clubs -- from the way we train, to our use of music, to our heavy emphasis on randori -- but one thing that really gets a lot of local and international attention is our videos.

We post highlight clips with a lot of fast action and music, so it's not surprising that these are very popular. What has been surprising is that our livestreams are as popular as they are. Livestream are not edited and the volume is muted so there's no sound. Yet, we regularly get over 100 views per livestream. That might not be a huge number but it's a big deal to us because it means there are over 100 people out there interested in what we are doing.

I've gotten to know a lot of international people because of our livestreams. They say they like watching our sessions because our training modules are really quite different from what they are used to. So there is a lot of interest and curiosity about what we are doing.

A very common question people ask about our livestreams is how come I am not worried about other clubs learning our techniques.

First and foremost, what I teach are not "our techniques". The techniques we work on are moves made famous by international judo champions. So these techniques are not "secrets" by any stretch of the imagination.

I've also been asked if someone can watch our livestream for free, wouldn't that eliminate the need for them to join our club?" The simple answer is no.

To understand why, you must realize that the value added that I give to my players is the personal guidance they get. I help to correct their mistakes and give them tips on how they can overcome certain difficulties with the techniques they are learning.

So, yes, someone could watch the videos and theoretically learn what is being taught. But without that personal, hands-on guidance it would be very hard (though not impossible) for them to learn those techniques. Even with personal guidance it is not easy to pick up complex moves. Imagine trying to do so by simply watching a livestream! If someone really wants to learn the stuff I show, they should join our club.

Another very common question: "If others can see what your players are learning, won't that give away what their tokui-waza (favorite techniques)?"

Yes, but so what? Our players wouldn't be very good if the only way they can win is if their opponents have no idea what their techniques are.

A good judoka is not bothered if their tokui waza is known to all and sundry.

Take for example Hifumi Abe of Japan. Who doesn't know that he likes to do morote-seoi-nage and sode-tsurikomi-goshi? The question isn't what techniques he will use but whether you can stop them.

So, as you can see, there really aren't any significant downsides to livestreaming but there are many good reasons to do so.

We want people to see what training sessions at KL Judo are like. Livestreaming is the best way to do this.

If you have an attractive dojo; innovative lessons; and enthusiastic players, why would you not want to livestream your sessions?

Friday's Program

Bischof Roll in action

The Bischof Roll is the favored osaekomi turnover of Olympic Champion Ole Bischof of Germany. It's very similar to the Fallon Roll used by World Champion Craig Fallon but involves a slightly different grip.

Today, we will take an in-depth look at this roll and practice the various versions:
a) Bischof Roll (lapel-belt version)
b) Bischof Roll (collar-belt version)
c) Reverse Bischof Roll
d) Bischof Roll from Guard Position

As usual we will start off with newaza uchikomi where tori practices the roll on uke with no resistance, for each of the versions.

Then, we will do resistance training for each of the versions.

Finally, we will do resistance training where tori is allowed to use any of the four versions and uke must try to avoid or escape being rolled.

We are all a product of our training

Some of the people I trained with in LA in the early 90s.

Have you noticed how different judo instructors have their own little quirks and philosophies about how judo should be trained?

Some believe strongly in the use of crash pads (me) and some think crash pads are only for wimps. Some believe in training to music (me) and some think that's heresy. Some emphasize randori (me) while others limit randori to just a few minutes or none at all.

Have you ever wondered how these instructors came to adopt the approach that they have for judo training? Much of it comes from the way they learned their judo. We are all a product of our experiences.

A recent Facebook share by a friend confirms to me how much that is true.

I have a judo friend named William Schrimsher who is a player and a coach in the USA. He recently shared a post of some judo players from Southern California from the early 90s. It so happened that some of the people in those pics were people I had trained with when I was out there in the early 90s.

When I chatted with him about that, he said his sensei had also trained at the same dojo (LA Judo Training Centre, now defunct) although our times there probably didn't overlap. I think his sensei might have trained there in 1990 while I was there in 1991.

I recall in past conversations William telling me, "My sensei's approach to judo is quite similar to yours." Back then I didn't think much of it and thought maybe it was just a coincidence. Now, I realize it's not a coincidence at all. We were both the product of the same dojo and it's reflected in the way we teach judo today.

William, who has spent some time at Jason Morris's (American Olympic silver medalist) dojo remarked: "You're also very similar to Jason Morris, as a coach, in the way that you run your classes. Lots of randori, lots of nagekomi and very little classical Japanese practice, only competition-style usable techniques."

I don't know how influenced Jason was by LA Judo but I do recall him dropping by and training there a few times when I was there.

The head coach at LA Judo was the late John Ross, who was a former national-level coach. Although he had trained in Japan he was far from traditional. Much of what I know about competition judo came from him. 

It was John who taught me that everything starts from grip. He taught me a very systematic approach to gripping, which was mind-blowing to me then.

It was John who told me to focus on newaza because it was easier to make progress in newaza than in tachi-waza. "It will take you a long time to catch up with experienced players in tachi-waza," he said. "But you can very easily catch up or surpass them in newaza."

It was also John who suggested my tokui-waza be ippon-seoi-nage and yoko-tomoe-nage. I trusted John so I did what he told me to do and worked on those techniques. The ippon-seoi came quite quickly (almost immediately). The yoko-tomoe took a lot longer (literally years but I eventually mastered it).

In later years, I would go on to do more advanced training in the UK and Germany where I would learn very European-style techniques like the Khabarelli and side-takedown. But my foundation in competition judo training can be traced directly to LA Judo. What I learned there still influences much of how I teach judo today.

Today, I teach many players at my club. Perhaps some of them will go on to establish their own judo club in the future. I can't help but to think their teaching system will lean heavily on what they learned at KL Judo during their formative years.

How to properly learn a technique

When you learn a judo technique, it doesn't end with just learning that one standard version of the technique.

To fully understand that technique, you'll also have to learn variations of the technique. Is there a standing version and a drop version? Or perhaps a cross-grip version? A high-grip version?

After you've learned the variations, it's important to learn the different combinations that can be done with the technique. For that, you should look into combinations from the technique and into the technique. For example an combo from morote-seoi-nage could be morote-seoi-nage into kouchi-gari. A combination into the the technique could be ouchi-gari into morote-seoi-nage.

Finally, counters to the technique.

So, to recap:

1. Standard version
2. Variations
3. Combinations from and into the technique
4. Counters

Koshi-Guruma Masterclass

a) Standard koshi-guruma
b) Koga-style koshi-guruma
c) Drop-knee koshi-guruma
d) Koshi-guruma into osoto-gari combination
e) 3 types of counters to koshi-guruma

Tuesday's Program

Neil Adams juji-gatame

The first training since the start of Ramadhan usually means fewer participants (strangely even among the non-Muslims). But training carries on. This is what we will be working on today:

Standing
Koshi-guruma (standing)
Koshi-guruma (variation)
Counters to koshi-guruma (tani-otoshi, ura-nage, yoko-guruma)
Combination from koshi-guruma (osoto-gari)

Groundwork
Neil Adams rolling juji-gatame
Arm lever
Uki-gatame (aka Ecky-gatame)

Revamping our grading syllabus

The different colored belts for judo

As our club grows and evolves, so must the way we practice and the way we grade. We must continually strive to improve things. This includes our grading syllabus. Even the Kodokan revises its official list of techniques from time to time (the last time being 2017), so why shouldn't we?

Revamping the syllabus, of course, cannot be done in a vacuum. I've been researching the syllabus of many other countries to come up with something suitable and practical for our club.

Contest points
One thing I've noticed about many countries' syllabus is that the shiai component is present for most of them. That means contest points are required.

What about those who want to grade but for some reason do not want to compete (perhaps due to age or injury)? In this case, Australia has a reasonable solution. It is possible to grade through "knowledge of" and "service to" judo.

Because the shiai (or competition) component is so important, anyone who wishes to grade through this unconventional way must have a lot of knowledge and do a lot of service to judo. This is how Australia describes the process:

This method of attaining promotion requires the judoka to show dedication through active service via demonstration of techniques, coaching, refereeing, administration, and management appointments. Judoka who wish to gain promotion on this path must also be able to demonstrate significant knowledge on a broad range of aspects of the sport and art of judo. This will include theory, practical, theoretical teaching of techniques, demonstration of the required katas, and refereeing theory.

Range of techniques
In terms of the techniques covered, some places base it on the Gokyo, which now has 68 throws and 32 groundwork. In other places, notably the UK, it departs a bit from the Gokyo. In the UK for instance there are some Gokyo techniques not covered and even some non-Gokyo techniques covered (e.g. mune-gatame, which doesn't exist in the Gokyo). I've also seen kouchi-gake in some syllabuses (kouchi-makikomi is in the Gokyo but kouchi-gake isn't).

So, it really varies. Should the grading syllabus be based entirely or mainly on the Gokyo, which frankly, has many obscure techniques (how many people have heard of yama-arashi?) as well as some impractical techniques (sumi-otoshi, anyone?). And of course there are those which are practical but banned in competition (mostly hand techniques like kata-guruma and morote-gari).

I'm personally quite torn about whether to include all Gokyo techniques in the grading syllabus. On the one hand, some of the techniques will never be used either because they are now considered illegal techniques or are simply too impractical for randori or competition purposes. On the other hand, it could be argued that if you want to become a black belt in judo, you should be familiar with the Gokyo (if only for historical reasons).

I, myself, have always been competition-oriented yet I did bother to learn the Gokyo. So this is a tough one for me. The practical side of me says no need to teach banned or obscure techniques. The slightly conservative or traditional side of me feels it's necessary to know this stuff to be a truly complete judoka.

Perhaps the middle ground would be to teach only practical techniques up to brown belt and for those who truly want to gain a black belt, they need to learn all the other stuff in the Gokyo.

Note: Those who wish to grade through knowledge of judo (without competition points) will have to go through a more expansive syllabus from yellow belt onwards. They will also have to have a sound understanding of refereeing and do a variety of services to judo (as per the examples int he Australian guidelines).

Knowledge of Japanese terms
This is where I am very conservative. A sound grasp of Japanese judo terms is a must. Enough said.

Bottom Line
So, in a nutshell, what will guide the revamp will be:
a) The shiai component will be required for green belt onward (not required for yellow and orange).
Note: Exemption from competition points is allowed through knowledge of and service to judo.

b) Yellow through blue belts will consist of practical techniques only. Black belt, however, will require knowledge of the Gokyo.
Note: Those opting for exemption from competition points will have a more expansive syllabus from the start.

d) Knowledge of Japanese judo terms is required.
Note: No exemption.

Osoto-Maikikomi

Is osoto-makikomi a variant of osoto-gari or soto-makikomi? Isn't it just a combination technique of osoto-gari and soto-makikomi?

A lot of arguments can be made for each case but I would argue that ultimately it is a variant of osoto-gari.

There are also many ways to do this technique but the version I like to teach is the one used by double Olympic champion Peter Seisenbacher.

His version involves a high grip on uke's back. Osoto-gari is attempted from this high grip. At the start of the attack, tori's high grip arm goes over uke's head so that it effectively becomes a cross grip-type situation (akin to uke ducking his head under tori's high grip arm).

Tori maintains the grip while continuing to take uke backwards. As uke starts pushing forward to stop the backwards attack, tori seamlessly transitions into a soto-makikomi. The high grip arm lets go and clamps down on uke's arm instead (makikomi style). The throw is then turned into a front attack not a back one.

It's a classic "action-reaction" kind of throw. And those are the best kinds of judo throws.We will work on this today.

Onto our next phase of growth

We celebrated our 4th anniversary at Indulge -- the gourmet restaurant at TGV Cinemas in 1 Utama. It was a great night of celebration with 30 of us having dinner and watching a movie together.

Everybody loves to win a prize. Well, we had 4 Indulge Cinema tickets (worth RM50 each) to give away to winners of our lucky draw.

We even got the chance to play one team-building exercise where each member had to make three remarks about themselves, of which one is a lie. Teammates will have to guess which one that is. It turned out to be a lot funner than I expected. Some players really came up with creative truths and lies!

With our solid judo family anchoring the club, we are well poised to improve by leaps and bounds as we enter into the next phase of our growth.

KL Judo turns 4!

Our Friday session had 14 players on the mat. That's about half our squad.

We started out with a simple premise: Build a judo club targeted at senior players.

When you look at KL Judo today, it might seem like an obvious thing to do but back when we started  out four years ago, everybody thought we were crazy. "Nobody builds a judo club for adults," they said. "There's no market for it."

Well, I was an adult and I wanted to play judo. I was sure there were others like me out there. So we proceeded with our dream.

It was rough going at first. There was a time when having five players on the mat was our definition of "a good turnout". For the longest time, we had just three or four regular players. There was even a sustained period when had just two players: a -90kg guy and a -52kg girl. Talk about a mismatch. But we carried on.

In judo, players come and players go. This is quite normal. But along the way, we did manage to pick up members who stayed with us. Why did they choose to do so? My guess is two key reasons.

Visitors to our club always notice two very distinctive things about KL Judo. Firstly, they find our players to be really tough, with great fighting spirit. Every visitor gets a great workout at KL Judo.

Secondly, they find our player to be extremely warm, friendly and welcoming. This aspect of our club is something we are very proud of. It really helps with membership too because newbies are able to integrate almost immediately with existing members.

Today we have close to 30 members. Because they are mostly adults, there will always be some who cannot attend training due to work commitments (overtime or out-of-town trips) as well as family obligations. At any one time you'll also have some players who are out of action because of injury (harsh reality of judo).

So, you will never have your full squad training on the mat at the same time. You're lucky if you can get 50% of them on the mat at any one time. I would say 30% is more the norm. But if you have a healthy membership base, even 30% means there are enough bodies on the mat to have a good workout.

We can't afford to be complacent though. Over time, people's circumstances change and sometimes you lose members due to situations beyond anyone's control. That's just how it is. So, we have to continually find new ways to get new members.

One strategy we've employed from Day 1 is to put up a lot of material on social media. We have an active blog and we post up pictures and video highlights on social media. We even have livestreams of our entire training sessions. Having all that content out there gives potential members a good sense of what to expect if they join our club. We will continue to do that.

We will also explore various collaborations that may result in more training sessions and more players coming to our club. This is all still at a very exploratory stage and perhaps nothing will come out of it. But we've got to try. After all, if we didn't try four years ago, KL Judo wouldn't be here today.

Friday's Program

We will continue our work on basic principles.

This is what we will work on Friday

Stance
When doing uchikomi or even nagekomi, players often face each other in a square stance. However, in randori or shiai, this is usually not the case. Normally, players would be in a kenka-yotsu situation or occasionally in an ai-yotsu situation. Players need to understand the ramifications of facing an opponent in an kenka-yotsu or ai-yotsu situation, and understand that there are different grips, techniques and strategies involved when in each of those situations.

Gripping
Gripping is key to success in judo. Without a proper grip, you can't do your technique. And if you are able to negate your opponent's grip, you are able to prevent him from attacking effectively. There is a systematic gripping strategies and techniques that allows you to win the grip fight. We will look at all this.

Posture
Bending over double and stiff-arming is a tactic many beginners use to fend off an attack. Inexperienced judokas find this frustrating but actually when a player bends over double and stiff arms, it's actually a gift for tori. We will look at why.

Action-Reaction
A key principle of judo is to make use of your opponent's movements. You can attack uke directly but a better way would be to do an initial attack in order to provoke a reaction and to throw uke in the direction of his reaction. The principle of action-reaction applies in newaza as well.