Trusting the system

The first step towards mastery of any skills would be to find a good instructor and then to trust the instructor's methodology. This is a necessary step and it's true in judo as well.

This is usually not a problem when you deal with absolute beginners because they come to the class with little or no preconceived notions of how training should be. As far as they are concerned, your methodology is the one to follow.

It can sometimes be a problem when you're dealing with a player who has come to you from another club. Humans are creatures of habit and when someone is used to something, they don't like it when there's a change.

That attitude afflicts all of us to a certain extent but some of us manage it better than others. One principle I've always adhered to is "When in Rome, do as the Romans do". If I am training at another club, I will follow whatever training system they have.

That's what I did when I went to the LA Judo Training Centre in the early 90s. The system there was completely different from what I was used to at my university judo club. Later when I trained at the Russelsheim Olympic Training Centre in Germany and Camberley Judo Club and the Budokwai in the UK, I followed their systems and conventions. These were all clubs that produced champions, so they must be doing something right. I trusted their systems.

We've been pretty lucky at KL Judo Centre. We've had a few players who came to us from other clubs and almost all of them have adapted really well to our system and are now fully integrated into the club. I'm sure at first it was a culture shock because the way we do things is quite different from other clubs. But because they were willing to suspend any misgivings and give our system a real try, they were soon able to realize the benefits of our approach.

Not everybody has an open attitude though and we've had one or two people who came to our club expecting it to be like their old clubs. Unwilling to adapt, they were not able to benefit from the training and soon left our club. Fortunately this is not so common.

So, why is it that some people can adapt while others cannot? An important factor is why the person left their old club in the first place. If they had left because they were unhappy with the training there, they would generally be more open to trying new things. If however they had left for reasons other than dissatisfaction with their old club, there is a higher chance that they would be resistant to anything new.

That said, we do have members who liked training at their old clubs but are very happy training under our system too. Such people recognize that it's possible to appreciate two very different approaches and benefit from both.

You might like eating banana leaf rice with your hands but if you had to eat that same meal with a fork and spoon, the experience may be different but you'd still get a good meal.