We go into 2020 full of optimism. The club is on a strong footing, with a healthy membership base and good support from Majlis Sukan Wilayah Persekutuan. Here are some of the things we can look forward to this year:
Competitions
In 2019 there weren't that many domestic competitions (our club went to only two) but more are slated for 2020. Combine that with competitions in neighboring countries (namely, Singapore) and we have quite a few to look forward to. Here's the calendar of competitions so far. We will continue to update it as new events are confirmed.
Belt Gradings
Our kids class will start their gradings in January. We will adopt the Mon Grade system used by the British (18 Mons in all) but we'll adapt it for our purposes. Our adult players will continue to go for Kyu gradings as and when they are ready (we don't have set dates for colored belt gradings; whenever a player is ready, we will grade them). We also have a few players who can aim for Dan (black belt) gradings. A few of our players are brown belts and one is already a Shodan so he can go for his second degree black belt. Dan gradings are external and our players will have until November to prepare for this.
Family Judo
Family Judo is one of our breakout success stories for 2019. Apparently, it's quite common in Europe for family members to train together in judo. We weren't sure if this would work in Malaysia but we tried it and it's taken off really well. In fact, starting in the new year, we will have a dedicated session for Family Judo from 2pm to 4pm on Sundays. After that, from 4pm to 6pm will be competition/advanced judo training. In 2019, we had a combined session from 3pm to 6pm and the mat was getting a bit too crowded, so we decided going forward, we will separate the classes.
Feeder Schools
The concept of feeder schools is a Japanese concept that we will draw some inspiration from. In Japan, it's quite common for top judo-oriented universities to have feeder schools to draw talent from. In 2020, we will be working with Alice Smith School (Primary & Secondary) with their judo program. Students who are keen on competition can eventually do additional training at KL Judo.
Visitors
Our club has always welcomed visitors. In 2019, we had a former international competitor from Scotland as well as a team from Jeju come train with us. Over the years, we've also had students from various universities abroad come do short stints with us to improve their judo. It's always been a pleasure to train them and we look forward to welcoming more guests in 2020.
Videos
We've always used videos to promote our club and it's an important component of our marketing strategy. Through videos, people curious about judo can see for themselves what kind of training we do and what they can expect if they join our club. They will also get a strong sense of the club's culture and ethos. We believe we have a good "product" to offer so we are happy to share it with our viewers. We will of course continue to do that going forward.
Something else we will do is make more comprehensive instructional videos. As our members are working adults, sometimes some of them can't make class due to work commitments. But we don't want them to miss out on the instruction. Video is a way to make sure they are up-to-date with what's being taught. We will share some of the videos with the public but probably reserve some as exclusive learning materials for our members.
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