Continued growth

Our growth has been good

The end of the year is fast dawning upon us. It's a good time to look back at the growth and evolution of the club.

Although we lost a few members along the way (three dropped out shortly after we moved to our new place), we have gained quite a few new members so the net effect is positive. We have more members now than we did at the start of the year. Hopefully this growth trend will continue next year too.

In the past, when we were still finding our footing, there wasn't a clear demarcation of competitors and recreational players. But today, we have not two but three distinct group of judo players at our club:

a) competitors
b) recreational players
c) kids

Interestingly, the numbers are fairly equal with 15 who can be considered competitors; 15 who can be considered recreational; and 11 kids. That's a healthy mix.

In the coming year, we hope to continue to grow all three segments. It'll be interesting to see which one grows fastest. It's actually very hard to say. Conventional wisdom would say it's the kids segment because traditionally that is where the growth is. Most judo clubs in this country have more kids than adults. This is a clear indication of where the demand is. So, it stands to reason that that segment should be the one to grow the fastest.

But our club is not a typical judo club and our main demographic has always been adults. The fact that we have so many adults training at our club has created a virtuous cycle situation whereby the critical mass of adults that we have is in itself a strong attraction for other adults who want to do judo, to join our club.

No adult judo player likes going to a club and finding only one or two other adults to train with (or in some cases, no adults at all). Well, they won't find that problem at KL Judo Centre. It doesn't matter which session you attend, you will always have enough training partners to have a good workout.

The fact that we have a critical mass of adult competitors and adult recreational players also adds to the virtuous cycle situation. Imagine if a club had mainly recreational players. A competitive type would not like to join such a club. Conversely, imagine is a club consists of only competitors. A recreational player would feel intimidated and not want to join. But at KL Judo, we have a healthy mix of recreational and competitive players so nobody feels left out.

So, will the kids segment experience a boom or will the adults segment experience a growth spurt? Maybe both? Let's see.