Why it's important to teach techniques from the standpoint of stance

Ai-Yotsu

When I teach standing techniques, I always demonstrate them from the standpoint of ai-yotsu and kenka-yotsu. This is important because the mechanics of techniques done from each stance are often very different.

When traditional techniques are taught, they are often taught from a square stance scenario, which is totally unrealistic. This is one of the key reasons beginners have great difficulty pulling off techniques they learn. Because they learned those techniques from a square stance and in randori, nobody adopts a square stance. It's usually kenka-yotsu but occasionally ai-yotsu.

So, if you want to get some techniques to work for you, you'd do well to learn how to do those techniques from both the kenka-yotsu and ai-yotsu situation.

When it comes to newaza, there's no ai-yotsu or kenka-yotsu but there are still different scenarios you have to prepare for. Take the turtle position. You can teach your players how to do a certain technique on an opponent in the turtle position. But once you start attacking your opponent, they will react. You have to have answers for every likely reaction.

For example, what can you do if uke decides to flatten out onto his stomach? What can you do if uke tries to stand up? What if he turns away from you? What if he turns towards you. You have to prepare for all these scenarios. And when I teach a specific technique, let's say a turnover, I usually try to teach how to respond to a number of different, likely responses by uke.

Why it's important to get new recruits

As a judo club we are always trying to get new recruits. This is important for a number of reasons.

Firstly, you need the numbers so that your existing members can have enough training partners. Judo is an individual sport but you need other players in order to train. So having the numbers is crucial.

Imagine a player having only one training partner whom he/she trains with all the time. The lack of variety not only makes the training boring, it also hinders the player's progress because he/she needs to be exposed to different styles of play. If you're training with the same partner over and over again, pretty soon you'll be very familiar with how that other person plays their judo. You can't improve that way.

We are pretty lucky in that we currently have quite a few players who are heavy, medium and light-weight. So, there are enough partners for everyone to train. However, people sometime have to miss training due to work, family commitments, falling ill, etc. So, it doesn't hurt to have more members so that there will always be enough people on the mat that everyone can have a good training session.

Secondly, churn or turnover is part and parcel of what every organization has to cope with. A judo club is certainly no exception. Again, we are fortunate that our turnover rate is not high. Our members tend to stick with us. But turnover is unavoidable and we do lose members every now and then. So, new recruits are necessary to replace the ones we've lost.

Thirdly, it costs money to maintain and upkeep a judo club. You want to give your members great facilities so you're constantly upgrading equipment and buying new equipment. These things cost money. Mats, crash pads, audio-video systems -- these aren't cheap items. Having more members keeps the club on a strong financial footing.

The natural question is how big do you want to grow? Is there an optimal number given the space you have on the mat and the number of training days you have in a week? At some point, it is possible for the mat to be overcrowded (but if that were to ever happen, it would most definitely be what you would call "a good problem").

Right now, we have 30+ members and while I would consider that as being a critical mass, it is just barely so. It's enough that we can have judo training six days a week and have each session fairly well attended. Still, there's a lot of spare capacity left in terms of space. We could easily accommodate more people per session.

So, what's my ideal? I would say when we hit 50 members, we would be in good shape. Can we make that this year? I think so. That's my target to be achieved by year's end.

A place for working adults to train judo

Judo for everyone -- including adults!

In many places, not just in Malaysia, judo is a children's and youths' sport. I've often asked people why they think this is so and the most common reasons given are that adults don't have time for sports like judo and adults don't want to feel sore the next morning when they have to go to work.

All this may be true but there are adults who like to go play badminton. That takes up time too. As for soreness, once you are training regularly and your body is used to it, the soreness isn't that bad anymore.

I think the main reason is more mundane. It's a commercial issue. Judo just isn't a very popular sport, compared to something like badminton. From a purely commercial standpoint, it probably makes more sense to have a children's class.

Judo might not be a popular sport like football or badminton but many parents do have the impression that judo is a good sport for their kids to learn. As such, judo for kids is not a very hard sell, especially when compared to judo for adults.

That is probably the reason why so many clubs focus on children. But KL Judo started life as a judo club for working adults. We've since opened up a children's class, which is going well, but the majority of our members are still working adults.

This makes us unique as a judo club. If you're an adult and you want to play judo, you want to go to a place where there are lots of adults training in judo. There's no point in you going to a place full of kids and where there's only one or two other adults on the mat.

The other day I got a query from a prospective new member who says he wants to take up judo. He said he decided to approach our club because we specialize in judo for adults.

Conversations with people like him affirm that we have indeed carved a nice niche for ourselves. There may be only a small demand for judo for working adults but we cater well for that demand.

Good start to a new year

Getting new recruits is one of the toughest things about running a judo club. It's a very
slow process that requires a lot of patience.

January was a good month though. We picked up seven new members, which is probably the highest number of players we've ever had join us within a span of a single month.

Two were introduced to us by existing members. Two found their own way to us through our website. Another two came from a high school where I'm helping to teach judo.Lastly there was one who found us through social media.

Turnover is inevitable and we lost a couple of players but that's to be expected. The important thing is that the bulk of our members have decided to continue to training with us.

Going forward we've had quite a few inquiries as well as people who have said they plan to join us in February. We'll see if they actually do but so far this year has gotten off to a good start with lots of interest in the club.

To improve in judo, do more judo: Part 2

At KL Judo, we don't spend a lot of time on physical fitness training although on some sessions we do HIIT exercises as warm up drills.

There is a practical reason why we don't devote too much time to physical fitness training. Our players, who are either students or working adults (not full-time athletes) don't have that much time to spend on judo training so whatever time they have should be spent on judo skills training.

Weight training, running, calisthenics, etc... etc... can all be done outside of judo session and can be done at their own time. They don't necessarily need a judo training partner to do any of these things.

They can't however train in judo without a training partner. They also can't train in judo without a mat area. So, when they are in the dojo with training partners ready to go, they should be spending their time doing judo.

Should judo players supplement their judo training with jogging, swimming, weight training etc.. All these things build up your fitness and your strength and that must be helpful, right? Of course. And these are things you could do and should do if you are a full-time athlete who does judo twice a day and are up to your neck in judo already.

When you've done enough judo that it doesn't make sense for you to do any more judo than you already do, it makes all the sense in the world to do these supplemental training. When I was training full-time as a competitor in the early-90s, I did judo twice a day. I also ran and did weights. But I was a full-time athlete then.

None of my players is a full-time athlete. They are either students or have got 9-to-5 jobs. Most come for training only two or three times a week. If they really want to improve their judo, any free evening they have should be spent on the judo mat rather than running or doing weight training.

If you are already doing tons of judo and still have the time (and energy) to do weights and running and other physical activities that build up fitness, strength and agility, by all means do them. But how many people have that luxury?

So, whenever a player asks me: What should I do to improve my judo?, I always tell them the same thing: Do more judo. It is as simple as that.

To improve in judo, do more judo: Part 1

Several years ago when I revisited Camberley Judo Club, the club I trained at during my competitive days in the early 90s, the coach there asked me to give BJJ a try. They had sublet the mat to a BJJ class and their judo players usually would join the class.

He then passed me a white belt and said I should wear that in the BJJ class. It was the right thing to do because I had at that point zero experience in BJJ. I didn't know the rules, I didn't know the moves, I was an absolute beginner.

The stark differences with judo became obvious to me very quickly. Firstly, the moves they taught (for getting an armlock or a strangle, for example) were really very elaborate and took a long time to achieve relative to judo moves. I thought to myself, "That might prove to be an effective move if you have the time but in judo, a matte would have been called long before that happens".

When it came time to randori, we started on the ground (there wasn't even a pretense to start standing up). As a judo player, my instinct was to turtle up. Later, I found out this was exactly what BJJ players would not do. They never like to give their backs to the opponent. Instead, they pull guard (and lie with their backs to the mat).

Back then, I didn't know any better so I happily turtled up shielded myself from armlocks and chokes. My training partner climbed on top of my back and clamped on but wasn't able to really do anything. After a while, I thought he would move to a different position and try something else but he seemed content to clamp onto my back. Later, when I chatted with him, he when he clamped onto my back like that, in BJJ it's a score.

After the session was over, I went over to another judo guy and asked him what he thought of the training. He said he does it because the coach asked him to but he doesn't particularly like it because it's quite different from judo, which was his focus. I felt the same way.

I know some people who favor cross training point to the fact that the Japanese national judo team does occasionally train with BJJ people. So, it must be a good idea.

What they don't realize is that the Japanese national team players train practically every day, at least twice a day. They do so much judo that it would really be overkill for them to do any more judo than they already do. So, they try other things like BJJ to complement their training.

It's sort of like how rugby players in the UK tried some judo to complement their rugby training. These are professional rugby players who train rugby full-time. They do so much rugby training, they can afford to do something a little bit different just to offer some variety to their training.

For the rest of us, we hardly have enough time to train in judo. How many among us actually do judo six days a week? In my club only one or two players do anything close to that. A small handful train three to four days a week. Most train once or twice a week.

When the frequency of training is like that, any spare time you have for training should be spent doing judo, not some other "similar" sport. If you train in judo so much (like the Japanese who train twice a day), yes, you can afford to do other sports to add some variety to your training. But when you're hardly getting enough training in judo itself, you should be doing more judo (if you want to improve in judo).

Think about it. If you're a badminton player who trains only a few times a week, if you want to improve your badminton, you should be spending your time playing more badminton, not playing tennis instead. Yes, both sports involve racquets and both sports involve hitting an object back and forth on a court but they are really not the same sport. Different rules, different skill sets required.

Judo and BJJ might seem similar but even the gis we wear are different (judogis are generally longer and looser). The rules are very different. The scoring system is different. The moves themselves are different. The style of play, the tactics, the emphasis -- all different.

If I'm a Japanese player up to my neck in judo training, maybe I would like to do some BJJ on the side. But I'm not. I don't get as much judo training as I'd like so if I have the time to do more training, I'd rather spend it doing judo.

Instruction vs Osmosis

When players have a lot of opportunities to do randori as well as shiai, it's possible for them to pick up a lot of good fighting skills even without much or proper instruction.

They achieve this through osmosis. By sparring with many good training partners, they naturally pick up winning techniques and habits.

Take for example, the skill of gripping. Even if a player has never been taught anything about gripping, if he spends enough time sparring with good players, he will develop good gripping skills. Either that or he'll drop out of judo. But if stays on, he will sooner or later pick up those skills. He has to, in order to survive.

Learning through osmosis only works if there is a lot of opportunities to do randori and lots of different players to train with. That's not usually the case at most places though.

If you don't have the luxury of learning through osmosis, you have to learn via instruction. If you are lucky, and have a good coach, you can learn a lot that way. I was lucky and had a really good competition coach who taught me the foundations of what I know about competition judo.

You can also learn from videos these days. There are a few online resources offering premium content for a fee. There's also lots of free content online via YouTube and social media. Some of it is very good. And, of course you can do your own analysis of international judo competitions and competitors and learn from that.

I did all those things, and more, when I was starting out. I bought tons of judo books, tried to collect as many instructional videos as possible and watched as many competition videos as I could get my hands on. You have to be like a sponge, soaking up all the knowledge that's out there.

In my club, I try to provide a very systematic approach to learning techniques but I also try to foster an environment where people can get to do a lot of randori and also some mock shiai. We do lots of these, even though we don't have anywhere near the number of players in top judo places like the university judo clubs in Japan.

When it comes to learning judo, it's not an either/or thing. It's not learning via osmosis vs learning via instruction. It can (and should) be both.

Culture + System = Club

What makes a judo club what it is? Ultimately, it boils down to two things: the club's culture and the club's training system.

Every club has its own culture. Some clubs are very traditional and some are not. For example, in many clubs you wouldn't be allowed to play music during training. In some very traditional clubs, you don't drink water until the session is over. At our club we play music and we encourage our players to be well hydrated.

Every club also has its own system. Again, some clubs are very traditional. They might require you to do tons of ukemi before you can even start throwing and you have to have trained for several months before you can even start doing randori. At KL Judo, we have you throwing and doing randori straight away. Some clubs believe nagekomi should be done only on tatami. We use crash pads.

Usually, if a player joins a club as an absolute beginner, they have no problems accepting the club's culture and training system. After all, it's the only judo club they've ever know. So to them, this is how it's supposed to be.

Problems can sometimes crop up when an experienced player from another club joins a new club. Usually whether that experienced player fits in with the new place depends on the reasons for them joining the new club. If they had left their old club because they didn't like it there, there's a higher chance they will accept the new club's culture and training system. After all, they had left something they didn't like in search of greener pastures.

If, however, they joined the new place not by choice but simply due to circumstances (e.g. they've moved to a new city for work or study), there's a higher chance they might not like the new place. This is especially true if they absolutely loved their old club and view it as the best judo club ever. When they join a new club, they will naturally view the new place as somehow inferior.

In my time as a judo competitor, I had trained at many different clubs in different countries. As is always the case, each club had its own culture and training system. My principle about how to behave in a new place was simple: When in Rome, do as Romans do.

If I join a new place it is for me to adapt to the ways of the new place. It would be ridiculous for me to expect the folks at the new place to change things around to accommodate me. I either adapt to the new culture and training system or I don't join.

At KL Judo, most of our players started judo with us so we've not had much problem fostering a specific club culture. And they all like our training system (if they didn't they would have left). We've had a few players come to us from other clubs and I'm happy to say most of them have managed to adapt to our way of doing things. They are now part of our judo family.

Over the years, we've had a very small handful of players who couldn't adapt though. And the reasons were always the same. They didn't join us because they wanted to but because circumstances were such that it was no longer practical or possible for them to continue training at their old club (which they preferred).

They didn't like how we trained and usually ended up doing their own things instead of getting on with the program. This is highly disruptive for other members who do believe in our system and who want to train according to our methodology.

In the end, these disruptive players either left on their own or in some extreme cases, had to be asked to leave. I should say this was not common at all. In the nearly five years since we started the club, there have been only three cases of this happening. In each case it was a very unpleasant experience.

Today, we've reached a point of critical mass and our club's culture and training system is so deeply ingrained that there's now a natural barrier against disruptive forces. If someone new doesn't like how we do things, they will be gone very fast because they will realize very quickly that they just won't fit in. All they have to do is come for one trial class and they can know right away. It will be that obvious.

We've worked really hard to establish the right culture and ethos for our club. And we also painstakingly continually fine-tune our training system so that it can really serve our players well. It's a lot of hard work and it's something we treasure. If a new player were to join us, they should accept: When in Rome, do as Romans do.

Finding that balance

Yesterday, after a successful judo session (actually two sessions, an earlier one for children, their parents and other adult beginners; and a later one for competition training), I was talking to one of the members who attends both sessions, about how difficult it was at first to strike a good balance between the needs of recreational judo players and competitors.

We started out as a very competition-inclined club, so whenever a recreational player joined, they found it quite tough to keep up. But at the time we didn't have many recreational players so we couldn't justify having a class just for them.

This all really began to change with the introduction of a children's class, which very quickly led to the introduction of the Family Judo concept whereby we would encourage parents to take up judo as well, and train on the same mat as their kids.

Most of the kids and most of the parents did not have any judo experience (though a few did). Basically, most were beginners. As such, the Family Judo class is very suitable for adult beginners (who weren't necessarily parents) as well.

Initially Sunday had only one session with kids, adults and competitors each having their own separate tracks. Today, we have two separate sessions. An earlier one is for kids, parents and adult beginners and the later one is for competitors. There are some overlaps among the attendants. Some competitors choose to come early and train with the beginners. And some beginners stay back to do some advanced training.

This is most welcome. But what's important is that each session has its own purpose and the people attending it know what to expect. For example, a competitor who attends the beginners' class knows that what we will be working on are the basics. Similarly, a beginner who attends the advanced class will know that it will be a more intense session.

So far, this has worked out really well. We will continue to fine-tune and improve our offerings over time.

Can you learn judo from books?

Judo seems like the type of sport that you have to learn from a real live teacher rather than something from a book. Even a video might not be good enough as some people might not be able to pick up the nuances of the techniques even when they are able to see a moving demonstration of it. Many people need a real live instructor to point out their mistakes etc.

But if you happen to be in a place where there's not a lot of judo or if you don't have an advanced competition coach etc, you can learn a lot of things from various sources. If live teaching is not available videos are the next best thing. And if those are not accessible, it's books that you can learn from.

When I first started out in judo, I was in a university in Austin, Texas  Not much judo there. We learned the basics but to go beyond that, I turned to books. I recall the first few books I bought were by Neil Adams. I'm pretty certain I learned how to do a juji-gatame roll from one of his books. (The videos would come later).

These days, videos are abundant so there's not a lot of judo books anymore. But I think they can be useful as a handy reference if done well and if the techniques are catalogues properly. Also, if each technique is broken down into clear component parts and captured in stills, it could be very useful for learning.

So, live teaching is best. Videos are second. But books can be useful when the first two options are not available. It's how I learned.

Judo Concepts

When people speak about judo basics, quite often what they are referring to are the traditional or classical forms of judo techniques (or you could call them the "Gokyo" or Kodokan versions).

This is not what I mean when I refer to basics. To me, judo basics or fundamentals refer to concepts that help make your judo game more effective.

Over the years, I've accumulated a lot of knowledge about various judo concepts but until recently, I had never really thought about these things in a very systematic way. After putting some thought to the matter, I came up with the following modules that should be taught to anyone who wants to do well in judo competition. (Many of these concepts would be useful and applicable to recreational players too but many of the concepts have little to no relevance to people who do not intend to compete).

The ones marked with an asterisk (*) are concepts that are universally applicable to anyone who wants to improve their judo. The ones without an asterisks are relevant only to competitors.

I plan to teach these concepts every Sunday.

Concepts
1.    Stance*
2.    Family of Techniques*
3.    Types of Grips*
4.    Gripping Strategy
5.    Stiff vs Flexible Arms*
6.    Distance vs Close Fighting
7.    Timing*
8.    Movement*
9.    Action-Reaction*
10.    Combinations: Standing*
11.    Combinations: Groundwork*
12.    Transitions: Standing to Ground
13.    Transitions: Ground to Standing
14.    Judo Chop
15.    Strategic Attacks
16.    Edge Play
17.    Shido Play
18.    Korean Shake

Teaching Principles

When I was a competitor, I had to myself a lot of things. I did have coaches who taught me a lot of things but my access to them was limited (usually during my university's summer vacation period, which was about three months). For the other nine months, I was left to my own devices.

I thought a lot about how to improve my judo and my approach to judo training was definitely not dogmatic. I was constantly experimenting and trying out new ways of doing things. This attitude is still with me today as a judo teacher.

While my approach to teaching is constantly growing and evolving, there are a few basic principles that I hold on to:

a) Just because something is traditional or has been done for a long time, doesn't mean it is the best or the optimal way to do it. Do not be afraid of slaying sacred cows.

b) That said, it's important to avoid making changes for the sake of making changes. If a traditional way of doing things is working fine, then adopt it. Change it only if it is not working well.

c) There are seldom stark right and wrong ways of doing things, just more effective and less effective ways. If a student wants to do a technique with a funny grip that happens to work well for him, why the hell not?

d) If a newaza move is too complicated, forget about it. Judo is a fast-paced, fast-moving sport. There's no time for complex maneuverings. Judo groundwork is all about quick, decisive action.

e) It's always easier and faster for a judo player to progress in newaza than in tachi-waza (assuming the same amount of training) because newaza just requires practice. Throwing, in contrast, requires some element of natural talent.

Why we insist on judogis only for judo training

Most of our members came to us as absolute beginners, so they don't have any legacy gis that they want to bring with them. But occasionally we do have players who come from BJJ and they usually want to continue to wear their BJJ gis.

In our first year, we were a bit lax about this and allowed it (although it was strongly discouraged, or rather we encouraged them to buy proper judogis). Within a short time though, we decided to implement a strict policy that if a person wants to train in judo at our club, they need to wear a judo.

They don't have to buy a judogi from us, they could order their own. But it has to be a judogi, not a BJJ gi or any other martial arts UNIFORM. Most definitely, it cannot be a karate or taekwondo gi.

We are a judo club. If you want to train in judo, you have to wear a judo uniform. It's as simple as that. You don't play badminton using a tennis racket. And you don't use soccer boots on a badminton court. You need to have the right vear for the sport you are playing.

Some people might say that a BJJ gi is close enough to a judogi that it's pretty much the same. It's not. BJJ gis are usually tighter and shorter than their equivalent sized judogi, which are very strictly regulated by the International Judo Federation. The sleeves need to be of a certain length, a certain size, etc. If the gi is too short or too tight, it's illegal because it gives the player an unfair advantage when nobody can grip their gi properly. So, from a sizing and looseness requirement alone, it is not practical for someone to wear a BJJ gi for judo.

But beyond that is also aesthetics. BJJ gis come in all colors and usually have a lot of patches on them. The only colors allowed in judo are white and blue and where your patches can be placed is severely limited. That is why judo players have a very common look. Some people say that's boring. Maybe it is but those are the rules.

As mentioned earlier, we're a judo club. Not a Mixed Martial Arts club or a judo club that also offers BJJ. We only do judo, so we expect our players to wear judogis.

Turning a vicious cycle into a virtuous one

Last month, despite half the club being away for a competition, we were still able to have a great session back home.

Building up a judo club is tough because when you first start out, you will naturally have very few players. And in such a situation, you are in a vicious cycle. When new prospective members come to your dojo, they see very few people training and are reluctant to join. Because they are reluctant to join, you continue to have very few players. And the cycle goes on.

It's like that classic employment vicious cycle for fresh graduates. Nobody wants to hire you because you don't have experience. Because nobody wants to hire you, you can't gain experience. But as long as you don't have experience, you won't get hired.

So, what you've got to do is to break that cycle. In the case of employment, it might require working as an intern for a very low salary or even for free just to get that experience and break that cycle.

In the case of a judo club, I wouldn't recommend offering free training though. That's not the right way to build a membership as you will attract the wrong type of members. The cheapskates who want everything to be free. No, that's not how you break the vicious cycle.

What you do is focus on a particular segment and gradually build it up. In our case, it was the working adults segment. There were other judo clubs around but they were catering to kids and young teens, not late teens or adults. So, we filled that niche.

It wasn't easy. Anyone who's involved in judo will tell you building an adult membership base is probably the hardest thing to do. Some people thought we were mad. "Why don't you just open up a kids class instead?" they would ask rhetorically.

But we stuck to our guns and we gradually built up a small but dedicated adults group. Growth was slow and as to be expected, people came and people went. But a small core stuck with us and in time that core grew.

It will take time but if you stick with it, eventually you will reach a tipping point where the vicious cycle suddenly turns into a virtuous cycle. When newcomers drop by and see a sizeable number of players on the mat, they are encouraged to join. And when they join, that critical mass grows, which further attracts new members who like seeing so many people on the mat. Thus, the virtuous cycle.

To get to that point though is not easy, of course. I earlier mentioned that our target market was working adults. That's a rather broad classification though and it actually has to be segmented further. Not only do you want to get a critical mass of adults, you also need to get a critical mass of:
a) each gender
b) age groups
c) experience levels
d) sizes
e) player expectations

Generally, it is said that it's harder to attract women to judo than men. We have found that to be the case as well and it's something we are still working hard on. When you have just one or two female players, it's a turn-off for new females who come in and see so few female players on the mat. But if you have a few core players who are dedicated, you can slowly build up the numbers until you reach the tipping point, where it becomes a virtuous cycle.

The same for age groups. You need a critical mass of kids and early teens, late teens, adults in their 20s and 30s, and those who are 40 and beyond. If you have very few teens, very few teens will want to join. And the same for each age group. So, build up each segment so that you can break free of the vicious cycle when it comes to age groups.

Experience levels is important. If everyone is a beginner, and experienced player who checks out the club will not be excited at the prospects of playing only with beginners. Similarly, if all your players are experienced, beginners will be intimidated. So, you need to have a good mix of beginners, intermediate and experienced players. All are needed.

Size is a crucial thing. There are clubs where most of the players are small. A big guy over 100kg will feel out of place in such a club. Or if you are a club full of heavyweights, a small player will not want to train there. So, you need to get all sizes.

Lastly, player expectations. Do they want to do judo to compete and win medals? Or do they want to do judo as a recreational activity? Or is judo just another form of exercise for them? Again, you must have a bit of each. If everyone's a competitor, you won't be able to attract any recreational players. If everyone is a recreational player, a competitor will not want to join. So, you need to have all types.

If after reading all this, you realize that it's damn difficult to build up a judo club, you're right. It's damn difficult. But it's worth it and it can be done if you are willing to grow each segment of your target market, bit by bit. It requires a tremendous amount of perseverance and also confidence. You have to believe you can break that vicious cycle and turn it into a virtuous cycle.

So, in 2020, which of our target segments do we still need to grow? The answer is all of them. We cannot rest on our laurels and take it easy. Only the paranoid survive. Yes, we do have a critical mass of players now and yes, for many segments we have entered the virtuous cycle zone. But all this could disappear very quickly if we should ever become complacent. You can be sure we are always cognizant of that.

Our dojo at the start of the year

We've always aimed to get the best infrastructure for our members. That means:
a) big mat area
b) high-quality, 5cm-thick mats
c) crash pads (plenty of them, and both thick and thin ones)
d) TV monitor to show them judo videos
e) portable speaker for the TV and to play music during randori
f) wall paddings for safety

It took a long time for us to be able to offer all these things to our members but as of this new year, we managed to do it.

The usable training area (not including safety buffers) is roughly 9m x 14m, which gives us 126 square meters. That's not huge but it's a pretty big mat area (especially compared to our previous dojo where we only had 50 square meters to work with). Not quite triple the original size but 2.5 times what we used to have.

We used to work with only two crash pads. Now, we have 8 thick ones and 4 thin ones. We were able to afford these with some assistance from Majlis Sukan Wilayah Persekutuan. During randori, these crash pads act as wall paddings for the side of the dojo that doesn't have a buffer zone. So, that works out pretty well.

On Saturday, we had a small group doing some training. After the session ended, we put in new buffers on the far end of the dojo (replacing the white foam with some older tatami mats, which are sturdier). The mat area is now really pretty solid. Big space, sufficient cushioning and well-buffered.

As a coach, I think it's super important to provided good infrastructure for our players. Without quality equipment in place, you can't train properly. But at KL Judo, now you can train like a pro.

Right or Left or Both?

In judo, it's good to be able to attack to the right and to the left, but let's face it, very few people are truly ambidextrous. I noticed that many Georgian players train to throw to both sides. Liparteliani, Gviniashvili, Tchrikishvili -- they all seem to be able to throw to the right and to the left, almost with equal facility. But you can still tell that they are principally right-handers.

Perhaps the only judo player I know of who seems to be truly ambidextrous was the Olympic champion Angelo Parisi of France.

A natural question new judo players would have is whether they should practice their techniques to both sides. Actually, unless you are a Georgian full-time athlete, it isn't practical to try to develop every techniques to be done on both sides. It's hard enough to learn how to do uchimata or seoi-nage to one side. Imagine doing that every every single throw you want to develop. It will literally take you twice as long as someone who is developing it to one side only.

Of course it's not a good strategy to be able to attack to one side only. That's why you must have a technique or two that goes to the other side. But you shouldn't try to do every technique in your repertoire to both sides. It just isn't practical.

The same applies for groundwork. And perhaps more so. In judo, there is not much time to do groundwork. It's very easy for uke to engineer a "matte" so you have to move very fast. That requires you to really go into "auto-pilot" when you are on the ground. If you are an armlock specialist, you will tend to attack uke's arm on a specific side and not to both sides. Neil Adams for example, always attacked the left arm when doing his famous juji-gatame roll. If you strangle with your right arm, then practice strangling with your right arm and do it over and over again until muscle memory kicks in and you can execute it without thinking. That won't happen if you try to do it to both sides.

Don't kid yourself about being ambidextrous. Very few of us are able to do this. Decide which side will be your principle stance and develop most of your techniques from that side. Then work on one or two to the other side.

Why we let newbies do randori

A few years ago, we had a European visitor who was in town for work and he wanted to do some judo. I can't remember if he was a yellow belt or an orange belt but he had some experience in judo. Towards the end of the session, we had randori as usual. Afterwards he came up to me and thanked me for the randori, telling me it's his first time.

How can that be, I asked. He said his sensei back home would not let him randori yet since he was still a beginner. How long have you been doing judo, I asked. Six months, he replied. I was shocked. Six months and not allowed to do randori? That's pretty extreme but I've heard of worse.

I remember a Japanese classmate from my uni days telling me that back home in Japan, in high school, when he took judo classes, all they did was ukemi for about half a year. Although not many clubs would go to that extreme there are certainly many clubs that have you doing nothing but ukemi for at least a few weeks before they let you do anything else.

At KL Judo, we have you doing randori on your first day. Of course we'd pair you up with an experienced player who can take care of you but yes, you will be doing judo from Day 1. Randori after all, is a crucial part of judo.

Of course we will teach you breakfalls and rolls but we want you to actually do some judo. That means doing some uchikomi, some nagekomi and yes, some randori. Why? Because that's how you learn. Besides, it's fun and we want our members to enjoy their judo.

One of the reasons beginners love our sessions is that they actually get to do randori. They get to exert themselves, try out the techniques they learned and experience getting thrown -- all in a safe setting. That's one of the things that truly differentiate us as a club.

Return guest

Raziq had trained with us some time back for a short while when he was on university holiday from Australia. Now, he's back again to further his training with us. He is one of several Malaysian students studying overseas who have trained with us to improve their judo.

We also got an inquiry from a beginner and her friend (who is also a beginner) who have had some basic judo experience and would like to do competition training, with a view of competing in the future. I explained to her a bit about our training programs. She said they would drop by next week for a trial.

In the UK, in the 70s and 80s, the Budokwai was seen as a "judo graduate school"where judo players with some experience would go to, to take their judo to higher level. Although not by design, KL Judo is increasingly taking on that role.

Over the years, we've had guests as well as new members join us because they wanted to learn modern, effective, practical judo. And they felt (probably from watching our videos) that our club is the place for them to do that. We are delighted of course and we are happy to continue to play that role.

Many of our members started with us from scratch but increasingly, we are having experienced players come to us as well. Either way, we will teach them the kind of modern judo they are looking for.

I'm a big advocate of posting social media videos precisely because it gives people a good sense of what they can expect if they come to your dojo for training. Instead of guessing and wondering what a club is like or what type of training to expect, with videos, everyone see exactly what it's like. We are very proud of our program, which we have painstakingly developed over the years, so we want to show it off.

In fact, we have had a few people who came to us and said they chose us because of the videos. We were the only club that published training videos consistently, they said. And that's what convinced them we were the right club for them to try out.