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.