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.