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.
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