Q: Can you tell us a bit about yourself?
A: I’m a 53-year-old blue belt, English-language teacher, training in judo in Hong Kong. I took up judo exactly five years ago under Sensei Paddy Swallow at Kanazawa Judo Club in Cambridge, UK. I was overweight and extremely unfit at the time so I thought I’d take up judo to get healthier.
Q: Did it work?
A: Yes. my weight dropped from 80kg to 71kg. I was fitter and felt more energetic. But mentally I also saw a change. I was more confident in myself.
Q: Where do you train now?
A: After one and a half years, I moved to Hong Kong and joined Kuma Dojo, a small private club near Hong Kong University. They offer five training sessions per week – a judoka’s dream!
Q: What does judo mean to you?
A: I initially took up judo just to get fit and lose weight but I eventually became obsessed with judo. Judo became my disciplined lifestyle, my personal philosophy and my journey of learning. I like judo for its moral code, which fits well with my Christian faith.
Q: Do you compete?
A: At first I thought of being just a recreational player but I was eventually persuaded by my coach, Kuma Yau, to train for competitions. He felt to fully experience judo what judo is all about, I need to also compete. I’m not a natural judoka and given my late start in judo, my journey has been physically painful. But I carried on because judo is about perseverance, endurance, and fighting the good fight.
Q: Is your club still open for training?
A: Yes, Kuma Dojo is the only club that is currently still open in Hong Kong. We still run five sessions a week and each session has an average attendance of 12 to 16 judokas.
Q: Aren’t you guys afraid of getting infected?
A: Covid-19 is not the only deadly flu Hong Kong has experienced. The city has survived SARS, H1N1, Swine Flu and Avian Flu, and as a result we became cleaner in our habits. In our dojo, we expect a high standard of personal hygiene – keeping our hands, feet and judogis clean all the time. I realize, of course, that there are many factors about the pandemic that are beyond our control, and there is no 100% guarantee of avoiding infection. We can only practice good personal hygiene and take practical precautions as best we can to minimize the risk of infection.
Q: What are those practical precautions?
A: We disinfect the mats before each session. Temperature is taken for each judoka, and we must sanitize our hands with disinfectant hand gel. Anyone who is sick is requested to stay away from the dojo. Those who had recently traveled to China or overseas, or were in close contact with returnees from Europe, US, UK etc must self-quarantine for 14 days. We are a tightly-knit group of working adults with a strong sense of accountability and social responsibility towards each other. For example, a few members who had traveled to China at the beginning of the crisis did the right thing and self-quarantined for 14 days.
Q: How many judo clubs are there in Hong Kong?
A: There are around 100 clubs registered with the Judo Association of Hong Kong and maybe up to 20 non-affiliated clubs.
Q: How many are government-funded and how many are private?
A: They’re all private. Most clubs don’t have their own dojos though. They just rent space from government sports centres. Since the government has shut down all sporting facilities, all those clubs have had to close down too. Kuma Dojo however is unaffected as we have our own dojo. We will continue to stay open until it is no longer safe to train.
Q: What will you do if it eventually does become too unsafe to train?
A: I would continue to do some exercises at home. I live in the New Territories, which is the suburb-countryside of Hong Kong. There are plenty of mountains and parks, and opportunities to hike, cycle and take to the running tracks. There are also numerous judo videos on YouTube to watch and analyze. There’s no excuse to stop training.
Q: Any message for Malaysian judokas who, unlike you, are not able to train right now?
A: Maintain your fitness and continue with your judo conditioning. Come on... Malaysia Boleh!
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