Majlis Sukan Wilayah Persekutuan (Federal Territories Sports Council) had decided to work with us to promote judo in KL and Putrajaya. Alice Smith Primary and Secondary School had also decided to collaborate with us to grow their judo program. When the Jeju (South Korean) state team came to town, they asked to train at our club. Whenever judo people from abroad came to holiday in Malaysia, our club would be one of their destinations.
The first two months of this year saw a spike in new members joining. And we were getting tons of inquiries from working adults who wanted to pick up judo as well as from parents who wanted their kids to learn judo the modern way. Then the Covid-19 pandemic happened.
One by one, international judo competitions were being cancelled. Judo activity at the club level carried on though, for a while. As the virus continued to spread, judo clubs around the world struggled with whether to keep their club open or to shut it down temporarily.
In Europe, which is now described as the epicentre for the virus, clubs started shutting down. But in this part of the world (Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia) many clubs were still operating. It's not that judokas here are reckless daredevils. It's just that the situation here could not compare with what was happening in say Italy or Spain or France.
For sure, if the situation had worsened, clubs in this neck of the woods would close down too. The question of course is when? How many people would have to be infected or died before it was time to shut down temporarily?
There's no easy answer to that. But on March 16, the decision was made for us. The government here decided effective March 18 through March 31, all non-essential businesses would have to shut down. Yes, that includes judo clubs (even though we'd like to think of them as essential!). If the situation doesn't improve, the lock-down could very well be extended. Things are very uncertain right now.
As a person who knows only too well how difficult it is to start and run a judo club, it's painful for me to watch judo clubs around the world struggle with how to deal with the Covid-19 crisis. Ours is not a popular sport. It's difficult to recruit new members in the best of times, what more in a climate when full-contact sports are viewed with caution and even fear. "Is judo a safe sport?" takes on a new, darker meaning in the age of the Covid-19 virus.
The harsh reality is that there is a risk of being exposed to the disease in all spheres of public life
– not just in judo training – now that Covid-19 has become a pandemic. As such, we have to accept the government's lock-down with an open heart, knowing that this action will probably make a big difference in slowing down the rate of infection.
It is often said that every crisis represents an opportunity. If we look at the bright side of life, we can see that this crisis can actually do some good for our club.
In the past week, we had introduced the concept of cleaning our feet and hands before getting onto the mat and we even decided to disinfect the mats after each training session. This is something that probably should have been done even in the absence of the Covid-19 scare and I expect we will just make it a regular practice long after this crisis has subsided. It is a good practice that will be ingrained into our club culture.
Our members really like our training sessions but sometimes, attendance can be low because we have sessions almost every single day. Our member are spoiled for choice when it comes to training days. If they miss Tuesday, no problem, there's always Wednesday. And if they miss Wednesday, there's Thursday and Friday and Saturday and Sunday. Now, there's no training at all. As they say, you don't miss the water till the well runs dry. Hopefully when we reopen, our members will miss training so much they will want to come more regularly.
A player who came to us from another club, once told me what he likes about our club is that we are constantly looking for solutions. That was an interesting comment because I never thought of it from that perspective but when I pondered upon his statement, I felt it was true.
Whenever there is a problem or a challenge, instead of lamenting about it or dismissing it, we find ways to improve the situation. For example, there are very few competitions held in Malaysia but in order for our players to improve in judo, they need to get competition experience. We decided to hold a monthly shiai so they can experience a reasonably realistic simulation of competition.
Maintaining growth in these uncertain times will probably be the biggest challenge for us in the short term and possibly medium term (there may not be a long term if we don't confront this challenge properly). Going forward, we have to come up with innovative ways to attract new members as well as to retain existing members. If the Covid-19 situation had not come along, we might have made the mistake of taking things for granted. Now, there's zero chance of us getting complacent.
Our club is special. We've got so much going for us right now. We are located in a place that's easily accessible to anyone; we have superb infrastructure (excellent mats, wide mat space, plenty of crash pads) and we have a great reputation, locally and internationally. But most importantly, we have the most incredible members. I often think about the diversity of our membership and the individuals who make up KL Judo, and it never ceases to amaze me how lucky we are to have the people that we have, training with us.
With the support of our members, I am confident we will be able to weather these trying times and continue to innovate so that we can look forward to having many more days of fun judo training ahead of us.
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