Changes

A lot of people have asked me why we moved from our previous location in Cheras to our current location in Damansara Perdana. It's a long story but the short version is this: I felt that in order for the club to grow and fulfill its potential, I needed a strategic partner that believes in our vision.
Through a recommendation from one of our members, I was introduced to the good folks at Muayfit Damansara Perdana and we came to a meeting of minds. So far so good. But soon, it will be even better.

Muayfit will soon be rebranded and the location of the gym will be moved to some place nearby. After they discussed with me the new terms and showed me the new premises, I decided straight away to continue our partnership with them.

The new terms will give us more flexibility in the things we want to do as a judo club. And the new location, which is pillar-less, will allow us to have a full contest mat area so that means not only can be train unobstructed, we can also conduct our own competitions in the future.

The move will happen very soon, certainly within this month and latest by end of the month. Once we have settled into the new place, I will be able to provide details about all the exciting plans we have in store for our players and for anyone interested in learning judo.

For now, this is what I can reveal:

Centre of excellence
When I was a competitor training in the UK, we used to go once a week to a common dojo (dubbed a centre of excellence) where players from various clubs would gather to do randori together. It was a good way to get lots of randori with new partners. One of the problems judo players -- not just in Malaysia but in many parts of the world -- face is the lack of randori partners. If you fight the same people over and over again, your judo gets stale. How nice it would be if once a week our players could do randori with players from other clubs. Under the previous arrangement with Muayfit, this wasn't very feasible but under the new terms we can do this. KL Judo provides the instruction for Sunway University Judo Club so we can have their players come over. I'm in talks with two other clubs to see if they might be keen for a joint randori session once a week. Will they go for it? I hope so. We'll certainly make it affordable for them to do so. So, let's see. This is something definitely worth trying.

Exchange visits with sister clubs
I know many players and coaches in different countries but to date, I've not really offered any concrete plans for friendly training visits between us and them. As a team we have gone to other countries for competition and we have made training trips but it wasn't part of any structure or formal program. Perhaps it's time we start doing that. That is, formalizing "sister club" relationships with judo clubs from other countries and initiating exchange visits. In in talks with judo people in three Asian countries who might be interested in bringing their teams for a visit sometime this year. That would be really great. They could come for a holiday-cum-judo training trip. The first one could happen as early as September.

Training camps
In Europe there are many training camps where players from various countries come together just for randori. There's nothing like that in this part of the world. Maybe we can host something like this. These training camps would be different from the exchange visits, which are meant to be more of a friendly holiday-cum-training visit. These training camps I'm thinking of are meant specifically for randori. It's about bringing many players from many clubs from many countries together for the purpose of randori.

Competitions
This is not going to be easy but it's something worth trying. There are not many judo competitions in Malaysia so it would be nice to host some competitions to give our players and other players a chance to get more competition experience. Since we don't have any experience doing this it will take some time and perhaps we will need the help of an experienced competition organizer to assist us at first. This is something we hope to do next year.

Many of these things are not concrete yet but these are our ideals. It's what we really want to do. Hopefully, with the relocation to the new place, with a bigger, pillar-less mat area, and new terms that give us more flexibility, we will be able to achieve these things.

The best time is now...

KL Judo Centre is fundamentally an adults judo club. We have a few teens who train with us but they train alongside adults, doing the same kind of drills and technical training the adults do.

Inevitably, a lot of our beginners are adults. One of the most common remarks I hear from adults who are just getting into judo is "I wish I had started this when I was younger."

I think we all do (yes, I too started judo late). But it really doesn't matter whether you started judo late or early. What's important is that you train diligently and stay committed to training. Then your judo will improve.

Truly, the best time to start judo was when you were a kid but the second best time is now. It's up to you to make the most of your opportunities.

Akmal gets his yellow belt

In my previous posting, I wrote about a couple of guys from Sunway Judo Club who have been waiting two years to get graded. Today, one of our players finally got his yellow belt after three and a half years of doing judo on and off.

Akmal has got good fighting skills and is a strong, athletic player. Certainly from a fighting perspective, he is yellow belt level and beyond. But at KL Judo we really believe our players should have a strong technical base so I've insisted that they know a core set of techniques as well as some Japanese terms before they get their first belt.

A judo friend from Canada told me something the other day that was quite interesting. He said a yellow belt and a black belt are the two most important belts in  judo player's journey. I had never thought of it that way before but it's actually quite insightful. The significance of a black belt is obvious but yellow belt? Well, if you think about it, what my friend says makes sense. The yellow belt is your very first promotion. It's your first tangible sign of progress in a sport where progress generally comes quite slowly.

After giving him the cert and belt, I told Akmal not to let this be his last belt promotion and not to let it be 3.5 years before the next grading! Hopefully he can get to orange soon.

Perseverance pays off

Yellow belt... at last!

On Wednesday we had our first grading at Sunway University Judo Club. Two of the players had been waiting two years to do their first grading. Another one, who has had many years of training, decided to get re-graded since he is now training under a new coach and a new system.

At KL Judo Centre we are pretty strict about grading because we want to maintain high standards for our players. In many places, if a player knows just one or two techniques they can get a yellow belt. We require them to know much more than that if they want to be graded as a yellow belt.

It's natural and understandable for beginners to want to get graded. It's a very tangible indication of their progress in the sport. But what I always tell my players is that it's no use for them to get a yellow belt if they don't have a sound technical understanding of the techniques involved.

It's possible to demonstrate a technique without understanding the core principles involved through pure rote memory, just like it's possible to play a song on a piano or answer an exam question through pure rote memory. But what's the point of that?

When you do something though rote memory you are not really learning how to do that thing. You are merely regurgitating the action without understanding anything. In the context of judo, that won't be of much use to you because in a randori or contest situation, there are multiple variables at play and your opponent will be resisting you with all their might. Unless you understand the principles of a technique, you will not be able to make it work by repeating what you learned through rote memory. It really won't work.

I always tell my players if they wear a yellow belt, it means they have mastered the techniques that are in the yellow belt syllabus. So if an absolute beginner were to approach them and ask for instruction, they should be able to give very good guidance. Not only that but if the absolute beginner were to ask them questions about why they should do this or why they shouldn't do that, they must be able to answer convincingly and with authority.

Judo is a very technical sport. It might not seem so to the uninitiated. To a non-judoka, a randori probably looks like two people in pajamas pushing and pulling at each other with very little happening except for the occasional burst of activity that results in someone falling onto the mat. But anyone who has bothered to really take up judo will know that:

i) It's a lot more tiring than it looks
ii) Strength is important but it's never enough to make a technique work
iii) To pull off a throw against a fully resisting partner is incredibly difficult
iv) Even getting a grip on a fully resisting partner is quite a challenge

As an instructor my aim is to impart to my players very sound technical skills. That entails them understanding:

i) the correct stance for a technique to work
ii) the right grip to adopt
iii) the footwork needed
iv) the correct use of the hands

Kudos to Bruce, Nazrul and Nga for getting their yellow belt, which they fully deserve. Next up: orange belt!

80% of success is just showing up

Woody Allen once famously said: "80% of success is just showing up".

Okay, that may be an exaggeration. Of course if you just show up and do nothing, you won't get any success in whatever it is you want to do. But one thing's for sure, if you don't even show up, your success rate will be 0%.

Judo is a tough sport to master. You have to have sound technical knowledge. You have to be physically fit. You have to be agile. You have to be strategic. But before you can achieve any of that, you have to show up for training.

When I first started judo, there were about a dozen other beginners who showed up for the first lesson. After three months, there were only five or six left. After six months, only two or three. By nine months, I was the only player who was still coming for training.

I went on to become national champion and twice represented Malaysia in the World Championships (even placing 13th in one of them).

As a white belt, I wasn't familiar with Woody Allen or his famous quote but I was fully cognizant of the fact that every training I missed was a missed opportunity to improve my judo. So, I never missed training.

Quite often when I teach beginners, they would come up to me, looking frustrated at their inability to throw anyone, and ask: "How can I improve my judo?" I always answer the same thing: "Don't miss training."

Perhaps some of them might think I'm being flippant or dismissive but my simplistic answer is absolutely the single best piece of advice I can give any player (beginner or advanced) who wants to improve their judo: Don't miss training.

A great team

There's a video out there on YouTube featuring Jack Ma talking about how to assemble a great team. It's about getting the "right" people not necessarily the "best" people.

A company could hire some top Harvard grad or some top executive from a Fortune 500 company but if that person doesn't fit in with the corporate culture of that company, it just won't work.

And so it is with judo clubs as well. What makes a judo club succeed is not whether it has the top players in the country but whether it has the right people who appreciate the ethos of the club.

When you have the right people training together, you'll have an excellent session. Our sessions are always excellent!

I'm really happy with the bunch of players we have right now. They get along well with others and have good fighting spirit. They believe in fighting hard but fighting safely. And they want to learn and improve their skills. This is what judo is all about.

Sunday (29.7.18) Training Program

We'll be live-streaming this Sunday's training. You can tune in via our Facebook Page from 2pm to 5pm. Here's the program:

Filzmoser's Unique Arm-Roll

Newaza (1st hour)
We'll look at the different versions of the Filzmoser/Liparteliani Arm-Roll. In particular, we will focus on the following variations:
a) Head roll to the front (Liparteliani)
b) Head roll to the back (Belgian))
c) Yoko-shiho version (Filzmoser/Liparteliani)

Kouchi-Gake done by Larose of France

Tachi-Waza (2nd hour)
We'll look at the three core variations of kouchi done from different stances:
a) Skipping Kouchi-Gari (kenka-yotsu stance)
b) Kouchi-Gake (ai-yotsu-stance)
c) Kouchi-Makikomi (kenka-yotsu stance)

Randori (3rd hour)
a) Newaza
b) Tachi-Waza