Times flies when you're having fun. It was just two weeks ago that we were allowed to start training (full contact) judo again. Since then, our members have come back in full force.

During the MCO, we saw a few adults and kids drop off. This is to be expected. We were happy that most of our members chose to stay loyal to the club and helped to keep it alive. We certainly didn't expect new members to join. But join they did and now we're back to pre-Covid 19 levels when it comes to membership.

Will this momentum carry on, and can we expect to see continual growth in membership for the rest of the year? Very hard to say. But even if there is no more growth and what we have now is all we're gonna get for the rest of 2020, I'm happy. As Jack Ma of Alibaba fame supposedly said, this year if your business manages to survive you can already consider that to be a profitable situation.

At KL Judo, we really value our members. Each and ever single one of them. To us, our members are part of the club's core assets. Yes, it's important to have a spacious dojo in a strategic location. Yes, it's crucial to have a high-quality mat and superb equipment and infrastructure. Yes, you must have good coaches to provide expert instruction. All those things are necessary in order for a club to be attractive and appealing. But one other indispensable factor is members.

Without quality members in sufficient numbers, you won't have a dynamic, thriving judo club. It doesn't matter how good your location is or how well-equipped your dojo is or how fantastic your instructors are if you don't have the members.

If you've ever trained at our dojo, you will realize how great our members are. First of all, they're all very keen on judo. You don't have anyone there who doesn't really want to be there or who signed up for all the wrong reasons. They are there because they want to learn judo and they want to play judo. Some may want to do it recreationally and some may want to compete but everybody wants to do judo. You won't find a more earnest bunch of judokas anywhere.

Secondly, they all work very hard. We do circuit training, we do gripping drills, we do technical sessions, we do randori, we even do shiai. It's a very comprehensive workout we have here. There's no lazing around and taking it easy. Everybody pushes themselves, and their training partners, very hard. And that's why our players all progress in double-quick time.

Thirdly, they are all very friendly people. Even shy and quiet members feel right at home at the dojo almost immediately because everyone is so welcoming. I've heard some people say judo clubs can be a bit cold and aloof, and that it takes some time to break the ice. Not here. At our club, everyone becomes part of our judo family almost immediately.

So, it's been two weeks now and our members have come back to do judo training once again. And because they have come back in full force, there is a critical mass of players on the mat at all times. In the past, especially when we were starting out, we had situations where there weren't enough small players or big players or female players or older players or younger players etc. Today, our membership is diverse enough and we have enough of them that members can always find suitable training partners on the mat.

To achieve that is no mean feat. One of the biggest challenges judo clubs around the world face is the lack of training partners and not having the right type of people to randori with. So, we are really fortunate and we are very thankful that we don't have that problem anymore.