During the previous CMCO, we had three new members join us. Because it was CMCO, they had to do their training with social distancing. We trained with the use of sticks and other equipment. It wasn't real judo without contact but it was judo-related training.

It was amazing to me that we had those three join during CMCO. As it turned out, only one stayed on. The other two quickly dropped out.

Now, we are in our second CMCO. We had about four players join just before CMCO started so they got a chance to try real judo for just a very short period of time before we had to go back to stick and cone training again.

To their credit, they've been coming regularly and doing the training earnestly. It takes quite a leap of faith to continue training under such circumstances. But I have been telling them about the "wax-on, wax-off phenomenon" where you do drills without really being able to see the full picture. But if you do your drills properly, when the time comes you will be able to do the techniques without thinking about it. The moves will just come about naturally.

Yesterday we had our first true CMCO member who joined us after the CMCO had already started. Amazingly, shortly after this person joined us, another person contacted me and expressed interest in joining our club. Quite remarkable.

I guess if someone wants to learn something, they will find ways to do it, even in the midst of a pandemic. It will be interesting to see if any more people express interest during this period of CMCO. And also whether our membership will jump up once CMCO is lifted. We can't assume anything although the last time around, we really had a bump in membership right after CMCO was over.

Overall, the future looks bright.