Last Saturday, we had our third Internal Shiai. The last one we had was on March 16, two days before the lockdown began. Our shiai was well attended and there was a lot of exciting action. For the first time we required our players to wear white and blue judogis, making it easier to distinguish between the two opponents on the mat.

There was some good displays of newaza by some of our players and good transition too, from standing to ground. This is especially true of our female players, some of whom were able to immediately transition from throws to hold-downs very effectively. I would like to see more of our guys doing that and also for our players to do a wider variety of groundwork. Much of the groundwork were hold-downs. It would be good to see more strangles, armlocks and sankakus.

Our players were very impressive when it came to throws. As can be seen from the video above, our players displayed a wide range of throws. Interestingly, there were very few drop seoi-nages, which is normally very common.

We are fortunate to have a critical mass of players that allows us to have our own internal shiai. It would be nice if our team could have friendly matches with other clubs but for now, due to the pandemic situation, we have to keep it internal. Last Saturday, we had two visitors who came to observe our internal shiai: Mr Sugita and Ms Iwai from the Japanese Embassy. We appreciate their support!

Many thanks to Forum Pudu Badminton Centre, an excellent venue where our judo club is housed.