There is a peculiar observation that rundown, poor dojos produce the best martial artists and have lesser students compared to expensive, air conditioned ones that have an abundance of members but lacking in skills and quality.

We started in a community centre in Section 17, Petaling Jaya. It had dirty cement floors and walls that were once white. When it rained, the downpour would leak into the honbu and we had to train around the puddles of water. Pushups were done on the gravel road outside that left indents in your knuckles. You would come to training in a white uniform and finish training wearing a grey one.

We later moved to a shoplot in Section 19. It was an intermediate unit that only had front windows. Space was limited and whenever there was fight class, we kept backing up into the windows or walls. Once, the students sparred right through the sliding door and broke the glass. At least we had wooden flooring and air conditioning though.

The latest home for Kyokushin Malaysia is also in Section 19. It is a corner unit with a wall of windows. There is air conditioning (but we prefer natural ventilation), we have wooden flooring and bigger space for training now. Parents and observers get to sit at the air conditioned reception area and we even have an ushi-deshi room.

In accordance to SOPs imposed by Ministry of Health, the dojo undergoes sanitization fogging before every class. Equipments and surfaces are sanitized, wiped down and dried. The wooden floor is sanitized and mopped after training.  The floor is marked with 2 meter social distancing and students are required to wear face masks and visors during training.