The Shintaro Higashi Show - 5 Reasons Why BJJ Is More Popular Than Judo | The Shintaro Higashi Show

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Starting point is 00:00:22 Today we're going to talk about why BJJ is so much more popular than Judo, and there's a myriad of reasons why like judo is a lot harder on the body it's a lot more restrictive in terms of rules there's no leg grabs all these things have been repeated many many times so i'm not going to repeat any of the ones that are super common these are five reasons why bjj is more popular than judo and it's a little bit unexpected so you know here we go we're going to get right into it number one bjjj is much more space efficient from a business standpoint you go into a dojo and you're going to have 40 50 people rolling at once in a thousand square foot mat space area but when you're doing judo you could probably have seven or eight people going at the same time max 10 people so in my dojo we have a thousand

Starting point is 00:01:06 square foot mat space it's kind of narrow it's long we could literally have 40 people rolling at the same time doing jits but in judo 10 max two people going at the same time maybe five pairs so space management wise you could get you know 4x 5x uh you know efficiency out of that one little space. That's one reason why. You know, so when you're doing jiu-jitsu, it's kind of like you could roll and yes, of course, you can roll into someone. When you're doing stand-up, it takes more space. But generally, Judo just takes up more space. And when you're looking at a square footage area of like, all right, it's a 2,500 square foot gym, 4,000 square foot gym, that square footage and the number of people you could cram into matter. I will never forget. I walked into a taekwondo

Starting point is 00:01:50 school and this guy, you know, he had 400 students, he told me that he packs in, he caps the class at 50, 50 kids doing Pumse or Forms at the same time, having a great old time, and then class ends 45 minutes later, another 50 kids come in, class in 45 minutes later, another 50 kids come in, he could rip through 200 guys in one evening, 200 kids in one evening. And this program wasn't an unlimited class membership. It was like, you sign up for once a week, twice a week. He could sustain a 300 to 400 student gym, okay, with. If 1500 square feet, right, it's like really unbelievable, you know, just run an evening

Starting point is 00:02:33 classes. We're not even talking about like morning and noon. So space efficiency is a huge one, why jujitsu is a lot more popular than you. It contributes to it. If you can make more money per square foot, then most more people are going to likely be in that sport because it's a better business. Okay, so that's number one. Going off that same kind of idea about square footage and space management, when you're

Starting point is 00:02:56 doing jiu-jitsu you are on the floor majority of the time when you're doing judo people are standing around in a flurry you can't really see down the mat as well so when the sense is walking around the entire time they have a bird's-eye view so there's a lot more oversight where it's like i could see everyone doing what while i'm walking around you know so that authority when you're standing there's a lot more of a connection between the people you know you go for a knee-up pass you're standing right over there someone on mat number one is doing something like a quick pass or like a good guard retention and you could point that oh johnny good great job retaining that guard whatever it is and people are feel more seen because of that reason right just because just the nature of the

Starting point is 00:03:35 authority figure standing and walking around the gym versus the people on the ground you know as opposed like judo you know i've been in a massive judo space like we were just doing a new york athletic club workout there's no way for me to see through all the people we had like probably 40 50 guys on the mat at the new york athletic club workout and you know there's a lot of people there, I couldn't see down to the opposite of the mat. Those people, I'm completely invisible to those people. They have no clue if I'm watching or not, you know. So space management efficiency, that bird's eye view of the instructor, really a big one. All right. Reason number two is going to be sort of the nature of the jih Tzu market segment where majority of the guy, the demographic

Starting point is 00:04:16 of people that coming in are much older. And they're in the 30s, 40s, and that's sort of the bulk of the population, the average age of jih Tzu practitioners are much older, and that's a good thing because they have a lot of income. And when you get to an older age, you get much less explosive, and you develop more isometric strength. So, you know, you've heard of like old man's strength. You know what I mean? I was working out the other day just like I'm coming back from a knee thing. I'm kind of stiff. I'm kind of like not moving as much. My knee still is kind of

Starting point is 00:04:44 scary. So I'm doing a lot of like holding off and locking on and then just doing like really old man judo. And, you know, I feel really strong when I do that. You know, when I get in a good dominant position, I lock down, like, there's no way. You know what I mean? Even like doing pull-ups, like a pull-up and then hold it, you know, like my isometric strength is only getting better, you know, right? But I'm talking on like heavy bench, heavy sprints, dead lifts.

Starting point is 00:05:11 Like those abilities are fading for me, you know, now that I'm 40, even though I'm doing my best to keep up, right? So, isometric strength and ability, that stuff is another reason why BJJ is. is more popular than judo. All right, third one. Jiu-Jitsu is a lot stickier for the newcomers because there's a lot more reasons that they can be successful.

Starting point is 00:05:31 For instance, pass a guard, you get points. Knee on belly, you get points. Guard retention. Great, you did a great job with guard retention. There's a lot of little successes through the way. Oh my God, I went with his blue, but I took his back. Maybe they let you, but maybe you really got it. There's a lot of successes throughout the way.

Starting point is 00:05:51 when you're doing jiu-jitsu even like all right we're going to start in you know back control it goes to escape the back position you get out oh i did it i won you know i got points or whatever it is as well the judo it's like you come in there it's like all right here's a takedown here's osotogari go do it can never do it right so these are that's another huge issue you know jistu's a lot stickier because of the gamification of everything right you take them down you get two points if they fake a guard pull and you grab the leg you get takedown points you pass the guard you you go knee on belly, you put the foot the back in, so the person could grab it, and then you release the foot out, and now you get pass points again.

Starting point is 00:06:29 So things like this, these all add to sort of the gamification of jiu-jitsu that judo doesn't really have, you know? So that's another reason why. Now the fourth reason is just the geographical thing of judo and jiu-jitsu and the community that surrounds the grappling sport. The problem with judo is the best athletes, are not accessible to us. You know, you look at Abe Nagase,

Starting point is 00:06:55 those guys are Japanese. You know, and if you follow them on Instagram or find them on YouTube and such, they're speaking Japanese, there's no way for us to really understand it. So that's the issue number one. There's a language barrier.

Starting point is 00:07:06 A lot of the champions aren't here. We need more champions here, and we need the champions here to have a little bit more of a community connection. You know, right now in the U.S., you look at all these jiu-jitsu guys. They all speak English. They all have Instagram.

Starting point is 00:07:19 They all do on YouTube. And then it's fun to watch. And there's that community sense of like, oh, if I go somewhere, I could go to a jih Tzu school and they all know the same stories about CJI and this guy and that champion. Right?

Starting point is 00:07:32 In the U.S., we don't really have that, you know? And jitutri community kind of develops sort of this critical mass of like, all right, we have this many people doing it, this many people involved. So naturally, within that crop of people, people are going to kind of rise up, and then they're going to be personalities

Starting point is 00:07:48 and more people are going to be putting out content. So the overall community and the access to it in the United States is much better. Okay. Last one. It's just the Japanese judo tradition, formality, the language, the administration. They tried to go, I think, to corporate too soon. And everything sort of became this bureaucratic thing. And yes, it's a good thing.

Starting point is 00:08:16 But if you want to grow really fast, you've got to kind of have small government. You know, you can't have too many red. tape and this and that and it creates a huge barrier to like letting judo just ride and grow because everything you have to do it's like okay now i got to go in there learn uh japanese language almost osorogari kenkaitatsu people like what and now you got to bow onto the man and if you're late oh you know you're disgrace and you have to be on time and this this rule that rule even with the ranking system it's like oh we got a q grade system a downgrade system Most people are like, what the hell is that, you know?

Starting point is 00:08:53 We took too much of the Japanese stuff, brought it down. You know, I can say I'm Japanese, you know, but sometimes I go to a judo thing, and it's too Japanese for me, you know, and it's not Japanese people that are spewing this stuff. You know, it's like, oh, in Japan, this and that. And it's like, you're not Japanese, though. You know, it's kind of this thing of like it's just too formal a lot of the times, you know, and the traditions of it, we need to kind of come up with new ideas. and new ways to kind of make it a little bit easier.

Starting point is 00:09:22 For instance, in BJJ, an instructor with a certain rank could just hand the belt and then it's like, you know what? Here it is. You're easier qualifying thing. You know, you're a blue belt belt now. You're a brown belt now. Right? You could kind of do that, you know?

Starting point is 00:09:36 But in judo, when you get to a certain Q grade, like a San Q or above, or applying for Shodon, you have to go through New York State Judo, Hudson Judo. And depending on who's running it, it can be run really, really poorly or really, really well, you know, but majority of the time, these organizations aren't doing a very good job, you know, and I kind of shitting on myself because I'm on these communities, multiple, you know, many occasions at any given time. But I think a lot of this stuff creates too much of a friction, you know, and I'll never forget this guy, Mark, who came to the dojo, and he was a very, very busy guy, dipping in, you know, twice a week, Max, and then just

Starting point is 00:10:14 stayed in this judo thing for 10 years. And then he was up for black belt, and he had to do the Hudson promotion, caught a thing, and then he just kept failing it because he just, like, didn't have time to practice it. He had knee problems. He was much older. And, you know, it's like, twice they failed him. And it's like, you know what, man, F and I quit. You know? And then it's like, all right, come on, man, we got to do it. You know, and I have to convince him. But, like, that shouldn't be a reason why someone quits and leaves judo, you know? So, jihadtsu doesn't have all that stuff. And I'm not saying, like, just get rid of all these systems and traditions. But

Starting point is 00:10:50 You know, I think these are definitely things that contribute to jiu-sitsu being a lot more popular. You know, and we can't just, as judo players and judokas, accept whatever that has been and just keep going without innovating and thinking a new way to grow this thing, because we're going to die, we're going to shrink, we're going to disappear into the ether. Especially in the United States, it's such a shame, you know, 300 million people, the best, highest GDP in the world, and we can't produce any judo. You know, we have 12,000 members. Like, come on, that's pretty bad.

Starting point is 00:11:21 People think it's impossible, but it's absolutely not. Look at what jiu-jitsu did. It's absolutely amazing. It's stunning, you know, and this sounds like a video that I'm making fun of judo. I'm really not, you know, I'm a judo purist. I love judo so much. I want to grow it. We got to learn a little bit from the jih Tzu people.

Starting point is 00:11:35 It's good to get this stuff out there, get a dialogue going. Leave it in the comments, you know, seriously, what you guys think, what we can do. And I know everyone's going to be quick to shit on USAJJU and USJFA, A, freestyle judo, AU judo all this stuff but let's refrain from that this time you know that's really refrain from that and instead of just criticizing and then just repeating the same points over and over

Starting point is 00:11:57 oh because no one can do leg grabs oh USA judo socks all this that this that this let's think of new ways to innovate and move forward and you know I gave five reasons why judicious is more popular than judo and these aren't like the normal ones let's think of new innovative ways put it in the comments

Starting point is 00:12:13 of a positive discussion and then go from there back to that space management thing though right this is a bonus I went to a judo tournament in Japan they had a 500 person workout like a mini tournament you know it's like 10 20 judo schools in the region

Starting point is 00:12:32 high schools in the regions we were in there for three hours everyone got about five matches they literally took the dojo mat space split it into these smaller segments not full mat areas and they had almost 15 fighting areas 15. Tiny mat space areas, right? Just pumping him out. You look at a jujitsu tournament, you get a lot more people doing it. You could have 1,400, 1,400 competitors. You see these master's competitions with 10,000 competitors.

Starting point is 00:13:05 Shrink the space, shrink the competition space. I go to judo tournament out in New Jersey sometimes. There's two mats running. 500 students, 500 athletes, taking all freaking day. Right? That's a horrible waste of time, horrible waste of space. And yes, you can argue like, oh, the insurance this, insurance that. We got to do something about it. We have to innovate. My number one thing, you know, going to these tournaments, I'm not staying here for 12 hours. I'm not coming here at 9 a.m. and staying until 9 p.m. I'm just not doing it. I have a kid. I have a 7-year-old. She wants to go to the park. We want to go to Billy Bees on the weekends. You know what I mean? If you can guarantee me, like I'm in there at 9, I'm out there by noon, or maybe 1 or 2 p.m. max, right? Because there's 10 mat spaces going, I will gladly pay $125 a student to do that, right? Just better, just from a time and a service and a product standpoint, right? And Jujitsu kind of does that. That's back to the space management thing. It was something I had in my mind that I wanted to say, but I kind of forgot.

Starting point is 00:14:05 So there you go. Please check out HigashiBrand.com. I have a lot of merch, new geese coming, Tatami Sandals, unbelievable, Fuji discount code. I think it's in the link somewhere down here. thank you very much for your ongoing support and I think the next one's going to be what judo can do it's going to be a little bit more concrete

Starting point is 00:14:23 a little bit more positive be like that so there you go thank you so much for listening as always haigashybrand.com Thank you.

The Shintaro Higashi Show - 5 Reasons Why BJJ Is More Popular Than Judo | The Shintaro Higashi Show

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