The Shintaro Higashi Show - Colton Brown on Judo, Coaching, & Building a Legacy

Episode Date: March 17, 2025

Two-time Olympian Colton Brown joins the podcast to share his journey from elite competitor to top-level coach and dojo owner. We dive into his transition from athlete to mentor, his rapid success in building a thriving Judo academy, and his thoughts on the future of Judo in the U.S.Colton also opens up about his time as a USA Judo board member, the challenges of balancing elite competitors with hobbyists, and his unique approach to creating a strong Judo community. With nearly 400 students in just two years, he’s redefining what a modern Judo dojo can be.

Limitations like no sumi no tomonage whatever it is you have any limitations on techniques that are allowed to be done at a certain level Yeah, so I I allow basically almost all techniques. Um, except I I don't allow taniyotoshi Under green belt so in the green belt and under no taniyotoshi because I can't have people baseball sliding into people's knees Yep. Yep. Wow. Where did you get that? you have people baseball sliding into people's knees. Yep. Yep. Wow. Where did you get that? You. Hello everyone. Welcome back to the Shintaro Higashi show. I'm here with Colton Brown, the legend, the man, the myth. Dude, you're doing everything out there. What's going on, dude? I'm trying. I'm trying to be like you. That's all I can say. No, but in all seriousness, I'm trying to be like you, that's all I can say. No, but in all seriousness, I'm having fun, man.

I'm having a lot of fun doing what I do, and a lot of times it's not as much work as people think. So I'm passionate about judo, and I'm having a lot of fun doing it right now. I love that, I love that. So for those of you who don't know, Colton's a two-time Olympian for the United States. He has won pretty much everything going out to the world,

the US domestic tournament, all that stuff, had a ton of success in his judo career, and recently you were a USA Judo board member. Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So you're gonna jump right into it, yeah. No, no, no, no. I was a board member, I resigned in January, so I resigned about a month and a half ago, two months ago.

Yeah. So we'll get back to that. But now you're coaching all the top level athletes in the United States. You're running a dojo with 200 plus members. It's absolutely amazing what you're doing. I think we need like 20 more in the United States for judo, I think you know so can you tell us a little bit about like all the Successes that you've had recently Yeah, a hundred percent. Um, you know, I I think that when I retired so I retired after Tokyo in 2021 and I always knew I wanted to open a dojo. So I knew you know during kovat

I started when kovat was kind I knew, during COVID, I started, when COVID was kinda coming to an end, I started giving private lessons because that was my only way to make money at the time. And I was like, oh man, before that, I didn't know what I wanted to do with my life. And then after that, I was like, I kinda like teaching. Like I like when people contact me and say,

hey, Colton, like your training helped me accomplish this goal or whatever the case might be. And it brought me a lot of fulfillment. And I was like, okay, oh, Colton, your training helped me accomplish this goal, or whatever the case might be, and it brought me a lot of fulfillment. And I was like, okay, I completely changed my life from selfish, as you know how it is as an athlete, trying to compete at the highest level, to selfless. And I opened my dojo in, I started looking for space, I opened my dojo in 2022, in February of 2022.

Found a good space, we opened. Less than a year later, I expanded. So there was a laundry mat next to us. They went out of business. We knocked down the wall and expanded into that location. So now we have, you know, it's one big training center. And we train everywhere from kids to adults, judo, jiu-jitsu, MMA, all kinds of stuff. I train a lot of the high level athletes. Some of them come from my training center. Some of them from elsewhere, they come in.

But like I said, right now I'm just, I'm having a ton of fun building this thing. It's fun for me building the business and seeing, you know, my goal is to always introduce as many people as possible to judo and, you know, create a, have a positive impact on people through martial arts. So that's my goal and that's what keeps me going every day. And how many students, judo students, you have now at the gym?

Total students were we're close to 400. I have about 375. Wow! Yeah, we got about 375 total. That's incredible. That's incredible. Yeah. I don't think that's ever done that in two years It's it's been it's a lot of work though, so I yeah, I sometimes posted my Instagram story I'm up at you know 5 a.m.. And I don't leave the dojo until 10 p.m.. But it's worth it So yeah, it's growing. We're growing at a really fast rate, but I think more importantly um You know my goal is to keep students, right? I want retention, so my goal is to,

everybody's like, oh, well, you must spend a lot of time marketing and doing this, and I really don't spend any time doing that. What me and the rest of my instructors do is we try to make the current programs as good as possible. So I try to make sure everybody, every single person that walks into my studio or my dojo gets what they need out of that class.

And I try to make them feel like everybody's important and that's a full-time job. Yeah, oh, absolutely, yeah. So do you do like curriculum for kids? Like what is the percentage breakup of the gym? If you look at, I know you have kickboxing, BJJ, judo, kids judo, so that's your four main programs, correct? Yeah.

Honestly, I gotta say, like if you guys aren't already following Colton Brown's dojo, it's like the gold standard of dojos now, I think. You know, it's amazing, it's a hybrid program, you're out there teaching the stuff, there's kids programs, really, you're flourishing. You know, you're the new guy, you're the new guy now. Thank you, I appreciate that.

No, we have, it's weird because people think that we have more kids than adults. It's actually since the beginning, it's been split right down the middle. So I have the exact same amount of kids as we have adults. It's maybe a couple more kids or a couple more adults, depending month to month, but for the most part, it's split even.

But most of our students are Judo students. So it's really a Judo dojo that has other programs. That's incredible. That's the sign of a healthy dojo being a split. When I hear guys like, oh, 90% of my gym is adults, okay. 90% of my gym is kids. I'm like, all right, you know, like, but having 50-50, you know, we're 50-50 also, we probably have like 80 adult students, like, you know, 80 to 100 kids

students, and it always fluctuates. We're around 200, you know, specifically judo. So you do just judo is the majority of your business. Judo is the majority of the business. Jiu-Jitsu now has been, has picked up. So in the beginning, it was like, it was massive, massive growth for Judo. It took Jiu Jitsu a little bit longer I think because there's a lot of competition on every corner there's a Jiu Jitsu school but Jiu Jitsu started to pick up probably about six months ago and

we have we have a lot of Jiu Jitsu students now and MMA is also picking up so we made a couple of changes and the Jiu Jitsu and MMA programs now are picking up but I also think a lot of changes and The jiu-jitsu and MMA programs now are picking up But I also think a lot of that is because of the word of mouth from the judo program So we have so many yeah students for judo now that you know it's it if somebody's like hey I want to train, but I don't want to do too much stand-up what we refer them to jiu-jitsu They're like oh man I want to do more I want to do less impact than we refer them to a little bit of MMA.

So I think it's now the Judo was a core program for a long time and now it's a lot of our students are beginning to branch out and do other things and refer us to other people and that's how it's growing. So do you have split segmented memberships for each program or do you have one shop like Colton Brown Judo Center, this your membership that's it? So we have a little bit of both so I have we have split memberships for each program but we also we incentivize by by doing package deals so if you wanted to train two times a week Judo two times a week Jiu Jitsu one time a week MMA we can do

that. Our goal is always to accommodate there's so many people that come in with so many different needs and they're like, yeah, okay, I don't know what I want to do, so can I do one day a week of each? And we have something for them too. Wow. That's a lot of keeping track of too, administratively, you know? It's a lot of administrative work. I have a very good assistant. Oh, that's great. That's really good. I see tons of people coming in and you have competitors and hobbyists and like, how are you managing all that? Um, you know, that's, that, that was actually the hardest thing for me to figure out because

I, you know, if, and you get this too, because you're, you're in the, you've been in the game a lot longer than I have. And, um, I was always told that it's impossible to have, to train competitors and hobbyists in the same room. I was always told that it's impossible to have, to train competitors and hobbyists in the same room. I was always told that you have to have beginners classes and then intermediate classes and blah, blah, blah. But my thing is, I was like, okay, my philosophy was if I have just straight beginners classes and a bunch of white belts in class,

when it comes time to do Rondoria train live, somebody's gonna get injured. That's a dangerous situation there. So I was like, well, why not have everybody in the same room, and now when it's time to do randori, the white belts aren't gonna go with the white belts, they have to go with a higher belt, and they're learning the proper feel for judo,

and they're safe, it's a safe environment, and they're learning how it is to do judo. Everybody's super stiff or anything like that. and they're learning how it is to do judo. They're not, everybody's super stiff or anything like that. So, you know, that's, so I do, I have separate classes, a couple of separate classes a week for my competitors that only competitors are invited to. But for the most part, everybody trains together

and I split the mat sometimes and I'll have a little bit more teaching, one of my instructors teach the white belts and the novice guys a little bit more. But for the most part, it works out and those guys love being in the room with the advanced guys and the advanced guys Kind of love not only talking to just competitors who they talk to every day but talking to people everyday life So it's a lot of networking going on there too. It's just a fun environment You know, that's the number one thing man because you're doing a hundred percent judo as a full-blown career

You don't really have an outside money career You know that's the number one thing man, because you're doing 100% Judo as a full blown career. You don't really have an outside money career, like a lawyer or doctor or anything, majority of the time. And having those networks kind of like talk to each other and helping each other out and you know, hey after my Judo career, can you write me a letter of recommendation? And hey kid, can you teach me some of that Tai Toshi that you're doing? That's an amazing thing to have everyone in the room. And I think you have such a great community, because I was able to interact with you guys at the New York

Athletic Club. We did a little joint workout thing. Do we have a date for that, the next one yet, by the way? We have to talk to them about a new date, because I think you proposed something, but I don't know if it's set in stone. We've got to figure that out. I thought that's your job. No, maybe it is. But I was able to interact with your guys. Man, everyone's polite, everyone's kind. What is your secret to the community building aspect

of your gym? I think there's a couple of things. I think that I always operated from the space that anybody walking through the doors, the majority of people that are walking through my doors, it's supposed to be the best part of their day. Like they just got off of work, or they're trying to get away from home,

or whatever the case might be, but that is supposed to be the best part of their day. So no matter what's going on with me, I have an obligation to make sure that their experience when they walk through the doors are the best part. And that took a lot of work.. And that took a lot of work. Well, that took a lot of work because in the beginning, especially when I had some of my younger guys

and my competitors that you know, I'm not gonna mention any names, but some of the competitors. I'm gonna be guessing. You'll know after I say this, but when I first had them start teaching, kids these days don't interact as well as they should. So people would walk in the door, I say this, but when I first had them start teaching, kids these days don't interact as well as they should. So people would walk in the door,

they would be on their phones not saying hello to them, not greeting them at the door. So it took a lot of me in the beginning, I used to watch every single class that I didn't teach. I was always there and I was watching every class that I didn't teach and I would take notes on the side and I'd say, hey listen, when everybody walks in, you have to say hi. You have to make sure everybody feels seen.

And there was things that took a lot of time and sometimes like this and I had to get rid of a few people because it didn't fit the culture. But I think constantly staying on top of just making sure everybody has a positive experience, the rest will take care of itself. It's hard work in the beginning, but now it all works for itself.

And I think the kids that I had initially teaching, now they run their own programs and they're doing it so well that, I don't have to be there at all anymore. So it's running itself now, yeah. Yeah, I mean, it's kind of embedded in BJJ culture. You walk in, you say hi to everybody in the room, oh, what's up, oh, so, so, so, so, so, so. I was just having a say. And it's like BJJ culture, you know, you walk in, you say hi to everybody in the room, all what's up, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all,

all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all,

all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, you know, barbecue Thursdays or something. Yeah. I don't do as much of that. I do, we have a winter, I do a staff winter party. So I have a party for all of my staff in the winter. We do a holiday party. And then in the summer, I do a massive barbecue for the entire dojo. And everybody gets together. But what I found that that does is a lot of,

now what I'm seeing is I'll get messages or texts or emails from parents or pictures that all of their kids are hanging out with each other and they're hanging out together. And built from that, like that all came about from these, the barbecues that we do in the summer and just, so now there's a community within the dojo that, you know, and that's what I love to see.

Off of the mats, the kids are hanging out together, off of the mats, the adults are going out and getting dinner getting the ranks. It's more than just a dojo So now it becomes it becomes a community So now the kid gets injured or the kid wants to do another sport and they're they're always like oh man Well, we got to come back home to family after a while and that's that's the feel that I want You know because they do it really really good in a lot of other industries, you know, because my kids, you know, she's six and she's like, likes judo, but doesn't love it, you know,

yet, and we'll see what happens with that. But like, she's like part of a ballet school and they have a thing and she has friends now, so it's like, Saturday morning, she may not feel up for it, but she wants to go and then maybe afterwards we go get a cheeseburger or like go to the park or something and it becomes this thing And then all the moms are like hey you going to ballet today, and now it's like I can't get out of this goddamn thing

Yeah, you're in the group so you're in the group chat with the moms. I am yeah, of course But you know it's the thing now cuz like if I want to transition her To judo like for instance Friday was a thing because she wanted to do skating for a little bit I let her do it now she has friends and having play dates with skating kids figure skating now today this morning I was like yo we're gonna go to judo on Friday you know cuz we're doing a run Dory day at the gym and she was kind of like ah you know I want to go to skating you know Sophia's there Jennifer's there I'm like you know I was like course you know it's community it's you know, it's community. It's super important. And you're not going to say no, you're you're you can initially,

but how many times can you say no to your, to your daughter? She's doing something positive. Like she's, she's doing a physical activity she that she wants to do that you don't have to drag her to. I think that's huge, right? And a lot of it's cause it's fun, but I think the same principle or concept applies to both kids and adults If you can make it fun and an environment that people want to come to You don't have any issues, but if you're making it your drill sergeant, you've got to do this. You've got to do that I don't even I don't know if I can stand up like some some dojos that I've been to I was like man

Do I have to ask to use the bathroom? Can I? Yeah, what's so bad going on? Yeah, it's terrible I don't even want to be there because I'm like every do I have to ask to use the bathroom can I Yeah, what's so bad going on? Yeah, it's terrible I don't even want to be there because I'm like every time I'm here I'm under stress and I'm already under stress in my everyday life. So why do I want to add more stress? Why am I paying for stress? Yeah, you know about me the most like go down do push-ups and get fit and fitness this and fitness that but it's like You're not in shape Right the right I'm like wait a minute

Why are you telling me to do push- you're not in shape right the right I'm like wait a minute why are you telling me to do push-ups and stay in shape but you're out of shape and why do I have to ask you to go to the bathroom yep you know I came here after work not not me I don't really work you know my people coming after work you know they had to stay late feed their family and then he gets shamed to kneeling on the wood before they get on the mat and you come onto the mat when I wave you onto the mat. That's nonsense. We've got to get rid of that stuff.

No, it's terrible. I think that's a lot of old school things there and again, I think that you hit a really good point. As owners, as instructors, we're constantly preaching discipline and getting your body in shape and structure and all this stuff. And if we are overweight and obese and we don't train and we can't even take care of our own, we don't have the discipline to take care of our own bodies, the people are looking at you like, what are you doing?

I don't agree with you. Exactly. I saw you in the gym. I saw you in the gym with three plates yesterday I saw you pumping that up I see it and I respect that because you you have every excuse and I know how busy you are You have every excuse not to make time for yourself not to go to the gym No, you could do it. You could take you could take another private lesson

you could do another podcast if you want to put money in your pocket, but you understand the importance of Taking care of yourself and making sure you have an hour or two out of the day and you got to do it You run every morning Every morning every mile. It's really impressive. You heard it here first Colton hates fat people So how did you were doing this you're doing private. You're running a dojo with almost 400 members That's freaking crazy. By the way, that's like the realm of mega gym. I feel like over a hundred You're not a micro gym anymore hundred to two hundred. You're you're a pop thriving gym over to 300 mega gym you crush So but on top of that you were doing

You're crushing me. You're crushing me. I appreciate you. But on top of that, you were doing coaching stuff internationally. That's another really cool thing that nobody really knows about. And you know what? Let me tell you something.

USA Judo doesn't do a good enough job to kind of highlight that you're out there every day. Because the only way I know that you're out there is through your Instagram, which is kind of sad. It's very sad. I think that, you've always seen this, right? USA Judo is now, they're doing a much better job at highlighting the athletes, but for whatever reason, the USA Judo has never ever highlighted coaches. I don't know why. I don't know if it's a weird thing that they have.

Yeah. I mean when Jimmy's out there, we hear about it. That's, when he used to be there, I think things were run a little bit differently. Now, I don't know, I know there's weird political things with there's a lot of people that are trying to coach now. I mean, you understand it, this is what's weird to me. When we were on the road outside of Jimmy, nobody ever wanted to go coach.

I can't tell you how many competitions I went to internationally with no coach in the chair. In Europe, in Asia, I went to the Tokyo Grand Slam with no coach in the chair. I was like, and that's one of the reasons why I started coaching because I was like, I don't want these kids to feel alone. So let me, I want to leave the place better than I found it. Right? Who's the coach now for the USA Judo? Who's the USA Judo coaches? Me, I'm one. I know Kerry Chandler is another coach. Johnny Prado is another coach. Hermon Velasco coaches sometimes. I think those are the four main coaches. Those are the main

coaches. But there are other people on the roster with the certifications that could potentially go also. Of course, absolutely. There are people that have done the IJF Academy, they've been through it, there's a ton of those people and they have been asking to go and break in to that. But you know, I think that there's two things here. Number one, I always try to make, as far as USA Judo is concerned. I always I try now to only go on trips where there's a training camp Involved so if I go on a trip, so I went to Slovenia two weeks ago I coach the team of 18 or 19 athletes in Slovenia And then I stayed afterwards for the training camp now

I get to see each of these athletes that are that are competing I get to see them in their rounds I work with them with their round so it's not like when I go sit in the chair, oh hey my name is Colton, my first time seeing you, are you a lefty or a righty, what do we have to deal with? Oh my god, I love that, you know I've had this experience, you know guys go on these trips like so, go out there and then do, this guy's exposed to the left, so they go do so they, I was like how do you know that I even do that stuff? I've never done that in my life. He's like, I'm gonna just like invent a new move that I've never done before out of nowhere And that was crazy to me, you know, it's crazy to you

But like to the average judoka that's on the circuit back in the day. That was the norm. That's a norm Let me come here. Let me show you this thing that I do, you know That was the norm. That's the norm. Come here, come here. Let me show you this thing that I do. You know what I'm gonna do? Yeah. Well, I'm gonna learn this thing now and hit it out there.

Like, what are you crazy? You know? Exactly. I love that you do that. You provide a different level of service. Yeah, because you have to think about it. And again, this is another thing that you understand. Me, yeah, of course I'm getting paid when I go for you, when I go on these USA Judo trips,

but essentially I'm losing money. Every time I step away from my dojo, they're not paying me that much. I'm losing money in a sense. So the only way it makes sense for me to go is if I'm actually making change. If I'm not making change, it doesn't, I'm not doing it for money,

so it doesn't make any sense for me to go on these trips. And again, I just want to provide a better experience than I had, because I was my own coach, and I think about this a lot of times, when Jimmy was on the road, that was a different story, but a lot of times, I was my own coach, or I would have to consult with my dad about things, and then I would, but I had to figure a lot of these things out on my own, and I was like,

I remember being at training camps on my own, having to solve the equation, and I don't want these guys to have to deal with that anymore. And a lot of these coaches that you say that have this IJF certification, they wanna go to the Paris Grand Slam, Tokyo Grand Slam, the World Championships, oh, just to say, hey, I've coached there. I don't care about that stuff.

What I care about is getting my feet on the ground, working with these athletes in training, figuring out the equation and making sure they're more comfortable and they have the tools necessary when they step out and take the mat. That's it. That's really amazing, man. That's really noble of you. And you know what?

You've been in it for so long that you know all the things. It's like sometimes you go on these trips. I've been to one of these South American continental opens and it's like no one stayed for the camp It was just me. I was in a room with I was a roommate with like one of the Dominican kids from the DR team Where do we go next, you know, like you don't have a coach. I don't have a coach like, you know What do we do? You know and then you know, you have these tough guys from Brazil at the training camp trying to kill you You know and you're doing these rounds for survival, but you don't even have anyone giving you any feedback.

It was like a horrible experience. Like, wow, am I gonna make out alive? Like, what if I get sick right now? You know, like, a lot of times you go on these trips, you get sick. Right. Because you eat the local salad with the local water, or drink the juice with the ice in it,

and you are messed up, and you need someone that's been through it to kind of help you through that. There you go. Have you ever had that? Of course I've had that. I got massive food poisoning in Lima, Peru. The day before. Oh me too, me too, me too. See, there you go.

I ate ceviche down there, big mistake. Me too, big mistake. Big mistake. Day before the Pan Am Championships I was severe food poisoning, terrible. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe you were on that trip.

I went to, we went to Peru and then we went to Argentina. We were on that trip together. I was with you, I think, in Chile. Oh yeah, we were in Chile. Oh no, you're right, we were. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. I remember you, yeah. Yeah, I got sick and then I had to, I was deathly ill.

Went to Argentina, fought Silva Morales. You ever fight him. Yes Cuba yeah, of course he must be a nightmare I mean he just took he just took a bronze medal at 100 kilos in Paris. I can't believe he's still doing it 8190 100 he moved up from 90 to 100 just took a bronze medal at Paris Grand Slam He's one of those quiet legends, right? He's always like top 20 in the world, really good, destroyed me, beat Travis Tew back in the day.

Oh yeah, he beat Travis Tew. You ever beat him? No, I lost to him in the Pan Am finals. He beat me by a yuko. But it sounds like, oh man, that was a close match. It wasn't close. No, it was close. I bet you it was because you guys are both was a close match. It wasn't close. No Because you guys are both lefties and he's much better against righties. Yes. He's very good against righties

Very good. Yeah his hips his feet. He's a nightmare man. He was Even though you fought him now, I wanted to I want to see that I don't look that up. Are you gonna guess lefties? Now I am in the beginning of my career. I wasn't it was a big big struggle for me I lost to a lefty I wasn't supposed to lose to one year at the Nationals and it got really really really angry It's actually no This guy one of my teammates from San Jose actually and I just wasn't comfortable fighting lefty Yeah, you know, it was a Raj Sid Raj. Oh my god I lost them to one time. Yes He pulled it off though though. He pulls it off sometimes.

Every once in a while, he had a good day. He was really good in the room. And I never figured out, man, this guy can't figure it out in competition. But he was always a tough round for me in the room. Yeah, he's tall. Yeah, he was a nightmare to fight. So I had to figure that out.

And then I went to I after the the day after the senior nationals I booked a flight to Japan and stayed there for three months and just just bought lefties that's amazing that's me you want to Tsukuba mostly I went to Nichidae mostly and then afterwards I started going to Tokai I went to Tokai and then I would go to Kokugaku in and now recently we've been we've been going to Tōen University I've been all over yeah man no one did it like you really you know you were able to go to Japan for a long stretches of time yeah who freaking does that you know if you especially if you don't speak to like I go Japan long stretches because I speak

Japanese I feel like at home there you know for you to be out there not speaking the language and doing this day that's really incredible you know you're really an exceptional guy dude I don't know if you yeah Yanni Yanni made me do it they make it do it that's awesome he's another one that's kind of a legend right in the game man he's a legend he's a legend yeah wow so you're really in it I love that USA judo board that was a mess huh USA judo board was a mess yeah yeah I can talk about that now it was a mess yeah I can talk about that now do we know the Olympic criteria for the coming up season?

nope we don't know the Olympic criteria we don't know what it's going to take for athletes to qualify it's March 2025 March 2025 you wonder why I'm not on that board anymore so that's are you happy to be out of there?

I'm super happy that board anymore. So that's, you know. Are you happy to be out of there? I'm super happy. It was very stressful. It was a lot, you know, again, you now know that everything that I do, I have to have, I have to feel as though I'm making change. Otherwise, I can't just, I'm very busy. So if I'm just, if I feel like I'm not making any change

or I'm not making progress, then I step back from the situation, right? So that was emptying my cup. It wasn't pilling my cup, and it was a lot of, you know, everybody knows kind of what was going on within the board, and there was a lot of just nonsense, and we weren't getting anywhere. And I was like, all right, isn't the point of this

to help the organization, to help the athletes, help the organization? And I felt like we weren't even discussing matters like that, so I was like, what am I doing on here? So I stepped away. So when you're running your gym right now, you're there morning all the way to night? Some days.

So what days do you have morning practice? Like what is the training schedule? Do you have noon classes, 6 a.m. classes? Like what kind of schedules do you do? So I do, for Judo, yeah, the Wednesdays are the morning class, so Wednesday I have a 6.30 a.m. morning class that I teach. And then, so I teach that class. I never used to, but now I do because I make all my,

all of my competitors go to that class as well because I want them to get used to waking up and having some discipline. So I teach that class, and then I do private lessons. So on those days, days that I'm there early, I schedule my private lessons throughout the day. So I'll teach five or six private lessons on Wednesday, and then I'll take a break, I'll go get lunch, and then I will come back and I'll teach classes at night and I'll teach private after.

I know why it's strategically Wednesday too, just because we're similar dudes in a similar industry, you know what I mean? I don't work as hard as you, but like Wednesday, because if you have a weekend tournament, if you go away on Thursday, you can miss a Friday, but like Wednesday because you if you have a weekend tournament if you go away on Thursday Yeah, you can miss a Friday, but you don't have to reschedule this crazy thing Wednesday that's what I did too. I work out with Glick on Wednesday morning, you know Yeah, and I try to shoot my videos on Wednesday at 11 a.m Of course, and then if I do a private which I usually don't do anymore because I don't really like them up Sometimes I'll do it 9 a.m. 10 a.m., 1 p.m., 2 p.m.

And then Eugene comes in and teaches the kids program. There you go. And then I come back. Wait, you don't do privates anymore? You were the person that got me into doing privates. Well, no, I was the person that was like, you're charging too little, you gotta charge more. Yeah, 100%.

You literally told me that before I even thought about opening a gym. I remember having a conversation with you at the SummerSlam Championships when we took that picture with me, you, Travis, Marty, all those people. That was a cool shot. That was a cool shot. I remember having a conversation with you against the wall and we were talking about you had just opened and you were like, yeah, I have X amount of members, but I'm teaching

privates and I'm doing it. I was like, wow, I never knew that you could make a living doing judo Yeah, you were the first person to tell me that and then followed up with then you called me and you were like hey When are you opening and you were my first technical student? I was I never want everyone to forget that dude I was a person to stop now Everyone's gonna open up a gym and I have to freaking shell out all these money for the but you know what I do I did a lot of privates for a certain amount of time and then I realized I was getting a little bit burnt out too.

I saw your post the other day. I'm not gonna do more than 14. And I've done more than... I've done like 15 privates in a week and that kind of stuff and it was way too much and I scaled up to kind of half fast and quick now I'll still do them every now and then you know what I mean I'll still do like I think I did like four this week or something like that but I tried to cap it you know like so the emails come in hey will you do a private with me I'm

not like chasing after them yeah sure it's this much I have Wednesday at 11 open take it a little bit done you know, 100%. But man, that's pretty good. I gotta get to that point though. It's weird because my privates, I'm not taking any more privates, right, so my privates that I have are people that I've been working with since day one, since I opened the doors and I was always like, man, you guys supported me because when I didn't have a membership, I was like,

how am I gonna pay my bills? I don't have that many members right now, like I don't know how I'm going to do so I had to start doing privates and those people have been with me since day one and the same people that I was doing privates with then I'm still doing now and they're the majority of the private lessons and now these guys are going on to meddle at international events so you see the work working and then some are just general public people. So some are just people from the general public that use me to get a workout.

And either way, but yeah, I see what you're saying about being burnt out. I could see it, I could see that. No, because there's only so much stuff you could do. And you know, I don't wanna make excuses, but I have a six year old at home. I have a daughter that I have to like drop her off at school, pick her up from school.

And if I don't pick her up from school, she gets really it's a letdown You know what I mean? Of course, so it's like if I go to the dojo and if I'm doing it's in the city I live 40 minutes away. So it's like it's not like I'm gonna go in come back go back. You know what I mean? So it's like Different priorities. I think as you hit, you know 40 have a kid and all that stuff, of course excuses, you know No, there's no excuses. I mean, I think you're at a different point in your life you you've been open for how long now I don't know man 20 something I mean my father started in 1963 you know I remember that yeah but you've taken it over for 20 years

you've been in the game for sure all right so supposedly four students move away and you have four new slots for private lesson right what are you charging for those sessions oh right now 250 an hour that's that's what you should be charging man you're worth every penny and you know people don't realize it's not just that hour that you're paying for they pay for 25 30 years of judo that you've done and not just doing judo and hanging out but doing judo being on the USA judo board coaching us athletes building this program You're the guy, you know So a lot goes and you know a lot goes into that as well

Like I tell and I just had this conversation with somebody yesterday as a guys You're not just paying for the hour of private you guys are paying. I plan this I have to go over videos I have to talk I ask you your goals What do you want to get out of this then I I go over videos, then I put together a plan, then I adjust the plan after each session. That takes a lot of work. And that is not just random every week, what we're gonna do.

Everything is very planned out. And that's it. I love that. And you know what bothers me, man, people charging that money who are just showing up and like, let me show you this tile that I hit, you know, in 1974. It's like, man, that's not, you know,

not to take away from those old guys, but you're providing a different service. Right. It's great. I think you should be charging $500 an hour, but you know, market rate. One day. Market rate is market rate, you know?

One day maybe people will value us like doctors and lawyers. Of course. Maybe not doctors, but at least lawyers. You know what I mean? One day. If you would have told me three years ago that I would be charging $250 an hour for private, I would have said no way. So I feel like we're making progress.

I feel like I said, I can't remember if it was you, but it was like you were charging like $80. You should be charging minimum $200. Yeah, 100%. You told me that. But you were the first guy, and I mean, from me looking, right, and I always, and I talk about this all the time.

When I was growing up, everybody that had owned Judo schools, they had another job, right? And they were just kind of doing this on the side. There were cops or whatever they were, and they were doing this on the side. So I was always brought up saying, there's no way that you can possibly make money in judo. You have to basically give this,

$25 a month membership, max, if they can't pay, give them a gi for free, take it out of your own pocket. It's your job, your responsibility to give back. I think that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard in my life. You were one of the ones that told me that. Yeah, because you know the quality of your gym suffers, dude. If you worked a nine to six doing God knows what, and then you get to the gym. You're not gonna have the same level of enthusiasm Excitement you're losing money. You know I talked to a guy who owned the dojo. I think that long guy

He's a nurse. He's like dude my dojo loses like you know eight nine hundred dollars a month I'm like then why father even doing it you think it's a good program. You know like it's not a good program No one's having a good experience, you know? It's terrible. Yeah, so how do we have guys like you and me more in this game? How do we do that? You know, I think that the more people that see it, the people that see me and you, you know, we love what we do, we live a good life, we make pretty good money doing this. I think now people are like, oh wait, this is an actual career path that I can take.

My generation of people growing up, my peers growing up, they didn't even know that this was an option. They just thought this was something that you do when you retire and you have a little bit of extra money that you can burn and you can lose. This is something to keep you from dying. That's basically what I was taught when I was growing up. So now you're seeing not only with Judo, but with Jiu Jitsu and there's a lot of younger guys

right now that are making good money doing it and having a lot of fun and making real change. That's the most important thing. So that's why I post what I post on my Instagram. People are like, you shouldn't post yourself at these restaurants and doing this. People are gonna think you're making way too much money. And it's like, no, I want the younger generation

to see this and say, hey, I can live this type of life by doing, if I focus and I do the best I can do in judo and I get successful competitively, I can do this. Or even if you don't, you can still do it. You too could have a dinner per se for $700 a plate. If you do judo, if you live tile, you know. That's it, that's it, 100% man. All right, so what is your big picture thing?

Like all right, so let's say you're doing what you're doing for the next two or three years, you're cruising, you have a 500 student, I'm sure you have those little incremental goals and stuff like that, but above and beyond that, you know, five years from now, what is the big picture? I hope, and I, you know, that judo's a part of that, obviously, you know, and it probably will be, right? So what is your big picture thing with the big picture? I hope, and I, you know, that judo's a part of that, obviously, you know, and it probably will be, right?

So what is your big picture thing with the judo? I want to, now I'm at a point where I wanna provide, I wanna provide opportunities for the people underneath me. So my instructors, I have a really good core group of instructors, a lot of them are young in the game, they're coming up through the international ranks. I wanna, I want them to, I want, you know, to create a plan where I can open up

schools for them or I can partner with them to open schools and give them the curriculum. But first I have them teaching under me, I kind of train them. And then, hey, when you guys are ready, when your career is done, or when you think you're ready to open up a school, we open it, we go north or south, wherever, and I help you guys open a school, I partner with you guys, and that's it. And then you guys can do your own thing. But I wanna provide these opportunities for these guys to grow judo within the country,

and I think that's my calling. I'm doing all I can, but I can only do so much as one person. But if I can create a group of like-minded individuals underneath me, I think that would be huge. I love that idea, man. And then you know what, you partner with them, that's the key, not just taking a royalty. I'm sure you'll do your best to help them succeed.

You know, it's not like a lot of these guys have the mentality, this scarcity mentality of like, oh, if I build this guy up and he opens the door, so I'm building my own competitor. And you know, it's kind of true to a certain extent, but you know, if you're partnering with them and helping them succeed and you know, you're involved There's really money for everybody, you know I think there and that and that's what you just what you just said

I think there's enough for everybody to eat and I always say, you know, um as far as competition is concerned. Yeah, I Anybody that wants to that opens up if you open up a dojo down the street or whatever, that person is going to, it's probably gonna, it's gonna grow the sport, no matter how you look at it, that person is gonna, you're gonna get more people involved in judo, and if you are good enough and you believe in yourself and your product, you value your product, either way,

if that guy opens up that school, I'm gonna get a little bit better, I'm gonna get a little bit sharper, I'm gonna probably work a little bit more because that's competition and it's gonna make me become a better person I'm not gonna hate that guy for opening up. I'm gonna say okay How can I make sure that my product is so solid that I'm not gonna lose any students this guy or I can continue to grow Despite him being in my backyard. That's more of the mentality. That's my mentality. I think that's a mentality a lot of people should take rather than, oh my God, you opened

up next to me. That's so disrespectful. How are you going to do this? We're all going to fail. How would you do this to me? It's weird. It's weird. It's very weird energy. I mean, directly across the streets, a little bit like, yo, why would you open up directly that would be, well, nobody would actually do that But even in the state I mean for example hypothetically speaking, I mean this kid Jackinesca is probably one of the one of the most successful He's the best right now that we have that kids gonna open a dough. I talked to him last week He's going to take over Cranford Dojo or let's just say he went and opened a dojo 15 minutes away from me or 10 minutes away from me.

Good. He's going to grow judo. It's a good thing for everybody. The more young people that we have coming up, opening dojos, it's building the sport, it's growing the community, it's a good thing. It really is, man. I absolutely 100% agree with you, man. And you know, I don't know if you do Google Ads.

You do Google Ads? No, I don't even know what that is. No, ads. Oh, I think you said lads. Oh, yeah No, I don't do Google ads now yeah, no, but you could do like keyword planner to see who's searching what in your neighborhood and all that stuff and You know judo is probably like 1 8th the number of probably like BJJ search terms You know what I mean? Like like we gotta get that up there. You know like the more, you know, we bring, there's people who wanna do Judo,

you grow through referrals, you grow through a great program, people see what you're doing, bring it out on the line and more people start gyms and then now everyone looking for Judo, that's kinda what we wanna do with the programs, you know what I mean? And I think you're doing a great job. That's what we need to do.

That's the only way that Judo is gonna stay alive in this country. It's the only way, but you see why, if Jiu Jitsu is doing this, you see what the Jiu Jitsu schools are doing. And you see it, it's like, wait, if these guys are doing this, why can't we do it? Like, I don't understand it.

But you have safety things that you implement that a lot of the other dojos haven't, correct? Like you don't let white belts do run dory with white belts, yellow belt, yellow belt run dory, you don't let those guys do it, right? So can you give us some of those for the people who are listening who are probably part of a club that they could bring back this information to their gym owners? Or if their gym owners listen to them, what are some of these things that they could do immediately to kind of help their gym? Yeah, I think that you hit it on the head. The biggest thing for me is, again, if I'm providing a positive experience, I can't have

a bunch of people getting injured, right? And I have to make sure that we create a safe environment for everybody. So I don't allow white belts to go at white belts, no yellow belts at yellow belts. White belts have to go with green and above. And my, the way that I teach is control, right? Even when we throw on the crash pad, I'm not throwing and landing on people, doing all kinds of stuff.

If you cannot do a throw without resistance, controlled, then how do you expect to throw anybody clean during randori? And I have a lot of girls that are in my dojo, so I make a lot of the guys, I force a lot of the guys to train with girls, but you, 50% Ronduri, 30% Ronduri, you're not using any strength.

You're using no strength. Your objective is to flow, to flow, to move, and to feel your judo. So I do a lot of that. I do a lot of like 50% Ronduri. I promote feel. I don't want white belts going white belts. I don't want white belts going white belts. I don't want white belts going with yellow belts.

And that's basically how I do it. Yeah, green belt, green belt. Green belt, green belt. But if they're not, if they're the green belt, if the matchup is good, I allow it. If it's not a good, and my instructors know too, so we have monthly instructor meetings. And they know who is not supposed to be going with him So they they will see the matchup

We look at we have two mats and we look before I start the run during round I look at every single matchup and if there's something that I don't like I switch it and that's it There you go. That's very and sometimes people get upset about it and I don't care. Yeah green bug We're not getting in their limitations like no sumi, no tomonage, whatever it is. You have any limitations on techniques that are allowed to be done at a certain level? Yeah, so I allow basically almost all techniques, except I don't allow Taneitoshi.

Under green belt. So, green belt and under, no Taneitoshi. Because people, baseball slide into knees, it's the, in the green belt and under, no tiny otoshi. Because people baseball slide into knees, it's the, other than Osoto Osoto, where two people are putting their feet on the mat, which I hate, and everybody know, if I see Osoto Osoto with feet on the mat, I stop the match and they just go sit on the side.

That's it. And no tiny otoshi. Because I can't have people baseball sliding into people's knees. Wow, where'd you get that? You! Dude, I've been saying this people non-stop, like why would you allow your beginners to do Tanya Toshi on each other? Terrible.

You know, you see guys, I've been to gyms when like yellow belts, like guys fresh four months in are waiting for the guy to turn and diving backwards and then just like wrapping them up. Why would you let them do that? That's freaking crazy. Exactly. You know it's insane It's you have to care about people you have to care about the experience and I lose somebody Eight nine months these guys have real jobs. These are real people. They're out of work. They're not making money Do you think they would ever? They're not of course they're not gonna come back, but anybody asked them about judo. Oh man That was probably the worst decision I ever made in my life

Negative press not that thank you to our sponsors drew Elijah Jason Levan you too could sponsor the podcast our patreon now We're doing chat with me features one-to-one features all these different things so definitely check that out Thank you called him so much for being being here where can these people find you? Cbrown90kg on Instagram and Colton Brown Training Center that's it yeah you're running camps too that's amazing you know no one does that no one does that yeah you're doing something I'm telling you you're doing something for the judo community that no one has done I mean I shouldn't say no one you know know, cuz Jimmy did a lot of stuff. Yeah, that's right. Yeah

But you know Jimmy's old, you know, he's 50 something years old and you know He'll probably you know want to kill me if I if you heard me saying that but like, you know, he's getting older, right? Yeah, he's in the business. I don't think he wants to he doesn't want to do as much of this anymore I think he's easy into the Fuji mats and he's running a really, really successful business. And you know, me and Jimmy work together. So Jimmy sends a team of his guys out of camp two weeks ago. Jimmy sent a big team of I think eight or nine people down. We work together, we collaborate on a lot of things.

I send my guys up to him when he's on the mats. So I think that we need, but we need more people like this. And right now I'm young enough and I have the energy to provide the best possible experience for Those are my that's for my competitors and just for the community as a whole too like I want people we need to network And we need to get in a room together, and we need to grind together And we need to just it's I think it's a good thing for the community, so I'm gonna You know how old are you know 33 Wow young and hungry Oh?

Crushing old Wow young and hungry. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh to Colton Brown. We all have to be more like Colton Brown. I appreciate you.