The Shintaro Higashi Show - Contextual Grappling

Episode Date: October 25, 2022

Shintaro is back and we're back in business! In this come-back episode, we go on a deeper dive on a recurring theme on this podcast-- contextual grappling. What does it mean to be contextual when you're grappling? Take a listen to this episode to find out! Please support us on Patreon if you can: https://www.patreon.com/shintaro_higashi_show. Any amount helps!

Hello everyone, welcome back to the Shinto Higashi Show with Peter Yu. Finally, me and you, we're back together. Schedule coordinated. It's been a bit. It's going to be a quick one today. But we're going to talk a little bit about contextual grappling. Context of grappling. Context is everything.

Yeah. Right? It gets very, very lost in the ether. It's a kind of a complex idea. It's a consistent theme, I think. You always talk about how context yeah how important knowing the context of all the throws and techniques is um so yeah i mean can you first give us like a more precise definition of what that means like what do you actually talk what

are you actually focusing on when we say so yeah so there's a fundamental attacking system right here's an attack this is a move and then everything contextual that's surrounding it so if you watch any youtube video or any instagrammer that's doing judo or wrestling or whatever right here's how you do a double leg takedown here's how you do a taiyatoshi here's how you do a nippon senagi and then you go try to do it and then it doesn't freaking work what happens if the guy does this what happens if this happens what position do i need what kind of setups do i need all those things are contextual because there's a lot of stuff surrounding it right anything that you teach like oh here's a tai otoshi this is how you do it and the person resists it doesn't work man it's like of course it doesn't work because anything that they know is coming can be anticipated with the

defense right right right and then this is a good one because it's such an esoteric thing with the Because anything that they know is coming can be anticipated with a defense. Right. Right. Right. And then this is a good one because it's such an esoteric thing with the grappling and the throwing. Right. But if you look at punching somebody, we all know the straight right hand works. Right. Okay. Come on.

Hit me with a straight right hand. And they throw the right hand. You just move out of the way. Oh, it doesn't work. It freaking does. You just know it's coming. Right. You set it up with a feint. You set it up with a jab jab you jab them to the stomach first and they're like oh my stomach and

then you punch them in the nose that's contextual yeah but that's not explicitly taught when it comes to judo or wrestling even right so that's what i'm talking about contextual you think it's because punching is punching is more intuitive kicking kicking and punching, than... A little bit. But I think it's more so that the teaching methodologies aren't really refined, right? And the way the generation after generation,

and even like boxing, a lot of guys just throw punches, and you see the guys who are shadow boxing in the gym who really don't know boxing, they have poor head movement because they're only focused on doing the actual attacks they're just thinking about stringing together a jab across and a hook and a couple to the body a jab jab jab jab you know hook one two three four right that kind of stuff i see right they're not

taking into a lot of stuff like angling off like slipping back slipping to the side ducking reading your opponent like all those things throwing some feints in there, right? Like it is intuitive more for striking, I think, because judo is very, very unintuitive. Yeah, yeah. You're throwing someone from arm's length distance, which is very difficult because you're locked up in this arm's length distance, you know? And the curriculum of judo generally is,

look at how many judo throws we got. Osoto, tai, harai, Harai, Koichi, Sasai. And then people immediately think, oh, I have to learn all those techniques and then see how those two work together. And then the slightly better beginner people will be like, oh, I got to go one to the left, two to the right, forward, backwards. Now I have five techniques going in multiple directions. But it's not that simple because there's a lot of other stuff happening here. We're locking up 50-50 because whatever things that I can put together in a combination, my opposition can as well.

So that's what I'm talking about, contextual judo. So I get the idea better if I think about the times when people ask me, like, oh, can you teach me any throw, ostogari or taiyotoshi why doesn't it work like it's such a hard question to answer it's simple to ask but like you said you have to kind of ask like okay when do you try to go for the taiyotoshi like what's the movement very yeah i have a solution to that kind of i don don't teach right, right, 50-50 Osoto. I do sometimes. Yeah. But a lot of the times if I'm actually teaching, I'm like, okay, 50-50 position going for Osoto is difficult. What if the guy goes like this?

What if the guy does this? What if the guy does that? Of course, you're going to be able to do all those things. Yeah. So I say, okay, I have the back of the collar and the other person's lapel hand is all the way down. So you see I'll have disadvantage already. So now I throw myself into this position. You see I have dominant position.

I have dominant position, I'm winning. This guy's already kind of screwed. And now I blast this other guy and I show him. And it's a lot easier to show because even if they know it's coming, it's going to be much more difficult to defend because I have such great position. Right, right, right. And teaching that... Yeah, go ahead. it's going to be much more difficult to defend because I have such great position.

Right, right, right. Is there... And teaching that... Yeah, go ahead. So that's how you simplify things because I was going to ask for beginners it could be overwhelming. Like there's so many things to worry about. Yeah.

Yeah, because when I go right versus right teach Ouchi and two white belts are doing inside trip together. Yeah. As soon as they enter and hook that leg the person shifts their weight back because they don't want to fall. Yeah.

And they all hook that leg and then they're both like, oh, look, it doesn't work. It's just so stupid and simple. Like, I just got to step out of it. Yeah. It's like, yes, you're kind of right,

but you have no idea what you're talking about. Let me show you, right? This dominant position, right, locked in here, maybe even like an over-under with a high underhook and a wrist or like a lapel over a sleeve. And then you pull them in and now they're not going anywhere right

right they just can't go anywhere right i have good position good head position and then i hook that leg and it's like try stepping out of it now that it's going to be much harder right so that's easier to demonstrate they get it now and then i emphasize the importance of hey you have to be in good position or none of these things will work right it's kind of like chess yeah if you're only learning the techniques and putting it together oh this move that move this move that move it's the equivalent of just learning how the pieces move the knight moves like this the bishop moves like that this moves like that and then you can play some tactical stuff yeah right knights here bishops here knight moves out of the way to discover attack all the stuff you can play tactics right right but you're not getting the full picture like your

conceptual stuff like your pieces are developed properly or what's you know this positional advantage these things are just completely taken out of the picture right right right well that's why contextual judo is so important right there has to be attack systems that are there when you're losing position. We talk about this all the time. Sumige Ishii, Tomonage, Drop Senage. That's going to help you transition to Newaza better without the risk of getting bombed. Because you're losing. Some techniques are better from losing position.

For instance, Tomonage. One of the best moves you can do if you're losing position. What if you're winning in position? You have over the back. Let's say you winning in position? You have over the back. Let's say you have Georgian A, deep over the back. Can you go to Monage? No, it's freaking impossible.

Why would you even go for that? You know what I mean? So that's how you teach. Just kind of like show them the, like emphasize being in the dominant position. So then as a student how would you develop the skill how do you get good at being in the right context yeah so that's that's a tough one right there right once they understand that then they have to develop the skill because that

dominant indominant like losing disadvantage advantage is always shifting. Yeah. Right. It's clear when you're playing football, right? Because the ball's going this way, everyone's going this way. They stop and now the other one's going this way. Every now and then a ball's intercepted and they run the other direction.

Oh shoot, the position has changed. It's going this direction. Basketball too, right? It's very clear cut. And judo, when there's no throws being made and they're just fighting for position and gripping and stuff right it's not as clear sometimes so understanding where you are

sort of in the cycle is very important right right and it's not very clear cut once you understand okay dominant position attacks are better losing position these attacks are better it's shifting constantly and then you have to think the attack the person reacts then you gain position you go for an attack he gets out of it you maybe you cut the hand so now you're in a better position so now you're moving all these little things together that you can't really do with just uchikomi yeah yeah right so yes we do this 10 000 uchikomi thing or like a thousand uchikomis a day you've heard this a million times yeah but that's also the in the context of being in japan when you're doing five or six hour judo workouts right you can't do

for six hours straight you just freaking can't you know yeah so they focus on the fundamentals of making each independent technique strong and then they add it into this training right so now all of a sudden you hear this stuff from old japanese teachers you have to do uchikomi a thousand times a day. But if your dojo is only doing Judo one or two hours for practice, that's it. And you're doing it two or three times a week. That's going to take away from everything else. Right, right.

Right? Even though you do have to have the fundamental building block, the actual throw. You have to have that. That's what I would say. Right? But if you have an hour, you have to allocate some to uchikomi nagakomi 3% uchikomi and then all the

contextual stuff in between evenly yeah right unless you want to do judo for 15 years and then take this approach

but the risk of getting injured is a lot high too right so it's a lot of these these things about like oh doing a lot of uchikomis

and then just it's uchikomi and they're like more from the old days in japan because they could just afford to right like a lot of students and a lot of time yeah yeah so like kind of reminds me uh that i think you told me there's like russian wrestling Their style of practice is a little different. It's more, I guess they do more contextual stuff. They like flow rolling and whatever. Yes, so much so.

They do like three hours, two hours, just like light, slow movements. And they don't do a lot of Rondori. Yeah. Preserve their body. And then they sort of put hours in without putting miles on their body. Of course, they're strong and all this stuff. Don't get me wrong. They do hardvandori but they use that kind of a thing to get time and

then develop nuance and feel right if you look at japan it's kind of the opposite you know what i mean they just put in the time used to be not historically not anymore i'm sure these countries are getting much more better you know yeah systemizing training and all this stuff but you know that stuff is very important the context you know looking at the sort of the game as a whole and developing each of those pieces right so now peter you're doing jujitsu yeah all right right right i've been doing yeah yeah you're going into the jujitsu gym and throwing brown belts and black belts all over the place. That's what you told me. Did I? No.

I'm kidding. Put you on the spot. Well, yeah, I mean, the level, I mean, I think that's it. Like what I noticed that because they don't spend much time standing up, they lack the context. So when they would ask me a lot of questions about, oh, you got to show me some moves and throws. And I'm saying, well, I think the better use of time is I just teach you some grip fighting. Because that'll actually...

Oh, you have to do a gi. Yeah. Oh, yeah, exactly. Or I think that's a better use of time than me showing them throws. No one wants to learn how to grip fight. I know, but it's a boring part but that's most expected effective though you know yeah it's true it's true so and then yeah what we're gonna say about this too no so like bjj like if you look at sort of the overall strategical

stuff yeah surrounding and then it's compartmentalized because this throws yeah nirwaza right there's a ground transitional aspect of it and if you go in there and just do nirwaza you have a little bit of a disadvantage your nirwaza is very good right but you're not a jujitsu no no no yeah yeah right so when how can you sort of bridge that gap can you go in there and just start attacking and blasting away foot sweeps and throws yeah you can right but is that really going to do you any good to develop your judo overall or standing not so much yeah but what you can do to sort of immediately sort of expand and blend those two things together is the sort of the in between right when you throw them going into a submission fast because they're

thinking oh shit how did i get taken down here right and they're confused and then when you're able to attack those students consistently right that gives you confidence on the ground and then therefore that parlays into you getting better at the ground. People fear your ground because now, all of a sudden, you're armbarming people off a tile. Right, right. Right? Head pulled down, underhook wrist, right? You hit him with a two-step tile.

Bang. They land on the ground. He's a brown belt or a black belt. Yeah. But as soon as he gets thrown, he's like, oh, shit, what happened? You're already cranking on this arm. Yeah. Yeah, that sparked well for me. Yeah, the Yeah. Yeah, that's worked well for me.

Yeah, the transition. Yeah, you hit everybody there. No. I try. Right. And another thing was, because of the context that I can, I usually end up on the top.

I've been trying to work more on my passes and staying on top. So I guess that's the context too I could I could learn all the guard stuff but in the context of my game, it doesn't really Know it's not really useful Whatever. Yeah, I probably should work on it more as to expand my horizon. But for me the immediate like I Can get so much more by just focusing on the top my top game yeah yeah but you know what you do also you have like a decent tomonage right yeah yeah you don't have like a wide variety of tomonages we have one or two good tomonages

so expand in your tomonage game and then drill it every practice grip put your you can get winning grips every time right yeah so let the guy grip wherever he wants and then try to fake a tomonage coach or whatever and then go for any kind of tomonage and then you can get your stand-up better right and now all of a sudden you're working your bottom game every single get every single time you go for training right right the annoying thing about that is you know you're on the bottom and then people pass you they pin you and you're like god damn it yeah not good for my ego either when i do that it's hard to keep my guard i i usually just stand up nowadays i was like just enough to like get my hip out of there and then i stayed up

yeah we're cheating but um another thing okay so i think it sounds good and all it's the most efficient way of learning judo like learning the context and then drilling it that way but yeah i could see i i think i see this a little bit online too but like you could criticize this approach by saying you're like gamifying judo too much you're like training too much to the rule set or something because the context basically follows the rules you know kind of yeah i mean the rules do fall into this right but a lot of like thrown position being in better thrown position and then if you look at jujitsu yeah being behind this person gaining back exposure taking the back in order to be able to strangle someone better yeah right i mean that's

really the ultimate goal to throw them. Right. So kind of yes, you have a little bit of a point there, but also not really, you know, because you have to be in good position. And if you're bigger, stronger, faster than somebody, you don't have to get in good position. Right.

Think about like you against an eight-year-old. You don't have to do anything. I always make the same jokes over and over. I'm sure everyone's like tired of hearing it. But you take an eight-year-old, forget dominant position, you can literally grab anywhere on the kid and then pull him and then kick the legs out from and over. I'm sure everyone's like tired of hearing it. But you take an eight year old, forget dominant position. You can literally grab anywhere on the kid and then pull him and then kick the legs out from underneath him.

Yeah. Right. But the bigger they get, the faster they get and the more skill they get, the less you could do this. Yeah. You know,

it's like a long spectrum. Right. You know what I mean? Right. Yeah. So that, I see. So you don't necessarily see it as like playing by,

playing, like learning to the rule. Like, I mean, if you're looking at context in terms of like, all right playing by playing, like learning to the role. Like, I mean, if you're looking at context in terms of like, all right, first exchange, I'm going to strip the key,

whatever, go for a bad attack, bring him down, force no waza. Second exchange, I'm going to push him out of balance. Third exchange, I'm going to fake and then make it look like I'm attacking.

So I'm going to give the guy a penalty. Three exchanges. He gets the first penalty. Right. And now I have a little bit of time to burn. Yeah. Right. And now all of a sudden he's trying to catch up And now I have a little bit of time to burn. Yeah. Right? And now all of a sudden he's trying to catch up.

Now he's a little bit tired. Now fourth, fifth exchange. Not much has happened, but you're leading by one penalty. And the other person is a little bit more tired than you. Now you're really playing to the game, you know? And then, yes, you have to have good gripping. You have to have good nuances of transition to be able to play that game, for sure. And that's a little bit more, you know that's contextual also right because we're not talking about osoto tayo all right we're

not talking about any of that stuff right it's almost like and that's a little bit more you know yeah that's like competition strategy and stuff that's a whole nother thing too you know it's like and you could drill some of this stuff too it's like smart to do that meta context the context of the context yeah that's right all the context all the way down yeah yeah cool cool so um let's kind of be more specific like what do you actually do i know you talked a little bit about how you teach and whatnot so kbi how do you structure this type of environment where you

emphasize context so I'll do like sort of sometimes I'll do like attack systems right like okay I'm in dominant position right side versus left side

okay here's Ouchi to Taiyo I go Taiyo this direction I fake Taniya Toshi he pulls the leg back Oosoto so those are just

chunks of attacks right attacking patterns now we drill that people get that down pretty good that's easy to get you're just making shapes with your body

it's no different than freaking dancing literally no difference some people are athletic they'll get it two seconds some people take

the whole class some people never get it who knows and then after that it's like okay in the context of it how do I get to that initial position

put my hand down right versus left he goes down i shut it down he goes to the outside i shelf this hand in dominant position as he's feeding this hand i put all the hand on out of the sleeve now i have two hands dominant position two versus one yeah almost not even two versus one but i'm in good position from here i may fake this way or i may pull this way or i may show us a side and then i could go into my attacking pattern that we did. And we just did Ochitayo, fake Taniyatoshi, Uchimaru, whatever it is, right? So you could choose. So now they see this tree, right?

And if any time when you could troubleshoot it, like obviously it's very hard to troubleshoot it as things are going really fast. But then if you break it down and you could see it conceptually in stages, okay? First hand on, getting the right positioning, right? Anticipating the other person's thing. And it's a sequence of things that happen one after another. They could see the tree diagram. Yeah. Then you could go back and diagnose it.

Why did I get countered when I went in for this Ochi? Oh, it's because you're not in a good position. He knows the Ochi's coming. Right. That's the way you counter someone. Yeah. Right versus right, dominant versus dominant,

like cross, not dominant, but like dead 50-50 right versus right. I know this guy's going Osoto. I'm waiting for it. He hooks it and I rip it. Right.

You can counter in that way. Yeah. Right? So I teach those sequences and then those positions and then blend it all together so now people can drill this whole sequence.

And then you emphasize, don't just look for this pattern because this pattern, exact pattern and sequence events may not happen for you. Right? If anytime you're in any portion of this sequence, something goes wrong and you have to feel it and that comes with experience, then you have to troubleshoot that. Right? Right. Put the hands on dominant position and then he cuts

that hand off and now it's gone I don't have second hand on I'm not going to go into this anymore I have to put the second hand

back on right right versus left I'm trying to poke it looking for the sleeve looking for the lapel and as I'm doing so he's trying to gain

position on the lapel and I have to maybe feiki ponsenage and gain that hand back right so you have to sort of see the whole game not just attacking pieces you know what I mean and then once I gain that hand back. So you have to sort of see the whole game, not just attacking pieces.

You know what I mean? And then once I think that way, and once I show him, and I'm saying this all the time, then little by little get it. And then you don't have to necessarily tell them to do this in Randori. Because they had this mentality,

they will just kind of guide their Randoi they will absorb it yeah yeah so that's contextual judo for you real nice and short and simple

maybe we'll do a part 2 with a little bit more like concrete examples but then if we did that the jiu jitsu and the wrestlers are just going to be listening like

I don't get what he's talking about you know but this applies for grappling too you know but maybe we could do contextual judo

contextual BJJ contextual wrestling or something yeah and then you know this is the thing about context right you have tunnel vision

I'm trying to do this one move they know it's coming it doesn't work so you have to think outside how can I try to disrail

derail right what they think is coming and distract them in order to gain a reaction to get what I want. And that's all contextual, right?

So that stuff comes with experience. You have to kind of have that mindset and mentality, you know, lock it up and just start blasting away. That doesn't work. You know what I mean? Right, right.

Got to be smart about it. Cool. All right. Short and sweet. Thank you guys for listening. Appreciate you getting better every day appreciate yeah thanks uh thanks for all the support i've what are you talking about man i'm just like i'm always on your ass i guess now about the podcast no i'm really it's really

nice to see you all good yep all good you know spitting some wisdom on us you know yep thank you guys thanks and stay tuned for the next episode guys and uh we'll see you soon bye