The Shintaro Higashi Show - Conversation with Tara Sanchez

Episode Date: November 8, 2021

Tara Sanchez, a superstar teenager who's been a member of Shintaro's dojo KBI for a while now, sat down with Shintaro to talk about her Judo journey and other interests. Tara is a smart and hard-working teenager who has had such a positive influence at KBI throughout the years. We hope you find this conversation valuable too! Please support us on Patreon if you can: https://www.patreon.com/shintaro_higashi_show. Any amount helps! Please support Tara's podcast: Everyone's Niche

Hello everyone, welcome to the Shintaro Higashi show with Peter Yu. This is Peter. For this week's episode, we have a special guest, Tara Sanchez. Tara's been a member of Shintaro's Dojo KBI for a long time, and I have had the pleasure of knowing her and training with her. Even though she's a high schooler, she's one of the most mature people I've ever met. She has great work ethics in everything she does, be it judo or academics, and frankly I've learned a lot from her as a 30-something year old man. Before we move on to Tara, I just wanted to briefly mention our Patreon. We now have a handful of patrons, and we can't thank them enough for their support. They're all on our Discord

server where we talk about judo and random things that are going on with our lives and it's shaping up to be a nice little community we recently created a channel there where you can upload videos of you doing judo techniques and shintaro would give you direct feedback just another small perk for joining our community by supporting us please support us if you can and i hope you guys enjoy the conversation between tara and shintaro all right guys welcome back to the shintaro higashi show with peter no it's gonna be with tara sanchez today we have a very special guest so this will be like half video and half audio yeah uh so for those of you guys who don't know tara tara has been a long time member of the dojo right she started here you know didn't start judo

here I'm gonna get into her history but you've been here for how many years um I think five five maybe six I feel like you've been here longer than that no no no no more than six all right so let's get a quick little bio for you right how did you get started in judo so my dad who also trains here sometimes blue he was doing jujitsu um bjj uh and wing chung like way before like i was born and he always tried to like get one of his kids to like do martial arts like he tried to get my brother to wrestling and then my sister to do karate but they all failed like they were like nah yeah none of them wanted to do it and you have a lot of siblings right yeah i have um three siblings nice so finally i was the last one and he was like this has to work and then judo school opened like not that far from where we live

and he secretly took me there he didn't tell me like that it was like a martial arts school because i was like very like girly i didn't like any sports at all i wanted to dance and then he just took me and he signed me up and he made me do it. I was like, I guess I have to. And then I just made friends and it was fun. So I just kept doing it and then I came here. Now you're here, right? Yeah.

So you've been here for four or five years. How old are you now? I'm 17. Nice. And you have a couple of accolades under your belt. I mean, I know this, but the audience might not know. So what are some of your major accomplishments in judo my major accomplishments would probably be like from the years 2017 to like 2020 i was like ranked number two for like the 63 cadet

category bronze at u.s open silver at a couple like summer national tournaments. It's hard to remember because it's been a while since I competed. And then in 2019, I was wrestling city champ in New York City for 138 weight class, 139 weight class. Nice. That's right. Yeah. You have a big background in martial arts now.

Yeah, I guess so. You go for a long time,led a little bit, right? Kind of a weird time now with wrestling in the city, right? Because they didn't do the season this past year, right? Yeah, the past year when I was a junior, there was no wrestling. There was no school, no in-person school, so I had no season. And now when I go back for my senior year, I'm going to be the only one on the team. Yeah, what a weird time.

Yeah, it's weird. But hopefully I do get to wrestle because I want to. Because after high school, I'm not going to wrestle anymore because I'm not going to do it in college. So I hope I get my season. Yeah, sure. I hope you do too. Thank you. You had a little bit of time away from judo because of the COVID situation, right?

And you guys live a little bit further up north. It was kind of challenging, right? So how did you stay engaged in judo this whole time? For the first half of the quarantine in the beginning of March, I didn't really engage with judo at all. I'm not going to lie. And that was because off the wrestling season, I wasn't in a good spot with my judo i'm not gonna lie and that was because like off the wrestling season i wasn't in a good spot with my judo like i wasn't feeling confident and i wasn't like really like um

feeling like good about my judo on the mat and i think the like not thinking about judo for a couple months like it really helped me because now now that i'm back in training i feel like less insecure and i feel less hesitant and um i'm not really, like, the type of person, like, where I can, like, think about, like, one thing for, like, like, like, center my whole life around one thing. I need to be, like, having different, like, creative outlets and stuff. Yeah, you have a lot going on. So, yeah, so I, yeah. So yeah, so since middle school, judo was like my main priority. And I think it was good for me personally to start exploring like the other creative outlets that I really like enjoy doing. And now that I'm back, like now judo is a priority again for me.

Oh, okay. Yeah. I would say, right, if you want it, it's going to be here for you. And then sometimes you want to go out and learn stuff. And, you know, sometimes the parents want like, hey, I want you to be a for you and then sometimes you want to go out and learn stuff and you know sometimes the parents want like hey i want you to be a champ and then some parents do that and then you know it's kind of nice to know right what your background is and what you want to do right so what are some of your other interests in life right now um right now my other interests in life are screenwriting um trying to start a podcast too so podcasting

that's right that's right that's why you're on this thing right yes me me for a little promo yeah little promo we'll keep you updated how do we find you on the podcasting though

um so I'm in the process of like releasing my first episode so soon it'll be available on like

um the regular podcasting platforms such as Spotify um Apple Podcasts and other ones it's gonna be called Everyone's Niche oh okay that's pretty cool yeah the regular podcasting platforms of Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and other ones.

It's going to be called Everyone's Niche. Oh, okay. That's pretty cool. Yeah. Love that idea. An interview style podcast where I talk to people who either have like a really unique interest or have many or multifaceted people who have many interests. And it's a way to have a podcast where it's not like limited to one topic and it really allows for a topic for everyone or the things that people didn't even know they were interested in when they hear like a conversation about it. Nice. That's exciting.

Yeah. All right. So we're going to find your podcast, right? All right. Moving back to judo. It's okay. It's all good. This could be about anything. It's just me and you having a dialogue. So what is it like doing judo in New York City here at KBI? specifically here only nice things KBI I think the thing that makes the dojo like so alive and like warm is the people And sort of like the environment that Shintaro fosters's like it's it's a really safe place and i think that's important because like in in other dojos and and even like in jiu-jitsu gyms or wrestling gyms like

the environment can be very hostile like egos come into play and like people don't know about safety but here at kbi it's just it feels like home not only because i've been here for so long but just because everyone is sort of on the same page and we all have the same idea of us of us wanting to help each other grow and us wanting to keep each other safe and i think having that like foundation like allows for everyone to like really improve their judo in such like a beautiful way yeah it sucks when you go somewhere and it's hostile people trying to you know kick the shit out of you or whatever and you're not feeling safe right then it's like not a are trying to, you know, kick the shit out of you. Definitely. And you're not feeling safe right then. It's like not a good place to learn. You know, I guess some places you can argue like, oh, man, we want to do tons of competition training.

Everyone has to go hard. And that's a whole other subset of something. But like we're not really like that. Yeah. So what's your favorite part of practice? My randori, of course. The second class. Oh, okay.

All right. The second class, specifically tachi waza because nia waza is sometimes a struggle for me but yeah i love tachi waza it's just um to me it's like a puzzle like judo is a puzzle especially like when i came here and shintaro like opened the world of gripping up to me and and gripping is like one of my favorite parts of judo so being able to like grip fight and then now that i'm more comfortable with my judo, really sticking in my throws and trying to finish them. Just putting all the pieces together are really fun because judo is not only physical, it's very mental and it's a very intellectual sport.

It really is, right? And it kind of seems like a gooner's day. Put your hands on the person, try to rip them, slam them, all this stuff. But it's an entire game before the actual techniques are even implemented right so you got like what are some of your favorite throws ochigari i'm right now so it is like what i'm working on um osoto hurray what i'm also like trying to implement more so yeah so there's like a strategy game of hand placement even before you start attacking those things, right? So, yeah, like you said, you know, it's so cool how those things work together.

And a lot of times the beginning part and then the middle part completely gets forgotten about when you're actually learning, right? So that's really interesting to you? Yeah, and it helped me a lot when I started wrestling too because knowing that like it isn't just like throwing techniques. It's more of like a system that helped me like when i started wrestling because immediately especially like during my sophomore year when i had already like learned the basics i was like immediately like right when i started the season what's my favorite techniques like how do i get in those positions and so i started building a system to help me and once i had that system i started like winning matches even against like people who were like a little bit more experienced than me

or when I would fight boys. Yeah, you were wrestling boys all the time. Yeah, I was a lot. I love that. Especially in my sophomore season, I fought a lot of guys. That's its own mental battle too because high school boys, they're interesting. So a lot of the times I would step onto the mat and i can just tell

from someone's like face and their like demeanor and the way they looked at me like they knew that they kind of like had the upper hand and they were going to beat me but i was like don't underestimate me i have like a lot of grappling experience that's right you beat a lot of those yeah i did like i um people who if we were like evenly matched in experience, like in wrestling experience, I usually won because of my judo experience. That's right. That's great. That's great. In wrestling, they call it hand fighting.

Yeah. Yeah. So what are some of the contrasting things about wrestling and judo that you find? Because you are now experiencing two grappling arts. Yeah. So one of the differences that made me like wrestling a lot was the fact that in high school it's um a team sport even though it's like individual there's that whole team aspect yeah and for me personally it's a big part yeah for me personally and for like a lot of

judokas when you go compete like you don't go with like a huge team some some people do but go compete like you don't go with like a huge team some some people do but i've always kind of like competed by myself or with a small group so having that experience of like being with like people my age especially because like there's a lot of older people here at the dojo and i'm one of the younger people so having people my age and having the team aspect was really fun to compete with but with um with judo like um shintaro really implements that intellectual thinking that I guess wrestlers in high school don't really think about because it's such a short-term, hot season. And most people don't wrestle that seriously in high school.

In the city, especially. Yeah, in the city. We're not talking about Pennsylvania. No, no, no. Yeah, that's different. We're not talking about Pennsylvania. No, no, no. Yeah, that's different. In the city and from my school, too, because we had a small team, it wasn't something that was, like, that expansive. It was really, like, just here's the basics and here's what you have to do

to win rather than the way Shintaro teaches of, like, here's how to keep training for a long time and keep yourself safe. of like here's how to um keep training for a long time and keep yourself safe and like just the overall like um intellectual nature of like winning and the puzzle that we were talking i was talking about before i mean when you only have three months for the season and then people who are walking into the room or most of them are beginners they're not an experience like all right here's a double here's how to defend it here's a single you're dependent here are the positions okay let's just kind of practice get in shape and then let's throw you out there right so it's a single, you're a defendant. Here are the positions. Okay, let's just kind of practice, get in shape, and then let's throw you out there, right? So it's a little bit of a different feel.

I hear what you're saying about like the camaraderie in the schools, right? Because, you know, you have a school, high school, and not all those kids come to judo, right? But like if you're in high school,

it's like, hey, I saw that kid in math class. I put him in a headlock. And then in math class, and then I go to wrestling, and I put him in a headlock again, right? It's like you're around them all day. It's like naturally, right? hey you know like you're in social studies something like oh you want to do wrestling today right yeah it was really fun because i would see like my teammates yeah in the hallways and then a lot of them were upper

classmen so i was like kind of cool for having like upper classmen yeah like friends and you know we would hang out after practice sometimes it's just you don't really get that with the judo experience because you train and then everyone goes home. Everyone has to like work the next day. I remember that exact same thing in high school, too. I was a freshman walking onto my high school team and then there were seniors that were really cool, but I would like, you know, do well against whatever. I became friends with them and they were like you could leave campus for lunch when you were of a certain age but when you were a freshman

you didn't have a car in the suburbs so like the senior would be like hey man you want to go get something to eat it's like

okay and then my mom's like never get into a car with a kid never get into a car with a teenage driver you know don't get in the car

and it's like alright I'll get in the car with you and then we'll get like burgers for lunch or something you know like pretty cool thing

like if the judo guys from the dojo came to my high school to took me out to lunch that'd be a little weird that would be weird what are you what are you doing here you're 26 years old like what yeah pick me up in high school and take me along you know yeah that's a little weird yeah yeah that was that's something that i was really sad missing out on like yeah for sure that that time where like i i wasn't able to like really like spend time with like yeah for sure 100% that time where like I wasn't able to like really like spend time

with like people my age like just even go to school and have those experiences yeah it's kind of

messed up yeah it's like stolen from you but yeah so you're going into senior year

yeah that's crazy I know because five years ago you were here you were like middle school oh yeah

I was like 13 and it's crazy I was thinking about that too the other day I was like wow I can't believe like

Shintaro has known me and like seen me grow like so much since you were like a little kid not even a little kid but like when you were yeah you were 12 or 13

when you were here yeah you know when me and your dad and Kevin and Left Coast we all went to the tournament together

that was fun yeah we went to the US Open yeah we hung out at the beach remember we played football with those little kids on the beach? Yes.

Right? It was a good time. We almost got hurt. Really? Yeah, so we were like running around and remember we were diving for the ball

and there was a little chip. Yeah, it was a good time. Being reckless. I wasn't playing. I don't play football. All right, so what are your favorite judo situations now?

Like, what are you currently working on? Like, what is your mentality when you're coming to practice like tonight like i know you did judo today earlier at noon but you know there were a lot more beginners right so you were kind of like you know i don't want to say babysitting but you were babysitting you were helping right we did a private lesson and you were assistant um but tonight when you go to practice like what is going through your head like what are you like what i want to work on today so um what i've been working on recently is um my techniques against lefties because lefties are always a challenge for like righties because i'm a righty so getting in that

position where i have the good inside grip and then you like inside position yeah like inside position especially like here at the dojo like a lot of people are taller than me. So it's hard to get the outside position or like the high grip. So staying inside is where I'm comfortable to do like turn throws and ochi gari. So right now I'm working that system you showed me where you're attacking the near leg like ochi, uchimata, but also attacking the far leg with sotogari. And kind of what I mentioned earlier overall what i've been working on ever since i came back was staying in my throws and committing because before the pandemic a really big issue i had was like when i'm in good position and even when i did attack i didn't really like finish my throws or like stay and stay committed so now when i get into a position and i know that i have that i have a um a good

spot and a good space to go in i stay in it and i keep going not no matter what because i don't want to hurt anyone but and i want to stay safe but i just keep going yeah sometimes you gotta like stay in it and force it yeah force it yeah you know what is also a good one for you like uh you ever have a hard time getting that inside position against a lefty? Yeah. Like sometimes Eugene likes inside, you like inside. It's tricky, right? You ever have that?

Yeah, I do have that sometimes. But more often it is the person going over the back and crushing me. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. That happens. That's what I find happening to me more. Most often, yeah. Yeah, so posting is the best. But when we're both fighting for the inside, it's kind of like a race.

Like who's going to get it first? So what if you get stuck on the outside? You got something for that? Yeah, when I get stuck on the outside, I like to go sumi gaeshi. Oh, yeah. Okay, I know what you're talking about. If I'm stuck on the outside, I like to make sure they don't have a grip on my rappel. I like to have the sleeve and control the back and then go for sumi.

Gotcha, gotcha. You catch the sumi ball. Yeah, fake back, go for sumi. Why don't you go for sumi when you have the inside position? Oh, I've never thought about that. Yeah, but why? Why wouldn't you? Oh, because then they have access to my back.

Access to your back, yeah. Yeah. And they can easily pulse, right? Yeah. All right, so you know what you're talking about. Yeah. So do you, yeah. All right, what about righties?

Do you like going against righties? Yeah. I love going against righties because that's where like my gripping is the best and I feel most confident. So I'm usually in pretty good position when I'm going against righties. I like to post on the lapel, fake to the right with like Ippong and then go over the top and go for like a Soto hara ochi and then occasionally i will reach for that sumi to the left side to like throw them off and then also working um my

one-handed attacks like one-handed taiyo and then from there the sote yeah and right now i'm trying to work with the sote like not just going in for it but showing it and then going to the back or going for the koji nice nice nice which is which has been tricky but it takes it's going to take time i've been talking to greg about it because he's he's kind of slick with it yeah but you know a lot of people have caught on the last few he's not been getting it so it's like yeah that's what happens when someone does something great and it's like we mention it and then everyone looks for it. And now it doesn't work anymore. Everyone's thinking about how do I overcome this?

How do I counter this? That's true. That's where judo is fun, right? Once you use that mindset of learning and using it and thinking about it as a strategical thing. Because if you're like, okay, you have Taiyo, you have a Soto, I have a bunch of throws. I'm right and you're right. Okay, throw it. And together, it's like you don't really know how you got the throw maybe it's a bigger stronger faster maybe it's like I got

lucky you know you can't really troubleshoot the issues right and then if you have an intellectual approach that you're like you do then you can kind of break it down and right yeah think about it what about Nwaza? I laugh because like I really don't have a system when it comes to Nuwaza. I find myself wrestling more than doing Judo. Do you like Nuwaza? No, not really. And I think a lot of that stems from my earlier training before KBI. It was only pins.

And it was not only pins and it was like not really like any submissions so it's been hard for me to like pick up like my Nwaza which is something like I know

I have to work on and it's kind of funny because my dad is a brown belt in Jiu Jitsu and he comes here and he's really good and I feel like

people expect me to be good at Nwaza but I'm not at all so but I feel like ever since wrestling I felt comfortable like with my my hips and staying grounded and pinning.

But of course, submissions is something that... Does he ever show you stuff at home? Like, hey, let me show you this juju. No, it's because he would try to and I'd be like, I don't want you showing me anything. Yeah. Which is my fault. It's funny. You know, it's so funny because sometimes when I was a kid, my dad would come home from the dojo.

Yeah. It would be like 8 p.m., whatever it is, and he's like, hey, I'm home. I'm like, daddy's home. And then my dad's like, go put your gi on. I'm like, god damn it. Right? I was like, oh, man. He's like, dude, what you call me?

He's in the living room. And then you get to a certain age and you're like, all right, so let me show you something. I'm like, I'm good. Yeah, I'm good. Yeah. Yeah. What do you know, dad? Let me show you something.

I'm good. I'm good. What do you know, Dad? Looking back, I should have taken his nirvana advice because he does know what he's talking about. But I guess at the time, I was like, I don't want to hear it, Dad. I haven't seen him in a while. Do you miss having him in the room? Yeah, I do.

I do. It's fun because we'll always give each other snarky looks like, I see you. That's right. That's right. I love that and then usually like when we're um doing like um drills at richie comey's he'll start asking me questions because i feel like he admires like my technique in judo and i think that's nice to have like that bond where we both can like come and do the same thing come and do the same thing admire what we do and have that like i feel like our martial arts experience has really helped formulate a good relationship between us.

Not a lot of kids, especially now, not a lot of teenagers do stuff with their parents. It's true. Yeah, seeing a dad and a kid come in to do a judo class together like it's much more rare than it is common yeah right it's like how many other you know parent child

combos are there in the dojo I mean can you think of any um I mean there's sometimes like dads in the adult class kids are in the kids class yeah but

I can't think of we had a couple that had like to do private miles and his all along yeah that's right they were

you know yeah I guess for a little while. Yeah. Yeah. But I can't think of any besides that. Right. So that's kind of very special for you guys. Yeah, it is. Yeah.

Do you like doing Rondori with him? No. Why not? Because he's so like, he's one of those people where it's like he's so like grounded. He's like such a small, like a short like center of gravity. It's hard. What's's such a short center of gravity. It's hard. What's wrong with being short and stocky? He's short and stocky and it's not fun.

But it is fun because then I can take all my anger out on him. That's true. Yeah. We're always... I feel like we fight more at home than we do at the dojo. Randomly, we'll just start grappling. One time, we were grappling in my mom's room, and I threw him on the bed, and the bed kind of broke. Oh, geez.

Yeah, my mom's not happy about that. I feel like I've never really seen you and your dad do nirwaza in the room, either. A couple times. Yeah. Yeah, but not that often. Not that often. Yeah. You miss it?

Yeah. Having him in here yeah yeah every time you're here with him you're like that you gotta come more often yeah yeah yeah yeah but he he feels more comfortable doing jujitsu especially like with his age that's true he's not even that old though he's not that old but my mom's like you can't be you she doesn't want him to be thrown she doesn't want him doing any Tachi Waza. Is that right? She just wants him rolling around on the ground. I love that because your mom is actually very knowledgeable in the sport.

Oh, my God, no. My mom watches every UFC fight, every PFL fight. She was at every judo tournament of mine, every wrestling tournament. My dad says she's like a black belt in her head. Yeah. Because she's been exposed to everything. And she's so into it she gets so into it she's one of those like judo moms

yeah yeah I remember like there was a tournament and I was like with both of your parents on the sidelines I'm like giving you you're like yeah

let's go Tara and then Blue's like oh nuts you know your dad's going crazy on one side and then you're like ah and like Blue

she can't hear any of the technical stuff that I'm saying there like you know you know chill out just a little bit and then your mom's like on the sidelines

yelling technical stuff like yeah put your left hand down no no he points it out I'm like shoot like she's doing a great job

coaching you and then like you know yeah she knows everything yeah and sometimes like the worlds have happened Olympics have happened she watches all of it

yeah she watches more of like the gym tournaments than I do like she'll she'll be at work and she'll have of like the judo tournaments than i do like she'll she'll be at work and she'll have like her ipad while she's working and she's watching and then she'll text me did you see this fight and yeah that's awesome she even like the people that we know like yeah that we're friends with in the judo community she'll like even like watch their tournaments like she's like so dedicated yeah she's a great scout sometimes yeah right

so she'll go to tournament yeah that like, that person is my after. She's great at keeping me calm and being the person that knows how to support me. That's right. Sometimes my dad can get a little crazy. A little intense. A little intense. He has learned to really be a good support too.

My mom was the really first good support that I had for competition like for competition competition yeah yeah do you miss competition i do i do a part of me does and a part of me doesn't yeah judo competition specifically because i've always had like this mental battle with my um judo competition like like i was talking about earlier like insecurity and like sort of like this pressure to like be really good and to really succeed. And I don't miss that part of it, but I do miss like just being out there and like just going for it, you know? There's something really fun, right?

It's like you and a bunch of the kids, not even kids, but like kids your age, right? And then sometimes the adult division and you're kind of there, you stuck of course there's like downsides right kills your sundae yeah right you have to make way you get there it's loud it's annoying you know like oh the guy forgot to put your name on the bracket all these different things that you have to do there and you have the shared experience everyone's like hanging out making joke kevin muhammad's like making you know funny comments about stuff yeah right yeah it's really fun and it's it's a um a judo competition is like it's it's such a weird experience that like you can't like really like um like um stimulate or like simulate anywhere else because it's that like long waiting and's, like, that rush of adrenaline right before. And then it's, like, the Applebee's meal after with your, like, family and, like, your metal. That's true.

It's so weird. And, like, even though a wrestling tournament can be seen as similar, it's, like, completely different. Yeah. Like, it's a lot more intense. Judo is also, there's a travel aspect to it a lot too. Wrestling, like, if you're wrestling in the city, there's tons of tournaments that are regionally done. Like the city pays for it or whatever it is. Right, all these different things, you know, like PSAL.

Yeah. But like judo tournaments, a lot of times we have to travel, right? Yeah. We've been to Florida. Always in Florida. What's up with that? Yeah, Florida. Like even if you make it like international, international, which is fun, too.

Yeah. I've done one of those. But, like, wrestling tournaments, they're so intense. There's so much screaming. In judo, it's calm. Wait a minute. There's no screaming in judo tournaments? No, there is.

There is screaming. But in wrestling, it's just a lot more screaming. It's a lot more screaming than like people walk on the mat with their shoes too. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's nasty. That's like frowned upon. Yeah. In judo, it's like you can't do that.

There's like a lot of etiquette in judo that there isn't in wrestling. It's true. It's a little grittier. Yeah. Yeah, grittier is the word. Yeah. But, yeah, judo tournaments are fun, and I do miss them a lot, and I do want to get back to them. I just think like right now is not the time for me. Yeah, yeah yeah judo tournaments are fun and I do miss them a lot and I do want to get back to them I just think like right now it's not the time for me

So what about the judo tournaments like do you miss the most right now I Miss like the matches like I mean I right now I'm at the spot where I'm in the back of my head I'm thinking like if I go to a tournament, what is my judo going to look like? Because it's been so long. So I kind of want to be in that spot after the tournament where I'm watching my match back. And I'm seeing everything that I've worked on coming to fruition. And everything that I've been practicing being executed. It's nice to be able to display your hard work.

Yeah, it really is. This is my craft. This is what I've worked on. You're doing your gripping, you're cutting it, you're moving, you're hitting the tile. It's fun. It's fun. It's really fun.

You're on the ground and doing the wazza. Looking up at the graph like, come on, get those feet, right? Yeah, and it's weird because I wouldn't say I'm a generally aggressive person or a very... Calm demeanor. Yeah, I would like to think that I'm calm, but being in a competitive match is that time where you can be that person. You can be aggressive, you can be tough. True, true. Who's your favorite training partner in the room, aside from me?

That's a hard question. Right now, I guess my favorite person to do a match with would probably be H like he even though he hasn't been here that much because we I like going with a person when we both know like what our systems are yeah because then you have to be creative interesting different ways to like overcome that and me and he and have like we fight each other a lot for a long time because he's been here when you saw the stats like what his style is

like what he's built his life yeah he were about the same size and height and around the same weight and but he's like really strong he's like very athletic yeah and he really likes like a punk senagis and korean senagis and all that like that one-handed judo and we're both righties and then he's good at getting to those positions where he can use those ipang senagis and kata gurus right so yeah so we both we both know our systems like he knows my system yeah so it's always like this battle of like who's gonna get there first or who's gonna be creative enough to like go around each other. Are you trying to put two hands on and he's kind of trying to do more one-handed stuff right? Yeah. So it's like one hand versus two. You want to put two hands, you want to stay one. He's always grabbing the lapel and I'm always like I'm aware of the lapel and I'm like I know it's coming.

And sometimes he'll go for it and sometimes he'll go the other direction. And that's the game of who's going to be more creative, or who's going to be faster, who's going to get there first. Do you have any secret things you're working on to follow? I guess sometimes my Morote. Because if I get the lapel first, and if he doesn't have a lapel, I can just... When I get into the Morote- marotte sanagi position um with him um position with him i i can like stick it and i can land it nice nice nice yeah that's what's up all right so who's second on that list second on that list

i feel like second on recently i would say greg because yeah he has he's been doing like a lot of like interesting things yeah he mixes up yeah and it's it's fun to go with because it's like i was like he always throws something that you're not expecting and he's also like a lot stronger than me so it's it's interesting to see like going with someone who's like a lot stronger than you like you have i guess, I guess it's, like, I have more capability to, like, be aggressive. Yeah. Because if I'm going with someone who's evenly matched or, like, we have a big weight difference, I'm not going to, like, go full force. But with Greg, I feel comfortable to, like, go more all out.

So it's nice to go with someone who's like who can take that like aggression yeah what are some of your pet peeves in like the judo room like in practice when you like just um i guess for me as a girl doing judo like a lot of my pet peeves stem from like the gender dynamics that i face like i find especially with my age too like being younger like the age and the gender i find like a lot of the time not a lot of the time but like there will always be like sometimes like one person or like a few people who i feel like speak down to me or like oh you gotta tell them tell them you gotta tell me or like who like speak to me in a certain way but i feel like you've done like a really good job of like yeah I try to like not let that

happen ever right that it usually happens with like um people who are like not from here like come visit good good good save yeah like it's not usually like the people like here especially like people know me and they know what I'm capable of we do have guests yeah a lot of people come in drop by and they don't know any better. Also with guests too, like, especially if someone is like, they outweigh me a lot and they're like just going like full force. Yeah, yeah, throwing their weight around. It's like, what are you doing? You outweigh me by 60 pounds.

Yeah, that's definitely a pet peeve. But yeah, that would be like, sometimes egos too. Like, I don't like when someone is fighting with like a lot of ego and they feel like they have to like, they have to beat me or else like something is going to happen to them like they're going to be the worst judoka in the world like i like to fight with someone who like it's okay for them to be like taking down it's okay for them to be in a losing position because being in those bad positions getting thrown is like yeah yeah that's how you work to your better yeah the ego stuff and like not wanting

to lose every match that's a problem right then you don't get any better it's like you want to be able to get put in bad positions

like oh out grip me and then try to work myself out of it if I'm doing a good enough job of putting myself in a bad position

doing defenses from later stage defenses like for instance you have a deep Osoto from an overhand grip that's a bad position to be in if I let you get there a bunch of times you're going to catch me one of these times right some later stage defenses, like for instance, you have a deep Osoto from an overhand grip, that's a bad position to be in. If I let you get there a bunch of times,

you're gonna catch me one of these times, right? And then, that's how you get better at that position. Like spit out a bit or whatever. If you're never putting yourself there, you're never gonna get better. Exactly, yeah. So this is a very good point. What are you working on tonight specifically?

Let's see, what I'm working on tonight. I really, because I was training, I'm doing Uchikomis earlier for the lefty stuff, so I'm gonna practice that. Yeah, so I'm gonna try to pull a lot of lefty state if there's a lot of lefties, because sometimes they can be sparse. So if there's lefties like Gianni, Kevin, I'm gonna go with them. I really practice that. And especially with, I don't like with Gianni, he has like, Ochi. So I like, yeah I like to like, I also like Ochi a lot, it's like from both, when I'm both fighting like righty and lefty, so I want to practice that like circling, getting the- You should ask him how he does it, because he does it like two or three different ways.

Yeah, I know I see it. I'm watching him. He goes this side, that side, he cuts hard and then he goes that way, goes that way and then he cuts hard. Sometimes he goes from the sleeve and then just dives in really sneaky yeah their matches are interesting yeah George is like tall shorter left Ochi so we'll keep the lefty thing today yeah not teach something like that okay thank you yeah so what's next for your life like what is going on in your life like what do you want to do in my life okay so i'm going to

be a senior so that means college application that's what i'm like focusing on right now i want to stay in the city you know i want to be close to the dojo close to my family and i guess like for my future like what i see myself like doing in the future like I do want to be a teacher I want to teach yeah I want to teach English I really I'm invested in like the education system specifically in New York City um and but I also have like this passion for like movies and screenwriting that I'm like learning and I'm getting to like I'm teaching myself because um maybe you can be a teacher and then make a movie about yourself yeah I guess um um yeah so that's that's what I'm like looking forward

to um like career-wise and like just I guess right now like short term enjoying my summer because COVID was like a rough time for everyone so just finally having the time to like do stuff and like be outside and train like it's really what keeps me like grounded and centered right now so nice that's exciting yeah exciting thank you so much for doing this podcast thank you for having me yeah i hope uh you know people reach out to your podcast now you can have all my listeners go to your thing yeah my podcast isn't going to be

like mainly grappling judo or like wrestling center but there will be something like in the future

for everyone as I continue to like can I be on it yes of course Tara is definitely going to be a guest yes

we're going to talk about all all the stuff that you like and all the stuff that you like and all the stuff that you've dabbled in oh yeah and a lot of stuff yeah yes you're like the perfect guest lots of weird interesting like hobbies yeah yeah well it's not getting too deep into that now so find you on Spotify what should they search for everyone's niche

everyone's niche that's a really that sounds very interesting yeah thank you very much thank you thank you guys

for listening too thank you bye