The Shintaro Higashi Show - EuroTrip Debrief
Episode Date: December 2, 2024Shintaro just returned from an international seminar trip in the Netherlands and Germany. In this episode, Shintaro recounts the challenges of organizing international seminars, navigating new countri...es, and sharing his Japanese-style judo with enthusiastic European practitioners. From the unique Dutch judo culture to logistical hurdles like finding reliable transportation, this episode offers a mix of travel tales, cultural insights, and practical tips for hosting successful events abroad. Plus, Shintaro shares his vision for the future of judo and grappling in Europe. (00:00:00) Introduction (00:00:42) Recap of the trip (00:02:29) Challenges of International Seminars (00:05:12) Navigating Dutch and German Cities (00:06:53) Staying in a Rural Dutch Town (00:08:15) First Impressions of the Netherlands and Germany (00:12:46) Current Status of Dutch Judo (00:15:02) Athlete Development in the Netherlands (00:18:14) Financials of Dutch Judo (00:27:18) Reception of Japanese Judo Techniques in Europe (00:29:14) Insights from Dusseldorf's Historic Judo Gym (00:31:15) The Future of Grappling in Europe If you're in business, then you have customer churn. Whether you're building a startup, growing a mom & pop shop, or operating in a fortune 500 powerhouse, Hakuin.ai measures, predicts, and improves your customer retention. https://hakuin.ai
Transcript
Discussion (0)
So they probably get paid and supported by the government for the Olympic team, right?
Is that how it works?
Yeah, so they have a national team system and Germany does this and most countries do
this, right?
So you're on the circuit of the national domestic level tournaments and then you win nationals,
you do this, you do that, they invite you to come to the national team.
They all have a very similar style.
The cream rises to the top that
big athletic European style judo so all the nuanced little things that I showed
they were like wow you know. I see. And seeing that was like one of the most
fulfilling things that's how I got paid.
Hello everyone welcome back to the Shintaro Higashi show with Peter Yoo.
Today I want to do a little bit of a recap from the Netherlands trip.
I was in Holland for 9 days.
It's wild.
Oh my god.
Oh just Holland?
I thought you went to Germany and stuff.
I went to Germany too.
Düsseldorf.
Yeah it's mostly Holland.
I was based out in Holland.
Okay.
And you know the trials and tribulations of international seminar tour that's what I want to talk about today yeah this was also I mean
I'm sure it was a suggestion from a lot of people but Roger curious about it yeah
Roger from one of our patrons specifically asked for it too so thank
you Roger for your suggestion thank you Roger and thank you to our sponsors Drew
Jason Lavon Judo TV you could use discount code Shintaro the Tokyo Grand Slam is coming up HigashiBrand.com also Fuji now getting into the mix I'll
tell you a little bit more about that I don't have a discount code yet maybe you
could use Shintaro discount code I don't know if that works yet but we're trying to set it up you know
yeah yeah so also sometimes yeah Drew he's one of our good friends he has
something to say for about his business so So you go, if you're in business, then you have customer churn, whether you're building a startup, growing a mom and pop shop or operating in a fortune 500 powerhouse. Hakuin.ai measures, predicts and improves your customer retention. Link in HAKUIN.AI
yes it's got us thriving business so check it out if you need some analytics
all right quick digression are you using the same microphone that you usually use
I'm just curious I am yeah okay why no you sound a little bit different that's
why you haven't heard me talk for nine days and you think I'm sure
I got your voice
Alright, okay. Let's set the scene here. Like how did this even come about? Like I was actually so surprised
I like what your reaches international. Yes. So this is the thing, right? I'm trying to do seminars
We're not trying to do one-offs anymore. I'm not trying to go to one place and I tell people this all the time
Hey, my usual rate is three3,000 for the session,
for the seminar, plus room and flight,
hotel and hotel, right?
Hotel and flight.
So that's been the case,
but I've been trying to stack a few at a time,
like Virginia, I went to Diego Obispo Academy
and then I went to Ari Miller's Dojo.
I try to do two or three gyms back to back on a weekend,
so it's worth my time going and it's less cost of travel for the people who are
hosting me. Yeah because you can kind of like share the travel costs. Yes and I have been
getting overwhelmed with inquiries that I can't even respond to anymore and so
many people are reaching out to do seminars and etc etc so out of the all
that all the freaking leads coming in some people have been volunteering to be organizers. Oh
Yeah, can I organize this tour for you and then get a percentage and that's sort of been the case and this one guy
He reached out to me. He sounded like he really knew what he was talking about
He's done something like this before in motorsports. So then I was like, all right, let's give it a shot, you know
Oh He's done something like this before in motorsports. So then I was like, all right, let's give it a shot. Oh, and he's Dutch?
He's Dutch, yeah.
Oh, OK, OK, OK.
Yeah.
Whether he nailed it was a whole other thing.
There were some things that kind of, you know,
it was the first time.
So we made some mistakes for sure.
You know, there's a couple of people trying to organize
something for me in Canada.
But let me tell you, man, it is not easy for someone to kind of organize something like this, you know, I there's a couple of people trying to organize something for me in Canada But let me tell you man. It is not easy for someone to kind of organize something like this, you know and meet my
Minimums. Yeah, I mean, I mean, yeah, that's uh, yeah
I it seems like that's like a trend because I have another influencer friend and then
Someone contact there's a company contacted her. Yeah, we're gonna have a trip to Korea with our fans
It was kind of like a similar deal like yeah
The problem is you just never know these people right relying on strangers from the internet
And then their initial inquiry of like hey
I want to set this up for you, and you're looking at their grammar
You're looking to see what they've done you're looking to see whether or not that they're capable
They're gonna steal your kidney or something
Yeah, yeah And you know just like kind of competence really you know you're talking to them back or not that they're capable. They're gonna steal your kidney or something. Yeah, yeah. And you know, just like kind of competence really, you know, you're talking to
them back and forth and there were some things that kind of like we never really even foresaw
that, you know, was highly inconvenient, you know, you know what I mean?
Yeah, well, we'll get into that but I'm sure it's like, you know, the first time and you can...
A lot of logistical stuff.
And I gotta tell you, like there things about international travel that's different from the domestic tour.
You know, you're in freaking California, it's not that different from New York.
Yeah.
Right?
But it's a whole other country with a different culture.
Different rules, yeah. Different rules, different traffic regulations and this and that.
It's a whole other animal animal you know what I mean so alright so just kind of give me the list of cities in order like which
cities you went and then we'll kind of go into like the details of what happened
oh boy so I went to seven gyms okay yes I went to Amsterdam Judo Academy Amsterdam
I went to Almere Van Rennensport I went to Harlem BJJ Harlem I went to Almere, Van Rennensport. I went to Harlem, BJJ Harlem. I went to Dusseldorf,
Judo Sports Show Dusseldorf. I went to Alkmaar, Brutal Club Hajime. Tilburg, Unbroken CFA,
which is MMA school. Asen, Judo school Asen. So I literally, it was the most scattered seminar tour.
I picked a central location to stay at and Netherlands is not that big. It's like a three-hour drive across the country
Top to bottom side to side, you know what I mean?
And Dusseldorf is, if I remember correctly, I've been to Dusseldorf in transit.
Yeah, I don't think it's that close to the Netherlands, is it?
It's next, it's next door. Oh, it's next door? Okay. Literally next door. I see.
So Germany's next door and then it was literally a two- drive from the hotel. I see. Okay, okay.
I see.
Yeah.
So we centrally chose the hotel.
Well, I chose the hotel.
Although this hotel, it was in Amsford.
Amsford, okay.
So if you can imagine all the different gyms scattered all across the country, I literally
picked the most central location.
Because I was like, it's going to be convenient to get to all the different gyms but nothing was there was like in the middle of nowhere kind of it was a very cute
town but everything closes at five or six p.m. it's like a rural rural town rural town and then
the king lives there it's called seussed just like right next door and that was really awesome it
was gorgeous but the problem is all my seminars are 6-8. So when I get back to the hotel, there's nothing open.
Yeah, I see.
Literally nothing open.
So that was a huge challenge.
I see.
But there's nothing to eat, even.
Nothing to eat.
I survived off protein shakes, really.
I brought seven days worth of protein shakes that I've divvied up, 50 grams per Ziploc
baggie. My goodness, man.
Yeah, and I drank all of it.
So every night I'm drinking a protein shake.
The room service was pizza.
You could order pizza for room service.
That was open beyond a certain hour.
So I would eat a pizza, a whole pizza by myself, and then drink a whole protein shake every
night.
So the first, next time, just get a hotel in a city, central city.
Yeah, I mean, I like this hotel and
the main reason why I chose it was because it had a full stack gym. I
worked out I lifted every morning I got up and I lifted. Yeah and I came
with breakfast it was a nice breakfast spread but they didn't change the menu
on the breakfast I had the same freaking thing for nine days in a row.
Brutal, brutal dude. Yeah yeah oh my god all right well okay but
besides that it seems like you got to see a lot of the like of the Netherlands
and yeah a little bit of Dusseldorf yeah yeah how was that like did you have you
been to the Netherlands in Germany before no first time first time yeah so
that was awesome you know there a lady, very kind.
I met her in Turkey for the Turkish Grand Slam,
the Antalya Grand Slam, and then she was like,
let me host you, let me show you around.
So I was able to go around the city.
The organizer took me around on the first day.
So we walked around the city for a little bit.
But all that stuff wasn't really coordinated properly
because he was like, hey, why don't you just rent a car?
I was like sure
So I got off the plane and then rented a car, you know, I'm like seven in the morning, you know
But I've never driven in that country before I didn't even have international driver's license. I didn't even know you need
Yeah, you didn't need one. They didn't even ask by the way
You yeah, you're supposed to get it on top of that. Yeah
I mean, it's a problem when you get pulled over I guess and it was like a red-eye flight, you know, so it was like I haven't slept all day
I know the whole night. It's like 7 a.m. It's brutal. It's like 3 a.m. In New York City, right?
So I'm like really tired driving for the first time in Amsterdam to the hotel was like an hour and a half away
You know super freaked out because I can't read any of the signs and even like when they say like take a right at
Utrecht, you know, like U Utrecht is how I would say it,
but the GPS says, oh, right.
Yeah, so it's like, I don't really,
I can't really understand it.
Very, it was really scary.
So then when I got to the hotel, I was like,
listen, to my organizer, like,
I'm not driving to all these locations.
I'm especially not driving to Dusseldorf
at 6 p.m. or 7 p.m., whatever it is,
and then driving back at 10 p.m. by myself I'm not doing it so you're gonna
have to go yeah you know I would imagine like the like the Dutch are known to
have well they're known for their biking infrastructure I'm sure tons of bikes
yeah yeah I'm into urbanism and all that and Amsterdam is like a good example of how a city could be without cars.
And anyways, but I would imagine these cities are connected via rail.
Like was that an option?
Kind of sort of not really, you know, because where I was there was none of that.
You know what I mean? So I think for the little town you're staying at was connected. But okay, I see. I mean, I'm sure there's ways, you know what I mean? So I think for- Oh, the little town you were staying at wasn't connected, but okay, I see.
I mean, I'm sure there's ways, you know what I mean?
But it was really better if he would've just kind of
scheduled, and then you know, when I got there,
I was like, listen man, I'm not doing it,
and then I was like, maybe we'll take Ubers everywhere.
But then it's like 150 euros to get to one place or another
and it would've been too much.
So he called all the hosts of the gyms and be like,
hey man, can you pick up Shintaro tomorrow?
And they're like, no.
So like, it was a little bit of a discrepancy there
that we kind of had to work through.
What did you end up doing?
Well, so he scrambled a bunch of like pick up and drop offs.
You know, after that.
It worked out at the end.
It worked out, you know, after I bitched and moaned
the whole time for like a day and a half
It was kind of being a prima donna and I understand that but you know
I didn't want to drive and get in a car accident. You know, I mean, yeah, I mean you made the right choice
Yeah, but but next time I know where everything is located. Maybe I'll do a west coast
Dutch tour where it's like, you know Harlem's over there, you know, I mean Amsterdam Rotterdam
It's all like centralized so it doesn't have to be you know
So that's that's a learning thing that we need to figure out and you could take trains and then someone can pick you up
From the train station or something. Yeah, that could be that could be good too. That's a viable option
Yeah, anyway. All right. So, yeah, we're not gonna be able to go through every single gym. Yeah
Yeah, so just gave us some...
How was it like?
I know that the Dutch are
quite proficient in English, so
you just had to speak in English.
So, everyone starts learning
Dutch, and this isn't an episode
about the Dutch, it's about the Judo over there,
so we're gonna get to that, I promise.
But the Dutch, they start off speaking Dutch in
schools, and then they start learning English, and they get pretty good as time gets going, right?
So what a lot of the gyms wanted some gyms wanted one-hour BJJ one hour judo
Some people wanted one hour no gi one hour gi
So they were kind of able to pick and choose and maybe like three out of the seven gyms were like we want one hour
For kids under 15 and then one hour for adults
So the ones that I did
the sessions for under 15 kids they didn't speak English. Oh yeah okay still
kids. That was a little bit challenging you know. Do you have an interpreter? Yeah just
whoever was in the room because all adults speak both languages. I see I see.
Yeah so that was a cultural thing and listen to this I have some statistics on
judo Dutch judo numbers. Yeah, sure
Yeah, let's get into the meat of it. They said they have about 50,000 registered members
Just registered members and to give you context us has 10,000 and that number never really reflects exactly
How many judokas are in the country, you know, I think in the u.s
The registered members are 10,000 but it's more like 100,000 people practicing Judo.
It's like 10x, that's kind of my magic number.
You know what I mean?
The multiplier, the Shintaro.
Yeah, there's a multiplier that I made up.
So I'm pretty sure Dutch is the same way,
but here's a hard number, 650 dojos in the country.
That's, and then this is like a small state in the states.
It's like the size of Maryland.
Yeah.
So can you imagine 650 judo gyms in Maryland?
That would, Maryland would be a powerhouse.
Exactly.
So that's the thing, you have tremendous volume
of judokas, and most of them are kids.
The average age is very young,
but because you have a very, very large population
of kids doing judo.
And I was over there talking to like locals and stuff.
You know what I mean?
The locals were like, yeah dude,
if you grew up in the Dutch,
you've at least done judo at least once in your life
if you're a Dutch guy, if you're a Dutch adult.
Which is an amazing thing.
Could you imagine?
Every single adult in the US have done judo once an amazing thing if could you imagine every single adult in
the US have done judo once in their lifetime could you imagine that it's kind of like that like Korea
is like that with Taekwondo I did Taekwondo growing up and every boy kind of does it you know it's
like that yeah it would be the equivalent of saying like all right in the United States every adult
has done martial arts martial arts at one point in their life.
So it's like kind of like that.
So tremendous number of people that I think specifically that the level of Judo was very technical.
It's not like it was in Japan truthfully.
Yeah.
And the Dutch would appreciate it because they're very direct people, right?
Yeah.
I thought that really cool.
Yeah.
I've always heard that. It's true. cultural thing, but it's really true, huh?
Absolutely true, dude.
Very direct, very blunt, right?
Very blunt, very straightforward, you know.
Hey, Shintaro, how was your trip?
Oh, very good, very good.
How are you doing?
You know?
And they're like, oh, let me tell you about my problems, you know, this problem, that
problem.
But overall, they literally give you like the
soup to nuts on what's going on in their lives, which I thought was like wow.
They will probably appreciate your honest feedback right now about their judo technique
level. So there's like a huge kids population, but then I mean, the Netherlands have always
produced good judo athletes, like what's his name, the one that beat the Japanese champion back in the 60s.
Yeah, Van de Giest. Oh, no, that was Anton G-Sync.
G-Sync, yeah. So they've been always around. So you think that's because the foundation is so large and strong. I think it's a numbers thing first of all,
how they're successful.
And I also think that it's just, you know, big strong guys.
The average Dutch height is like 6'1 or something
like this for males.
I did hear that the Dutch are the tallest people
in the world.
Tallest people in the entire world.
They're like 6'1, 6'2 average height.
You know, there were 12 year old girls taller than me
over there.
And every single gym that I walked into I was seven for seven. Okay this is like
every gym I had two experiences that were identical. Number one, oh my god you
know you were much shorter than I thought. That's the first one. And the
second one was like oh my god your judo is amazing. Can you please come back next year? So very, very positive feedback.
Very exciting.
Judo should be free is their mentality.
Oh, interesting.
So these local gyms are not privately owned?
They are privately owned, but for very little money.
And so majority of these gyms have instructors
that are on a volunteer basis.
Right. And who funds the whole thing? The government?
No. So, the main gym, the majority of the gyms, there's a lot of different types of gyms that
can happen, right? A lot of these gyms are sort of non-profits that like go to elementary schools
and set up the mats and have a space in there and that's one portion of it
there's like a lot of gyms like that and another gym is like
Partners inside like a gym so like a guy privately owns a massive facility that has crossfit kickboxing and judo
But most of the gyms that are privately owned listen this really awesome You walk in and there's a cafe slash lounge area.
It was like a coffee, it looks literally like a restaurant.
And it has screens to show what's going on
in the swimming room, the judo room, the weight room.
So they can watch their kids take lessons and stuff.
So I was like, wow, that's really cool.
Your daughter could be swimming,
your son could be doing something else
and then you could just be kinda hanging out
in the lounge or lifting weights. Oh, so you don't have to ice it. But they're not used to paying big money for gym
memberships like in the US. So judo is like 40 euros a month. So but that okay
this is interesting because well first of all let me ask you this the pet do the
parents that don't take judo pay like the base membership to these gyms
Probably yeah, so it's like 200 and then one month. I don't I'm throwing out the number 40 euros a month
Oh the hope for the whole gym
Sometimes it's for the whole gym. Sometimes it's for judo only, you know, but they're not used to paying a premium for judo
So then but it's interesting because you are a big proponent in the in America
where you gotta charge like the premium for judo for your quality of instruction so yes and then
people need to become full-time so why do you think the Dutch could pull this model off?
just volume just volume of kids and the thing and then there's a
number of people who are willing to volunteer for the programs and you know if you're on a
volunteer, if you could find a lot of volunteers you know it works itself out because like just
everyone's teaching judo but the quality of judo it doesn't get very high right for instance I was
asking those guys like hey man do you guys do seminars? They're like, no, we never do this stuff.
I was like, there's no seminar culture.
Like you guys have like Roy Meyer, Hank Rohl,
Al Kohl and Dennis van der Gies.
Those guys don't do seminars?
And they're like, no, they're too expensive.
We can't afford them.
Yeah, and so then they probably get paid
by, supported by the government for the Olympic team, right?
Is that how it works?
Yeah, so they have a national team system and Germany does this and most countries do this, right?
So you're on the circuit of the national domestic level tournaments and then you win nationals, you do this, you do that.
They invite you to come to the national team and then they're like you accept.
Now all of a sudden you live there, their full time and all your travels paid for all
Your things are paid for this compensation etc. It's that I'm depending on the country
Yeah, but he's they know I don't want to live there. You're not on the national team. You can't compete internationally
Yeah, no, I see so there's all these guys who are like for instance one of the guys who taught at the gym
You know, I think it was ackmeyer or something like this. He was like, yeah, you know
I'm gonna fight in the Dutch Nationals next week at 100 you know if I
win it maybe they'll invite me to the national team right now I'm a contractor
you know but I'm gonna give it a shot like yeah they're all grinding you know
they're all the kids they spend their whole lives doing judo and that's kind
of the dream to make it to the national team and then now all of a sudden you're
on the national team you're going international and you're living
and living and breathing judo.
So getting there is the first step.
And then once you're there,
now you wanna try to make an Olympic team is the next step.
But then that thing is separately funded, you know?
So there's enough kids that see the vision,
see the big dream, there's a pipeline, right?
You got all these kids across 650 gyms doing it.
Tons of kids, lots and lots and lots of kids. They all to be a champion they all want to make it to the national team and
then once they get there they want to be Olympian so they see sort of the path you
know. But like I said the economics of it you know judo should be free judo
should be universally accessible yeah you know and that kind of made me a
little bit sad you know because it's like all right why shouldn't these guys
after their champions have a career injury though where they could live and
Make money doing just that, you know, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, so I'll argue this everywhere. I went, you know
And what how do they take it? I mean they're like well, you know, it's martial arts should be free
It's good for the soul. It's good for the humans. We want to we should volunteer
You know, what do you think and I was like honestly, man I you know, you guys are all Dutch so you could you know
Take it bluntly like I disagree with that
I'm making a living doing this, you know full-time. This is all I do
I you know, it's not all I do but you know majority of my income comes from this and I could dedicate
Majority of my time teaching judo spreading judo talking about judo and you know helping everybody really.
So I think we need more guys you know like me not in like an arrogant way but like more full timers
if there's more money in judo there'll be more full timers more people focus on it and more it'll
be better for everybody. I think it's a it's an interesting contrast because yeah they're taking this, I think it's almost like this grassroot kind of thing
where like for example in Brazil like with soccer, they don't,
Brazil doesn't have this crazy football academy system like they do in Europe
where they like basically grow these kids up since they were like a little
into professional football, soccer players, but there's just so many where they basically grow these kids up since they were like a little
into professional football, soccer players.
But there's just so many people who play for free
on the street.
They naturally produce these amazing talent.
Not every Brazilian person
is a professional soccer player, right?
But there's enough people that you can take the top
of the top. I think the Dutch is kind of the Dutch are taking
that approach almost. Yeah I think so. And then it kind of goes back to what Jimmy
Pedro always says like or maybe you also said it too like you don't need to teach
you don't need to be like like you know how we have trouble all people say oh maybe judo
should be a school sport in America but then we don't have enough judo teachers
yeah so maybe we should just lower the barrier of entry to become a judo
teacher yeah just learn how to do some basic moves and then to teach the kids
they're not gonna be all athletes you know and you know I've been talking
a lot of judo influencers judo power brokers people that are in judo politics
about all this stuff and they all have their ideas right judo should be in
schools judo should be needs to be an NCAA sport judo needs outside money in
this and we need to spend money on the athletes and that no we don't need it in
the schools and all the stuff no we need to do all of those things that's what we need to do we do
all of those things right and I think because the US has so it's a bigger
country with a lot more people we can support a lot of these different models
yes we can and Japan's different too because they were asking me about Japan
yeah Japan you don't need to pay for outside instruction.
You do it as a kid, you pay for a dojo.
It's very, very cheap too.
It's like 20 bucks a month.
But the idea is get them good enough so they could go to a good judo middle
school and a high school to go to school.
And they have the high school systems, the university systems.
And then there's a professional league that these corporate guys shell money
out for.
So now all of a sudden you fight for, I don know a sahi kase or part 24 one of these major corporations
you're a full-time judo professional athlete right right yeah right yeah and
when you're champion when you're like Abe those guys don't get money to go
teach seminars at a gym full of kids and stuff like that they're told to do that
you know they're told what's that. You know, they're told
We even have that guy gunji who's a
Qualified my gym now and he was telling me too. He was like, yeah, man, you know like your coach or somebody high up You're like listen man, you're gonna go to this high school or elementary school and you're gonna give a four-hour seminar
You know, you'll be compensated and it's like money for a taxi
Yeah, and then they take you out to dinner afterwards. So you can't really make money doing that.
There's money elsewhere if you're on a pro team
that the corporation's paid for
and yes maybe the government helps you
but it's not really a system
where you're doing seminars for money.
I see, I see.
Which makes it not such a good market
for judo clinicians to
come in and do seminars like this. You know what I mean? Because people aren't
willing to pay for it and people haven't paid for it. And then the clinicians, there's no
incentive for them to kind of refine their teaching methodologies and stuff.
Exactly and that's why when I did these seminars in Netherlands it was a
learning curve because a lot of parents
who have kids who are YouTube fans who have seen me,
the parents are like, wait a minute,
we pay 40 euros for three months of judo,
we're not paying 100 euros to see Shintaro,
so we couldn't charge that.
Yeah, oh, I see, I see.
So we had to give like all these tiered pricing
and at first my organizer was like,
hey man, you know, what do you think about this pricing,
that pricing, you know, I know the market
a little bit better than you, I was like, go run it.
And I just gave him a net amount.
And I was like, you know, nine days of my time
in another country with the opportunity cost,
I won't walk away 10 grand.
Yeah.
That's what I, we were nowhere near that.
Just make it, he's like, what do,
whatever you gotta do to make that happen. That's what I said. And were nowhere near that. Just make it. He's like what to whatever you gotta do to make that happen
That's what I said. I was like and then you know, that's why you gotta charge hotel flight all the stuff
Separately and then split it amongst the gyms. I see but and that's where he dropped the ball a little bit because
You know, I wasn't met my I see. What is it? My nut wasn't met. Is that what?
What's the proper terminology for that your
your ass thing wasn't matched yeah I don't know so anyway I was a little bit disappointed with that
but I still did walk away with some you know and it was kind of a good learning experience and
you know you really have to know your you know market and I was very surprised that the adult
sessions were very well attended very well attended and these guys were blown away because they never
seen anything like it they'd never experienced it they don't know what it's
like they've never had a Japanese sensei there's not a lot of Japanese influence
over there for some reason I see they all bow they all speak the judo language
but there's no Japanese sensei that moved to Japan that lives there and teaches their full-time
You know anywhere you go all my sensei was Japanese. There was none of that. I see you know they all have a very similar style
You know the cream rises to the top that big athletic
European style judo so all the nuanced little things that I showed they were like wow
You know I see and seeing
that was like one of the most fulfilling things that's how I got paid
that's worth all your trouble yes so if you guys are listening if you guys want
to be organizers there is an opportunity for you to help me plan out some of
these seminars work with me you know please be smart and competent, that's like my number one thing.
Make it worth your time and while.
Yeah, let's both make money is kind of my thing.
That way we could have a long relationship with future bookings and this and that.
You always want to find good people to work with.
Look at you.
Well, thanks for that yeah well anything else you notice
like it's just take away Germany has a very good food culture oh yeah I was in
Germany for one day and then the food was spectacular the Dutch were like you
know oh we don't really have a good food culture we don't have a lot of native
cuisines so it was kind of a mishmash of random stuff and then you know the hotel
I was staying at the food was like you know so so so I didn't love that but you know I ate a lot of snacks, souped waffles and uh
people were very kind. Oh yeah the challenge the challenge. Yeah I got roped into that one. Um you know what you
have in Dusseldorf like you have some uh bratwurst and currywurst. I like uh I literally had a bacon cheese burger.
Bacon cheese burger? It was so good though it was really one of the best burgers I've ever had. Did you I literally had a bacon cheeseburger
It was so good though, it was really one of the best burgers I've ever had. Did you have some beer local beer? I'm not have beer. No. Oh, yeah
But the the judo school that I was in yeah in Dusseldorf judo school
Dusseldorf was awesome. They've been running the same gym right owner since
1940s.
Goodness.
The guy gave it to his son who's 60 and he's still running it.
And they got 700 members there.
Just like active members?
Yeah, and it was like a Kodokan. It had three levels.
Three floors of dojos.
Wow, that big?
And that's all they do. They teach Japanese Jujitsu, other martial arts too, but it was like majority is Judo.
And it's like they had three dojos separated for kids
So like you go there four o'clock
It's like all right the you know five to sevens are on this floor
There's seven to tens are on this floor
Then the teenagers on the top floor and then when they clear out there's a whole new set of kids coming in whole new adults
Coming in they're moving locations, but man that was really really cool to see the guy was so nice
Shout out to Elias who's the guy that was like yeah hosted me and then the guy who owns
the gym did you notice any differences between the Dutch system and the German
system I mean only with the one German gym so I don't really know but the
European style I could definitely see like why the Europeans are European and
like do European judo. Yeah I could
definitely completely see that. Yeah just like volume they're physical they're
strong they're big you know they have a very very forceful system. I think so I
think it's a very very untapped market for technicians like me you know who is
Japanese because they love that. So yeah if you guys want to bring me out there
you know you let me know right now And then we'll definitely hook something up. Thank you very much to everybody in the Netherlands
especially Ali on to sort of took me around and she just like had no
Nothing really she didn't organize it, but she was just a student there my friend
She showed me around the town and she
You need a local like that too you do yeah? Yeah, it was amazing, you know?
And I feel like I owe everyone now and, you know,
thank you so much and thank you to everybody in the Netherlands who came out.
And you know, Jiu-Jitsu culture was another interesting one too.
Oh, BJJ.
It's up and coming. It's much smaller than Judo over there.
Which I thought was interesting.
And a lot of the Jiu-Jitsu guys were like,
well, we don't want anything to do with the jujutsu guys.
They definitely hurt us.
You know, so like it was definitely a little bit like back in the day jujitsu-judo relations,
but you know, very interesting to see.
Maybe some cross pollination is in the way.
It is an emerging market almost.
It's emerging dude.
There's going to be some big jujitsu schools that are popping up all over Europe.
I think it's one of the fastest growing martial arts in the world really.
It's gonna be good. It's gonna be good. Looking forward to the future of grappling. Yeah, you're on the ground making it happen.
All right, anything else?
No guys, reach out to me if you want to be an organizer.
Reach out to me if you want to host me for a seminar. Not that this is a huge commercial.
be an organizer reach out to me if you want to host me for a seminar not that this is a huge commercial but yeah there's a lot of seminars coming up you
know follow me on Instagram and stay up to date thank you so much everyone thank
you Peter thank you all right and we'll see you guys in the next episode Thank you.