The Shintaro Higashi Show - Help USA Judo | The Shintaro Higashi Show

Episode Date: October 27, 2025

In this solo episode, Shintaro Higashi shares a passionate call to action for the Judo community: support USA Judo by simply becoming a member. Drawing from personal conversations with key figures like Mac (Team USA medical staff) and Alex Bates (High Performance Committee), Shintaro outlines why membership growth is vital for funding, development, and the future of American judo. This episode is both a reflection and a rallying cry to unify and uplift the sport in the U.S.00:00 How Can We Help USA Judo?01:00 Frustrations With Outreach and Communication01:45 The Membership Numbers Problem02:30 Temporary Memberships and Questionable Metrics03:00 Encouraging Trends and Junior Team Success03:30 Conversation with Mac: The Wake-Up Call04:15 Defending Your Role While Owning Your Responsibility05:00 What Do You Get With a Membership?05:30 ROI vs. Contribution: Why Give First06:00 The Power of 1,000 New Members06:30 Mac’s $20K Personal Donation07:00 Promising Young Team and Grand Prix Results07:45 A Call for Collective Effort08:15 How Supporting USA Judo Could Build a Unified Front08:45 One Small Ask… Buy the Higashi Hoodie09:00 Final Plea: Sign Up for USA Judo Today🚨 LIMITED-TIME OFFER: 40% OFF 🚨The All-in-One Instructional Bundle just got even better.Every major instructional. One complete system. Now at our biggest discount yet.Grab yours now at 40% off : https://higashibrand.com/products/all-instructionalsThis won’t last. Build your game today.🔥 Get 20% OFF FUJI Gear! 🔥Looking to level up your judo training with the best gear? FUJI Sports has you covered. Use my exclusive link to grab 20% OFF high-quality gis, belts, bags, and more.👉 https://www.fujisports.com/JUDOSHINTARO 👈No code needed – just click and save!Links:🇯🇵 Kokushi Budo Institute (The Dojo) Class Schedule in New York, NY 🗽: https://www.kokushibudo.com/schedule🇯🇵 Higashi Brand Merch & Instructionals: https://www.higashibrand.com📚 Shintari Higashi x BJJ Fanatics Judo Courses & Instructionals Collection: https://bjjfanatics.com/collections/shintaro-higashi/

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What's going on, guys? What can we do for USA Judo Period? This is the thing that I've been talking about nonstop over the last couple of weeks. couple of episodes and I've been actively trying to reach out to them and say hey what can I do for you guys how can I offer my services can I platform any of you guys will you guys get on the podcast and talk about it majority of the time they kind of brush me off a little bit and I get it you know I'm online and they kind of are busy with Olympic qualification stuff but I've been desperately trying to kind of give my hand to these people in order to help grow judo

But you know what? There is a issue with my approach, I thought, right? Like, if I'm reaching out and saying, hey, can you platform, can we platform some of the US judo ideas, and can we put some board meeting clips on my YouTube channel, and can I raise fun for you guys, and et cetera, et cetera, it's a lot of work, right, for them to kind of even coordinate, and I'm sure they have 90 million other things that are prioritized.

So my ask now for everyone who's listening, who want to help USA Judo is to sign up for USA Judo membership, period. The number one issue with USA Judo is underfunding, not enough members, members diminishing in terms of numbers. We can help that by growing that number, period. And my biggest gripe during the time post-COVID with Keith Bright

was that I asked him how the numbers are doing, and he said, oh, the numbers are doing fantastic. We went from 7,000 to 11,000 and, you know, whatever amount of time. But those numbers weren't exactly accurate because pre-COVID, they were 11,000, whatever it was. And then it went down during COVID. And now they just rebounded to where they were before. That's not really a, you know, a growth thing. They just rebounded back to where they were sort of default.

And then I also heard that they were doing temporary members to just boost those numbers. So, you know what I mean? not really you know it's not really growing uh but i recently had the chance of talking to alex bates who is working on the high performance committee for us adjudo and he goes no we actually have now 14,000 members so they are trending in that right direction whether it's due to this temporary membership whatever it is i don't really know you know but at least it's trending upwards you know pre-covid numbers are here COVID numbers are here now we're up here so like we're on the right track and our junior athletes are doing phenomenal and i was talking to mac about

this who goes on these trips he's like the team usa doctor that comes on he's a physical therapist does a lot of the you know physical stuff i remember when i was competing he would you know put a cortisone shot in my shoulder or give me you know the stretching exercise or tape my ankles or whatever it was i was talking to him about it and he's like yo we need more usa judo members and i stepped up and said, you know, oh, most of my dojo, 95% of my dojo aren't USA Judo members. And then he was like, how, why? Like, what are you doing? You know, whether USA Judo gives to you or offers you a certain service with that membership or not, you owe it to them because you got your career competing on that circuit, you got to travel the world doing Judo. How dare you not push that? And, you know,

I was like, whoa, whoa, Mac, you know, like, I do a lot for Judo. And I got a little bit defensive. but he's absolutely right you know and you might say like what do I get for that USA Judo membership some you know it's a real thing that can't even be like touch it's like this insurance thing and you know normally gives a shit about that

you know and oh you have to compete in you know USA Judo sanctioned events and point tournaments oh but I'm not a Judo competitor yes yes and yes I agree with you 100% and I agree that USA Judo could be doing more for the members for the

dojo owners, but before I ask them for things, I want to give. I want to help grow judo and I'm going to put money where my mouth is and I'm going to start really encouraging all my dojo members to sign up for USA Jewel membership. What's the ROI on that for these guys that I don't really know, but you know what? It's my way of giving back and I think you guys can give back to and you know if it's $100 for the year, I'm not sure exactly how much it is, but if it's $100 a year and we grow the membership from $14,000 to $15,000, you get a 1,000 new members. It's $100,000 extra dollars that USA judo can have in the funds to allocate to growing the sport. And now all of a sudden, little by little, we could chip away at the problem of there's not enough money in judo.

And that's sort of my idea, right? So if you're listening, if you're a judo player, sign a for a USA Judeo membership. And then if you are a dojo owner, let's try to encourage our athletes to sign up for USAGDUO memberships, even if they aren't competitors. They give out rank, they give out certification, they do all these services. And yes, I know it's not perfect. I'm so frustrated because I took the concussion exam and then I got the concussion certificate and it didn't register and I did the thing. So now my membership is left. It's very annoying. but we still have to do a part let's give to them first

let's give to USA Gito first let's grow their bank account and let's see what they could do with that money to grow this thing you know with 100,000 extra dollars just from 1,000 extra members they could potentially use that money to do certain things with

and that may be able to be allocated to the high performance fund and that may send two more kids to the Olympics maybe right because it takes all these tournaments to qualify, do this, that, gain experience. They send the junior team to Spain. I think Max said he donated 20 grand.

He paid 20 grand out of pocket to sort of pay the hotel, pay the travel costs, buy them gear out of his own pocket. He did this. So if we had that money in the USA Judo account, maybe they could do a little bit more for these young half things. Now we have a great team, I'm telling you, I was just at the Guadalajalachlanpre, and Seminochet did good, Lubamuski did good,

Yang looked sharp. Everybody looked really good. So it's like we do have a bright future in USA Judo in terms of star power and ability. And we have a young team too. Everyone's like they're almost barely junior. They're like 20. Average age was like 20 going through this thing. You know?

So we have to do our part without asking so much from USA Judo. They're underfunded. They don't have enough time. But if we give first, maybe, maybe, right? We do our part. and then they can do their part and then they grow the thing too. You know, so I ask to you guys

if you're listening, sign up for a USA judo membership today. If you're a dojo owner, do your very best and try to get as many people sign up for USA judo today. And maybe if I call them in two months and there's a thousand extra members, maybe they will help me help them. Maybe.

You know, maybe they'll answer the phone call from me. I don't really know. But yeah, that's my new idea, a new thing. I've been getting amped up about it. Mac really like, you know, kind of got in my face about that. And I had to get a little bit defensive. Like, yo, Mac, you know, I do a lot for judo, period.

You know, you was, ah, yeah, I didn't say you didn't do anything. But, yes, definitely a wake-up call moment. We're always asking so much from somebody, give first, you know, like, I try to give as much as I can on my platform in terms of judo information, judo knowledge. And, you know, I don't ask for much, you know. The one thing I may ask is for you to purchase this brand new hoodie from Higashibrand.com.

We're sitting on hundreds of stock. Please order that. That may be my only ask, you know. But, yes, let's sign it for a USA judo account. And, you know, hopefully, right, they can work it out with USJF and USJA. I will love to see them merge and to be a united front for judo period. I would love to be a part of a team that does that and gets them to the goal line of working together unifying. I really don't know how.

Let's first take the massive step of trying to grow USA judo numbers as a collective whole. Go sign up for USA judo membership today. Thank you so much.