The Shintaro Higashi Show - How to Be a Better Grappler

Episode Date: March 8, 2021

What does it mean to be a better grappler? How does one become a better grappler? Is it about strength? Techniques? Toughness? Shintaro and Peter discuss these questions in depth. Please support us on Patreon if you can: https://www.patreon.com/shintaro_higashi_show. Any amount helps!

hello everyone welcome back to the shintaro higashi show with peter yu today we're going to talk about how to be a better grappler yeah and this is an interesting topic and we have lots of lots to talk about so let's first start with the definition what does it mean to be a better grappler better grappler all right so if you're listening to this podcast you probably do judo jujitsu sambo something of the grappling art, right? Wrestling even, right? So that's a little bit different from striking, like kickboxing and karate and all those different things. Right. So being a better grappler as a whole encompasses all the different grappling martial arts, like I just said, right? So going into a dojo, I want to be a great judoka, right? Is a

little bit different than I want to be a olympic level judoka right because all the different rule sets tells you what you can and cannot do so i think being a better grappler is almost like oh i want to be a good martial artist a little bit more generalized so do you are you do you mean that in more of a technical sense like you have to be able to do all kinds of uh submission techniques as well as takedowns or do you it's more of a mindset you think it's a growth mindset for sure it's a learner's mindset right and if you're only playing to a certain rule set it's very restrictive right and then you don't want to be the person policing the rules like oh you can't you can do this you can't do that well you can't put your fingers in here or do that or do this right all right so right you want to be just an overall

better grappler period right and sometimes it is like uh you know learning submissions in a way where you're borrowing from other martial arts and you're trying this and trying that you really want to sort of take a holistic view on this thing right right so all right then in that sense do you think there's a good starting point in terms of which grappling art you choose i mean i'm always biased towards judo right but this is the thing i like judo but maybe judo isn't right for you right knowing yourself is first and foremost right and then knowing what's available to you right accessibility is the second most important thing right you can be like oh man you know uh i really love grappling i want to do bjj but there's no bjj schools in your neighborhood

but your high school offers a wrestling program go wrestle right a hundred thousand percent it's like oh should i drive two hours to a dojo outside of my town uh because i really want to do judo instead of wrestling but my high school offers wrestling but i want to be a better grappler right wrestle right you're not gonna take two hours out of your day and longevity is the key right you gotta more yep you gotta remove all the friction it's better it's better to do something than nothing. Yes, that's absolutely right. And then also knowing the community that you're joining.

Having a good teacher is very important. You could want to do judo your whole life. Oh, there's a dojo right down the street. It's super convenient. I'm all in. You go, the sensei is a dick. You're not going to last. You're going to end up hating it. You're going to bei is a dick. You're not going to last, right? You're going to end up hating it.

You're going to be like, no, judo is not for me. That sensei was not for you. Right, right. Or maybe you weren't the right fit for that community. Maybe you were talking too much and they didn't want talkers. They want grapplers. Who knows, right? So it's got to be the right fit in every way. There's a couple of different variables.

Knowing yourself is first, right? Some people tend to be harder than others right they like grappling they love scrapping they're just a tough and tumble type of a kid and that person might say you know what i want to play golf and golf's born for them so they're like i want something a little bit more right right and then they enter the grappling maybe you're the opposite of that right no one in your family has ever grappled or done any sort of martial arts right they're artistic people and they're like ah combat sports like i know nothing about that like i don't want my kid going in that and they coddled you right that kid might not be the best candidate because they're not coming in with some of the tools i'm not saying it's not for them right saying that and you can learn from them but how going into a martial arts school where the teacher

can identify that and still help you grow right that's really the important thing i see so so we talk uh the finding the right teacher is important so in that way i think you're kind of touching on this broader topic of finding the best dojo for you when you start. So besides finding the right teacher, what are some other things that you think people should look for in a dojo? I think safety is first, right? If you're not feeling safe, if something feels off, then it's wrong, right? If you can't feel safe in a dojo then something's off so and the reason why i say it is because it's such a high contact sports and

a combative sport right uh one thing that can happen another thing that can happen and then all of a sudden it's escalating right getting out of hand right and if everyone doesn't feel comfortable with each other trust each other because essentially if you're going for an armbar you're trusting the other person with your limb you're in your limb isn't like the most vulnerable place you're trusting that the person has a competency not to crank it in a way he doesn't understand right giving you the opportunity to submit right and even uh you know when you have the arm extended right and you're trying to wiggle out of it it's like all right you both have an understanding of like oh i'm in a very vulnerable position right right intensity has to drop immediately right

even if you're rolling uh 80 intensity the arm gets extended immediately the intensity has to drop to 20 10 in order to work on some of those vulnerable positions yeah and if everyone has that mindset it's great but if everyone's go go go 100 100 my ego your ego i got this on bar i've never submitted peter before i'm i want to go for it and peter's trying to wiggle out of it and then i start freaking cranking it right that's not safe so it's it's more i mean it uh you have to be vulnerable you have to to go into the unknown in order to get better. And if you don't feel safe in the unknown, going into the unknown, you'll never develop in a way. And it's the little things that you can look for in the dojo.

If I'm never done grappling before I walk into a dojo, I'm watching people cranking on arms and cranking on legs and slamming each other. I'm not going to know if that's a safe environment or not. Right, right. You just don't have the lens or the perspective to be able to seek out the safety right seek out the danger everything looks dangerous to you that's a good point you've never done it before yeah so the way you can tell is the little indicators of the types of interaction people are having the way people talk to each other right it's like foreshadowing and reading a book or something. Right? Yeah. This character that gets built up, he says a mean thing, says this and that, and people don't like him. And there's these little micro conflicts.

You know that person is going to have a big conflict down the line. Right, right. Any book that you've ever read. Right. That's a good analogy. It's the same thing. So if you're in the dojo and the guy is being condescending or being a dick or saying mean things, there's deeper issues there.

Sensei's checked out. He's looking out in the space. He's texting. There's deeper issues there. So going in there and monitoring and scanning for things like this is the best way. Those small red flags, I guess. Yes, yes. It's like uh when you

start dating someone yeah red flag this red flag that's like all right it's gonna it's gonna cause me a lot more troubles at the end maybe in a way again um i mean i guess it if you're yeah like in the dating scene too like if you meet someone new you might want to you know run that run that person by to your good friends to see what they think so in a way it would be it would be very helpful if you have a grappling friend already i guess too yeah when you have somebody already in the game right educate you and teach you and guide you right right that's why referral is always the best type of uh right yeah because there's a already like a preliminary vetting process in a way.

So, yeah. So now you found the right dojo and you're like fully into it. You love the people, you love the community, the teacher's great. He know, he or she knows your needs and, you know, whatnot. So now you're getting down to the nitty-gritties learning the techniques what are what do you think people should look for in that like attitude wise or some technique wise yeah i think having good conversations with coaches and people who are seniors to you is very important because you could come in as a beginner and watch a million youtube videos and not have any clue what you're looking at certain techniques that may work that look really cool right are very low percentage and then it might be a huge waste of time for you to drill

that one technique right right right so you want to go learn the high percentage stuff first the foundations the basics because those never really change right uh whether it's wrestling if it's wrestling it's a double a if it's uh you know bjj it's on bar from close guard you know and if it's judo it's like uh ipon sanagi right or you definitely want to focus on that you i'm not saying don't watch youtube right watch a lot of youtube but then have an open dialogue hey peter what do you think about this match that i saw and i have students that still send me videos from instagram like hey what do you think about this or they'll tag me in something like hey can we learn this sensei and sometimes i'm like no this is dangerous right right no this is you know flying guillotine is probably not the best technique for you to

learn right now because you're a yellow belt right uh? Eventually, I can show you, you know, but I don't really want you going for it because it's dangerous, right? And then tell them the why, what my reasoning is. And if they're a smart person, right, they're like, okay, I get it, you know? And then sometimes they argue and they're like, I don't believe that to be true. I've seen, you know, this world champion hit it. I'm like, well, he's a world champion. He could hit that, right? Does he not have other fundamentals that are solid? He a great taiyo he has great gripping right he has

bailout attacks i guess so all this that dialogue is huge this availability like at this you know internet is a double-edged sword like you have so much to look at but at the same time it's hard to filter that like yeah hard to filter it and knowing yourself is right i said this all earlier but it's very important everyone has different learning styles right some people are you know interpersonal intrapersonal right some people are tacked on kinesthetic letters some people i have students now they're like i want to read a book i want to read a book about it can i get a technique book can you recommend it that's how i learn best right there's these textbook warriors too that read textbooks and read text some people are visual

learners i'm a little bit more of a visual learner i like watching youtube videos right but you can't just learn by watching you have to actually do so you have to have some sort of a tactile kinesthetic thing right right right but it really depends on what your ultimate goals are if you just want to learn it be involved with it and understand it right you don't need to be able to do it some people right some people just want to teach it that's that's fine and if that means you know if that's what being a better grappler means for you then you know god bless you and keep doing what you're doing but if you don't understand how you learn it's going to be very difficult like for me as a

kid i had a really hard time uh in school because the way we were taught to learn like memorizing stuff and sitting still was a very very challenging thing for me so people thought i was dumb and stupid for a very long time and some people think that's still to this day right i mean but like like i had struggled with that right you know it's a you're just like a different learning you have a different learning style and then yeah yeah it's like memorize the periodic table yeah like that i couldn't do it man because first of all i couldn't sit still for long enough to be able to like look at it and be like okay magnesium uh you know yeah whatever it is i didn't like that either yeah that didn't still work but some people can do that good

right right good and that's their learning style they could just sit down still for 45 minutes look at it read it you know do flash cards and this right everyone some people like flash cards some people like this some people like reading some people like writing right same thing with grappling grappling just tends to be a little bit more physical i see so knowing yourself is first right you have to know yourself you know and then the teacher has to have this kind of a mindset too because the teacher's like hey this guy learns in this way this guy learns in that way and then also they have sort of a bank of this guy's motivated by right he's just intrinsically motivated right

right student like that yesterday i don't even have to motivate him at all i can actually be mean to him and he like would prefer that he's like give me direct feedback tell me i'm sucking at something then i'll work on it right and he'll spend four hours five hours a day thinking about doing it right there's that guy he's intrinsically motivated he's a super learner right and then you got the other kid that's like hey you got to give him high fives. Right. Right. There's another kid that just needs constant reminders that he's progressing.

Not even a kid and an adult too. It's like he needs a stripe. He needs this. He needs a little bit more handholding. But as long as he stays in the sport, then he'll learn because he learns quickly. So motivation is one factor. And then learning styles is another factor and having a coach that could know both of those things about you right so if you're just an

unlikable person the coach just doesn't care knows nothing about you and you're just not going to get good yeah so it's important to yeah that's why you you emphasize that right like fitting into the community like finding the community you can belong to yeah yeah and i'm not saying like comply right you know collectivist this that like i know a lot of the asian cultures are like that i'm not saying that and it's okay to be individual right right and it's okay to say things that are sort of counter opinion you know and i welcome that a lot of the times yeah since i don't think that works because x y and z of course don't call me out in front of everybody but but I'm open to these things. Yeah.

I am. Yeah, yeah, you are. So I have a question. So in learning styles, so you're a good teacher. You are cognizant of all different styles people have. What do you think I am? What kind of learner do you think i am in terms of judo you're kind of a blend blend of a blend yeah you're you're sort of like a cognitive

right you're intrinsically motivated too i never had to motivate you right right right so you know he is a great example right he loves the culture he loves the grappling uh but if he goes if he goes away and he disappears for a little while yeah someone reaches out hey man we miss you yeah he's back right right right right right you are just so intrinsically motivated so i never had to motivate you i you see what i mean yeah in that way but i do notice that i do have a community at the dojo too yeah you have a great place in the community so motivational wise like i didn't have to do anything really right for but i do think i because it's just like an observation i made about myself i do need a lot of encouragement you do yeah yeah so i think that's another thing so you're motivated you know so reinforcement is important for you and for you a lot of the

things that i like to do is like if i tell you something and then you can add value to it on your own right you can sort of try to integrate it into your current system right right so some people have what they know and i give them a little bit of advice and now all of a sudden they can't really connect the two right so you're not like that and i don't know if you sit around reading judo text you probably don't i don't i do watch videos i do watch videos yeah right so visually you're a good visual learner you're interpersonal learner right because you learn well in a setting where it's just like me and you right and that has a lot to do with our trust levels too right trust me i trust you you know we're good friends here right all those things so and you know

you're tactile kinesthetic learn as well like so you're that ability of like when i show you something and you're like mumbling and working through it and trying it over and over right so interpersonal tactile kinesthetic those things are right visual obviously because you're watching youtube videos right right and uh you know whether you read or some people are audio too right they're all listening to this podcast this is a podcast and some people can gain great value out of these podcasts because they're audio learners yeah right some people can't listen to a podcast or anything you know man bravo that's where you are yeah i try to keep you know track of the ones that i'm invested in right people who i care about at the dojo and i said before you know one of my flaws is that i play favorites i do you know i'm

biased human you know it's it's difficult for me not to be biased right right well that was good that was good see like find a teacher like shintaro guys find it so now satisfied with my answer am i right i think that's very accurate and then you know some of the things i wasn't i i wasn't aware consciously you pointed out like a visual learner and then uh the the tech talk uh learner like kinesthetic load i mean i now i think that i think it makes sense uh that i am and it's it's's good that I am aware so that I can tailor my journey, a judo journey that way. But yeah, I wasn't really consciously aware of those facts. The goal of the teacher right now for me,

just as an overall teaching methodology, is to cover all of it. Right, right. So as I'm showing visually to the people, I'm verbally saying some of these things. Right. Right. Right. Right. Hands going like this. Lapel hands going like that. Right. And then it's like, go try it. Right. And then everyone's trying. And so that's like the kinesthetic side of it. Right. Because they have to physically do it. Right. And as I'm walking around, there's certain people that are much more interpersonal. They need that interpersonal feedback in order to learn something. Some people are like, don't talk to me. I'm focused. I need to concentrate.

Those people I don't talk to. So sometimes it's not because I don't like the person, but some people are like mumbling to themselves, like, I've got to go. My finger's like this. That person doesn't need me coming in and saying, hey, your pinky's not in the right place or your stomach's not doing the right thing because that'll only throw them off. Right. So you want to cover all the bases when you're teaching so they can pick and choose their method of learning. Right. And I think that's what makes a good teacher.

Yeah. That's what makes me a great teacher. Yeah. I totally agree. So you get the instructions from your great teacher and now you have to drill uh and whatnot so how do you to be a better grappler how do you think people should approach drilling with your komis and whatnot yeah some people like to drill you know and if you look at music as an example some people play the scales every day some people don't right uh i like the idea of the deliberate practice but if you're

doing randori and you're dropping in say now you but you can never finish it specifically work on the finish and i know it sounds very very simple right but there's books and research out there now now malcolm gladwell there's this other guy he wrote this book called peak it could actually be here somewhere peak he talks about that like Like the mountain peak. Peak? Yeah. I might actually have it right here.

Let me just look for it. Two seconds. Two seconds. Literally two seconds. It's called Peak. He's found it. All right. Show it in the video.

This is like I'm not getting paid. I'm not getting sponsored. I just read this book and I like it right peak peak secrets from the new scientist science of expertise see i'm not a reader so i'm i can't even read anders erickson and robert pool so this guy talks about like tennis right oh and if your weakness is the high backhand right and you kind of know it right and you know you just go in and you play, right? Oh, I play tennis every day for three hours. How often do you have that stimulus of the high backhand? Not that much, but what, 10 times? And plus, if you're not good at it, you wouldn't try to be in that situation. Yeah, yeah. Now all of a sudden it's like, I know that's my weakness and my coach is like,

you suck at the high backhand. All right, so we're only going to do that, right? We're going to spend the next hour doing that. Boom, boom, boom, boom. Now you've been exposed to the stimulus a thousand times. All of a sudden, the next time you encounter this in a tennis match, it's coming. It's like, ah, I got it.

Boom. Now all of a sudden, that's not your weakest anymore. And it seems so, so simple, right? It's like one of those research studies that's like oh bee sting can hurt you it's like no really right it's just like no i would have never thought you know like it seems like the most simplest thing but i think that's very important and it gets neglected because we tend to focus on uchikomi you have to do a thousand uchikomis a day for your

techniques to be better who said that right right you know well in the 1940s when my father was doing judo like that's what they're beating into the kids yes but the times are different right deliberate practice is important so more research yeah yeah so you have to know it comes down to knowing yourself and what your gaps are right right and i i'm kind of guilty myself of going in there doing what you call me doing grip and doing combination doing throws doing randori and feeling great about myself i see and if you're kind of just winning in the dojo right which is something that i don't really recommend and not learning two different things right you tend to fall into that pattern and then you don't tend to not to grow right which is my issue too a lot of the time right you know what i mean because i could throw anyone in the dojo you know with this technique

that technique and i could just do that all day and feel great people like oh that sounds amazing it's like yeah i've been doing this for you know 30 years right right so deliberate practice is a big component and being a better grappler right so you gotta you gotta basically expand uh uh know your frontier and they expand it like continuously yeah and i'm not saying neglect fundamentals you have to write some of the fundamentals right right right but uchikomi i just said this the other day somebody asked me that and uh i was like how much how many uchikomis should i do in a day and i'm already thinking to myself that's the wrong question right all right there is no number of uchikomi that you should do in a day right right i'll tell you what

i do i come in and i do 10 of each technique or ochi osoto 10 taiyo 10 not even taiyo uchimata like a turn throw because the fundamentals of the turn are essentially the same yeah right it's the second portion that's the execution part that's a little bit different right right so i'll do a little bit of that and then i'll do a lot more combination drilling drilling combinations drilling situations drilling from winning position losing position transitional drilling right and it's tough in a class setting i gotta admit because you're at the mercy of the class right right we're doing nagakomi ah okay i have to do nagakomi now right right so it helps to be sort of in a small group setting too right so that's why you try to uh have different

like different types of practice within a practice like you have the instructions and then the drills and the uchikomis and then you you do give students the free time to practice whatever they want in the in terms of nagi komi and uchikomi too yeah so generally before the pandemic is like judo starts at seven goes to eight for the beginner and immediate eight to nine is all live right so it's already a two hour situation. People get off work at six, right? Kids already done by 6.15 or so. So people come in at like 6.30, right? They come in 30 minutes. Some people come in a little bit earlier and I give them the chance to drill and hang out, right? And then that's the time to work on your stuff, ask the questions, right? Then during uchikomi time,

I'm a little bit more flexible and lenient. And people do say like hey why don't we do this drill more consistently all the time like that'll probably help me yeah it'll help you but maybe it won't help the next person right right the overall goal for my class a lot of the times too is interest keeping people interested right and if we're just doing deliberate practice of like, okay, this is a situational position that we need to get good at. For instance, grip fighting, losing position, winning position, over underpass, person misses a throw, goes to the back. Okay, attacking the transition when they miss a turn throw. Okay, and we're just drilling that. Yes, you'll be a better judo player competition-wise.

Right, right, right. But will people be interested in that no which means people will be much more likely to drop off right so those people with a lot of potential who dropped off they're not going to get the opportunity to be good right because and i kind of did them a disservice by not making the class interesting enough for them to stay in the game right right right yeah so sometimes it's a balance of you know producing competitors which is like not my priority at all keeping the interest just people to learn and be a better grad like they're all sort of conflicting

but they're sort of not right they all kind of it always plays off of each other i see that makes sense so then now what while we're talking about techniques and then we're also talking about being a general better general grappler so now as a beginner you probably uh you might find a lot of different arts like maybe you try some bjj judo and you have some high school wrestling background what i what have you so how do you do and you have to somehow make it into your system combine everything so any tips for that like do you think you need to actively practice techniques you learn from other arts in judo for example during practice yeah yeah yeah i do i i definitely definitely do

so here's a good example in the dojo right when you pass someone's guard, in judo, you go to your stomach. Right, right. Because the goal is not to get pinned. That doesn't make you a better grappler. Right. Overall. If your goal is competition, right, judo competition under the rule sets of the IJF, under the rule sets of the ioc right international olympic committee then yes someone's passing your guard you go belly down give them your back right now all of a sudden

if you're playing through the rule set of judo one two three four five no forward progression referee says stop get back to your feet right and you want to be good at that right because that's what gives you the best chance of winning in competition but does it make you a better grappler? Absolutely not. Right. So my dojo, well, you know, because you were there many years, like someone passes the guard, like don't belly out, don't belly down.

Try to retain guard, try to, right, let them pin you. And then even when you're pinning, the goal is not to pin for 20 seconds, 30 seconds to hold them there. It's like fight out, fight out. It's like you struggle for five seconds. Try to escape in five seconds. One, two, three, four, five. And if you're pinning, transition to something else.

Transition to another pin. One, two, three, four, five. The person's just bucketing, going crazy. I don't let people tap when they're getting pinned. Hold them for five seconds. You could tap, yes, but then don't restart. It's a huge waste of time. Keep going from that position.

Try to retain guard. Try to improve position. Even if you're pinning someone, you transition two or three different positions. Now you're looking to isolate arm, look for a choke, something like this. So the match continues because time is so finite. Right, right. Three-minute round. If every single time you got pinned or submitted, you have to reset.

Right, you're know a good quarter of the match right right and that adds up so um in so yeah you should definitely try to integrate that sort of uh mentality into your daily practice so but then uh you know those different rule sets like some like for example you're like you want to get good at leg leg locks um so you learn from brazilian jiu-jitsu but then um you go to you also go to judo for your throws and whatnot yeah but you can't work on it's like leg locks are not really practicing yeah that's really on the other side of the rule set right Right. So how do you think people can, should reconcile this kind of conflict in terms of rule set?

Very good. Yeah. Talk to your instructor. I have people all the time, like I'm competing in Sambo, I'm competing in Jiu Jitsu, I'm a wrestler. I want to work on leg grabs.

How do you defend someone trying to tackle you? Okay. You know, we're going to go over it. Like the last mat you know we have three mats and right right you could shoot in on the legs and i'll do that and then sometimes i'll say it publicly sometimes if these two athletes are willing right it's like i really want to work on leg grabs okay that guy likes we're working on leg grabs too you guys when

you're working out you can grab leg leg grabs right right right and then something of that nature i say and i make it known right every match has sort of a rule set and we have a dojo rule set too right right right obviously i'm not gonna let like white belts cranking on heel hooks and yeah flying on bar and stuff right like that's definitely a no-no right right i mean and tanya toshi is banned unless you're a black belt right and these rule sets are designed not only to build good grapplers but to build a good environment for people to learn the way they want to learn right right and this kind of goes back to your point about being a good member of the community

because you can't just if you know if you're not a good member of a community and then uh you go up to your sensei or teacher and say hey can i work on this specific or special it's it's not gonna be like you know your teacher might not let you like who the hell are you to make requests in my class i don't even know your name right i just saw you uh getting in a shoving match over there right or get out right so yeah you have to be a good member of the community yeah right that's definite people have to trust you trust is first and foremost because like hey sensei i've been watching youtube and i've been watching this uh you know blast double that jordan burrows has been hitting i want to try it uh-huh right right okay go peter Peter then. Like go with this guy.

But then you have to trust that person that they're not going to hurt somebody. Right, right. Right. I think in the beginning as a white or yellow belt, you just sort of have to establish a foothold and just take in as much as you can of the environment of the dojo. And then little by little, the more you learn, you could start making some of these requests. Right, right. In the beginning, when you know nothing, when you don't even know what you know what you don't know right it's like oh sensei i think i could be a better grappler if i learned how to you know fight as a lefty it's like based on what

right you know based on 30 hours of youtube that you watched based on your conversation with your buddy that does bjj down the street right right you know based on your conversation with your buddy that does BJJ down the street. Right, right. You know, based on your wrestling matches that you did in an after-school program with, you know, a high school friend of yours, like once a week, like. Right, right. No, you know. So in the beginning, you have to have sort of a base knowledge as well. Right.

Have a base knowledge. People have to trust you. If people trust you, it's like, hey, I'm working on something. Sure. Right. knowledge people have to trust you if people trust you it's like hey i'm working on something sure right so you're not only just in the beginning in order to be a good grappler you're not you're not only just focusing on your own techniques but you're learning to become a good partner too yeah you have to learn how to learn right that took me a long time too right right because i've always despised uh the types of teachers growing up

that were like you have to do it like this and this is the only way and if you can't do it like this you're behind you know so essentially like every teacher in school right will call my mom be like yo your kid is behind right he is not keeping up right it's like he is not memorizing the periodic table and i was like what for why do i have to memorize anything right right right you know and i probably didn't go about the right way either because you know as a kid i'm being that guy that's like hey sensei you know uh why don't you do it like this bro you just started judo you know three years ago right right so yeah i probably didn't go about the right way as a learner either. But it's a two-way street.

Right. And just as like an employee and an employer have a managing down and a managing up. Right. That two-way communication system is a two-way communication system. Right. Right. So, and then it goes from teacher to student and between student and student too. Student to student. between student to and student too so the student yeah yeah and you have to be able to be concise and tell people how you're feeling and thinking right if you feel

unsafe you have to point it out in a way that's going to be digested by the other person when you communicate that way right right if something hurts you can't just keep it in and then keep working on it and then all of a sudden you blow out your elbow, your back, right? You don't want, you don't want that. So you want to be communicative. You want to be concise in the dojo, right? Because time is super limited. You know, if we have two minutes of doing drills and if you're trying to talk to the person about something and something you saw on YouTube and explain in a minute and a half goes by, you've robbed that person of 45 seconds of their drill time right right so you have to understand that too so sometimes when i see a little bit too much of that i'll just address

the whole class and be like all right less talking more judo guys let's talk in more judo right yeah and so so being a good okay it's it's about listening to the other person well and then accommodating and whatnot and yeah but sometimes so it's now it kind of goes to the nature of grappling you know it's a it's an intense sport it can be very intense and sometimes you know people want that intensity in the practice and whatnot or even they think that's the way to win so how do you think you can like do you think when you practice you need to dial up your intensity as high as you can or is there a different way to practice that kind of intensity what do you think that's a very very good question it's like a lever right you have to turn it up turn it down right depending on the person you're going with right right because like

i always say if you raise in your hand go pick around and no one wants to work out with you you're the problem right it's that thing in poker right if you can't stop spot the sucker in the first 30 minutes you are the sucker it's the same idea yeah right it really is so people have this mindset of like i I'm intense. I work hard. I go hard. Like, that's just me. And now all of a sudden, like, they're doing this and then thinking that the other person might be impressed or, oh, I'm living up to my expectation of me being authentic me.

Because I'm an intense, tough guy. But in reality, the other person's like, oh, man, like, I don't want to work out with this guy. He's like all over me. I ate an elbow. Now that person doesn't want to work out with you. You lost a great training partner. So you have to vary it. There's times for intensity and there's times for reducing intensity.

You have to know your partner. If I like going really hard and if I know that other guy likes to go really hard, that's great. Go for that stuff right you know like i've been in a dojo where it's like oh i identified the one grapple he was a d1 wrestler he's a jujitsu black belt and it's like he wanted to throw down right right and i was kind of like feeling that that day too you know so i was like all right you know and we we threw down it was very respectful way it didn't escalate in a negative way and it was like, all right. And we threw it out. And it was a very respectful way. It didn't escalate in a negative way. And it was like one of the best rounds I had in a long time.

This was a long time ago. Right, right. Right? But then I'm going with someone else the next round. And they're a lot lighter than me. They're 140 pounds. They just seek me out. They want to work out with me.

Because they kind of felt like they could trust me. Right? Right, right. Even though I outweigh them by 60 pounds. And sure, I'm moving. Right? I'm not putting weight on. I'm not sprawling.

I'm not pressure weight on i'm not sprawling i'm not pressure passing right so now both of those people want to work out with me again and that's a great way to get better and so being right hard all the time can't do it and this is the thing if you're a person that goes intense all the time you roll your ankle now you can't fight that way right right can't work out now because you just can't do it but if you roll your ankle now you can't fight that way right you can't work out now because you just can't do it but if you roll your ankle and you can go soft you can go gentle you could just be sort of fluid you could still come into the dojo and drill you know i'll give you an example kevin muhammad come back from a knee surgery right right i don't know it's probably five months after his acl

surgery right right now he's moving. Now he's drilling. He's moving. He's doing like light Rondori. Right, right. And he knows who to go with, who not to go with. Right. I was like, don't go with him.

Don't go with him. He could go with him, and he could always go with me. Yeah. And because he was able to vary intensity before, he's capable of doing Rondori now in a way that's safe. Yeah. Maybe not before, but now he definitely has to do it in a way to remain safe. Right.

Right? So you have to have the ability to dial it up, tone it down. And you have to be visual to look at the other person and read their body language. Like maybe he doesn't like it when I freaking drop my elbow on his face. I mean, who would? I mean, he does, right? Yeah. But maybe he doesn't like it when I freaking drop my elbow on his face. I mean, who would? But some people don't like it. Some people don't welcome it. Some people don't learn that way.

Right. So you have to be able to vary it. Don't always go intense 100%. And I understand the mentality of like, I like going hard. I'm a guy that goes hard. Right, right. Yes, but you can stick with that and die by it but then you you're gonna have problems when two years from now no one wants to work out with you

you're just not gonna get better that's that's a great one of the biggest lessons i learned like doing judo with you because i like i wrestled in high school and then high school wrestling they kind of instilled that mindset into you. Intensity, intensity, intensity, being scrappy, you know,

it just, I guess it might be, I think you told me that it's more like an American thing. Like I heard from you that in Russia, judo wrestling are not really about that intensity. They're more like drill focus and whatnot. It's a little bit cultural too. Yeah. And there's a little bit cultural too yeah

and there's another factor in there too right like what what do you mean like for instance like in high school wrestling everyone started wrestling at around the same time oh right yeah it's around a similar skill set right at the dojo you're a black belt and then a green belt comes onto the mat and they've only been doing it for you know x amount of years right right and then having that same intensity in the wrestling room that you're going with someone that's your peer, now all of a sudden you think that's what's happening, but the other person's thinking,

man, this freaking guy Peter is bullying me. Like that time I walked into the locker room and there was a bunch of green belts talking about Peter. I know. That's my wake-up call. Like right outside the door i was like going to the locker room to get a like a bottle of water or something as i'm trying to wait for the open door it's like i hear like through the door like oh man that peter's a dick i like oh man he always

goes hard like i tweak my knee and there's like a whole symposium going on in there about you know who peter hurt right banged up and i opened the door and they were like i know i that was my wake-up call and then you know you told me about that i've you know i mean it was like multiple things that led me led up to me being like being able to dial things down and whatnot and then yeah it's and that's a good point you pointed out about like the difference between like a scholastic athletic program versus yeah your dojo in your community yeah because there's so many different types of people and then when you're in school everyone's healthy like you're a young person in your teens and your 20s but yeah you know you in their local dojo there might be people who started who love martial arts but couldn't do

it when they're young but finally starting in their 30s 40s you know yeah you want those people exactly right man the four years in high school wrestling right the two years in bjj wherever it was right and now all of a sudden you're doing judo and you have you know eight nine years of grappling experience and you're a brown belt and now you want to throw down and you're 28 years old versus the person that's an accountant that's never done grappling before, worked a nine to five, sat on a desk all day,

came to the dojo, wants to get better, wants to feel good, right? That person eating an elbow is different. Right. Right? That person eating an elbow is different. So everyone has their different starting points

and everyone has a different place they are at when they're in the dojo so you kind of have to account for all this right right and a good emotionally intelligent right i talked a little bit about emotional intelligence before but like a emotionally intelligent person can read that on a person right this person had a bad day it's gonna go guys go through a divorce this person wants to throw down and you can read it right and then you can read it. Right. And then you can manage that too. Right.

Sometimes like, for instance, like I stubbed my toe the other day. My toe was freaking screaming. It's like, I didn't really want to go hard. Right. Right. Right. And then, you know, I've said like, hey, my toe is killing me. If you're going to work out me, you can't go nuts.

Right. Right. Right. Right. And you have to stick to that. If you're saying, hey hey let's go light and you don't go light and you escalate you have no accountability right i'm gonna trust you right there's always that guy you want to go light right it's like a running joke in the judo world

right the dojo world it's like you want to go light and the person that says you want to go light is going to try to take your head off right i have right yeah it's an ism for a reason yeah yeah it's an ism for a reason so if you say you want to go light you better stick to it because your accountability and your branding in that way matters right so i was like dude you have to go light and then my toe is screaming he stepped on my toe i'm like oh bro bro like yeah my toes really hurt man like i can't really right because he's gonna get something out of that round for me right but if he stepped on my foot twice and if he's going way too hard i'm just gonna be like you know what no man and then next time he's like says you want to go i'm gonna be like no i don't want

to go my toe was hurt another day maybe he's broken right he kept stepping on it right right right whether it's an accident or not right i mean that matters too yeah right but like it was a successful round you know so a better grappler knows how to you know go with different types of people with different levels of intensity and yeah i think that's that's such a uh yeah i mean i personally had to go through it i like i said and then it really not it not only are you gonna be a better member of the community you like you said you also get better as a grappler and yeah it's very important so there's a flip side of that too yeah because if you're going in and you're going with just people who you're comfortable with, you're doing yourself a disservice, too. And I'm guilty of this as well. I'm guilty of all the things that I... And I'm human. So I'm comfortable going with him. I like going with them.

That person's not going to try to hurt me. You get comfortable. All of a sudden, you're like, I don't want to go with that guy because he goes a little too hard but sometimes you need that right you need that stimulus because in a tournament right someone's going to go hard and you know in the mythical streets we talked about yeah they're all going to try to take your head off yeah you need that stimulus you just can't have it 10 rounds right in a row you just can't do it it's just not sustainable right so you need sort of a balance in your randori structure and i like to do you know sort of first couple kind of get the ball rolling warm up a little bit you know

have like a teaching round where i'm like not teaching during that time but i'm that's more instructional like uh non-verbal instructional right right giving them opportunities not being a dick about it like yeah look osoto's, Osoto's right there. Right. Or like letting them come in and then I'm like resisting and then maybe taking a break, something like this. Right. And then I want to be challenged too. Right. And I'll go with the toughest guys in the room. Mm-hmm.

You know, and I used to do these judo camps too. And then I would try to do that. Like I'll at least go two or three matches with someone that's significantly better than me i see yeah right and it's it's some some guys are like you got to go with every round better than you i didn't really believe that and i didn't really buy that because yeah if you can't know myself i would just be sad the rest of the week if i just took a beating for 10 rounds i would i would feel that way too but not only that it's not about just the mentality but like if you only go with someone who's better

you can't work on stuff like you need no you know some of the things new techniques you're trying to integrate into your system you can't do that on to someone who's better than you when you're just starting out yeah you're And you're not trying to win. Right. During one of the, that's, that's the thing that I have to reiterate the most. You're trying to work on stuff, right? Cause if every round that I went with someone inferior in rank,

someone that I know I'm better than, and if the goal was to beat them, I could do that with my eyes closed. Right. But if I'm trying to work on something or trying to counter something or hit a specific combination, the game is different. And you have to have individual goals

for each round that you're doing. That way you could get something out of every single match that you do. That's, again, what you said about the deliberate practice. Randoori is also deliberate practice. Everything you're doing in the room, you're doing for a reason.

It took me forever to figure some of this stuff out. Because I used to do that at these training camps in the beginning try to win every single match at all costs right and some people do that some people right it's learning knowing yourself right some people thrive in that competition environment and even in the training camp it's like i want to win every single match and if that's what gets you going yeah that's fine yeah right maybe you're getting a lot out of that not me not my not my personal style of learning but you do you still even if that's your style you have to know how to adjust that depending on your partner yeah and then you have to take yourself out of the comfort zone right I'll tell you when I was in um a training

camp in uh Japan for the Tokyo Grand Slam. There's killers in the room. Top four guys in Japan. Top two guys from every country. There was an all-Japan champ in the room. I went with him. He killed me. I went with the champion from Germany. I even went with David Morrow from Brazil.

Oh, okay. He's like 6'4", 250. He famously has that Tomonage in the heavyweight division that no one's ever seen a tomoy nage in the heavyweight division yeah it was ochi to yoko tomoy nage i went with him i was so scared uh-huh you know uh partially because he was standing next to me and he was like you have to go he was like looking down and i was like i didn't really want to go but i was like all right we'll go right right you know and then that was like survival mode right try not to get him to get two grips on i'm not really trying to win it right i'm trying to practice not grip fighting in a way where i don't let a much taller person put their hand right back how you know how was he as a uh

randori partner he's good he slammed me hard twice uh right uh he threw me with a hurray and kind of landed on me you know it wasn't you know i'm like 220 but he was like 250 right so it wasn't very comfortable he's a lot taller than me right he's tough really tough round you know uh and i got something out of that right you know and then right next round i probably went with someone a little bit lighter you know very my intensity and yeah there's probably like a high school japanese kid on the mat at the time or something like that i worked out with that kid yeah but luciano cojera from another brazilian world champion right i worked out with him and judo and right i had goals working out with him and then i could go with someone that's like so someone much lower on the ranking list and i'm not trying to

win every man trying to get something out of every man right right and then if they do something spectacular if they're friendly enough i'll ask them like hey what was that thing you did right right you know and i got some interesting things nice out of those conversations so you bring up a good point about interesting point about body types so the grappling has a lot you know you're using your body weight a lot yeah um so your body type matters so definitely does what do you think to be a better grappler how do you think people should approach their own body types and then you know practice partners body types and whatnot yeah so body types i'll use judo as a specific example right uh if you're 81 kilos and you like going over the back that same style won't work against someone that's a foot taller than you

right just won't yeah you have to sort of vary it into a going underneath senagi person but if you have no drops in a lower senagi lower lifting throws you're gonna have a very hard time with someone significantly taller than you right right if you're a shorter 81 kilo person and you love so day you love going underneath and you're fighting someone that's 130 pounds that's a foot shorter than you you're not gonna be able to hit those same moves right so you kind of have to vary and have a little bit of each right right and if you're competing it's a little bit different right if you're competing you want to have the maximum type of judo style for that weight class because everyone's going to be within a certain height range right right so you don't need if you're like 81 kilos and

you like the overhand grip you don't need to learn like a drop scene because no one's going to be that much taller than you right right based on these things but if you want to be a better overall grappler you need to know how to fight a but if you want to be a better overall grappler you need to know how to fight a much taller person how to fight a much shorter person and being able to be fighting both of these people within that range comfortably right yeah fighting against the righty fighting against the lefty oh yeah some people have that mindset of like i have one thing i do and i'm going gonna force it every single time because I'm imposing my will it's an imposition of will some people have that mindset right I used to do that I used to be like that like you know I used to spam saving I guess even like people

even to people who are shorter than me yeah you're willing to admit that on a public forum oh yeah I already did I mean it's I used to and but then i realized that yeah i mean i need to it's not just about um it's not just about like what you know certain techniques working better on this people or whatever it's more about you need to vary i realized that i needed to stop spamming sailing i guess do other things so that you know i can have a better practice i can have better rounds with other people too you know yeah and there's a good like a realization yeah so it's like when you're a better grappler right when you like you just said if you're not just spamming sanagi yeah trying to develop an overall holistic grappling

style that is sort of differentiated to a certain extent to each and every athlete right or your opposition right you just know more and you just have a much better idea and you could answer questions that you didn't know you even had right right right for instance when i ask someone why is it that in wrestling you see more drop steps with the knee going to the floor and you see less of it in MMA? Why is it that an MMA fighter walks into a wrestling gym and say, hey, can you show me how to do a double? And the wrestler's like, yeah, sure. My double is so much better than yours.

The wrestler shows it, but then they're showing it with the knee going down to the ground. Right. And when the MMA fighter says, why do I have to put the knee down to the ground? They're like, you just do. Right? Right, right. It's like, how do I have to put the knee down to the ground? They're like, you just do, right? Right, right. It's like, how do you answer that question? I asked that in one of the other episodes. A lot of people ask that question.

It has just everything to do with level changes too. If you're standing upright, you don't need the level changes that low by dropping the knee to the floor. It's like compensating too much. You know what I mean? But in wrestling, it's about the mean but in wrestling it's about the context about yeah it's about the context it's about the rules the rules matter so much and then

right to be a better grappler you have to know why you have to know the why too you have to understand if you have to know the whys and why do we you know hey sensei why do we do this and you know it just really comes down to having a good sensei that knows this stuff too right you have a open dialogue about it right so it's the responsibility of the instructor too to keep up right keep up i'm saying that now you know at the age of 36 when i'm super involved who knows right when i'm 50 years old when maybe my knees are messed up and i can't even walk like i'm gonna keep up with anything you never know right so i'm not trying to like point fingers or anything like that but it's very important i think uh at least to be very knowledgeable at least to be aware of these yeah you know uh i hate it when it's like you know i hear things about someone asking a teacher about something and they just say it it don't work oh right don't try it

stick with this right and then it's like you need to be able to explain the why and learn the why right because that it's going to add to your overall knowledge base yeah and it'll stick with the students better yeah yeah so that's sort of the overall how to be a better grappler right we covered a lot yeah um being able to vary intensity being learning yourself learning types anything else that we're missing i think that's about it i mean it's uh we it's there's a constant theme in these uh you know episodes you know the being a good partner knowing yourself finding a good teacher and whatnot but i think yeah they're very important and that's why we keep talking about it and yeah i think it's it's good that we you are so knowledgeable about these things and then bring

them bring it out to people yeah anything thanks man so yeah of course and i it's it's fun to talk to you about these things so any closing remarks uh yeah you gotta you gotta work you know do all these things and uh sometimes you gotta step out the comfort zone right uh but you can't just do it all the time and then you have to know your body right listen to your body you have to have uh what is the word uh mindfulness yeah people say yeah you have to be mindful yeah you have to you have to be a good communicator because martial arts is very very close contact you got to look at it like a good marriage yeah that's right it's communication it's important yeah you gotta communicate you know you have you have to pick your battles yeah sometimes you have

to increase the intensity sometimes you have to sit on the couch and let them be right you know that's right so right and it's yeah grappling being a grappling it's not just about physical attributes or physical skills it's about the a whole it involves everything about you as a person thing yeah yeah cool well thanks for listening everyone stay tuned for the next episode. Yep. And find us on social and you can reach out to us. Yeah. And,

uh, you know, Instagram Shintaro Higashi, Instagram, Peter Yu. I have a YouTube channel and, uh, look forward to talking to you guys next week.