The Shintaro Higashi Show - How to Be a Good Uke

Episode Date: January 15, 2024

Uke appreciation episode! Being an Uke is a huge part of Judo, but it's often not the most popular role, and many Judoka never bother to work on their Uke skills. Is it time for us to change that? In this episode, Shintaro and Peter what we can do to become a good Uke. Join our Discord server and start chatting with us and other grapplers by supporting us on Patreon: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/shintaro_higashi_show⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Any amount helps!

Hello everyone, welcome back to the Shintaro Higashi Show with Peter Yu. I'm going to talk about being a good uke today. Yeah, you just made an appreciation post, right? Yep, being a good uke is everything, man. Being a good uke, it's a huge thing. And if you guys already know, I'm going to repeat myself, there's tori and uke, the person giving and receiving, like most things in life.

Are you a tori or uke peter i'm always a uke because i i i always uh think about others and on that note we have some ukes in our life uh in for our podcast right jason and levon yep thank you and yep always uh you know and everyone else who is supporting us one way or the other and the patreon and all thank you and yep always uh you know and everyone else who is supporting us one way or the other and the patreon and all thank you very much thanks for being an awesome uke for our uh tori that is podcast yeah all right let's go back to the actual judo tori and uke yeah you just touched on the definition so tori is the one the definition. So Tori is the one that's throwing and Uke is the one that's receiving the throw.

Yes, yes. So it's a very cooperative thing. And sometimes it's like when you're doing Rondori, you can be like, oh, he was the Tori and he was the Uke. It's like just a reference, like who's the one that's doing the throwing. Sometimes it's like a demonstration with Kata. Sometimes it's mostly though,

when we talk about Uke in this context, it's about people who are being the person receiving the technique when the teacher is showing something in class. Yeah, I see. That's a very special skill to be able to do. So, you have your favorite, I think most senseis have their favorite ukes in their class, right? Always. Usually somebody much lighter than them yeah someone good at break falls and someone cooperative uh but you know yeah when i was there was i a good

okay you were a good okay yes for sure right it's someone you trust you know someone who's attentive there's a lot of different reasons to pick some uh someone that's a good uke uh but first we've got to talk about the stigma behind being a uke. Some people love it, some people don't. Some people who get to a certain level, like, oh, I will never take false

for anybody. There's guys who are like that. Oh, really? Yeah. Okay. Yeah, I remember talking to a guy who was teaching judo

and then some dude comes up and says, oh, man, sensei, can I take a taiyo from you? I just want to see what it feels like. I'm like, okay. And then I do it and then the teacher was like why would he ever want to do that you know

i will never let anyone throw me i'm like okay that's that's your opinion that's fine you know and then it's such an important skill to receive a throw well yes yes yeah but you know some people just don't want to get taken down like that you know i see right and that's one thing and some people are injured and there's a lot of reasons behind it you know and some people just don't want to get taken down like that. I see. And that's one thing. And some people are injured. And there's a lot of reasons behind it. And some people have this like, I am at the top of the chain now. I shouldn't have to take any falls for anybody. And it's more common than you think, man.

Because I've had situations where it's like, I do seminars, right? Yeah. So guys, reach out to me if you want me to do a seminar at your gym. And it's like, if I pick a black belt, sometimes the black belt's like ah you know you can see it in their face like oh my god am i gonna get bombed like there's a lot of fear there you know oh right and then some people were like oh how dare this guy choose me to fall like you know yeah i didn't know that people had that attitude i I actually, I don't think I've ever actually met them. Is that, have you seen that in Japan when you're training?

Like sensei wouldn't, I guess you guys, you didn't really have this demonstration thing going on when you were training in Japan anyway. No, but if you're a teacher in Japan, like if you're a top dog in Japan in the room, you're not taking falls from nobody, dude. Okay, so it is, okay. And, you know, once you pass the coach level, like there's a coach and then there's a teacher, right?

Yeah. So, like, if you look at, like, Kokushikan University system, you have the four-year university guys and you have the professional guys who are right out of college who are actually just full-time, you know, doing judo as a professional. And they're getting paid a corporate salary yeah and there's always you know they're all over the place like they go to this company or that company right like par 24 and uh you know yeah horse betting whatever it is so then when they come back they're training there's always like 20 30 guys who are pro guys they're training on the mat and then the people who are kind of like a little bit above that are coaches you know maybe they went four years to the college maybe they have a corporate pro thing they already retired and now

they're coaching the kids like late 20s they can still train with them like beat them up kind of thing yes yes and then they want to be like you know head coach assistant coach but there's the coaches that work out with the guys yeah yeah that'd be the piss out of the kids you know yeah and then uh there's a couple of those guys and then there's like sort of a hierarchy right yeah and then you get to the teachers who are like the head coach assistant coach that don't work out anymore who were like in their late 30s 40s like my age and those guys don't fall those guys don't do takedowns they don't they don't they don't do andre you know right right right yeah and then but

then you they don't even do demonstrations right because they don't no one needs demonstrations no i mean sometimes they do they'll be like hey this is what we're gonna do and they'll grab a kid you know a university kid or somebody like uh they'll probably they won't pick one of the higher level guys so they're you know japanese culture is very hierarchical right as is korea and as a lot of these asian countries and then it's embedded in the culture of like all right this person can do this this person can do that and you know and bjj kind of leaked over like if you're a lower belt you're not supposed to ask a higher belt for roles have you ever heard this um i've never heard of that yeah a lot of gyms are like that you know so if you're a blue belt you can't ask a purple

belt brown belt black belt so you get got blue belts, you can't ask a purple belt, brown belt, black belt to roll. So you've got blue belts just sitting there waiting. And then it's good and it's bad, right? Because it preserves some of this hierarchical stuff and it protects the higher belts from reckless beginners, essentially, beginner and intermediates. But the black belts can easily just sit there and pick their own rounds. Yeah. So it kind of lulls them a little bit, you know, as opposed to, like. So, you think this, like, people avoiding being uke kind of is a result of this culture bleeding over? Yeah.

Some people are like, I don't want to be uke, you know? Yeah. I see. Why should I be uke? Do it to that guy. Or some people who want to sit there and watch the lesson, you know? Yeah. Because sometimes they believe, like, if they're receiving it, they're not being able being able to watch it right and everyone's a different learner in the room some people are like which is true yeah yeah you can't you know if you're okay you might have to ask again like hey

how how did you do this part of that part yeah i guess so some people are visual learners right like they want to see the actual move being done like you know from a third person standpoint and that's one of the ways they learn and if they're taking the technique they have no clue what's really going on not always the case obviously if you're already like a higher belt like you're probably gonna get it yeah still right yeah so so then okay so like what's the attitude here that you you think all of us in america should have like we always talk about we've talked about this a lot right like when people kind of bring aspects of this just regular old japanese culture into america and then they kind of distortion maybe a little bit of a too

strong of a word but you know like the hierarchical stuff in japan that's just normal that's how like bowing yeah that's just saying hey so you know i think it's you said that it's very important for us to kind of see what that is as it is you know the japanese culture and then translate that into the more american context right right? Yeah. So how should we translate this being an uke, the culture of being an uke, into our context? Our context, yeah. I mean, we didn't really talk about, like,

the pros of being an uke even in Japan, right? Yeah. Some people say it's an honor, it's an honor. You know, there's always pros and cons and stuff, you know? Yeah. I personally think, like, being a coachable person in the room is sort of the fastest track to getting better at martial art right you know what i mean right if you're a coachable likable kid or even an adult even if you're like 35 years old you're just like a likable person and you're coachable and you're humble and people want to teach you stuff like

now all of a sudden your information that's being thrown at you is in a compound right because everyone wants to work out with you everyone wants to teach you stuff even if you're like a blue belt like the black belt's gonna be like hey come here kid you know like even if you're like a 35 year old man like hey let me show you right so i think like it kind of plays into that like when you're uke you're visible to the class first and foremost right right you know what i mean if the teacher's doing the techniques on you you get to feel it firsthand so when someone else does it to you okay it doesn't feel right and then maybe you could make that connection maybe right yeah this elbow is supposed to be tucked under the armpit and you felt the person's collar hand like pulling up right around your collarbone and then

when you're going to train the actual technique and the person's kind of like hand is sagging it's not very tight you know like down low it like, oh, it doesn't feel like the same thing, you know? Right, right. So that gives you valuable information. Mm. Right? I see. Yeah, and then you get to be in tune with your coach a little bit more because sometimes

when you're sitting in the back and then you're kind of like, oh, I feel like I know this already, and they're giving this detail, that detail, this detail, that detail. You go here, you go there, you put your feet there. Sometimes you can miss some of the most important details because you could daydream in two seconds, you know? Yeah. It takes me, right, like watching class and then some guy will be like,

yo, what's up, what are you doing this weekend? For me to be completely distracted and like miss everything. And I think that's more common than you think, you know, because when I teach class, and I teach class all the time, I try not to ramble over three minutes when I do any instruction and I can always tell you know three minutes in I'm like talking about Uchimata and I'm pretty good at this stuff to teach you this stuff two or three guys just start wandering off you could just see them

kind of like trailing off into the distance or like looking at the clock this yeah some people are yawning you know like people start picking up their face it's like I'm losing a couple of guys here. You know, and some people have shorter attention span than others. You can't keep everyone's attention all the time. But for two to three minutes, they keep every single person's attention. Yeah. Those people, too, should be uke sometimes, right?

Because then you have to be attentive because if the coach says, hey, when I go for tatoshi, the most common reaction is, right? And then, yeah. So you have to do the common reaction. So if you don't know it, you're going to look like a buffoon. And your coach is going to look like a buffoon because you can't do the technique, right? So it forces you to be knowledgeable. It forces you to be listening for the different reactions that may come, right? And then it's really a give and take if the coach is like, hey, the most common reaction when the person goes Ouchi is,

you know, whatever it is and then when i go ouchi if i know you can't do it as uke i'd be like the most common reaction is shifting their weight to that far leg and then balancing on one leg so now the uke is listening and learning the most common reaction oh that's the most common reaction i should be doing that you know i see i see so it's because you've become a more you can become more of an active learner yeah you are not yes that's the perfect way to word it you're an active learner in front of everyone you're visible to the room there's different it's like interpersonal learning right there right you know what i mean and then the coachability kind of goes hand in hand like you said the teacher will pick usually if you like if you

go to a seminar right and then and the uke that gets picked from the dojo is usually like the one of the younger kids that's like most promising i feel like you know that's usually the case right yeah sometimes yeah I think so cause and I mean there's a reason for that I guess cause they're like knowledgeable enough but not big enough

but you know I mean there's definitely some Tory cheats like you go to a seminar and you ask the coach there like the top guy like hey man

who's the best uke in the room yeah they'll definitely point you to the right person you know no matter what but then that usually like uh i think

it's uh it's not because they're best okay i mean i think because the person probably has all these other qualities that makes him a big him or her a big uh good okay right like coachability he uh the person probably shows up all the time yep the teacher knows a person the person the teacher is not going to just select a random you know i mean i did a seminar yesterday and i did select a random guy and you know it was a little bit difficult right because he's he was a little bit tense so then you know i rotated him out yeah yeah in a nice way and those are tori tricks you know what i mean all I mean alright guys looking quick and then I just grab the first person here

but I've already situated myself next to that person who is much skinnier and lighter right I see right

or sometimes it's like alright now we're gonna go against someone that's a lot bigger than us right and in that case and I'll grab somebody

so now I've already done two Uke changes like in like sort of a polite context where it's like oh he's fired

right it's not like that so now the guy doesn't feel bad about himself. So now the next time, all right, guys, bring it in. Can I use your uke? Right? That person, it means nothing. Right?

It doesn't, there's no meaning behind it as opposed to like, oh, this guy's not a good uke. He's fired. You know, it's not like that. Oh, hopefully this person doesn't listen to this podcast. No, he was fine. He was great. I rotated back to him actually. Yeah, okay, good.

So it was awesome. And there's some Tori tricks, too, outside of that. And I'm going to talk about Uke tricks in a little bit, too. Yeah. If you're demonstrating a throw and then you're going to bomb them, right?

Yeah. Sometimes they know when you're going to throw. So that's when they get tense. Right, right, right. So the first two or three times you're teaching something, you don't throw them at all. You're just like, oh, here you go, here go here you go right and you lull them oh and then it's like

yeah yeah so when you enter tai toshi you go here and you go there and the hand goes like that look this is what it looks like okay all right so you go like this you go like that and then you just rip it once so they don't see it coming but that's that's like a high level move right you have to be very very very good at doing the throw, right? Because the guy doesn't see it coming. Right. So you have to kind of trust. You have to be very controlled.

You have to be very controlled. And if you suck at throwing, and if you do an Osoto-Gari, and you let go of the collar, and he doesn't see it coming, he's going to have a concussion. You're going to have big issues, right? Right. But if you're going to do Osoto, no one wants to take an Osoto breakfall, ever, right?

No one wants to take a shit. Yeah. And we're doing Osotooto like i don't throw i don't throw i don't throw and when i do throw i'll throw real fast right and i don't enter really fast because that'll give him like a uh tension thing yeah enter kind of slow and it's like i'm chit-chatting chit-chatting then i finish very close because there's nowhere for him to go right yeah yeah and when i'm throwing i'll definitely decelerate him and then he's like oh that wasn't so bad so the next time he's a lot likely to right right be more relaxed right he's like whoa you know people get shocked and that's

a great way to bring back the audience too like hey god you know when guys start chilling off and i was talking to reagan about this too and greg was like oh yeah you know when i'm okay when i look out into the crowd and i see like two you know when I'm uke when I look out into the crowd and I see like two or three like empty faces like looking into

the ceiling I know you're about to slam me so I get ready for that you know cause yeah it's like

give him the razzle dazzle to get looking back so yeah that's a good segue to you know we talked about the mental i guess

like the mental side of being a good okay being coached well not probably yeah what are the actual techniques yeah being a good okay so knowing the proper reaction and know to give the right reactions right yeah and then the proper amount of reactions that's that's the key you know so i was doing uh i had a uke last thursday when i was teaching judo he's one of my judo guys and then i went okay when i go inside tayo here and i bumped the leg and then i like touched my thigh to his inner thigh and then he freaking almost fell over and i'm like bro there's too much like no one's gonna do it i didn't do it hard you know just stand there normally right yeah and sometimes i'll be like all right you know i will say in the context of it, like,

oh, if you do it really hard, this could potentially happen. But let's just say he doesn't react so big or let's say you don't like throw him right off the rip, you know? And then he knows how to like adjust if he's listening and if he's into it, he can adjust, right? And sometimes we're like, listen, man, just don't do anything. Just stand there. Sometimes I'll just say that, right?

I see. But yeah, like uke tricks. Is that what we're talking about? Yeah, like how to, what are the techniques to uke? I mean, you kept mentioning staying relaxed. Yeah, being relaxed is important. Not being tense at all, you know? Yeah, what is that? How do you become like that though? Like just getting used to it? Yeah, I think that's

what happened to me but yeah like when you're first a lot of beginners tend to try to like defend it i guess almost instinctively you know what it is man it's the fear of the unknown as with most things like yeah if you don't know what throw is coming you're gonna be freaking tense right right right you know the time like all right guys i'm gonna go inside tile and then do a double tile to the outside you know shin and that's what we're showing today the my guy goes for an inside tile and he steps out and then i already know azuki like he's gonna go for the second tile right yeah yeah i'm like gearing myself up for that and i'm relaxing my upper body because if i know tiles come in i could push away or like the opposite direction. But I'm going in the direction

where I'm loose and I'm letting myself almost going towards the technique and I'm on one leg. And the moment he threads the Taiyo, I'm already throwing myself leaning forward and as he's executing the throw, I'll do a calf lift. I'll push off on my

calf. Not dorsiflex what's the other one i have no idea dorsiflex you know and i'll like push off my calf as i'm going forward so i'm not actually jumping but i'm making a maneuver where i'm extending myself towards the throw in the direction of the throw right yeah that is like peak uke stuff you know what i mean and i could take a great break fall for taiyo like this and i could do that for like sanagi uchimata i could that's i'm a master at that but taking a osorogari break fall i'm not as good i don't even know if there's like a flash because you basically make right now the way you describe it is like you're like basically making the throw look bigger, right?

Like and then smoother. I don't even know how you can do that with those Dugari. I mean, yeah. You just kind of. Getting snuffed up, right? You like drive your heel back, right? You just drive back your weight to the heel. And then you lean back towards the throw.

Right? Oh, and then you can. Okay. Then it'll be bigger. And then you don okay then it'll be bigger and then you don't hang on the person because then you get pulled you pull your tori down right yeah so like okay when i go sort of ochi or so like i enter osoto and the most common reaction is for the person to put their weight onto that leg so i'll like lean on the leg but not like turning away to the technique yeah i'll turn into the person so then i give him the proper angle

right so we're like face to face facing each other so now and then i'll rotate my knee inward so then it's a much easier angle from the reach the leg yeah and as he's going in i'll like kind of like fall backwards already as he's going yeah but i don't like try to time the fall right because if i go jump for it yeah because then it looks really bad when it looks like I'm jumping for him yeah yeah so I'm just going slowly in the direction of the throne as he enters I'm throwing myself kind of like I'm just going with the maneuver you know what I mean yeah yeah yeah I see so it's it yeah so basically you also have to be very knowledgeable

of the throw it's not just about like being limp yeah right and then also like there's varying degrees of like torii and uke

you know what I mean so like I will never forget man when you were at the dojo when you were like 19 years old no you must have been

22 years old or something right yeah when I first showed up yeah and if you could go back on my Instagram to like the very first like 20 posts it's a video of me throwing you tayo video me throwing you tayo just like all right guys this is tayo bang and just

hitting tayo once oh and then your cousin and then your cousin was like oh no don't throw my cousin like that oh yeah i kind of remember that yeah you know yeah that's like really good because you're so relaxed and it was just pure just you just stand in there right yeah you knew i was gonna do tayo and you just kind of like accept it yeah yeah i mean i i you know it's it looks big but it doesn't hurt because you know i know you're controlling and actually it would hurt less if I was just like go over so that one

is an example of like Uke being neutral and Tori being the person who's just ripping the throw right yeah yeah but if you have a guy

that's not that good and you have a really really good Uke he can make you look like a world champion that's the thing oh yeah right

but like going towards the throw jumping off the calf like doing the calf race thing. Right? But you know, I've seen the reverse of that too. Yamashita came to New York

and did a seminar and he had the worst uke in the room and they were doing moving uchikomi. This guy made Yamashita look like a beginner, dude. Yamashita was one of the

greatest judokas of all time. The guy was like, alright, this is how you do it. And his English was very limited you know so he couldn't really guide

the uke to do like take the proper steps yeah and he was doing like alright 1, 2, 3, ochi 1, 2, 3, ochi right

and then the guy just wouldn't step back with the right foot you know and the correct foot and then like the moment he like entered like

the second or third time he like almost tripped and like turned and put his hand down and Ibasu's just sitting there like Jesus freaking Christ you know why did he pick Kim?

I don't know he volunteered I think and then after the second time Yamashita's literally like no get out of here he like went like this moved he like

swept his hand away and then just pointed at somebody else he didn't he didn't Yamashita's not Yamashita's not about your

Tory tricks no he was just like you come here and then they picked some light kids small kids

and he wasn't even nice about it he wasn't like sparing about the throws out he just kept relentlessly slamming this kid

over and over and I was like see that's the kind of stuff that makes no one want to be a Tory okay

okay yeah that's well you can you can do that I guess when you're a Yamashita I guess so but you know No one want to be a Tory. Okay. Okay. Yeah. That's. Yeah. Well, you can do that, I guess, when you're a Yamashita. I guess so. But, you know, it's very conversational, right?

Yeah. It's a very special relationship, Tory and Uke. Yeah. Because Tory also has to consider the person's body. You're just slamming the guy over and over. Yeah. Day in and day out. That's not very helpful. No, no.

The guy's not going to want to do it anymore. Eventually, it hurts. I mean, I say, yeah, if you relax it want to do it anymore eventually it hurts i mean i say yeah if you're like it it hurts less but it hurts nonetheless yeah it's kind of like it's like a special relationship man tori and uke like you know because i've had like guys who were tori in the room who are amazing it's like all right guys bring it in for technique and then you see the tori pop up like like yeah you need me and then he like runs over to you yeah

it's kind of like a nice little and yeah it's like a little bit you know top bottom sort of a thing but you gotta reciprocate

right you gotta give something back you know there's a appreciation sort of a situation yeah you have to it's always like this

right like you can't you can't practice judo without your partner no I think there's like it gotta be a uke union

uke union yeah dude like if you're I was joking about this the other day like if you're consistently uke for the head instructor

and he's showing technique on you and you play music in the gym right uke should be able to pick two or three songs oh yeah you know what I mean like come on

you know what I mean? Like, come on. You know what I mean? Right? Yeah. Remember this kid? This kid named James, the Korean kid. Yeah. He was the best Uke in probably the tri-state area. So good.

Oh, yeah. Yeah, man. Remember? And then his sensei, the Filipino gentleman. That's right. Yeah. James. Yeah. Oh, man. He was a Kata championi, the Filipino gentleman, will always... That's right, Jettoway, yeah. Yeah. Oh man,

he was a Kata champion too. He was like a Kata uke. Dude, he is so good. Yo, he's so good. He'll make anyone look like an Olympic champion. You could be a green belt. You could do judo

for six months too. You could be a white belt doing judo and you could take this kid and you could look like... You could put it on Instagram and immediately go viral. Yeah.

Hey, James, if you're listening, man Instagram and immediately go viral. Yeah. Hey, James, if you're listening, man, like, I miss you. Yeah, I miss you having as my uke. Like, he, he is such a nice kid. You know,

you guys could look him up on my YouTube, like today. You could find, you could do a three-person Nagen Okada and I kind of did it like half-jokingly.

Yeah. Look up three-person Nagen Okada on my YouTube and then you'll find them yeah the best uke ever let me let me see if that actually comes up yeah he uh he he was always the yeah karaoke and then he would make the you know the uh he really throws himself into it really. He really, he's lanky,

makes the action really big. Does it show up? Naga no Kata. Yeah, yeah, yeah. If you do Naga no Kata, man, it only has, it doesn't have a lot of views. Let's see how much boost it's going to get from this.

Oh, that'd be amazing, right? Yeah, it's like one two three fourth one down you'll see you know what my videos look like so yeah type in naga no kata and don't look at any of the experts actually doing it and just me messing around and hanging out yeah that was pretty fun that was a good time yeah yeah james yen man what a okay man okay the century did yeah so what what can we actually do to become like james i guess like you just you talked about understanding the throw and all but is it just a matter what are some concrete steps we can take right away like being loose man being loose you

know embracing the fall you have to have good ukemi skills right if you don't have good ukemi skills you're not going to be able to do it. And then if you're doing like uke as like on the ground, knowing all the different reactions, being knowledgeable really is kind of the main thing, you know?

Yeah. And sometimes you pick like an intermediate guy to like just be the throwing dummy, I guess. And then sometimes you pick a higher level guy

to kind of like enhance the lesson. Yeah. Right? Because, hey, you know, I go, even like jujitsu like i'm okay all the time for this guy nick damjoni for the 10 a.m i'm the guy okay you know like i just carved

myself sort of like this niche identity at the essential jiu-jitsu at the 10 a.m class like because you're you you're not you don't really fit the usual uke, like the class uke. I volunteered for that. Profile and judo because you're big. Yeah. You're hard to throw. Yeah. And I volunteered for this. Yeah, I was like, Nick, man, if you ever need an uke, I got you.

And you want to know what's great about that, maybe an uke doing that? Nick likes to do the technique once or twice before he actually shows everybody, right? So he'll come over to the side like as people are like messing around or just stretching or before class even because like come on right and i'm like oh what are we learning today he's like oh we're gonna do butterfly guard into this and that reaction i'm like oh cool and as he's showing the moves i could ask him questions like oh how do you force that hand high above to force that shoulder crunch or like how do you get to that butterfly he's like sometimes you go shin to shin sometimes you gotta go there

sometimes I go to I wanna do that and then so I get like a mini private lesson almost for like 5-10 minutes first and then he does the technique right and then I can even be like yo what happens to this guy

it's very informative for me I love it I love it and then class starts we do like a little bit of a 5-10 minute warm up drill

and then he's like alright bring right, bring it in, guys. And then I go in and I'm like, all right, do whatever you want to me. And then it's kind of nice. You're such a good student. You're like first to the class. Yeah. But you know, man, this is the thing. Like when he was teaching the lesson and then I would be in the back watching.

Yeah. Very easy for me to doze off. That was my guy. That was me. teaching the lesson and then I would be in the back watching yeah very easy for me to doze off that was my guy that was me you know in school like every class that I've ever taken

sitting in the back like messing around the whole time right I can't pay attention I just can't it's too easy to mess around the back of the class

when I was getting my MBA the classes that I like alright I gotta do well in this class you know you sit in the front I'll sit in the front and this is the equivalent man there is no fronter seat

than being okay i know you can't just think about anything else yeah it's like you're on the teacher's lap you know yeah yeah quite literally yeah teacher tell me tell me you know so yeah no it's great being okay man and i think uh you know, advocate for everybody to challenge themselves. And if you're a teacher, I don't want to say the word groom, but you want to groom good Ukes, too. You know what I mean? You got to make sure you got to build different Ukes. So, like, if your main Uke is not in the room, you don't panic. Like, oh, shit.

Which goon am I going to take? And then, like, yeah. Right, right. And then, you know know you might look you might look like a beginner if you pick the wrong one yeah man appreciation is you know there needs to be more of that stuff because like if without an uke man who are you going to show technique on you know you just can't so it's like you need a good uke you know they get no love yeah you know what i mean we need a uke appreciation week yeah yeah we need to make a drake song like starting as a uke nam here

well yeah well if you wanna yeah like we said i i if you wanna check out some like real you know good examples of uke you can actually look up nage no kata and check out you know good examples of uke. You can actually look up Nagen no Kata and check out Shintaro's videos, not the fancy ones. And it starts off me and Eugene, and then we alternate out with James. So you'll see him take great breakfalls. Eugene is also a great uke too.

He's a great practice partner. He's a good example if you want to check it out yeah like a real life example yeah all right anything else no man guys thank you very much for listening as always i greatly appreciate everyone who's involved in our journey uh we have a lot of youtube followers we have 200 000 now on youtube milestone over 100 000 on instagram you know mike o'hearn started following me on Instagram? Mike who? Mike O'Hearn. He's a jacked up dude.

No, I don't know who that is. He's got like 4 million Instagram. He's like a fitness guy. Yeah, he's like... Oh. Maybe he's going to take some judo with you. That'd be nice, right? Roddy Chang follows me too,

you know? Oh, I know that. Yeah, yeah. So pretty amazing stuff, man. Thank you guys. I can't do it without you guys, you know, helping me out. I'm very, very grateful. So thank you everyone. Yeah. So pretty amazing stuff, man. Thank you guys. I can't do it without you guys, you know, uh, helping me out and I'm very,

very grateful, you know? So yeah. Thank you everyone. Yeah. I mean, the same goes from, you know,

for me, it's, it's been a great journey and thanks for your continued support and we'll see you guys in the next episode.