The Shintaro Higashi Show - How to Train with Different Bodies

Episode Date: July 3, 2023

When you train Judo, it's inevitable to encounter different body types. Some of your training partners may be tall and lanky, while others may be short and stocky. The corollary is that we all have different bodies. How do we account for this during training? Do we need to adjust our techniques we use? In this episode, Shintaro and Peter go in depth about how to train with different bodies. 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 Heigashi Show. Peter Yu. Today, we're going to talk a little bit about how to train with different bodies. Yeah, this was a suggestion from a lot of people on our Discord server. Roger and Levan specifically asked about it. Like Roger was wondering how he could train effectively with different bodies in the dojo.

And also Levan came in more of a technical angle where like certain techniques are a favor certain body types so if your body is just not that type are you just out of luck or can you still do those techniques yeah interesting so let's go with the first one like uh how to train with different bodies at the dojo i think you need to vary your judo jiu-jitsu up according to the person that you you know at certain proficiency level that's different you know what i mean yeah like for instance like when i'm going with someone much lighter than me i'll go bottom for guard right i'll do open guard bottom stuff that i'm not good at right yeah because for me to go with someone that's 60 pounds lighter and try to pressure

pass them i think it's a little bit unfair in using my weight too much. You know what I mean? I reserve some of this stuff, you know, for some of the heavier guys in the room. And this gives me an area where I can kind of train with everybody, right? And then vary my training to get different things out of every different person. Right. I see. I mean, I like going for my A-game stuff with some of the higher black belts, right? If I'm going even in jud person. Right. I see. I mean, I like going for my A game stuff

with some of the higher black belts, right? If I'm going, even in judo. Yeah. But if I'm going with intermediates, I'll try new things, you know? I'll try new systems, new gripping strategies, whatever it is, and try to hit new moves. And sometimes I'll just give up bad position.

Like I'll just be like, all right, take whatever grips you want. Not like in like an arrogant way, but I'll like put myself in bad positions to work out of it. Totally, yeah. Especially if someone's lower belt than me and lighter than me. That's a great time to do this because it's much safer. Right.

If I put myself in bad position against a Kevin Muhammad, who's one of the bigger guys in the room and he's a bad, he's not going to throw me. Yeah, yeah. If I put myself in Georgian B against a tall Georgian guy that comes to the Dodgers and he's a black belt, I've never worked out with him before, there's a good chance that he merks me straight to my back. I don't want to take that chance. And it's risky from an injury standpoint. Right. I guess that goes with a bigger opponent, bigger partners, I guess.

Yeah, bigger partners. I train a certain way. I play a little bit more defensive in the beginning. You know what I mean? Yeah, feel them out. Yeah, feel partners, I train a certain way. I play a little bit more defensive in the beginning. You know what I mean? Yeah. Feel them out. Yeah, feel them out. And then I try to see what their game is

and try to play in a way where I get the most out of it as well. Yeah. Right? Yeah. Then how come you do pressure pass on me all the time? Yeah. I don't get tripod pass by you. Yeah.

So I'll mix it up. I really will mix it up. And then when I'm going with much lighter people in the room, I won't play like a heavy, strong, like lock up and pull them in, haraigoshi sort of game because I can use my body weight like this, but then it's just not fair, right? So I'll use like a much more mobility-based, like quick, like fast-paced judo where I'm gripping a lot moving a lot and setting up

ashiwaza yeah so i think it's very important to be able to do that you know uh somebody who's very tall you have to be able to be adaptive i mean yeah if you have the mentality of i'm going to the gym to win right then you're never going to try new things you always do your best game all the time try the best shit i mean and I feel like that is a great way to, first of all, get discouraged. He's not always going to win. And then a great way to get injured.

And your range of judo is not going to get, obviously when you're competing at a high level, you have to hone in on stuff you're really good at and double down on that. You really do. But for most of you guys who are listening, even finding your best, it's going to take some time. In order to find your best strategies and your best type of game that's unique to you, that's truly original, not just trying to carbon copy somebody else's system. That's extremely hard to do because that person designed it for themselves, for a reason.

There's lots of little advantages that you don't even see yeah you know knee issues leg length limb length you know how long your torso is even when you're like squatting back squat yeah right length of your femur and how your hips are angled outwards or inwards like those things matter so much oh i didn't didn't know that. Yeah. Now, you know, all these like squat coach and this and that, now they're really starting to take account, right? All these different things. Before it's like, all right, everyone has to work on ankle mobility and everyone should be able to squat ass to grass.

That's the worst advice. It really was. Oh, yeah. And it really wasn't until recently that people even started talking about how their hips are set up. Oh. You know what I mean? Well, that's good to hear.

Because, you know, I saw your movements, like, you just can't do it, you know? Yeah, the depth of your, what is it, the hip cavity or something? Yeah. The bone socket, like, how deep it goes. Like, all these different things. Like, everyone kind of knows, right, when you're squatting. Yeah. You know what i mean like

a turn out in ballet yeah everyone's like oh she has such a great natural turnout therefore you should be a ballerina or things like this some people have that kind of a hip structure yeah if that's the case you're not going to be able to squat the traditional way yeah i can't i can't spread him out like that yeah you know so same type of thing in judo right you can't just copy Koga, Zippo, and Senagi

if you're freaking 6'4 right because Koga wasn't 6'4 no and Uchimata by in a way

you I mean like balance coordination athleticism maybe he's just not athletic maybe he just doesn't work for you

so like trying all these different games trying all these different systems you know after you've been proficient enough i'm talking like in immediates here right but you don't just stick with what your teacher tells you and just kind of drill them right like when you're entering the intermediate level which is blue purple and black brown yeah yeah now once enter that, that's your real exploration phase. Right. And then, you know, to do that, you need to go with different body.

Different body types, try new things. Different things, yeah. So actually, that's a good segue to the next question, LeVon's question. Like, you kind of alluded to it, you know, for Koga, you know, his famous Ippon Seiyunage was probably specifically tailored to his body type and you know as you know Uchimata, Ono's Uchimata like not a lot of people can do that movement so and then the classic is like oh can

a tall person do a drop Seiyunage like all these things like if you know they're all throws have you know natural body type that they will favor so do you try to just stick to them these natural tendencies or do you try to can you can people

who may not be who may not have the natural body type for certain throws still do yeah like you you had that problem as an athlete to know like because you're on the heavyweight but not a tall person oh i'm not tall yeah five so like 11 on tinder that's tall so yeah I was like how would you do that like well you

you couldn't bomb everyone like you can bomb me with Uchibara because we're about the same height but you can't you couldn't do that with Kapalic

oh yeah I mean Kapalic is two-time Olympic gold medalist yeah there's more than just the height I guess

but you know even tall guys I could throw Uchibara not the way I'd throw shorter guys so this is champ gold medalist yeah yeah there's more than just a height i guess but you know even the tall guys i could throw uchimata not the way i throw shorter guys so this is a uchimata style that i do against taller guys versus uchimata that i do against guys who are within like three inches of my height which is lower or taller you know up until about 5 11 6, I could lift and bomb Uchimata. Anything higher becomes a little bit harder. The way I do it. Are you saying these throws you can modify

to... Yes, absolutely. Yeah, the backstep Uchimata, I could do it and then stop their head, right? And then throw anyone who's really, really tall, I can. You know what I mean? But the hands and the off-balance and the initial phase of the throw becomes much more important. because I need to bring their head down, right?

Even if I lift my leg this way my leg length is not that long, it's much shorter if I could stuff their head to the floor I don't need as much leg length and leg height, you see what I mean? Right, right, right. If I just turn on someone 6'2", I'm already beneath their center

of gravity, right? So a tall person to get below me with Senagi, it's much more difficult, right? But a person who's six foot two, can they do a drop Senagi on a five foot eight person that has no experience in judo? Yeah, of course they can. Snapping them down, snapping them. Their body's coming up. And then as they're going underneath, they dive right in.

100% you could do it. You know? The idea is to try this stuff in sort of a reduced intensity situation. Because people do Uchikomi. Yeah, cooperative drills. People go 100% cooperative Uchikomi combination and then they go to Rondori

and there's a zero to 100 thing. Completely different, right? There's no progression to that. It just dies right into a hundred percent speed, like going against somebody who's trying to throw you. Now they're resisting, trying to counter you. There's a huge gap between what you're doing in a cooperative setting and a non-cooperative setting. So you got to bridge that gap and then work sort of in that spectrum, right? Sometimes i'm going with somebody who's my size but i'm trying new things they're letting me try new things by going 50 speed right maybe this person has a shoulder injury right maybe i'm nursing a knee thing

so hey let's just kind of like do this back and forth drill where it's like semi-live and that's kind of where you experiment on new stuff you know what i mean so it seems like yeah the theme is that you know it's about letting yourself explore a lot of different venues i mean there's no silver bullet on like oh if you have if you're tall and you have short arms you do this and that like it's it's really different based on your body and your partner's body so and well let's just uh ground it a little because and just kind of go through a scenario so levon specifically asked like tall person with long legs can hit georgian and then like go for leg sweeps like are there more details about that or is it just like, do they come naturally?

Like, let's kind of talk about tall person doing Georgian. Okay. So this is the thing, right? Anything to look for. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, tall person can easily get to Georgian A. Yeah.

Georgian B, because they're shorter, they get forced into Georgian B. Right. When their Georgian arm comes down the back. Yeah. So it's a battle of who knows that position better right who's georgian b or this person who's taller who's doing georgian a you know i mean if i don't like that position at all if i don't know that position at all yes that natural height advantage is being able to get there and then harassing with the legs and

going to soto yeah is a huge advantage right Because my hips are lowered, if I can trap their hips and lock my elbows back so they can't turn my shoulder, now it's limiting a portion of their game. So, yes, body type matters kind of there. It's very, very difficult for me to get George on a much taller person. Yeah, right. Which means I don't have a lot of time in that position. So there's definitely natural... You can still hit it.

Yeah. I can still hit it. I'm pretty good at it. You know, against somebody that doesn't know it. You know what I mean? Right, right. Will I ever go try a Georgian A, like going over the back Georgian A versus Georgian B, right?

So they're kind of like, if one person has Georgian A, then you have Georgian B. I kind of like to distinguish it and if you have no idea what i'm talking about you should look it up on youtube my georgian a b system uh so yeah it's like if someone really knows that position and you know they're taller than me i'm a very difficult time getting to that position first and foremost and i'm not going to be good there.

Especially if they don't know how to deal with it. How to do Jojo B. So that makes it that my body type is not as good. Do you practice Jojo A against people like that? Do you try to practice Jojo A? If a Jojo guy walks in, he's like, I'm from Jojo. I want to do a judo here. I'm not going to try to stay in the pocket and work with them especially when i know the position enough right but i'm not

gonna play their game especially the first time i'm meeting them because there's a risk involved right dives in for also or there's a jordan beccari role where you dive into my back yeah it's too much risk injury risk well. You know what I mean? So I won't play that. But if that's something that I want to get good at, then I'll do it with someone who's lighter than me, someone who's taller than me, lighter than me, or someone who's working on Georgian A.

Be like, yo, I'll give you Georgian A. Let's stay in the pocket a little bit and play there. Do like a reduced 30% to 50% thing. Can I learn that position well? Yes, I can. Can I get good at forcing George into A and then being in that position against someone who's proficient? Yeah, I could train that specifically

by communicating with my partners and picking the right people to train with. Right, right. For instance, if I'm going up against someone that's 6'2 and that doesn't know the position well, getting there is part of it. Okay? So I'm going to do collar,

show Ippon Senagi, snap down the collar, then forcing that hand over the back. So now, I'm pretty good at that, so I could probably force pretty good, right? And now, they immediately go for the tricep grip, and now the game begins. You see what I mean? I see. Well,

this kind of so you can overcome it so you can overcome it yeah so you have to be strategic about you know who you go with

and then intensity and yeah because when people are freaked out they dive to the floor and then that's all sorts of risks to your knees you know what I mean

people don't really know it and then go for a Georgian A like diving Harai Maki Kome yeah you can land on your shoulder and get injured you know I've gotten that People don't really know it. And then go for a Georgian A, like diving, Harai Makikomi. You can land on your shoulder and get injured. I've gotten that.

Yeah, so getting comfortable in the pocket there first is really important. This also underscores the fact how important it is to have a lot of people in your dojo. Like different skills, different types of body. Yes. I mean, but you don't need that many. I mean, you kind of teach all this stuff. If your coach knows this system too,

then you could kind of, everyone can kind of learn bits and pieces of it. You know, right? And then like go back and forth and drill the active drilling and... Active drilling, light, low intensity, you know, exercises and such i mean yeah all right but yeah you know 100 every single time you know yeah yeah yeah and uh yeah so that's this is like you know you can definitely modify just to sum up the you can definitely modify these techniques to fit your bodies and you pretty much anything you can to theoretically you're saying right like

you can modify them to fit your bodies but the important thing is you know to get there you have to experiment a lot with uh people you can trust so that you won't get injured and you know and then you have to be strategic. You can't just, you have to take small steps to get there. Yeah, yeah. You don't even want to get a partner. You know, if you outweigh the guy, if you're much stronger than the person, just grab him and pull him in and force him.

It's not going to help either. You know what I mean? And then the person won't want to go with you anymore. They won't want to go with you. And then all of a sudden you want to, you know, train against someone that does like quick drop sit and aggies. That guy's not going to want to work out with you. You know what I mean?

And that stuff that you're training of like going over the back, quick benching and then just ripping it because you're much heavier, that's not going to work on someone your size and weight. Yeah. So why freaking do it? You know, if your goal is to like win in the practice, then yeah, then you can do that. But like, you're not getting much out of it.

You know, the goal in training is to learn and get better. Not to win every match. You know what I mean? Right. I can win every match and, you know, go into training like that, but I won't get a lot out of it. You know, sometimes, yeah, you want to like, I've never worked out with a snap before. I want to beat his ass.

There's a little bit of that sometimes. You know what I mean? Yeah. But majority of the time, you should be working on new things. And then you should be going with different body types and then adjusting your game plan accordingly. You want to devise a strategic B game, you know, losing position game. They want to transition stuff, working out a bad position.

You know, and best way to work out of a bad position is going with someone smaller than you. Give them your back, and best way to work out of a bad position is going with someone smaller than you. Give them your back, right? Try to work out of that, you know? I feel like I've been so I've gotten so lazy with these things because I'm like doing that sensei judo as you say. Yeah, yeah.

I mean, it's the worst thing in the world, you know? Yeah, I guess. Yeah, we covered a lot, I think. Anything else about different body types, training with them? You know, different body types, knowing your partner's injuries

and staying away from them, keeping your partner safe. If you're the guy or girl in the room that everyone wants to work out with, because this is the type of person you are, you can work out with anybody, I guarantee you, you'll get better. Because you'll never be sitting on the sidelines waiting for a round.

Right. You got to be like Eugene. Eugene is my cousin in the room. Everybody wants to work out with Eugene because he's safe. Oh, and he's just a great partner. Yeah. Want to be a good partner. You know, it's like me and Jujitsu.

Everybody want to roll me. I think. I think. Even when I go stand up with them. Even people want to go stand up with me. In the beginning, people were like, oh, man, I don't know if I want to. But I never bomb anybody. I never land on anybody.

So 95% of the time, these guys who normally are kind of scared to do stand up feel comfortable with me doing stand up because there's much lower risk. And I let them work. Let them work on stuff. For me to just take them out right away with a judo for Atlanta, what the fuck is a part of that? Throwing them to side control and pinning them there and holding them there. Why?

It's not going to get any better. Because you already know how to do that. I'd rather them work their takedown and then me pull guard and then, like, work open guard and sweep them and end up having to try to pass. Like, that's a much more...

I get more out of that. Yeah. You know, than, like, just taking someone down. That's right. All right, well, everyone, let's try to be a good partner.

Be a good partner. Yeah. All right, well, that's about it. Thanks for listening and we'll see you guys in the next episode.