The Shintaro Higashi Show - Importance of Precursor Skills

Episode Date: May 31, 2021

A perfect Ippon throw doesn't exist in a vacuum-- it needs to follow "precursor skills." Shintaro and Peter discuss what exactly these precursor skills are and how we can learn them effectively. Please support us on Patreon if you can: https://www.patreon.com/shintaro_higashi_show. Any amount helps!

hey guys how's it going welcome back to the shintaro higashi show with peter you today we're going to talk a little bit about precursor skills period precursor skills right before you throw before you do judo precursor skills things that don't get really talked about so much right people focus on tile people focus on right you might have the actual throw the technique there's a lot of precursor skills gone before yes we have to talk about that There's a lot of precursor skills going before. We have to talk about that. Yeah, so you're big on that whole context,

whole idea of the context. So I guess precursor skills are related to that. Yeah. Can you go into a little bit of detail about what they are exactly? It seems like they're not just the setup. They're not just the setup you're talking about. No, there's a little bit more. So I'll give you an example. There was this Georgian guy who was very, very good at the Georgian position in a right bit more right so i'll give you an example there was this georgian guy

who was very very good at the georgian position in a right side versus right side setting right he came to my dojo he's unbelievable in that position he was like a junior national champ over there in the country of georgia not georgia the state you know what i'm talking about yeah if he gets to that georgian position he knows that position more than me right right one person proactively has the georgian over the near side shoulder and grabs the belt, one person, I like to call it Georgian A versus Georgian B because the receiving side is a specific position involving a specific skill set as well, right?

So the strategy is different. If one person has a Georgian, it's kind of like a zero-sum game, right? Right. So it's more like how to even get to the position you like and things like that yeah a little bit of that so it's like right this guy's whole strategy with me is to get there right right he has hurrah he has ochi he has the cabarelli right he's very good at that right and i'm not too proficient in this position right i see yes i could

grab the tricep try to lift him yeah that's like sort of my one thing that i'm like pretty good at like the uranage if you guys haven't seen me uranage my teddy bear it's on my youtube i saw that yeah yeah so that's like i'm not like great in that position. Right. I could handle my own, but he's very good. Right, right. So that's where he wants to be. So the precursor skills to him throwing me with anything, right? Like one of probably three moves that he does really well from there. Right.

And they link together. They have a lot of good synergy there. Right. So the precursor is to get to that position in the first place. I see. So the skill set of getting there. the precursors to get to that position in the first place i see so the skill set of getting there it seems like you you first need to excuse me first need to develop your throws like your arsenal of throws before kind of diving into precursor skills because yes yeah you do you

definitely it's kind of like together right and people argue like should i do a thousand taiyatoshis today or should i work on grip fighting right right right even then it's like you have two examples but there's a lot in between two right a lot in between it's more than just a precursor skills are more than grip fighting where yeah there's a lot of factors always going into this stuff right and people neglect the fact that strength does matter being strong does matter you know you don't have to be the strongest person in the world to do judo definitely not but you need some sort of standard level of strength right standard level of coordination if you're not coordinated at all then you can't do it you give the most extreme example like if you can't walk you can't really do judo right so you can you can like you could do other forms of

judo but like i'm talking full-blown randori and try to hit somebody with a taiyatoshi. So it's even like fitness. Would you say fitness? Fitness is a component. Yeah. Yeah. I see. Definitely.

So there's a lot of stuff going into it. And you're right. You have to have good technique, which is the taiyatoshi or the haragoshi or whatever throw that you want to use. So it's a wide range of skills so i mean we we already have a episode dedicated to fitness for grappling so let's kind of assume that we have fitness taken care of so what how do how do you recommend people uh start with like with in terms of precursor skills yeah where do we start i think so it's difficult if you're going into a dojo right right and you have the old school dojo which practices two hours

and you spend 30 minutes doing uchikomi 20 minutes doing break falls and other stuff like shrimping and just drilling period of like right and you're just kind of going through the motions of that and then maybe do some randori like that's really not going to help you really develop because you're not putting any focus on it right you have to have deliberate training where it's like oh this is where i need to be so you're gonna have this like mind map of like these are all the things that i need to get good at in order to maximize my judo skills in a competitive setting right right and then you have to sort of fill the gaps a little bit fill the gaps and then like highlight each areas to train you know what i mean so what are those areas yeah oh for instance i'll give you another example like

i just saw jimmy pedro do a video on his instagram it's like okay right first right very common position left hand post left hand post right actually jimmy's lefty so he did it reverse it's left versus left with the right hand all right oh he's like yeah so this is what you want to do these are some of the options and we're just going to start drilling from here it's going to be like a live drill okay fighting for that sleeve trying to gain dominant position from this specific position go right that's a very very very small section of the entire exchange of judo right and if you look at an entire match of judo there's many many different exchanges right exchanges where i'm talking like oh me and you come out bow we start right left i have dominant i go for ochi we go to the ground newaza something happens mate that's

one exchange right start back up we're fighting fighting fighting peter goes for eight drops in the world all right mate right that's exchange we go out of bounds right so many exchanges in the match and even within that one exchange right there's a lot going on there who takes the first hand on am i trying to fight right side am i trying to fight left side these things and then if you're fighting same side of fight is right versus right that hand posting on the back shoulder that's very very very common right so you want to training to. So like training that specifically, right? I saw that video. I was like, this is good.

That's exactly what we're supposed to be doing. I see. So you recommend dedicating a certain period in practice for situational drilling. Situational training, right? Right. Because it's very important you train. I'll give you an example. I read this book, right? Right. Because it's very important you train. I'll give you an example. I read this book, right?

It's called Peak. It's about deliberate training. Everyone has this mindset of like, oh, 10,000 hours. It was started by Malcolm Gladwell in his book, right? And the new sort of research suggests like you want to really focus. Like if you're playing tennis, right, and you have a very weak high backhand, right? What is it called? The backhanded hit? I don't even know i think they are backhand yeah yeah so if you're just playing tennis and i'm just playing tennis with you every day three hours a

day how many times am i going to encounter that exact stimulus not not much five times six times right now all of a sudden it's like i i hit and then it goes over here, it goes over there, and I get success with it once. One out of five times. I've trained it five times. Now I get a tennis coach and he's like, listen, man, I know you want to sit here and just blow through the serves and hit your forehand and all that stuff, but you suck at the high left backhand, high backhand. So we're just going to do that for the whole practice. And I'm like, really? Right?

backhand high backhand so we're just going to do that for the whole practice and i'm like really right and now it's like i'm hitting the ball in this high backhand in my weak position just working on that specifically for a thousand times all right so now i've encountered that exact same situation a thousand times as opposed to like if i just played tennis three hours a day you know five times per playing tennis it's like that's gonna take 200 sessions right to get that it's not as efficient it's not as efficient so it's like you want to be able to train some of this and yeah i i leave it up to my guys a lot of times hey work on stuff that you need to work on kind of right and i'm not as explicit and you know sometimes when you say that people just kind of go like yeah so right what do you want to get for dinner tonight you know sometimes when you say that people just kind of go like yeah so right

what do you want to get for dinner tonight you know get some chicken or whatever yeah after practice right so that's sort of the training yeah so then yeah so that's that was gonna be my question like how do you know what to train like those specific situations like do you just uh like try to remember what you encounter in randori or stuff like that like what you're struggling with positions you're struggling with is always good you have to always do a little randori not always but like you want to do a lot of randori because it's you know you're a science guy it's like data collection right right right theories you work on it you train you know uh you have these algorithms right

peter yeah exactly and then you have to test it you have to test it so you have to be in a place where you could sort of mindfully sort of remember and do right and i suggest right you have to go be able to go with everybody and i talked about this you have to have to go to black belt you have to go to brown belt you have to be able to go with green belt and then going with people who aren't going to take your head off is nice because now you're not fearing for your life now you're not in survival mode when you're in survival mode it's like you can't really remember anything right everything becomes a blur yeah you know that's why like when you interview people who had some traumatic accident or something like that's like what happened i don't know that came out of nowhere and you know right yeah so you know mindfully practicing

right and training with everybody and then when you're capable right you have to be able to turn it on and off like the competitive switch like i'm going with peter he hit me with this last time today i'm going to try to beat him like i'm just literally trying not like physically you know angle him like i'm going to try to competitively win this match. And you have to have rounds like that. And you have to have rounds like, hey, I'm going to go with someone who's a little bit lighter than me. So I could be mindful. Because the risk of this smaller opponent who's not as skilled as I am putting me on my head is very low.

So I'm going to be like, okay, work this position. Dominant position. He's trying to fight out of it. What is he doing right? What is he doing wrong? I'm going to put myself in a weaker position. Let's just say right versus say right first left he has the elbow in okay how do i attack from here okay i gotta slip this elbow out how do i do that i'm trying to do it i can't really do it goes to side slip it out doesn't work i go for a soda i fake it you know stuff like this and then you like mindful training and you identify weaknesses in your game and then you go back to the drilling

to that exact same example it's like okay you do on dory and now all of a sudden you have these ideas right now you have to kind of like do it in a way where after practice hey can i borrow you for a second like can we all right we were in this position this elbow was in i was trying to silence trying to did you know what i was doing you know most people are kind of not aware right okay but it's like all right let's figure this out and then you go back and try it try it i see right it's not going to work on a black belt ever so it's like when i was trying to pick up tomonage obviously i'm not going to throw a white belt it's going to land on their head right but it's like i'm going to try it on the green belts first right right it works on the

green belts consistently then i'm going to try it on the brown belt second uh-huh i see you know what i mean little by little right little by little so i like progress like so all of my techniques kind of have like a belt system in my mind i see kind of interesting way to put it green belts the universal practice dummies kind of yeah because they're good enough right right to where they can put up a good fight and their good body and they know how to fall so it's like they're a little bit right that's that's the sort of training grounds you know you should live with the green belt i know sometimes people like oh but that's like that should be your best round that should be the most insightful around a lot of the times right you know i totally agree and also it's good for them too you know

because you're like um you know they get to go with higher belts and then they they are exposed to new things and then discover what they need to work on the precursor skills yes yes yeah and if you're competitively going against the green belt where you're just housing them the whole time and slamming them throwing them around like crazy like they're just gonna get discouraged they're not gonna have any fun they're not to think that they're progressing. So it's like when you go with them and you put yourself in bad positions, like losing position right versus left, losing position right versus right, and you're like, oh, man, you know.

So now they feel like they can kind of throw you. And you're trying to figure out, you know, attacking from losing position. Do I try to get out? Do I go for a bailout throw or do I try to improve position? Right, right. And then, like, sometimes, you know, I'm looking just to get in the bad positions. I could bail out of the techniques. do i go for a bailout throw or do i try to improve position right right and then like sometimes you know i'm looking just to get in the bad positions i could bail out of the techniques whether it's tomonaga sumigashi drop sayanagi and you know i play a little game with myself it's like is this

person going to be able to anticipate right and then a george wood you know every time he goes for dominant position like you know a lot of the times I go for Tomonage, Sumigayashi, drop Seinagi, and then sometimes he'll guess right, and I go for Tomonage, and he slips the leg and then pins me. That happens. Nice. Yeah, right? But I'm working on that, though. I'm working on that specific thing.

You know what I mean? So deliberate situational training. So what are some other... We kind of talked about positional precursor skills I guess right yeah yeah what are some of the other things maybe like there's a lot of them a lot of times when people say think about precursor skills to a throw maybe they'll think about kuzushi like does that play into this your idea she's almost part of the technique right and getting

to the kizushi people think because you're like oh i have to pull this person like that right now they're off balance right right so that's what people think but there's a lot more to that right because you know if you look at it like a misdirecting attack where it's like he thinks i'm gonna go for here but i go there so if he thinks i'm going here he's gonna shift his weight this way so now automatically i could just kind of go into that position without actually having to do much with my hands right or if he's stepping out of a technique and now i could sort of attack that reaction right that's sort of a common thing that people say now attacking the reaction right right right so those are those two things are also kuzushi but they're not kuzushi sort of in the

traditional sense when people think kuzushi they like oh right right she you know what i mean and it's very hard to like off balance someone just like this with your arms even right difficult because it requires a lot of strength just to off balance a resisting opponent yeah so you need so kazushi is like sort of part of the technique and that's close to the actual throwing right so if you look at the entire context of the match right the most important thing not the most important thing the first thing that sort of you encounter as a precursor skill is putting that first hand on right that first hand gripping yeah and it matters and it's like yes it's grip fighting but that first point of contact is a very very important factor because whoever puts their hand on first, and they know what they're doing, and if I could sort of guess what you're looking for also,

and it doesn't change much. If you're right-sided, and you do most of your turns this way, and I already know this, there's certain hand positions that are going to be very useful to me. Right, right. So that first point of contact is important. And then, right, the return right it's almost kind of like i don't want to say chess right because it's like an overused analogy

like chess like chess like okay yeah everything's like just great you know but it's like i put my hand on first and then you're gonna put your hand on also right and then at the very beginning of the grid fight advantage is almost always like one hand on versus one hand on. And someone gets there first, always. Almost always. Right. And it's kind of like MMA or boxing. It's like, do you see sometimes that two people punch each other and knock each other out at the same time?

You do see that, but it's very rare. Right. It's very rare. Obviously, with grip fighting, there's a lot less consequences in the beginning of it just first contact because you're not getting punched right right he's grabbing yeah so that happens right and then sometimes you just go with one hand and sometimes the japanese do this like one hand one hand third exchange boom two hands on immediately right and people do do this and that's sort of a skill in its own to be able to manipulate that timing difference. Right, right.

Am I going circle to the right, circle to the left? All these things matter. What is your lead leg? Do you switch sides? Which is your more stronger side? Some people go both ways, right side, left side. It's like, what is your more dominant side? You're coming out as a lefty, but you're really a righty.

Once I'm able to identify these patterns then i could right adjust accordingly right so it's almost like you i could even say uh the precursor skills start even before the gripping like you gotta you kind of mentioned that but you have to know try to figure out the yeah you need the skill to figure out your opponent almost like what would be the better grip strategy and whatnot. Yeah. For me, the most overlooked precursor skill. Yeah. Right.

Is when I go into a judo tournament and I figure out who I'm fighting first and I watch him do Uchikomi. Right. Right. And then do a right Senagi, fake Senagi, Kochi, right Taitoshi, right Taitoshi. Right. And then you do one Sumi and i'm like okay okay okay like taking notes that's like a precursor skill too right so now you know what their weapons are right now the question is can they string those techniques together well right and do they

know how to grip fight and be in dominant position right yeah that's why i guess you need a uh you need a coach when you go to a tournament so that yeah because if you just go out there blind and then just try to put two hands on and start ripping and roaring right you're not really taking into account the other person at all right right and there's something to be said about that right if you have a very like narrow game where it's like anytime anything happens that veers from that you're able to like physically force it and funnel them into that particular range right then you don't have to worry about it too much right right right right but it's that's hard to do though you know so it takes a long time right right you could take two routes you know there's some crazy

crazy athletes where they could be in losing position but they could sort of force big techniques they're just big strong athletic and fast right like a super explosive athlete i've seen this before i was watching this girl from france or something uh go with like a ukrainian girl and the girl was just so explosive like she was being outgripped every time but she would just like rip into an osoto so fast and so strong that like she would like tip the person over you know it's like wow right it can be done it can. Right. But there are more effective ways, I guess, especially for hobbyists. Yeah. Yeah.

And then it gives you longevity, right? You could be safer because you're attacking from a better position, which means you don't have to defend techniques with your entire body. Right. Right. Right. If you have good dominant ability, you can just defend them with your arms. Right.

You know what I mean? I'm not saying go out there and stiff arm your opponent. Right. I'm saying fight from position first, then you kind defend him with your arms. Right. You know what I mean? I'm not saying go out there and stiff arm your opponent, right? I'm saying fight for position first, then you can kind of defend using your arms. Right. So there's grip fighting. That's one precursor skill. Right. And then there's positional adjustment. Right. The Japanese are really good with it. They don't really come out and explicitly grip fight. They don't.

They don't do like, you know, right hand camped out at the thumb at the base of the lapel, right lead hand, offensive, defensive hand, and then adjusting here and moving here and then hand post and fighting for the sleeve. They don't do any of that. They go put two hands on and go. But there's a lot of nuances there because once people are linked up, two hands versus two hands, they fight from there. They slowly squeeze one hand or cut one hand and then adjust one hand and shake the lapel by trying to take the person's

control off the arm i see they do lots of nuanced movements right slight adjustments to the right slight adjustments to the left they don't focus too much on gripping they do these short movements for adjusting like position and then they explode into their technique and those are the people who have right the 10 000 uchiki 100 000 uchi komi is like their specific individual technique is so refined and powerful because it's just that's what they did their whole life they spent 15 years doing this right right so that's sort of their game you know how do we practice that well you know you just got to spend a lot of time doing throws a lot of time

on the mat but you know it's people don't have that time right most people are hobbyists right most people listen to this are enthusiasts you know what i mean so it behooves you to develop these precursor skills like grip fighting positional fighting proper setting up the techniques right and then yes you have to have techniques too right right so you have to train all of these things kind of together right right but you have to know yourself first because if you're a crazy crazy athletic person right you can kind of blow through all massive massive yeah you're not going to have to spend as much time on that actual hurray right as someone who is not as athletic.

Right, right. So you could take your attention and divert it in different places as opposed to someone who is not as athletic might have to really double down on this actual technique part to even have a threat of throwing someone because all these precursor skills are useless

if you can't actually throw the person because you don't know how to do a taiyo you're saying right right it's it's like the sense like the feeling i get is that it's yeah there are some major points that you want to emphasize like the grip fighting and the positional stuff but at the end of the day it's it has to be precursor skills are so personalized in a way it is yeah it really is so i guess you the best is to try uh start judo and then learn about your body how what you are what you excel at what you are not good at and then try to tailor these tailor the training to your strengths and weaknesses i guess yeah absolutely man because i love uchimata but i'm short right right so and i'm kind of heavy too so i fight in a heavier

weight class which means i encounter a lot of taller fighters so i haven't short hobbit legs against someone who's 6364 it's very difficult to throw the uchimata like it can be done yeah you know and people say like oh you just gotta get your hips, yeah. You know, and people say, like, oh, you just got to get your hips under. Yeah, but, you know, that kind of limits it because now the tall person can do deep step lifting Uchimata, right? A sidestep Uchimata, a backstep Uchimata, a ken-ken Uchimata. You got all these variety of Uchimatas.

But if I'm going against someone much taller, there's really only a few types of Uchimatas that I can really do, right? So now my attack variations have been much more narrowed now right right i have a limited amount of availability for that one specific thing and like you just said if you have taller legs the counter becomes easier if you step over that uchimara or stretchy leg or whatever it's called yeah you know uh or sakashi it right right you have short legs it's very difficult to counter using that countering method so opportunity for me to counter

the Uchimata is also limited so do I really focus on the Uchimata and like do that or do I want to kind of adopt a different style of like focusing more on Ippon Seinagi and Seinagis and things like this and that's like a body type situation right

so I mean the obvious way to figure this out is to do a lot of randori i mean that's like the most obvious way but can you do you have any tips on how to be more efficient about figuring out your strengths and weaknesses other than just like having a good coach having a good guide you know and sometimes it sounds ridiculous like hey you're short so you're gonna do senagi you're gonna do uchibara right and you know there is some truth to that you know and there is some truth to the reverse side of it like oh man you're really tall no one's gonna expect you to do a drop kataguruma right i mean so it's like then you teach them a weak side

kataguruma that drops now you're very very very dangerous because when you fight other people they're never gonna see that coming right so you have to have an, very dangerous because when you fight other people, they're never going to see that coming. Right. So you have to have an open dialogue with your coach. You have to take a look at yourself. Right. Are you athletic? Do you have good balance?

You know, balance is such a big part of Uchimata. Right. Right. So it's a cerebral exercise. Like you have to think. Cerebral exercise. Yeah. It's a puzzle.

You can't just go out there and be like, hey, Taiyo is the technique of the week. We're all going to think it's a puzzle you can't just go out there and be like hey taiyo is the technique of the week we're all going to do it everybody is expected to be as proficient in it because i taught it right it just doesn't work because everyone has different body types you know and sometimes when you have 30 people in the room you kind of have to sort of teach to the middle or teach to whoever you feel like teaching right and then sometimes it's like you know i have a specific body type right sometimes when i'm teaching something and then sometimes it's like you know i have a specific body type right sometimes when i'm teaching something and uh you know i see like a really tall like we had this kid christian back in the game he's like six three you're six two and he's tall really tall lanky 200 pounds like you know i'm not sure morote sanagi something it's like it really does not apply to him right

right so like i'll try to make it my business to walk by and be like, this is for me trying to throw you. You doing this. Maybe if you find someone who's like a giraffe, like 6'7". You're going to have a hard time getting your hips underneath here. Right. Just so you know. So you can just drill whatever you want. I see.

I'll do that. You've seen me do that. Right. People don't expect to drill something that I'm teaching on that specific day. Phil is notorious for that. It's like, hey, we're all doing a goshi today i look over my shoulder and he's doing soda he's like talking he's like i saw this on youtube whatever he's like working on it i'm okay with it you know yeah i see some coaches are not some coaches are like i gotta do what i'm doing yeah but i get it i was about to ask you about that like on the other side as a coach like what would you recommend and so one thing is be open and just kind of accept that certain techniques

are not going to work for everyone yeah but this is the thing like if you don't know enough you can't make that decision because you just don't know what you don't know right right one of my biggest things you just don't know what you don't know you know i've made that thing before like i said i can't do this technique because x y and z right right one of my biggest things you just don't know what you don't know you know i've made that thing before like i've said i can't do this technique because x y and z right fully fully fully believed it you know for like uchimata for instance right people always told me ah you're too short man like you're fighting 100 kilos you're fighting guys six five six six like you're never going to be able to throw anyone with uchimata and they were kind of right because like on the international circuit i never threw anybody with uchimata

right you know very very rarely so it's like yeah they were kind of right you know but if i would have just taken that advice and went with it i would have never developed that right and most of the people that i train with at the dojo aren't that tall they're not six five six six right so then it's like can i get under them with senagi if i just had a say nagi like i wouldn't be as dangerous right so you know it's like you can't really so it's a balance yeah it's a balance act and then you have to have a good dialogue with your coach i think that's really it and then you have to have a good coach that knows what they're talking about right because they could always misguide you you know here's another example of like a judo ism when you're doing ochi your toes touch the ground the whole time and you draw a circle on the mat right that's like an old old old thing

it's like every time you drill ochi when the leg comes up off the ground coaches used to be like no you got to keep your foot on the ground it's like yeah but every single video that i've ever seen of someone throwing someone ochi their foot comes off the ground right right it's like in a competition setting yeah it's like how do you account for that discrepancy you know what i mean i see your coach has to know what they're talking about first that's that's uh i think um when i was working when i was working on uchimata there was like a big revelation you know how the the traditional way of uchimata is you know your elbow goes underneath the armpit of your opponent. It's taught like that forever.

Right. So that's how I've been trying to do it in Randoi, but it never works. It's better to actually flare up your elbow and then lock in my body type. I was never like strong enough to like really get the kuzushi going like the traditional way so in the competition style uchimata is like playing up your elbow up and then kind of using the rotation yeah to drive it through kind of yes and that was a revolution you're right right and i think it was like judo mat labs or something it was like a yeah very uh there was eye opening i mean yeah yeah it was like an esoteric like in the middle of nowhere like judo channel right i like did like a judo analytics video right how come right and then it just kind of went viral everyone wanted yeah right right like oh my god he's right he's saying something interesting you know and it became this new thing

um but it's very true the elbow does go up but it depends it really depends i mean if the person's at an angle like this and you go in uchimata you want downward force so the person can't bring their posture back up right so initially the movement can be like pull forward and then stuff but if their head is already lower than yours then it's like you go down like right stuff the head right you know what i mean because if their posture is lower and their body is lower than yours it's very difficult to get the elbow underneath to get your hips underneath yeah yeah but you know it can be done that way too it can be done with the elbow wedge underneath the armpit especially where there's a height difference right so it's not you know when people saw that video it's like everyone thought elbow in the armpit

it's like oh my god elbow doesn't go in the armpit elbow goes up it's like everyone thought elbow in the armpit. It's like, oh, my God, elbow doesn't go in the armpit. Elbow goes up. It's like, no, it's both. It's both. You see both, right? Suzuki threw a tall Polish guy like that, just the traditional way, I remember. I think it was Keiji Suzuki. Yeah. Yeah.

So it depends on the person's height. Yeah. You know, person's height, how they're reacting, right? How many different types of Uchimata do you know? Right, right. You know, you see commonly like the lightweight do like a spinning back of uchimata do you know right right you know you see commonly like the lightweights do like a spinning backs backstep uchimata right you kind of like spin away from the movement yeah right so it's like there's a lot of different methodologies and a lot of different things and you know that's a precursor skill like knowing this stuff by

you know accessing it on youtube that's the most amazing thing about this time period there's so much we can watch everything yeah we can watch every judo match on the circuit now on on youtube it's incredible you know i don't because i could go down the rabbit hole and spend eight hours a day doing stuff i don't want to you know do that like i think this better uses my time but i kind of did that with my which matter like that elbow thing and also i i started doing the more spinning style which matter because i for me i'm not strong enough to like really stuff the head down yeah so you know to compensate i just used more of the rotation to yeah get the thing going and i think it takes time in my experience it it took years for me honestly like you i kept kept asking you you always would give me tips because i you knew i was working on my

uchimata and yeah still an ongoing process so i guess that dialogue is very important and it's tough man yeah it is it is it is flexibility is a precursor skill to that right because you have to be able to get your leg up yeah you know and when you the way your hips are situated too it's like when you lift that leg sometimes your hip opens out to the side because you're very tight glute medius or something like this right right so when your hips open to the side you're not actually going towards the technique anymore uh right so like balance is also another precursor skill can you get the leg up the proper way without compensation from your hips? Right?

While keeping your balance, while your hands are doing the right thing. You know what I mean? While picking the right kind of Uchimata. Right. So it's like there's just so many things. You know what I mean? It's very, very, you know, I kind of came up with this analogy the other day. You're going to love it.

Hope my listeners love it too. It's like you ever heard like people say things like oh something something is like chess something something's like checkers right people are saying that about oh yeah i mean like the based on the difficulty yeah yeah yeah chess is harder yeah yeah and i've heard people say like i don't even want to repeat it but you know okay i'm going to repeat it i've heard people say like i don't even want to repeat it but you know okay i'm gonna repeat it i've heard people say things like uh bjj is like chess judo is like checkers what you know what i mean yeah i've heard people say that i've heard the first part bjj is like

chess yeah because in judo you don't see a lot of this stuff right and just so you can see it you could physically look at the thing and be like this hand goes there this person goes there he strips that look at the back exposure goes to delhi but try and go here he shifts his balance over there he bases out here enter into ashigurami blah blah blah it's chess match ah it's chess ah right judo when i was just looking at this uchimata situation it looks like two guys are just putting their hands on ah right they look like they're, you know, scratching each other

and playing a little bit of slap fighting. And now one person just bombs in for Uchimata. No, Uchimata's good. But there's a lot going on there. Right, right.

It's just invisible to the eye. Ah. You know? So the best analogy is this. What is it? BJJ is like bodybuilding. Okay. Judo is like bodybuilding okay judo is like olympic lifting oh i see i see oh and it works on so many levels right because bodybuilding is more glamorous and there's a lot to bodybuilding

i'm not you know making fun of bodybuilding like diet and what am i making fun of bjj all right right it's a little bit of a slower pace so they're a little bit more focused on a lot of other stuff right you know you could see it right olympic lifting you don't see it it's like a lot a little right right right right right if your lats are too tight you're gonna have a hard time being in rack position right it's like who can see that oh you know right makes more sense like to expand upon it you know that's a good analogy i wonder how people will take that yeah yeah we gotta put that up yeah we will bjj is like bodybuilding title it bjj is chess and judo's checkers we'll title it that way so everyone gets furious and they click on it very quick baby see you know how to get you know how to work youtube out the youtube

algorithm yeah but right i mean think about the bodybuilding it's like yes it's like you go here you go there you work very methodical yeah it's methodical and it's right you really nerd out about it right if you talk to a bodybuilder i don't know if you know any bodybuilders they are crazy into the they're like super nerdy i see they train all day they do the morning and the split they go crazy with this stuff like quite regimented methodical i guess in a way it's like like bjj yeah della eva guard z guard k guard donkey guard this guard open guard top position background take right all this stuff right you could kind of go crazy with this stuff right right right olympic lifters you ever talked to an olympic lifter it's like yep

clean clean snatch yeah snatch yeah snatch that's it two lifts right right it's like how long did you train today i can't really train that long you know like bodybuilder train four hours three hours whatever it is like multiple sessions and do a party in the morning and this and that it's like it's like yes olympic i'm not saying olympic lifters don't train i'm not saying that it's really hard on your body yeah yeah right this is just technique day and i'm gonna do this and i'm gonna do right right right ability and it's like there's a lot that's invisible not as glamorous yeah a lot more people bodybuild than olympic lift that's even yeah it that analogy works even at that level and a lot of people

dabble in both right bodybuilders do hand cleans they're not right that's right olympic lifters cross training yeah right yeah they gotta and then uh the bodybuilders are like ah olympic lift they're not jacked and then the olympic lifters are like ah it's hypertrophy muscle a little bit of rivalry there yeah true at the end of the day they're both lifting the weight yeah that's like at the end of the day we're all grappling yeah yeah exactly interesting so that so we kind of covered a lot about like the the little nuance and you know all the details and how hard and not i guess hard and how wide-ranging precursor skills are so it's hard it's hard for beginners to navigate through like where do we even begin really like do you do you have any tips to people who are just starting out how to approach this even yeah yeah you know so if you try to like

digest all this stuff it can be very overwhelming depending on your learning style right right have you ever entered into a college course look at the the syllabus and you're like oh my lord like i'm not gonna do this yeah right and then you know uh on the contrary right like some people get very excited about having a syllabus you know it's like different learning styles right right right you know what i mean i think the most important thing across the board it's like yes you have to cater to your learning style but the most important thing is like just being persistent going back in every single day and being interested because if you're not interested why would you keep doing any of

this stuff you won't you know what i mean it's got to be interesting like that's the most important thing about any skill acquisition like it has to be interesting you know what i mean sometimes like the stimulus is not right like they have this like i plus one model it's like your intelligence plus one right and then it's like you're almost always reaching for that plus one which is like sort of interesting it's like that dangling carrot it's like oh you almost have a soda oh you almost do this guy oh i almost bombed peter with a tile today you know what i mean like it makes you keep coming back you're interested how do i get this how do i get that right right so if you don't have the right sort of scaffolding situation it's very very difficult to stay in the game you know time in the sport is always sort of the best way and it always circles back to this one

thing it's like you have to stay healthy because if you hurt yourself by going too hard too fast you're not gonna come back to the dojo some people do some people like oh i want to stay in it i want to stay mentally engaged the whole time right most people aren't like that most people are like oh i hurt my shoulder great time for me to just quit right oh yeah yeah yeah it's like why do you want to go back to the dojo and it's a constant reminder of what you cannot do now and it's something that you almost kind of failed at right it's like right i wasn't strong enough to do this day now i'm hurt like i have chronic back pain like it's just a reminder of my fragility oh yeah right so it's like people don't want to come back yeah yeah so it's like being healthy staying interested is like the two most

important factors and whether like a beginner kind of makes it to the next level i see you know i think and all the other things that are available as soon as start falling into place that that's my sort of opinion that's my approach as opposed to like here's the syllabus first point of contact grip fighting is the person right first right let's look at this and let's adjust it and figure this out as a puzzle. People have no idea what I'm talking about half the time if I'm doing that. Right, right. That's an interesting take because I actually, when we were starting,

when we were recording this episode in the beginning, I thought you were going to lay out a syllabus. But it seems like... I can. Yeah, but it's not even... That are only... Yeah. Only interesting to some people. Exactly. but it seems like i can yeah but it's not even that only yeah yeah it'll only tell interesting to some right exactly so it's more like yeah how to stay engaged how to yeah like a focus on just showing up and then eventually you'll pick this pick these things up you know stay engaged with

people in your dojo and then you'll figure these out just know that these things up you know stay engaged with people in your dojo and then you'll figure these out just know that these things exist right yeah the more you know it's like the more you realize you don't know right and right you can't even try to know something that you have no clue like where the structure's at you know like to someone who's completely untrained that watches you it's like two flailing people trying to slam each other it's like where's the skill in any of this yeah you know what i mean and sometimes even me when i watch two green belts scrap like over whatever it is it's like man is there anything going on you know like here like that's not slap fighting and trying to just two dogs just fighting for a piece of meat like what else is

going on you know what i mean like is their learning actually happening when this is happening you know like when these guys are just like butting heads right right you know what i mean so it's like yeah it's very difficult uh there's a lot of precursor skills and you do have to deliberately train but you're gonna have to have a good coach you know you have to be healthy enough to stay in it to know right and the more you know the better it's gonna get i think right and the point of buying ways to stay right i think i i haven't an interesting sensei like me helps oh it definitely does it and then another thing about uh staying interested i you you kind of basically summarized it but i i read a book called uh the flow like the key to optimal experience or something it's called yeah yeah flow states yeah yeah yeah so it's like basically you challenge in the zone so and then you know to get there you

can actually you know kind of frame your environment that way too yeah and just basically give yourself a little bit of challenge yeah and then by overcoming the challenge you get the instant gratification and then you stay engaged and then give yourself a little more challenge and then you can keep this flow going like this yeah so that's if people are interested that i really like the book it's based on like i think written by a lot of noble laureates like a lot of good research so nice another tidbit yeah that flow stuff is interesting man if you could kind of get yourself in that place and you can kind of physically get yourself like i used to have a bunch of switches like a ritual

that i did pre-tournament right and then you switch off one thing at a time you know i had another interesting one that i read in like a little planner it was so dumb you know like uh like a diary stupid that it worked you know it was like not even it didn't work because it was stupid but it was so silly that i just kind of like all right i'll just tell you it's like if you ever find yourself getting angry uh press the pause button on your forehead so you could take a pause and you could think about it and right deep breath and i was just like man this is so stupid yeah it's not i i guess it was so dumb right it's like kind of like yeah it works it worked for you well it was so stupid right and then i just found myself

like pressing this part one i remember it was like a uh the vice principal something was getting down on me i think i cut school or something like that so he yelled at me i was getting pissed i was getting pissed i was like about to fire back and i pressed this pause button and he was so dumb like kind of made me laugh and now all of a sudden like i had this connection with this thing right right and it was just like i started doing it so anytime i was kind of getting aggravated i would just go like this and then sometimes I'd be going like this. And it was so stupid, right? But it would always put me in that mindset. And it's like something that, I don't know, you just kind of remind me of that.

It's like a physical cue for you to calm down and step back. Yeah. So those physical cues. Ukemi is like that for the dojo. You do all this ukemi at the beginning. Ichi, ni, bom, bom, bom, in like the synchronized way. And this ukemi at the beginning itch knee boom boom boom in like the synchronized way and you know whether you like it or not right you enter in the learning zone because right after ukemi right your body is warm your physical q yeah almost done so like

that sort of acts as a purpose for that and right you're absolutely right man like if you could hold on to some of these things and make it mean something for you, it could help you. That's another precursor skill. Yeah, man. It's not just about the physical activity, I guess. A lot involved. Yeah.

Cool. Well, I think we talked a lot. Yep. Precursor skills. Hopefully you guys enjoyed it and, you know, find this helpful. Anything else to before we end this episode nope thank you very much everyone uh reach out to me on instagram find me on youtube subscribe to my channel and all that stuff and i have a lot of video products so go check that out it's in the links right thank

you peter for doing this of course thank you and i appreciate it yeah and thanks for listening guys and stay tuned for the next episode