The Shintaro Higashi Show - Important Issues In the USA Judo Election - Colton Brown

Episode Date: September 30, 2024

In this episode, Shintaro sits down with two-time Olympian and Grand Prix medalist Colton Brown to discuss the important issues that are on the ballot in the upcoming USA Judo election. They dive deep into the various challenges facing USA Judo and the importance of athlete representation. Colton offers candid insights on how the board operates, the ongoing political tensions within the organization, and his vision for the future of judo in the United States. (00:00:00) Introduction (00:01:14) What Is Colton Up To These Days? (00:03:16) Transition from Athlete to Coach (00:06:43) Colton’s Thoughts on BJJ (00:09:51) Role as Athlete Representative on the USA Judo Board (00:13:44) Issues Facing USA Judo and Upcoming Election (00:15:59) Colton’s Long Term Vision for USA Judo (00:17:58) How Decisions Are Made By the USA Judo Board (00:19:19) Who Can Vote In the Upcoming Election? (00:21:56) Biggest Issues Within the Board (00:33:02) Colton’s Coalition On the Board (00:36:56) Ways To Bring More Financial Support For Athletes (00:39:57) Candidates For Athlete Representatives (00:42:39) Colton’s Thoughts On Olympic Qualifications (00:49:55) Colton’s Advice For Dojo Owners

How did this person get voted in? Is this, was this by- This person can only apply for this position, but he has this position when he's technically not supposed to have that position. And Chris Round, who is the election official, he's the person in charge of the election candidates, said, you got to interview all these guys. It's very interesting what's going on.

What is your role in USA Judo as a board of director? How's that structured? And what does that look like? Hello, back to the shantar he got show p to you we have a very special guest today colton brown if you're not from judo in the states you might not know him but he's like a huge name in the grappling world you know like champions currently like jt fion everyone knows colton right everyone knows colton if you don't know colton you from living under a rock right colton brown i appreciate that i appreciate that um it's an honor being here it's been a long time coming i've been waiting for you

to invite me i invited you very very first podcast you came all the way out to new york we had all this production thing and the sound didn't work. And I just felt too embarrassed to ask you again. Well, now I've seen you're basically worldwide. So like I said, it's an honor for me to be here. Me and you go way back. So I'm looking forward to this. Yeah. So if you don't know, Colton Brown is a two-time judo Olympian, which is a huge deal.

Multiple-time Grand Prix medal winner. And he owns a dojo, CBTC, Colton Brown Training Center in New Jersey. Have tons of students. I look on Instagram. It's like 300 students. It's insane. Never seen anything like that in judo. And you're also a board member of USA Judo. Is that correct? That is correct. I sit on the board of USA Judo. Yes. And then you're also a USA Judo international level coach? Yes. I coach the national team quite a bit. Yeah. Full schedule.

Yeah. So first and foremost, man, how do you do it? Every time I pull up Instagram, you're flying somewhere, you're coaching somewhere, you're training. I don't see you training that much anymore. You're running a successful dojo. How do you do it? To be honest with you, it's a lot of,

it comes from passion, right? I think that I'm very, very passionate about what I do. And I genuinely want to make change. You know, when I first opened, after I got done with the Olympics, my focus changed. And my entire focus went from being the best competitor and the best person that I can possibly be, to now impacting as many people as positively as possible through this sport of judo. And, you know, with that comes the responsibility of sometimes 13, 14, 15 hour days. But I think because I'm passionate and I believe in the work that I'm doing and I feel like I'm doing meaningful work, it makes sense for me. And you still get up every morning and work out at 5 a.m.?

Yep. I still work out every morning at 5 a.m. And then on the mornings that I don't do that, my students will tell you I'm in a terrible mood. So it's better for everybody that I wake up early and work out. So what time do you go to bed in order to get up so early? I typically try to be in bed by 10 or 10 30. So I get, I get home from the dojo nine 30 and I eat, shower, eat, and I try to go right to sleep. Oh, good for you, man. And that's similar to like sort of your schedule back in the day when you were training for the Olympic team, you must've had like a very regimented schedule every day, correct?

A hundred percent. Yeah, it was. And that's what makes it easy. I feel like all of this stuff and you get it too. We train together. We grew up on the national team together. I feel like all this stuff that we did in the discipline that we learned in training, it makes everything that we're doing today kind of easier. Yeah. Yes. Except when you're a student. Oh, I can't make it to training today. Why? Driving you nuts, you know? Right. There's a lot of that part. Yeah. New challenges for sure as a coach. Anything you miss as a competitor? To be honest, not so much.

The only thing I miss is, you know, the freedom to train when I want to. Because now, as you know, like, even when I am training at my dojo, my eyes are everywhere like i'm looking and making sure nobody there's no bad matchups i'm making sure everybody's doing what they're supposed to do so i never really i never get the opportunity to train as much as i would like to but uh it's still i still i still get it in a good three times a week two times a week ron dory so it's not bad you do like sensei rounds when you're doing ron dory and you hear somebody screaming and you look over and you're like 100 percent so it's no longer we can no longer be self selfish so yeah that's the only thing people always asking you

questions you're probably thinking like how do i enter this uchimata whatever it is and then something like hey can you show me what am i doing wrong with my osorigari and you're like i wasn't watching dude like you're kind of getting into it 100 that's what i missed though as far as the competing though i don't miss that at all um i i made it very clear that and i i made a deal with myself um six months before the last olympics when we figured out that the last olympics was actually going to happen after covid yeah i made a deal that i was i was going to leave everything out on that mat, and my goal was never, ever to return to the competition stage. All right.

Here's another one, okay, because this board thing happening, the new Olympic quad cycle happening, if you made it an Olympic team or a world team before, you could just fight in the trials and then see if you could make another team. Would you do it? No. What? that's crazy what if the current ceo keith bryant personally sends you an invite colton please we have a slot selected for you to compete in the trials still wouldn't do it absolutely not i know the work that it takes right the work that it takes to get to that to compete at that level i mean it's not just for me, it's not about making an Olympic team anymore. For me, I would have to go there and try to be competitive. And that would, that

would take years of, of dedication and work that I don't have in me anymore. Oh, wow. Interesting. What about something left over? Like how old are you now? 30, 32. I'm old. Oh my God. Jesus Christ. You know, I still hear Colton. I'm like 16, 15. Even though we're not that far in age, but I'm seven years older. So when I was an adult, like a 20-year-old, you were like a 13-year-old. So it's like, I still have that image in my head. When you say you're 32, man, that really blows my mind. You know the craziest thing about that? I remember the first time ever meeting you. You probably don't even remember this, but I was at like a, one of those hut, New Jersey state,

Hudson judo events. And you had just won the senior nationals. I was a kid. You had just won the senior nationals and they announced it. And they were like, you come over and meet Shintaro Higashi. He won the senior nationals. And here's me 13, 14, 15, whatever year old kid up to you. You're like, dude, get out of my face, man. No, I didn't. No, you didn't i do remember one of our first conversations uh after i met you your dad walked up and like hey man you go to kakushkan to train i'm like yeah he goes all right we're gonna exchange numbers and

we're gonna try to get colton over there and blah blah blah and that was the whole thing and i was like wow this dad's really intense he's in it you, you know, he was always very, he was always about business, man. It was like, we need to get him. You're, you're doing this. You've had success doing this. All right. I want him to do it too. And that's great. Yeah. Yeah. So, all right. What about like BJJ? Want to get into it again? You want to do a master's world or something of that nature? Is there something there that you kind of, that pulls you in?

I like BJJ, and I think the reason that I like training BJJ is because it's not judo, and so there's no pressure, right? So there's no – when we always felt pressure, oh, man, I had a bad round. And BJJ, it's not really – it's just kind of – the way I look at it is I'm having fun, learning a little bit. I get to roll, and my body doesn't feel crazy the next day so that's what uh what did i wrestle yeah uh yeah in high school for two years oh yeah interesting i

wasn't very good at the wrestling maybe get into wrestling yeah dude no more competing no more no more i love that okay that's good man but you're still in shape how much you weigh yeah i i try you know my biggest pet peeve is and i don't know how people are going to take this, but my biggest pet peeve is when I see a lot of instructors or people that are talking about goals and they're trying to preach discipline and things like that. And they're walking around extremely overweight. I don't like that. You hate fat people.

Is that what you're saying? I wouldn't go that far. I just, if we're constantly preaching discipline and structure and't like that. You hate fat people. Is that what you're saying? I wouldn't go that far. I just, if we're constantly preaching discipline and structure and things like that to our students, I don't think that you should be walking around severely overweight. That's just me. Unless you have a thyroid issue. Unless you have a thyroid issue. Yes.

There's always exceptions to the rules. Yeah. I love that way of leadership too. Like you are a role model. I'm doing it. So you do it. That kind of a thing. And you know what? I see that in all your content that you've been making. For those of you

who are listening, you want to post your, you want to plug your Instagram? Yes. C Brown 90 KG. And then your dojo Instagram too. And then dojo is at Colton Brown training center. At Colton Brown training center. Yeah, that's great. I see it so much, man. It's kind of an inspiration. You know, when you've been doing it as long as me, there's a little bit of a checkout factor. You know what I mean? You're like, if you're not in the dojo at seven in the morning with your students and I'm like, ah, you know, I also have a child too, but still. It's true. And you're doing it. You're doing a lot, man. I see all the stuff that you do too. So I think that I don't, I'm, I'm one of these people that don't necessarily think that you have to be up at 5am. I don't, I'm up before

everybody. I'm getting it done while you're sleeping. I don't believe in that. I think as long as you can get what you have to get done in a day, it doesn't matter. You're probably a little bit later than I am. It is a little bit easier, though, when you get up early because your phone doesn't ring. There's no text. No one's posting on anything, hitting you up with the DMs, just like quiet time, you know? That's why I like it.

All right. So mostly, obviously, I want to have a dedicated conversation with you about training and hopefully this becomes a more common thing to have you on yeah i feel like it already is because it's much more interesting than you know majority of our guests that but i shouldn't say that like this is already interesting so if you guys like it you know leave it in the comments you want more colton maybe he could be a co-host. I don't know. Fire Peter. But here's the thing, right? There is a crazy amount of conflict right now in USA Judo. And Chris Round, who is the election official, he's the person in charge of the election candidates, said, you got to interview all these guys. It's very interesting what's going on.

What is your role in USA Judo as a board of director? How is that structured? And what does that look like? I'm an athlete rep. I sit on the board as an athlete rep. And my job is just to make sure that athletes have everything that they need and are best taken care of. And then, you know, that's super important to me because I was an athlete at the, you know, I went at the highest level for USA Judo. And I know a lot of, I know a lot of the issues that the athletes have as far as funding is concerned and things of that nature.

And it's my job to just make sure that the athletes aren't being overlooked and that they are taken care of. Because at the end of the day, without any athletes, there is no USA Judo. Yes. So correct me if I'm wrong. I think Chris told me there's 12 board member spots. Yes. And then out of the 12, four of them are athlete representative spots. Yes.

So that's a pretty significant chunk. If you own one third of the vote and then these board meetings, how often do they meet? What's the decision-making process like for the organization? do they meet? Like how are the, what's the decision-making process like for the organization? So the board, we meet in person twice a year. So we meet in November and at the, uh, Dallas and president's cup. And we meet in person in may at the senior national championships. Those are, those are long meetings. So those are, those are full day meetings. Um, but we also meet a bunch. I mean, we've been meeting a lot lately. We've probably been meeting every other week via Zoom lately. But yeah, we meet quite a bit. We meet quite a bit and we talk about, it depends on what's going on in USA Judo, but we talk about

a lot of the different things that are going on, how we can help. So is it true that the CEO doesn't make a lot of the decisions, but it's the board that actually makes the decision. The CEO and all the people are kind of responsible for executing some of these decisions made by the board. 1000%. Yeah. The board makes the majority decision. That's why it's very, very, very important. You know, um, for all the, all those that are listening, we have a, uh, we have an election coming up and it's very, very important that your voice, you're not up for election. You're not up for election. I'm already in. I'm already in i'm in you're already in that's great so you don't even have to campaign so we can get an unbiased view of what you're thinking yes 100 yeah so okay so four out of the and this is the thing i think a lot of people who are listening kind of had the

impression like oh athletes rap what are they going to be doing i remember my athletes rap when i was competing was crystal ransom yes remember that and then it changes hands changes hands changes hands and then me as an athlete i I'm looking, it's like, oh, nothing's really getting done. Like maybe it's just like a glorified position. But in reality, when you're sitting on the board, one of 12 people, four out of the 12 are athletes reps. It really makes a huge difference who gets elected in. Is that correct? Absolutely. It makes a huge difference. I think that, and I didn't realize this until I sat on the board. And I was like you, I was like, oh,

it doesn't matter. These guys don't even make any change. They're not responsible for making any decisions. And then I got elected to the board and I sat in some of those board meetings and I was a part of these conversations that are happening and it's very crucial who you who you want kind of advocating for you you know you have to make sure that that the person that you vote for the athlete rep um has the same their views are in line with yours and and your goals and things of that nature so it's very very very very important um the board board positions are very important interesting yeah because I always felt like uh oh it's like the class president in eighth grade. They're like, we're going to eat pizza every day for lunch. It's like, all right. And they have no power whatsoever. But it's not like that for USA Judo. Someone told me one of the positions had only like 150 votes.

Yeah. Yeah. That's crazy. So it's like you could really make a huge impact. It's not like Trump Harris. I don't know which side you are. We're definitely not going to talk about that here. I don't want to be hated. I don't want to lose followers for this. Yeah, there we go. Wow. All right. So you're on the board. Yeah. What sort of decisions are coming like in contention right now? Like, are there certain things that are happening now that needs, and I get it's sensitive. So some other stuff might be confidential. If that's the case, don't get yourself in trouble. Don't get me in trouble. Cause I'm also, you know, in the judo world. Yeah, no, we won't get, so a lot of this stuff is confidential. I can't get super, super in detail,

but there are a lot of, we're making a lot of important decisions on the board right now. Like coming it right now, the most important thing is the election. I'll tell, I'll put it that way. The election is the most important thing because it it's who is going to essentially be in, in control of making decisions around USA judo for the next couple of

years. And it's crucial because if you have people that are in power that don't really do much, we're going to feel that. And for my job as an athlete director, I have to make sure that the athletes are taken care of again. So I want to make sure that the athletes are comfortable, that they're taken care of, and that they don't have to go through some of the same things that I had to go through when I was an athlete, right? The goal is always to leave the place a little bit better than you found it. And that's what, that's the only reason I'm doing this. And for me, I don't, I don't get any financial benefit for doing this. Yeah. Cause it's not a paid position. It's not a paid position. So for the only reason I'm doing

this is because of my love and passion for judo. And you know, better than anybody that the more time I spend on this, the less time I can work on the things that is actually making me money. Yes, exactly. That's it. So I have, like I said, I have no, there's no financial benefit for me. I am simply doing this for my love of judo and because I want to leave the place better than I found it.

But with that being said, again, I think it you can make sure your voice is heard for all those you guys that are you usa judo members that are listening make sure that your voice is heard and make sure that you guys kind of know what's going on here yeah wow so interesting okay so let's say right we're having a conversation uh what will be like i don't want to say campaign pitch but like hey man you know two years i have to be i'm up for election what is the things that you have in terms of long-term vision for the athletes side of things and what is your long-term vision for usa judo uh that's a good question my my long-term vision for the athletes is i think this is this is pretty straightforward i want to make sure that they make sure that they have more money and get more opportunities leading into the 2028 Games. We have a home Olympics coming up in a few years.

Humongous. Very, very crucial. We're going to get 14 spots. And that rarely happens because, as you guys know, the qualification process is grueling. So for the first time in a long time, we're going to get a full team. And I think that it's very, very important right now that these athletes have the funding necessary to go to the proper events to develop. Not just to compete, but to develop and potentially be medal winners. up um as and and potentially be medal winners and i think that is super super important because without i don't know if the way that judo has been in the last i'll say 12 years in this country

i don't know if we've necessarily always sent what we've said we've sent some of our best athletes but i think a couple of them might have been overlooked due to they don't have the finances to attend these events you know i don't i'm not trying to bash anybody but like the new york athletic club sponsored me sponsored you right so if you took new york athletic club out of the mix that's a huge chunk of like jack is a new york ac member you know uh travis kayla what was marty marty marty yeah marty right was angie angie yes all of our top maria laborde all of our top Was Marty? Marty, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, Marty. Was Angie? Angie, yes. All of our top athletes. 10 for 10 New York Athletic Club.

If they didn't exist and do what they do, thank you, Kevin Neurles, John Walla, me also because I'm part of that. You're a big part of it. Yeah, you too, right? I'm in. I'm in. Man, me and you, we're like behind the scenes controlling everything. We're like the Illuminati, me and you. 100%.

Since the beginning of time. Yeah. So how does these decisions get made? Do you just bring it up in a board meeting and say, all right, this is what I want to talk about? More funding for athletes and you come up with a proposal and then everyone votes? Yeah. So what happens is it's a lot more difficult than that, right? There's usually an agenda and you have to wait until the agenda kind of gets to – New business.

Yes, the athletes, right? So we have to wait until we talk about the high performance and things of that nature and then we can propose an idea and have a discussion about it. But if there are certain members that don't feel that way and there's certain members that are like, Oh no, I don't think we should put more money into the athletes. I think that we should put more money into tournaments and that, that happens sometimes. Right. And you have to just, and so it's my, again,

it's my job and it's other athletes reps jobs to kind of fight and make that you have to make your point strong and you have to have reasoning behind that behind those points to kind of persuade these other people to get to get on board with you and then hopefully that we can push that forward because the athletes are just one part of this massive organization i think in my opinion they are the biggest part but you know i not everybody shares those views i'm also i was an athlete so we're biased yeah we have biases towards that yeah so in terms of like us not me like in you but like the people who are listening who can potentially be voters right to qualify for an athlete's representation

vote you need to have been on the u.s roster yes in the last how many years? I want to say 10. I think it's 10 years. Really? Okay. I'm almost positive. Don't quote me, but I'm almost positive it's 10 years. So it's a very small group of people then. I think that it's bigger than you think. Because I think roster spot is you compete at any of these local tournaments

in New Jersey or New York, you're on the roster. Oh, I competed at Ramones Tournament in the North Jersey Judo Open. I took a third place. I'm on the roster. That might have been your only tournament ever. But we're not talking hundreds of thousands of votes here. No, we're not talking. It's generally a smaller pool, but it's more people than you.

It's not only the best athletes in the country. It's more than that. Are you able to say how many votes you got, and is it that transparent or is that something that's like- I think it's transparent, but I'm not sure how many votes I got in the last election. Interesting. I didn't know. I know I won by a pretty slim margin, but I don't remember how much. So what are the majority of people listening in who do judo in the United States? Where are they going to vote? Because a lot of these guys have never competed, right? If you're like a blue belt or a green belt, you care so much about judo.

You go into these things. You're an advocate for it. You're teaching the kids program. That's really the meat of the majority of the people who do judo in the United States. How can those guys make a difference if they can't vote for the athlete's rep? There's a ton of other things. There's a ton of other positions on the board that you can vote for even without being, you know, without being an athlete and every single, cause you, you know how, you know how voting works, right? There's only 12 of us. So every single vote does matter. Every

person on that board matters. So I think it's more about doing your research on who's running for what position and, you know, even have, you can have, these people are open. You can have conversations with these people. It's public. Yeah. I literally called up Ari Miller. Yes. Like, Hey man, coaches, he's running for the coaches.

Him and Jimmy, him and Jimmy. So like, Jimmy's going to be on the podcast as he wants to campaign a little bit. And Ari, that's like a whole thing. You could talk to them, ask them their views. Okay. So now that we're in this place, okay. in order for me to be an informed voter, I can't just talk to you because if your vote or if your views are a very minority out of the 12 people, it's not going to matter, right? So we want to look at sort of the alliances and certain factions within the board and saying how many people are aligned with their views, how many people. and certain factions within the board and saying how many people are aligned with their views,

how many people. And so what is the biggest dividing issue right now? And which side are you on? Is my question. This is juicy. Yeah. Buzz on the pop boy. You.

Yeah. The, let me think about this. Let me think of how I can put this to, to keep myself out of trouble. I'm not trying to get in trouble. No, no, I know you're not. I'm going to be trying to get the most out of this. Of course think of how I can put this to keep myself out of trouble. I'm not trying to get you in trouble. No, no, I know you're not. I'm really trying to get the most out of this. Of course. People

listening. People informed. That's the number one thing. I'm a journalist. I got you. I think the biggest ... The board right now is divided because there's issues about in about independence right there's issues about whether usa judo has done things by the book or whether we're going in an or whether

it's just oh this is the way it's always been done. We're, we're doing it this way. So I think there's issues in conflict of interest. There's things of that there's, there's issues and things like that. So I, me personally, I want what's best for judo. And I think that, you know, arguing constantly arguing about where we're, whenever we're spending time bickering amongst board members, that's less that's being done for judo. We have to get back to business and we have to remember we have a mission to make USA Judo a better place and that's what we're trying to do. But right now when we're we're arguing over

legal issues there's arguments over legal issues i can't get into too much detail about that not like federal or state law but like within the organization within the organization right within the voting how did this person get voted in is this is this person can only apply for this position but he has this position when he's technically not supposed to have that position. That. Exactly. Yeah, okay. There's a lot of that going on.

And right now, again, we can't function properly or we can't function the most effectively. We can't make the most change when we are arguing about these things, right? In order for us to make a change, we have to talk about how are we going to get these athletes money? We have to talk about what is the best path? Where should we have the senior nationals next year? How are we going to draw the most people to this sport? How are we going to get you involved in the school systems? These are things that we need to talk about. Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep. Okay. So for me, I'm not obviously in these boardrooms, right? But if I'm sitting on the outside, the two biggest issues I thought were the most devising things is, number one, the Olympic qualification system.

Keith Bryant staying on as CEO or not because his term is off. That's another big thing. Yes, I can say that. Oh, you cannot say that. I can say that. Oh, yeah, okay. So those two, I figured, were the two reasons why people were bickering. But even more so on the political side

like that's an issue right now would you say the political side is is the biggest issue right now um there is a lot of bickering about keith bryant um you know there's there's certain people that that feel that he shouldn't he should no longer be the ceo um there's some people that that feel that he has and again i think that you know people have made it public you There's some people that feel that he has. And again, I think that people have made it public. There's people that you go on Facebook, you go on social media, you can see some of these guys' views on Keith. And I think that there's a lot of noise, right? There's a lot of noise around it, but you have to look at judo and you have to look at his job what is his role what's in his job description what has he done since he's been on

has he has he grown judo do we have more members now than we had before can you ask answer those questions yeah and yes yeah that the answer is yes he's grown judo there are more members now um usa judo has more members now than we did four years ago than we did last year we're growing every single year let me let me stop that and say you know just as a counter argument yeah uh within the last four or five years we had covid and all this stuff so like as people are a little bit of course it's gonna have a downturn but if you zoom out 10 years 15 20 then what's the long-term trend really and And then how long has his term have been? And what are, I mean, it's very difficult to quantify like how this guy affected, you know, the economy of judo.

But like, if I say that, like, do you have any counter arguments for that? Of course. Yeah. You know, I say we look, Keith came on in 2016. So he came on after the Olympics in 2016. And you have to remember at that point in time, we had just come off of two Olympic medals, right? Kayla got a gold medal.

Travis got a silver medal. So we come off of two olympic medals right kayla got a gold medal travis got a silver medal so we come off of a very very successful olympics keith comes in and you know and prior to keith coming in we've had a lot of scandals with with the past ceo so there was a lot of jose rodriguez yeah there was a lot who i. Who I saw down at the Cadet Worlds. Yes. Because he was in Peru because he's a Pan American. Yes. Judo guy. He works for the PJC now. Yeah. And that's great.

But there was issues there. Keith came in. He kind of took over in a rocky state of USA Judo. And I think when you look from 2016 to 2024, that's eight years. Has he grown the sport in eight years? What have we done in those eight years? A lot of people are saying,

oh man, we've had no Olympic medals. I was part of that. I didn't get an Olympic medal in 2021, but how much control does he have over that? Right. None, none,

none. He doesn't have any control over that. So, you know, I think that we look at, uh, there's play LA. There's been different judo in schools. There's different programs that Keith has directly had his hand in that have been good for judo and that have grown judo in certain areas of this country.

But is it enough to move the needle, though? That's the question. That's the question. And that's, you never know, right? And that's the question now That's the question. And that's, you never know, right? And that's the question now. I don't know. Looking ahead, I think that regardless of who we have as CEO, I think whoever it is has to understand that for the next four years, it's going to be crucial to raise money. It's going to be crucial to get outside money, outside sponsorships and things of that nature.

And, and I think that is the number one thing, because you have to think the U S the USA judo gets their funding from a lot of their funding from the U S Olympic committee, USOPC. If we, in 2028, if we don't have a good Olympics, if we don't we have 14 chances, I think that, you know, if we don't have a really good, really strong Olympics, I don't know how much funding we're going to get going forward. And I don't know what that does to our sport in 10 years. Right. We might be wiped off the map. I don't know. So in that case, it is important for whoever is the CEO, Keith or whoever else to raise outside money and make sure these athletes are taken care of. So we, again, we have the best chance at putting as many athletes on the, on the medal podium as possible because the USOC only cares about Olympic medals. And if we can't get any Olympic medals, I don't know what the future of our sport looks like. i mean four years not a lot of time to train someone from scratch but you know there are some

people in the pipeline that could potentially do it and uh yeah you definitely need money to do it because you need to go to all these events you don't have to qualify anymore but you still have to have exposure to the azerbaijan champion or the kazakhstan guy or the georgian so all right i don't qualify anymore but you still have to have yes correct guy correct to bring money into the sport yes i think that keith has done a good job in the past of bringing money in i think that he's you know i talk to keith i deal with keith directly a lot um and i you know i'm in board meetings. Keith is also in board meetings and, you know, he tells us his plan to bring money in for LA 2028. I think that he has done a good job of bringing money in. Yeah. And that's, that's, that's my opinion on that matter. Do we not want like a finance guy that has tons of connections to Goldman and EY

and KPMG and having those connections that, hey, man, we're a nonprofit. You do this, we'll give you that. You know, like, oh, $10 million is nothing. You know, because we know the judo budget is less than a million dollars. Is that correct? Correct. A year. Correct.

That's not a lot, man. It's nothing. That's like a house. You're absolutely right. But you know what the thing is? And you've been here, I've heard this for years. I've always heard, oh man, if we get a CEO from one of these finance guys that can bring outside money in, this is going to be great. But does that really exist? Because how come that's never happened? Because they're not, well, also because they have to love judo. Right. Who loves judo? I have an idea. Right. You got dad.

What about your dad? He said, oh, you think I'm joking? I've thought about this before. He's successful, loves judo. Right. I'm not saying like, you know, I'm not trying to count your money, but like, you know, he is a successful business. Of course.

He loves judo. He cares. Why not that guy? He's connected. He doesn't. I think that he loves judo. I don't think he loves it that much. I think that when you are a CEO, you're under a constant microscope.

But he is a CEO. He is a CEO. And that's why I don't think he'll do it again because he's already got his hands full with that. Because in my mind, I'm thinking like this guy is probably more qualified than the guy that we've had or have now. And I'm like, all all right colton's in it you know in every aspect of everything in judo you know if you're listening like it's really truly exceptional not trying to gas you up or anything but like what you do with your gym you're coaching you have tons of students you're an olympian you're on the board you're helping

little kids and you're doing this and that you It's kind of a spectacular thing that you do, man. And me, as a friend, also a fan. But who's better than the dad of that guy? You know what I mean? I think 10 years ago, my dad might have said yes to that. I think 10 years ago, he was in a place. But I think he's now leading more towards retirement. He wants to do less.

He wants to spend time on his boat. He helps me do less. He wants to spend time on his boat. He wants, he helps me a ton. And he's the reason, he's a big reason why I'm able to travel as much as I do. Because when I'm, as you know, you have a dojo, right? And you have a super successful dojo and you have a lot of students. When you leave, you have to have the right person running things. Otherwise your students will also leave. And he's, he's, he's done tremendous. I've told him on a week notice, Hey, I have to go out to Tajikistan next week. Um, I need you to, to run the dojo for six days and he'll do it. And I have a lot of other instructors that are good, but before them, it was always him. And he also is, he leads my other

instructors as well. So he kind of teaches them. He goes over the curriculum with them and things of that nature. Really good dude. Yeah, but he's stepping back from that. So that's why. Gotcha. All right. So who on the board is your main alliance? These people have similar views to me.

Marty Malloy. Marty Malloy is – You guys spent time together in San Jose. She's also an Olympic medalist. She's amazing. Yeah. So Marty, I've known her for a long time. She's actually one of the people that kind of convinced me to come on the board.

Because when I was an athlete, I didn't know anything about the board. So when I retired, I was like, I'm not getting involved in that nonsense. And she convinced me. I didn't know about it until two weeks ago. She told me how important it was to be on the board so i i spent a lot of time with marty marty malloy we have the same views um there's guys like uh you you probably don't know some of these guys that i'm going to say but dave johnson um he's another guy that shares the same views he's from washington state um you

know we want to we want to see we want to see the athletes get what they deserve. We want to see judo grow in this country, and we want to see judo get the notoriety that it deserves. We see what you see firsthand, what judo is doing on an international level. Beautiful. Beautiful. So we have the potential to do that within the U.S. We just have to have the right people behind it

to make sure that this happens and that's super important and you know what u.s there's tons of money in bjj now i'll say tons but there's money in bjj now even wrestling when you go to college not only are you getting a scholarship but there's name likeness and all that other stuff now with the ncaa guys can get compensated for committing to a D1 school and couldn't put $100,000 in their pocket by just doing the goddamn sport. So it's like Judo's got to do something here or we'll lose everybody to wrestling and BJJ.

I'm a big believer in that. I'm a big believer in, you know, and you even look at the IBJJF, right? Look at the things and look at CJI and ADCC and these things that these guys are doing. There's opportunity, right? And I run a dojo. You run a dojo.

We have hundreds of students of people just interested in judo. So I think that getting also, you know, in addition to the board stuff, I think like-minded people like me, you, some of the younger guys that we have that are pushing the sport and that are actually putting judo on the map i think that's going to be huge for our sport too and i think the good thing about this is the olympics are here in four years so the olympics are here in 2028 which is automatically going to push a couple more people into the sport that probably wouldn't have done it if they had to go through the direct lines of qualification but because there's a bigger chance and a better chance, I think more people are naturally going to gravitate towards judo. Guys like me, you, guys like Marty, girls like Marty, people like that that have this, that young, we have energy,

and we also have the same vision and the want for judo. I think that's going to be huge. Jimmy Pedro, I'm also aligned with a lot. Me and him speak often, and I'm aligned with a lot of things he says. What about Nicole Stout? We don't agree on a lot. Okay, because you know,

this is how I got down this rabbit hole. I saw a video of her saying like, we got to get rid of Keith. We got to do these things. We got to do that. And I was like, what is going on here? And then Chris Round has just hit me up out of nowhere. He's like, yo, guess what? You got to follow this thing. Are you following it? I'm like, what is going on here? And then Chris Round has just hit me up out of nowhere. He's like, yo, guess what? You know, you got to follow this thing.

Are you following it? I'm like, no, I'm not. And then so like that's the start of this whole freaking thing. And now like I'm really interested in it, you know. She's another athlete rep. So she sits on the board. She's an athlete rep. Again, I think that –

But you guys could talk about the views that you differ on. We could talk about – I think we could talk about the views. Again, my thing – and this is what I stand on all the time. I say it in the board meetings all the time. I want what's best for the athletes, right? So I am always going to do – I'm always going to advocate for the athlete. That is my job. So how do we get more money to the athletes?

We have to have outside money. We have to get outside money. I think that our budget – You don't think doubling – so my whole little thing ever was – I have two sort of ideas. I probably told you this a million times. You're going to get sick of it. But it's like first and foremost, tournaments.

We don't need regulation-style tournaments. In Japan, you could have 20 matches going on in and out in three hours no cursing no list it's a standard etiquette thing so now it's a good product for the parents to go i don't send most of my kids 99 of my kids to tournaments because i think it's a very bad product you go you're waiting around all day especially these like affluent parents has like another kid a birthday party tennis lessons they have part they have a million things going on they don't want to be there all day first and foremost second of all you go and everyone's like f this and that's bad and you know what like it's a bad thing to do because i send

them they come back they're like we don't want to do this anymore exactly right so it's like make uh in an out sort of a thing. Yeah. That's one thing. Yeah. And then if we could double the membership across all the dojos and there's ways to help coaches do that because you have a 300 person program, correct? Yep.

That's humongous. Yeah. Yeah. Jimmy has a big program. I have a big program. So if you look at all the people who are successful just running, I'm not talking about JIT school with judo program. Yeah. We're judo school. Yeah judo school yeah period right you're judo school judo school i have other programs but judo is the judo is the the bread and butter and it's the heart of the

program the school yeah right so i agree with you man i think that that's huge and again i think that and this so that the outside money was the easy answer, right? I think the real answer is if we can get – if we can attract more people into the sport and make it an overall better experience for the people that are in the sport. And I think that does start in the tournaments. How can you provide a good experience at a tournament? First of all, let's not have our athletes wait nine hours to compete. That's number one. That's number one.

Number two, let's make sure that the athletes aren't paying $100 to sign up to fight one person twice. Nobody wants to do that. It's a waste of time. It's a waste of money. So I think that the structure of tournaments needs to be different. The structure of tournaments needs to be different. I also think that people need to get on board and how we need to put our heads together and how can we bring more people to our schools, right? Everybody's very territorial when it comes to talking about, oh, this – I don't – don't go to that.

Don't do judo with that person. Don't go to that school. I think that's a big problem. If we – together, we can attract way more people than a part. And you might lose one or two in the process, but you'll gain 15 if you think of the bigger picture. Love that, Colton. Love that idea. All right. So outside money.

We need outside money. We need dojos to double, right? Tournaments to be structured well. All these things happen. And how can someone vote? Like who's up for election for the athlete side right now? Nicole Stout is running again. Angelica Delgado is running.

Marty Malloy is running. Ari Berliner is running. Okay. And Hannah Martin is running too. Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah, Hannah Martin is also running. I'm 99% positive. I'm almost positive, yeah. Cool. running okay yeah and i'm gonna say hannah martin is running too oh i didn't know that okay hannah martin's also running i'm almost i'm 99 almost positive yeah cool so we got three jason morse yeah and you got some non-jason morse affiliates yes But we also have the Burris faction with Ari Miller.

Yep. And these are very strong judo families, really. Yeah. Judo. Alliances. Alliances. Like, you know, Jiu-Jitsu's got Atos. Jiu-Jitsu's got Gracie Baja.

Judo's got a lot of these things. Yes. Right? So if you were to endorse, these are the candidates you're already in you're not worried about the vote because two years right you have an endorsement uh yeah i think um angelica we got two slots yeah angelica delgado marty molloy i think those marty's up for election marty's up for election i thought her i'm almost positive positive Marty's up for re-election. Yeah.

Okay. Yeah, I think her term ends this year. Wow. Yeah. I think that, yeah, these are definitely... Interesting. I think that these athletes, these two athletes, they're not only athletes. Obviously, they're successful.

They've been in the sport a long, long, long time. Marty's also been on the board, right? So Marty's also been on the board. Don't quote me on the Marty rerunning thing. I'm not positive on that. Let me ask a question. I think she's up, but I don't know. I'm going to guess, take a wild guess and say the athletes' representatives,

yes, four out of 12 votes, they have the most control of how the olympic qualifications are going to go because they lived through the olympic qualifications correct exactly so the majority of the people running what are their views on how the olympic qualifications should get structured for 2028 i this is what i wanted to know i know know this is your thing. By the way, I have to say Drew, Jason, and LeVon, thank you very much for your sponsorship. Judo TV sponsored this as well. Discount Coach Intaro. Higashi

brand. That's my own brand. You know, you like that? Throw my own little thing selfishly in there, right? I love that. I love that, man. Now sponsored by CBTC Judo Center. You're going to have to give me $1,000 on that song. I got you. I got you, brother. I know how much work goes into this.

All right. So the Olympic qualifications, where is the people up for election and where are you on the whole picture? Like, what do you guys think should happen? Okay. So here's my first thing. I think for me personally, I believe that it should be a combination of qualifying through the IJF and or trial system. I think the trials will help grow judo. I think it will help more people.

More people will be in the world, he shouldn't have to fight in an Olympic trials for that slot. If he spent the last four years qualifying and getting himself into a number, let's say 10 or 15. Like, let's say he's in the top 15. He's number 13 in the world. I love it. I love this. You you are on it is that your idea or is that somebody else that's my idea that's what i believe i believe that i love athletes that directly qualify should go i think so okay yeah if there's two athletes that directly qualify in the same weight there should be a fight off interesting so you have to strategically pick the weight classes that no one's going to directly

qualify is that what you think yeah that's what i think and then if there's nobody let's just say we have athletes that are not in the top even top 40 in the world okay so we have athletes that are not top 40 in the world um now we have a trials now we have a trials for those athletes we take the top six four six however many it is and we put them in and we have like we have an olympic trials and what about the past to advertise it what about past champions past champions yeah well i think there should be i think there should be something in there some stipulations in there that that allow past world team members or olympic team members to join in on that, on that trial.

I think so. Can you imagine Jimmy Pedro walking in there? That'd be awesome. That'd be awesome for the sport. Do you understand how much you can market that? If we're talking about growing Judo, that's it. Forget it, dude. If like Jimmy and Jason come back,

maybe not Jason because his shoulder's banged up, right? But like if Jimmy came back and he's like, all right, these are the guys in the division. And he starts, because he has a huge platform with the businesses, and if he starts talking smack like, ah, this kid sucks, that kid sucks, I'm going to go in there, I'll grip him, put him on the ground, and I'll pass him and pin him. 100%. It'd be great.

Who's not going to watch it? Who's not going to pay attention to that? I know I will. It'd be great for the sport. It would be great for the sport. The thing with that kind of stuff is, the more attention you have on the trials, that kind of stuff is the more the more uh attention you have on the trials yeah the more the news the local news channels are involved yeah social media is gonna go up and and now we have somebody that's hannah's actually marketing she's she's working

in marketing for usa judo yeah social media so i mean now as we've been seeing lately there's been more of a social media push from usa judo which is a good thing and i think just the more attention that we can get on this sport and because we love it but we love it because we've been in it so long so i think that's going to draw a lot of excitement to the sport which is going to be huge for us how close are we to getting a finalized Olympic qualification criteria? We've been dealing with a lot of politics, so I don't know. Wow. So that's not even on the discussion, like, because the quad ended and everyone was like,

oh, the new criteria should be out after the Olympics. It's already after the Olympics. And then now they're saying, oh, in the new year, we'll have it. I'm going to say just to be safe, I think January. Are there disagreements with it or have you guys not even had the discussion? There's disagreements, but we haven't really had a chance to dive into that discussion

as much as we should, to be honest. So we haven't had that. We've been in talks, but we haven't actually had a set discussion for that topic. And I think that when we do, there are going to be, this is going to be a major, major,

major discussion, as it should be. Yeah, as it should be, for sure. That's a great, even what you just said, though, between like IJF ranking thing, you know, the criteria for the trials happening in the divisions. What about like having USA, like the US Nationals being, you have

to do it or else you won't qualify for the trials, something like that? 100%. I agree with that too. I think that the U.S. Nationals should be made mandatory. We've been trying to do that. One of the good things that the board has done, we put together, there's prize money

for last year's Senior National Championships. All the winners in the divisions got $1,000 each. I put my money up for that. A lot of other board members, you know, I did the same thing. So board work together to, to,

to get that done. And I think that drove participation a little bit for the senior nationals, but the senior nationals should be the premier event in this country should be mandatory. The New York athletic club makes all of the athletes, the top athletes, fight in the senior nationals. And I believe everyone should fight in the senior nationals

and it should be a requirement if you're even going to be looked at for the Olympic trials, if you're even going to qualify for the trials, you must fight in the nationals. 100%. It does nothing but good things for our sport. Why wouldn't you fight? Should. 100% should. I mean, unless you're waiting for the Grand Prix to come up next week and you don't want fight? Should. 100% should. I mean, unless you're waiting for the Grand Prix

to come up next week and you don't want to get hurt and the points matter. We should also strategically as an organization strategically place the Nationals so it's not around any world championships. Man. All these great ideas.

So you, Marty, Angie, who's the other one that you're mostly in line with? B, Marty, Angie, Hannah's good in there. I agree with things that Hannah Martin is saying. So you get that four in there, and now all of a sudden, okay, we could talk to you, reach out. Here's my ideas. Here's my ideas. You're constantly getting new information.

You're formulating, synthesizing. And now this is the way that I think it should be. Bang, four people on the board. Get a couple people on your side. And now all of a sudden, you made an impact as a voter reaching out to the reps like you. Exactly. That's why the vote is so important. That's amazing.

All right. We got five more minutes. You ran a successful gym in the last two years. The two years since you opened up your gym? Two and a half years. Yeah, two and a half years. By the way, I was one of the first students ever. You were the first student.

I will never forget what you did for me. I mean, I don't want to bring that up for it to be a public thing. No, no, no, no, no, no. I will never forget that. That was one of the most admirable things. I'm serious. I'll never forget that. Yeah.

I quit right away, but you know. That's okay. You were a student for a month. You were student number one for a month. I thought it was like two or three months. I don't remember what it was. Get out. Don't do too much.

You were a student for a month. Yeah, I was first student number one. All right. So you took from me as a first student when you opened two and a half years ago to 300 students and how short of a time uh it took me to get yeah one to 300 was in yeah about two and a half years i just broke 300 two weeks ago wow that's incredible so what is your advice? For a dojo owner? Yeah. Number one advice to grow the dojo, because everyone listening to this can grow their base. Absolutely. USA Judo base grows.

Yeah. Tournaments grow. Now there's more money in the sport. 100%. I think my number one piece of advice for anybody looking to grow a dojo would be to provide the best possible product and experience possible. I think 99% of the people that walk through my doors do not know who I am. They do not know I'm an Olympian. They don't know I'm a two-time Olympian. They don't know I'm a national team coach. They don't know I sit on the board of USA Judo. They just walk in and if you can greet them at the door, say hello, make sure their child or them have a really good experience on the mat, I think your chances of growing are huge.

And I think the number one thing, the reason that I've had as much, we have had as much success as we've had is I focus a lot on the culture of the dojo. I don't just allow anybody to walk in and train. If you're not contributing in a positive way to my culture, I ask you to leave nicely. I have had to do that. Already? Wow. Oh, yeah. I've had to ask multiple people to leave. And that's okay, right? Because you have to look at it in the long run. You either keep this one student and lose 10, or you can get rid of them, the culture stays intact, and you can bring 10 more. So I think that's huge. And I think that

the last piece I'll touch on is making sure that you have the right instructors or the right people that are working for you, making sure that they believe in your vision as well. So the same vision that I have, my instructors have. So now I can, it frees me up to be able to travel the world and go do this because I know I can sleep well when I'm six hours ahead in Spain, knowing that Adrian or my dad or Niran or not are going to run the exact same class. And that's tough because that takes a lot. In the beginning, I was at the dojo. Every single class I was there, if I wasn't teaching, I was watching them teach and I was taking notes and then we would go over it afterwards.

And every couple of months we have instructor meetings that are mandatory for all my instructors. And I say good things. I say bad things. They give me feedback about my classes and the culture is all intact. Wow, man. That's great. Yeah, I remember in the early days seeing you like 6 a.m., 10 p.m. all day, still working out. That's amazing, Colton.

I'm so happy for your success. I learned from you, man. I learned a lot of this stuff from you. Thank you. Thank you. But yeah, thank you very much for being on. I'm sure everyone highly enjoyed this. So anytime you want to be back on, you could hit me up.

We could do it. Anything you want to say? Last thing for all the listeners about the election? Last thing for all the listeners, make sure you guys make your voice heard anybody involved in usa judo make sure that you you take part and you vote um and last last thing thank you shintaro for having me uh thanks for all you do you're doing amazing things for for the sport a lot of my students come in and they're like hey i know you're teaching this aside today but i saw I saw Shintaro teach this shimada on his YouTube channel this morning. Can you help me with that?

So you caused me a little bit of a headache, but you did great things for the sport. So we appreciate you, man. Thank you, man. Follow Colton on Instagram, and thank you, everyone, for listening. Awesome. you