The Shintaro Higashi Show - Interview with Austin Cook

Episode Date: January 22, 2024

Shintaro sits down with Austin Cook, a Stanford-trained medical doctor whose illustrious Judo career includes gold medals at the U.S. Nationals and U.S. Open, along with a bronze medal at the Panamerican Open. They delve into Austin's grappling journey, discussing his unorthodox and innovative training methods. Join our Discord server and start chatting with us and other grapplers by supporting us on Patreon: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/shintaro_higashi_show⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Any amount helps!

All right guys, welcome back to the Shintaro Higashi show with Peter Yu. Peter Yu's out here. Special guest, Austin Cook. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Austin is a high-level judo grappler from back in the day. We grappled right around the same time. Maybe I was kind of on the way out and you were kind of on the way in, but there's some overlay. And your Instagram is badboymedicine, right? Yeah. And you have such a presence online now, so we just kind of have to have you. No, everyone's always asking me about Shintaro, so I'm glad we can make this happen.

Yeah, and you know what's cool about you? It's not just like, oh, I did judo, you know, seriously 10 years ago, and I'm just kind of doing that. You're innovating, you're doing no-gi stuff, and you have content that's relevant for today. You're always experimenting. So, I kind of wanted to go into that and interview about that, but first, we

have a couple of sponsors, Jason and Levon. You know it. Thank you very much. Judo TV, Discounto tv discount coach antaro fuji sports also that's another one uh and you too can sponsor us too through patreon so let's take it from the beginning how was your grappling journey like where did it start you know you have a unique story Yeah, so a bit unconventional. I started when I was 15. My parents enrolled me in judo. 15, that's late. Yeah, a little bit late in the game.

And so I think like a lot of us, I wanted to be obviously as good as I could, got addicted. And then quickly sort of came to the realization that if I want to beat guys that are always going to be better than me, if I stay in the current system in terms of training, methodology, and approach, I have to approach things a little bit different. And so I kind of went about it trying to question every dogma that exists. I love it. Yeah, just trying to troublemake, you know, yeah, just trying to trouble Nick, you know? A little bit of the bad boy, you know? Just kidding. Yeah, no, that's great because people say like,

oh, you have to point your toes and turn your point, toes outward. And it's like, they focus so much on this foot shape. It's like, does it really matter? Right, exactly. So that's why it doesn't. No, exactly. You know, and that's the one thing

that most guys will focus on. I used to question that too. It's like, why does it matter's why it doesn't. No, exactly. That's the one thing that most guys will focus on. I used to question that too. It's like, why does it matter? Yeah. For real. Yeah. And I think one of the things... No one could answer.

What's that? No one could answer. Yeah, right. Yeah. And I don't think there is a... I mean, grappling trends, they change through time. And people have always mostly been good at grappling. And things go back

and forth and kind of there's a cyclical nature and so I don't think there is always a right answer and I try to approach it where well if everybody thinks this is the right answer how can I tweak things to make myself a little bit unorthodox because it's a little bit of a cheat code right you don't be as good if you're unorthodox because a little bit of a cheat code right you don't be as good if you're unorthodox I try to exploit yeah and it means a lot coming from you because you're a guy that started at 15 and won US Nationals won US Open you were on the US national team for judo right so you did this in a very short amount of time but you must have played some sport

leading up to that yeah so I did I've always been active my parents weren't huge fans of video games so they would just send me off into the woods. I'm from North Carolina. So I was always like climbing trees, building forts, wrestling around with my friends, play a little bit of soccer. And so I think... But no like high level, like, hey man, you're going to be a freaking gymnast or none of that.

No organized sports, just like an active kid. Right, exactly. Were you just a freaking nature athlete? That's the thing. I don't think so. I was never the strongest guy in the weight room, even lifting with my friends. I was never the quickest, but I've always been, I've always approached my learning a little bit differently. And I think really when we're improving at grappling,

it's not so different than learning anything. So if you can get good at learning, you can apply it to grappling. And that's exactly what I've tried to do. Yeah. All right, so you had the four year thing. You went to high school and college and then you were doing judo the whole time.

And then what was your first real accolade in judo? Where you like kind of broke through and you were like, oh man, like I'm kind of in it. Was that the junior national level or the senior level? So I, my first junior nationals when I was 15, I actually won it. What you, wait, so you won 15 year old division the first year you were doing judo? Yeah. That's kind of freaky. How is that possible? I just... Okay, you gotta fact check that.

And then I moved to Colorado when I graduated high school at OTC. You went to college there? Mm-hmm, yeah. Where'd you go to school there? UCCS, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs. Oh, okay, wow. And I, but I took a year off after high school just to acclimate to the training there. Wow, you really leaned in. Oh yeah, I was all like.

And at this point, because for those of you guys, this guy went to Stanford for medicine, so you're a freaking doctor by trade, right? And we'll talk about that, you know? Work-life balance, judo and grappling and career. But did you know you were going down that path already when you were in college?

Sort of. When I was in college, I was, so let me just, I guess, start after high school. After high school, I didn't know what I wanted to do, but I was a big fan of mixed martial arts walked you have watched UFC all the time how Parisian watched him toss people and when I first went I wanted to keep that open which is one of the reasons I didn't start college right away yeah but then I I sort of did more research into the you know the effects that cumulatively being

punching the head exactly and it's a little scary so i didn't i didn't want to do that i ended up going to college my parents are in science i i started to do that and really they're uh just uh they run up my dad runs a lab my mom used to work in a lab and now now she teaches figure skating. Oh wow, that's cool. Yeah, yeah. All right, so athletics runs in your family. You have genetically good genes, so like for coordination probably, right?

Maybe, yeah. You know, and are you flexible? No. I think my balance is pretty good. I've always been an active, like I said, watch, just like watch Dragon Ball Z, and pretend I was, you know, goku vegeta doing cartwheels and i think that actually did have a pretty big effect on uh any sort of acrobatics that

grappling consists of but so yeah i just i started started uh taking these science classes and i liked the same thing that appeals to me with judo which is problem solving yeah it's liked the same thing that appeals to me with Judo, which is problem solving. Yeah. It's all the same thing. And so yeah, started that. Then went to medical school, which looking back, I have some regrets that I stopped too early because I was consistently, in my mind at least, improving with nationals. I got fifth, then third, then second, then first. And that was my last one. Do you remember we were on an international tournament together? Yeah, Chile right?

Was it Chile? Santiago maybe? Is that when I had the concussion? I think so. Oh man, that was brutal. Let's not talk about that. Don't remember that one. Not a good result for me either. I remember meeting you. Actually I feel like, did you go to Brazil? No. You never went to Brazil? So maybe it was Chile. I think so. So I was really on my way out. That was like, man you go to Brazil? No. You never went to Brazil? So maybe it was Chile. I think so. So I was really on my way out. That was like, man, that was not a good tournament. That was my last year as well, though. Yeah, I remember because the first time I've had a conversation with you, I was actually very excited to meet you because you beat my buddy Dave at Nationals.

And I watched that match because my buddy Dave was competing. And I think I won it the year you took second or third or something like that, right? 2011-ish? Yeah, I remember you winning before me. Yeah, and I'm friends with Ed Liddy. And I think I won it the year you took second or third or something like that right 2011 ish that yeah I remember you winning before me yeah, and I'm friends with that Liddy So I remember talking to your coach and be like and then I was like who is this kid? No, he's like yeah, it's good. I just came out of nowhere right so I remember knowing you and then the first conversation Was like oh you're gonna keep doing this you're trying to make it a limited team you over like nah You know I'm just doing this until I go to medical school

And I was like ah freaking guy set up his life and not leave grappling like I got a guy that got it has his claws in me got addicted tried to kick the habit when I couldn't do it so now I'm back yeah all right so they're medical school right like we at all, or did you take a hiatus, or? So, I guess going back to the unorthodox nature of my training, a large part of it, actually, I can do with no partners. So, when I stopped doing Judo, I maybe went to one or two Judo classes, but for six and a half years, I didn't do any Judo so I didn't wasn't on the mat at all but I continued doing six years yeah a long time yeah but I continued doing this sort of it's kind of hard to describe but meditative shadow uchikomi shadow movement throughout and I had always felt pretty strongly that it was responsible for a lot of the success

I had but I didn't really know it's hard to really say so when I my buddy I kind of got back into BJJ a little bit serendipitously got a text my buddy Rodney who I grew up with doing judo he went to he was wrestled became very good 16-1 state champ and. He went to, he was wrestled, became very good, 16-1 state champ, then he went to NC State, got before that six to Fargo. Got, um. Results? Yeah, yeah, yeah, then got second D2 national,

so obviously I was talking a little trash to him throughout the time, like I could still toss you, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Hiding from California, when he was in North Carolina, we were eventually in the same place and he finally had to face the music and go grapple him and so that was my first entry into BJJ. Fell in love again.

Yeah, and then were you like, so during those six years off, when you were studying to be a doctor, were you like, ah man, I miss training, or I miss judo, were you thinking that? Absolutely, and I hoped that with the time away from the mat, it would get easier, but it didn't. I was just in the OR or behind the computer

imagining scenarios where, okay, what if this guy gripped me this way or even Nogi watching. Doctor, I'm bleeding. It's like, hold on one second. I need to figure out this type of thing. Yeah, exactly. Stand like this for a second.

Especially with those lapels always tempting me with the white coats. Yeah, you're going to grab this guy. Wow, that's so interesting. Yeah, because you took a complete hiatus. I remember that when you left in like 2015 when you started medical school. That was around Chile time, right? When we were there. And then I didn't see you for years.

And then, all of a sudden, you pop up on my Instagram feed, launching this guy with Nogi Judo. I'm like, I didn't even know this guy did jits. I assumed you were doing jiu-jitsu the whole time. But you weren't. Oh, when I started back? When your Instagram started popping off.

Yeah, so that was actually, I started back? When your Instagram started popping off. Oh, yeah. So that was actually, I started that. I've been doing jiu-jitsu two and a half years, so not that long. Yeah. But got back up. And I can tell you the story sort of about my, I guess, re-entry to grappling. Yeah. Yeah, let's hear it. Okay.

So, again, going back, texting my buddy, talking trash, ended up showing up at this no-gi jiu-jitsu practice. So walked in, hadn't been on the mat for a long time. Open mat? Open mat, yeah. Immediately sort of you forget of all these little stimuli that grappling exposes you to. The smell of the mats even. Hearing people tease each other, the buds, the timers. Immediately I started coming back. I don't know why I was, but I felt confident. Going against Nogi, that was a mistake.

Got immediately high seed, immediately misdirection single, ducked, but it started to feel more familiar. And then I went home and my pride was a little hurt. Yeah. I was like, oh man, Rodney, you really got one over on me. I was telling my wife

about it, complaining. Like, hi, you know I could have, blah, blah, blah. But then I forget exactly what she said, but I started to get self-conscious. Like, oh, Sarah,

it's never seen me grapple. Yeah. She doesn't think I'm, you know, some classic insecurity of the country. Yeah, yeah. But, so then I texted this guy, Rodney, and I said, I could beat you in a gi wrestling rule set

even if you could do leg grabs. It doesn't matter. We're talking shit, huh? Oh yeah, I just doubled down. So, and to make matters worse, I invited my wife, Sarah. Oh wow, wow. Yeah, Sarah. Man, that's bold.

I know, I know. Which going back, oh man, I don't know if I would've added that part. Yeah. So we had a whole mock match, which I can, if there's an interest, I can post. Yeah, post it, yeah. So walked in, had the lights,

Yeah. Damn tournament lights, referee. Just you and this kid? It was a whole gym, so maybe lights, tournament lights, referee. Just you and this kid? It was a whole gym, so maybe there, I don't know, 30 people watching or so. Wow, just for that? Yeah, well, we sort of monopolized the practice, I guess. Shout out to my coach, Brandon,

who's so understanding with that stuff. Brandon who? Brandon Brown. Okay. Yeah, he's my jujitsu coach. Him and Roderick Hansen. Cool. But, yeah. So walked in at Hajime, off the whistle equivalent double leg.

Gets in and I remember thinking, oh my God, this guy, he's so fast and so strong. Bellied out and was sitting there in Seiza. I looked at Sarah and she sitting there in Seiza. I looked at Sarah and she was looking back at me. I thought, I thought this guy was a national champ. What is going on here? This guy sucks. Yeah, exactly. So, that's what I was worried about.

And then I felt this sort of feeling I had in a long time. And you know, life is, gets more complicated as you get older, right? Yeah, for sure. And I didn't have this thing grappling that had anchored me. And I looked at her and I kind of felt that familiar spark that I love. And I didn't want it to go away. And it sort of set this process alight. And so I got up just feeling that old pride, erased the fatigue, just killer instinct.

And I started to find my rhythm, gripping, killing power hands, faking. And eventually he started to bite on the fix and I could feel it. I could feel the rhythm coming in like a familiar song or something yeah yeah it's setting up setting it up not being afraid of the under hooks yeah waiting for him to dig I found the Kataguruma didn't score almost got a Sankaku didn't quite get enough to pin it goes into golden score yeah and I'm didn't realize how tired I was but I was and we both were but then my one of my favorite throws the rotis and I view and I I almost felt felt like a whisper of like oh there's something

familiar there's that pocket you know what I mean? And then, fake, fake, eventually I found it, drove, scored, so I won, and in golden score, huge relief immediately, realized how tired I was, we went outside, he had already thrown up, and I was about to throw up, vomit, outside, gross, but as a grappling. That's awesome, love it. And then, so then you're like,

all right, I gotta keep doing this again. Exactly. And then so, but you have a weird training schedule where you're not in the dojo every day or even three times A week doing regular gem pop classes, right? Right. This is gonna be semi controversial. You go to open mat I've only I've never been to a jiu-jitsu class. I Only do open mats. I probably practice one practice meaning go and Engage in live rolling maybe once every few weeks So I do it's very it's a very small percentage of my training and my rationale is sort of I Guess there's sort of I kind of view grappling as there's there's in all sports really there's two different elements

There's the physical side right so strength speed and then there's the mental or like intellectual side in different sports consist of these things in different ratios so sprinting right i'm never going to beat you saying bolt and a sprint it doesn't matter how good my technique is but yeah then there are certain i don't know sport you can say chess where it's maybe 0.1% physical so that jiu-jitsu and judo I it feels to me that maybe 80 20 something like that maybe wrestling judo and jiu-jitsu sort of being the most kind of complicated just because there's so many things you can do and so I think the training should reflect that we're not 80% it should be mental but you've done all

this training before yes so a lot of the stuff is already ingrained in your no exactly exactly i'm not trying to say like oh guys just go you know once a month to open that you're gonna get better we're not saying that right we're not saying that i'm definitely not advocating for that but that's a very unique thing so what do you do it so whenever you go let's just say you go once a month open, man. Man, these guys must hate you. I've ran into issues in the past. Hey, I'm here for the free class. Mind if I set up my camera and beat you guys?

Put it on Instagram? Man, people might not like that. And that's why I liked the OTC so much is because it was very unstructured. And so Ed, it was sort of just live rolling right and so the responsibility to learn is yeah you don't really get better unless you're taking that initiative and then when starting jiu-jitsu it felt very similar to that where there was a coach who was there to provide the learning if you go and approach them but i just i don't know if we're all probably bad sometimes with the uh i don't like being told

what to do and probably a lot of us like yeah yeah i get that i like approaching it i like that's why i'm unemployable but so he he is the club is very accommodating for that but it is counter culture in some ways. I've definitely seen other gyms where, this is what we're doing now, now don't. And I don't think they would be cool with what I do, so I'm lucky to be there. Yeah, definitely. So what does your training look like between,

all right, so you go once a month open mat, what are you doing for the whole month? So every day since I was a teenager, I've been doing this sort of routine where I, I call it my mind dojo. This is gonna sound a little weird. We gotta film this by the way. We're gonna cut it in.

Some mind dojo. Yeah, so building this mind dojo. So what does that mean? You put like a gong, you know? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Gets it like some incense. Yeah. So it, again, going to the the mental side of it i'm trying to i want to be able to practice without going to practice if that makes sense yeah and which is

hard to do because but theoretically you could get into a zone where what you're visualizing accurately meets what it feels like in reality, but it takes a long time to build that. So certain positions I'm very familiar with, that sort of body lock chest, so there what I think it feels like is pretty accurate. Others, especially in jujitsu, you know, leg entanglement stuff,

I'm not quite there yet, but I've worked hard to sort of build this mind dojo since I was a teenager. And I feel like I can practice whenever I want, close my eyes, thinking about it, practicing the movement, twitching, without exposing myself to injury or fatigue or being out quite as much.

Yeah. And you know, it sounds nuts, but it makes sense, right? Because people play blindfold chess all the time, and then a workout moves in their heads, and then look at different lines and openings and stuff like that. So, I mean, think about the mental side of it, yes. And everything I approach this with, so, I mean, learning science and medicine, you don't necessarily need a deck of flashcards in front of you if you're going through the day rehearsing that on your own,

right? So you can learn many things like that. Practicing a speech, practicing music. Music, exactly. Play an instrument? No, I don't. You'd probably crush it. No, I think it's a… I wish. One year of practice at Carnegie Hall. That's right, yeah. Can you imagine? That's your next YouTube challenge right there. I don't know. But that is like pretty, I guess, conflicts with a lot of the training methodologies. And so I think that there should be more of that and I don't necessarily…

I don't want to advocate for this is what you should do, but I think there should be a lot more of it. I think there's definitely a place for it. And I think the people who show up to practice, do training, leave and forget about it and go back to their lives and it's completely compartmentalized, I think those guys come into training, have the same practices over and over, and they never really grow. And so I always say at the end of the class,

go home, think about this for 10 minutes, and then go over it and visualize it. And one of my say at the end of the class, right? Like, all right, go home, think about this for 10 minutes, and then go over it and visualize it. And one of my advice for a lot of guys is, like, visualize it from a first-person standpoint and a third-person standpoint. So do you, when you're visualizing, you're, like, watching Greg's face and then shoving his head down in front of mine?

Or, like, is it one of those things where you're watching yourself do the move on Greg? It's, I wouldn't even say it's watching. It's imagining feeling. It's imagining the little twitches that you feel with our hands or antennas. What does it

feel like when Shintaro is going to fake and then imagining that okay, that doesn't quite feel like I thought it would. Go back. Make it more accurate. Practice. Go back. Maybe I'm 30% of the way there like I thought it would go back make it more accurate Practice go back. Maybe I'm 30% of the way there and go back and forth back and forth. That's a visualization You're almost living it. Yeah, it feel

Imagining feelings, but I mean we can also I mean we know what it feels like to I don't know Have their phone vibrate or have someone shove us right and so I can do it It's do I have ph Phantom phone going off in my pocket all the time. I'm like, yo, my phone ringing? It's like, oh, it's not even in my pocket. So I guess it's like visualization meets kinesiology. It's like kinesiolation or something like that.

Right, it's like imagining sort of the proprioception. I think it's super underutilized. Yeah. And the more sort of intellectual of the sport, so with BJJ, for example, the more utility that there is for this sort of training approach. And if you can never really leave practice, go home on the drive home, fortify what it feels like.

It felt like this, it felt like this. Then you imagine it, you have questions like, what if I could do this in this situation? What would that feel like? Go back and forth, back and forth, and it takes a long time, but eventually you can develop it. So where do you go in your house to do this?

Usually outside of my backyard looking like a weirdo. You mumble to yourself, your wife walks in and you're like... She's like, yeah. Like, what are you doing? And I also try to implement these movements in my everyday life, so... Oh, that's cool. When I'm walking down the hall, for example, I try to... If I'm going this way, I try to walk, take one way, go the other way.

I've been doing this since I was a kid, yeah. Having light switches, I learned this from my friend Alex. Don't take this the wrong way, I've been doing this since I was a kid. Yeah, all right having light switches I learned this from my friend Alex. So this is the wrong way. Are you autistic? What's that? Maybe undiagnosed But it's cool No, but it's like some people have that kind of a special mind yeah, it's like you know what I mean I don't know. Like, great man.

I think I can get obsessed about that stuff, and it helps with certain sports. I mean, I get it, right? Because I'll be sitting in school thinking about judo, and then, like, everyone's quiet. I'm like, go like this. Exactly. And people are like, what the fuck? You know? Exactly. And it's like, I was just thinking about...

So imagine if you had forced yourself to do that even more than you would. I mean, how could you make the argument that you wouldn't be better? Dude, I'm too scared. I already like mumble stuff to myself all the time. Like I'm gonna be like the craziest old guy, like mumbling and twitching on the train. You just gotta accept you're gonna look weird.

Yeah. But all sorts of things and then walking through life thinking how can I incorporate something? So I stole this from my buddy Alex to work on his hip flexibility and hip strength. He just turns off lights with his feet, which it sounds so simple and weird, but this same motion, it feels exactly like a front Uchi Mata

and it works on the hip flexibility just a little bit. Yeah, whenever I get on an escalator, I'll stretch my calves. Yeah, exactly. You're already sort of doing it. Always, 100,000%. You ever do that? No. And I love that you're...

So you're already looking weird. I mean, you see guys that like waiting for the subway sometimes like doing this, like judo guys. Exactly, exactly. You know, and then when you're in Japan, you see that and you're like, and the guy's jacking his kai fighter, you're like, oh, that's 100% a judo.

A thousand percent. And I think a lot of us that have had success with it probably intuitively and naturally do a lot of that stuff. But I've really tried to lean into that knowing that other people don't do it as much to try to be unorthodox and to try to approach and view things through a different lens. But I mean, A, I love how that you're even open to considering this stuff because it is pretty counter. I mean, but look at boxing. You go to the gym, weightlifting gym, guys who don't even box are like, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. So it's like, it's normal. And you see golfers, golfers waiting for the train,

freaking doing their stupid swing. You ever play golf? Such a toast. That's why I said it. I know what you were saying too, like when I'm at the driving range, like just picking the ball out with the club. Exactly.

Moving it around, putting it in spot, like just those little muscle. You've heard, I mean I'm sure you've heard people compare judo to dancing, right? You can dance by yourself and it's all just movement. And I think techniques are not created equal. Certain techniques are more movement, but that's why I like foot sweep so much

because I can work on them by myself and I can work on the timing, but a double leg, I don't know, I'm not as good at that stuff, but it feels a little bit more physical. So I try to select techniques that this training methodology will accommodate. And so it ends up being a lot of movement based and imagining flick here, twitch here.

And so I'm always just doing that. When I'm walking around, I'm like playing with my dog, and I'm going this way. It's easier than you think. Yeah, that's really interesting, man. Like, all right, so let's just give examples from maybe some of the viewers were like, oh, this could be something that, you know,

keeps me engaged. And you know, people get injured, right? And they leave and they never come back. Yeah, exactly. These are the things that keep you mentally engaged that keep you in the sport. That's, you're right. I think that is a big part.

Cause it makes you feel like you're improving. You know, the worst is like, oh, my elbow hurts. I can't train. everyone's getting better. I'm gonna go back in three weeks and everyone's beat me. Or how many people could have done it and had some debilitating injury? And it's just a game of probability, right?

Yeah, yeah. And also, I think doing this works on the sort of mechanics that would reduce the likelihood of an injury if you're constantly just ready to go like that and then check yourself, imagine what it feels like, then, yeah. Interesting. I mean, we all do this to some certain extent. That's the thing. I think we all do this. But I just try to lean into it more. And I do think it works

and to be honest i wasn't sure when i was away for so long but the guy that in our match i mean he actually got fifth at nationals in judo that year i didn't i felt like in some ways it's got rodney shepherd isn't it so yeah i mean you spoke of him i didn I didn't know he was a good judo player. Yeah, I got the seven-guy US Open. He's good. And weirdly certain, I think, aspects of my game, even though I didn't do it for six and a half years, I was better. And it was almost stressful for me because I felt like, okay, I do have this, I guess, lens to view grappling that's different and that has been validated. And that's why I competed actually in that Sambo tournament, and I did a Judo tournament to ensure that.

Yeah, you just competed in something. It's a witness test. You were blasting guys. What was that? What type of was that? It's of the Virginia Open. You won it? Yeah.

I did a 70. That's a good pitch. Something to this mind. I did a 73 and 81. But I needed that because I feel like both of us have an extra responsibility that we're not putting out things that are bullshit. And that is a litmus test for me where if there is something here, then I need to battle test it. I think a lot of people already kind of do it, but like you said, you lean into it more.

Exactly. So if someone's listening to this right now, right? They're like, ah, shit. I usually go train three times a week, but I can only make it twice a week because X, Y, and Z. I really want to get good at the Ashi. Like what would you prescribe to them using your methodology to get ahead a little bit.

So, shortcut, not in a bad way. People say shortcut's a bad thing. You know, shortcut like taking a shortcut through the highway instead of the local, that's dangerous. But like a real shortcut where it's like equally safe, but could get you there faster. I think certain people are in better positions to do this than others because like you said,

we both have done Jo for a long time So intuitively our instincts are often correct right with this stuff if you've ever done it Yeah, you you the point you need a coach because you're not gonna have those right instincts but we've been doing this a long time I've been obsessing over it a long time and so our Hypotheses tend to be tend to be correct right and uh so I think I think to answer your question with with the foot sweeps I I don't I don't again I don't think about it as as where seeing where they are I think about it as What does this feel like and it's a hard thing to describe? But if you consciously sort of put yourself in and that that state you it starts to become

easier and easier to visualize yeah, and then you can test it when you go back with Does this feel like I think it feels and so with with the foot sweeps it's nice because it's so much tempo and so much being in a position and getting yourself there. And often for me, foot sweeps feel like that's 80% of it. It's just getting myself, having a fake that looks realistic and looking at myself and then me flexing while I'm doing this. But like seeing if I can, what does that look like? getting myself, having a fake that looks realistic and looking at myself in the mirror, you know,

flexing while I'm doing this. But like seeing if I can, what does that look like? And would I bite to that fake? And then thinking of it from the Uke perspective, how would I react to that sort of fake? And then going back, well, if I would react to that fake in this way, chances are a lot of people are gonna react to that.

So would you feel like the person shifting his weight away and maybe not actually visually seeing them shift their weight from the front leg to the back leg, therefore it's unweighted and attacking, but do you just feel the person pulling away and then feeling, like trying to imagine what it would feel like to connect my feet? I try to imagine if I were getting ficked

or somebody were setting up a sweep, where would I not want a frozen puddle to be? You know what I mean? And we've probably all done that. We're almost slipped when we're walking somewhere. And that to me, that's what a foot sweep feels like. Not that we ever get foot sweeped obviously. But if I just barely was able to keep

my balance then well where would I least want a frozen puddle to be? That's how I think about dashi. Or the coach you snapped down that I kind of stumbled upon. I try, it feels to me that if I was running and my foot got snagged on a root and I fell on my stomach, where would I not want this root to be if I'm running? And then I try to make my foot that root. I know it sounds pretty weird. It definitely sounds weird. And I gotta tell you, you sound like a crazy person.

But you have the grappling background to kind of make it okay. You know what I mean? And it's eclectic. It's different. And I feel like a lot of people can implement this. And it's not something that you should totally just be like, oh, this guy's nuts. But I think it can be a big portion of it.

And we do a lot of it already. Yeah. We all do it. And I don't think that the answer is not doing practice. I think I was able to improve quickly in Judo because I did both. Do you want to do more practices? Sometimes. Yeah so what is preventing you from going in and doing just a regular... so is there a Judo gym here yet? Yeah. There is. And they know you obviously. Yeah yeah. How close is it to your house?

About half an hour, not far. Okay, so you could go? Yeah, and when you go is it a party like awesome? Well, I work there during the day. I edit my videos there. So I'm there all the time anyways. And you don't train? I do train sometimes. Well, it's also it's a game of probability and when I tore my ACL. Oh, here we go. I realized that well. Dude, everybody who does Judo at a high level, they tore their ACL.

That's the thing, Shintaro, you nailed it. So how do you prevent that? You can implement these. Don't take risks. These methodologies, right. Especially as we get older, you know what? The more you do Rindori, the more likely you are. Who's the Tani Toshi? Who's it talking to, Toshi?

Who, it was actually Seiji Hashimoto, who has awesome technique. What, really? Yeah, yeah, it was my fault. I was actually, again, talking trash. Kenny Hashimoto's brother? Yeah, yeah, I was talking trash to him. Is there a brother of three or two?

Two. Wait, Joseph was a? Seiji is Joseph. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, he's a younger brother. Kenny also has unbelievable judo, dude. I wonder what he's doing. Kenny is amazing. You heard his neck.

Remember back in the day? Sumi Gaeshi from, I think, Germany, Austria, something like that. Someone sumied him onto his neck. But with Seiji, I was, again, always getting myself in a situation. Training. I was talking trash. We were playing that warm-up game, the basketball game. What's that? Piggy? Yeah, I was talking trash. We're playing that warm-up game the basketball game and then it's not so piggy Yeah, it's a piggy. Yeah, exactly

The US team would play piggy at these so they were like, alright guys, we're at this tournament We're gonna warm up and we're gonna do practice, you know, three days before the competition. Nobody nobody get injured let's start off with a warm-up game and it's essentially like you take the ball and you pass it and run with it you can run without the ball mm-hmm pass it he try to put it into the other person's you put a key on the floor you try to hit the key with it right mm-hmm yeah exactly and people always get hurt doing that yeah and there's always a lot of escalates well it was like there's a product of that I felt sagey had been a little too rough with me And so I said next time I just tackled him and made some comment like I've never wrestled and you're supposed to wrestle D1

And how could I and then he talked shit back and then we were getting really rough with each other Was it fun or was it like a little bit like it was getting a little like serious But I went in for Ochi and then he tried to sweep but my foot Planted like that. But this was not his fault. We're playing piggy. This was it was rendori after piggy We're both still Jesus which is often how it happens right? Yeah roughhousing or Travis number. You know this. Yeah, actually, I don't know There was a time where he didn't. When he would be cutting weight and stuff and we're like, ah, let's play.

And he would just be like, cutting weight on the side. And I think I've seen him play before, but there was a time period where he was like, I'm not playing that shit. I'm not getting injured for no dumb reason. Speaking of Travis, I was watching you guys' match the other day because, I mean, this is actually another reason

I don't do more Gi stuff is because you already do it so well that I I don't really feel like I can give much to that as I can with the no Gi Judo but anyways I was watching definitely the niche no Gi Judo yeah exactly and it's a little bit unexplored territory for the weirdos my own sort of opinion on this but I wanted to ask you what throws do you think are most prevalent in judo that you should abandon completely and bjj it's just not worth it then completely i mean or disproportionately abandoned compared to judo

gi jiu-jitsu or no let's start with gi gi jiu-jitsu you know like just like a harai Goshi is tough to do. Right. Collar and sleeve when the hips are down. And, you know, when someone could just at any given moment, like, you're setting it up, you're setting it up, he could just sit down to the ground. You're doing all that for nothing, really. You know, so it kind of takes away the, right? If you put two boxers and, you know, people are like, oh, you know, you should, right, whatever should right oh whatever it is but like if you're boxing if you don't want to

box and you start running all the way there's no boxing mm-hmm the rules have to force these two people to engage in order for something to happen mm-hmm you know I mean yeah so like when the rule set says if you don't want to get taken down you can just drop to the floor it cuts away a lot of it and then same thing with judo, spider guard, lacer guard, all these complicated guards. If you go down and if you get forced to stay for five seconds, it just

sends you right back up. It's not worth learning. If you're competing. Koshiguruma, because that was one of my answers. Koshiguruma, I do not. I think the head and arm throws, it doesn't feel worth it. Because even if you score Ippon

or whatever you're on the ground and they have an underhook that's not I'd rather be anywhere else. Yeah I mean there's like ways to like turn into it and then go Ushiro Kazakutame and transition but yeah definitely you're right about that you know they could scramble out of it so Koshiguruma definitely even Osorio you could stick out the leg and the guy could just grab a single. Right? Unless you really know it.

Yeah. And learning how to not let a guy just reach out and grab a single off of your Osoto, that's a skill in itself. Uh-huh. And something that we had to develop when there were leg grabs, right? Yes.

So we have an advantage. It's a lost art now. Exactly. You're starting Judo now. More responsibility for us. Yeah, definitely. We should put it out there just in case IJF's a lost art now. Exactly. We're starting judo now. You're 14, 15. More responsibility for us. Yeah, definitely. We should put it out there just in case IJF decides to bring it back. Right.

Be sure. Or, you know, they have a new division in the Olympics or the freestyle judo, which is like a real thing now that they're trying to do in the United States. Like if it takes off and it becomes a real thing, probably won't, you know, but like. What about Ippon Sanagi? I mean, Ippon Sanagi is effective in all martial arts and if you're good at it like even you see it in Jiu Jitsu Yeah, you know quarter turn drop full turn drop right the quarter turn Yeah, you know and drop Sanagi is a good one and you know people will argue like oh It's not viable for the street, but it's like what are we that's a different argument, right? Yeah, right and then if you miss you really give up your back but if you could time it right if you know it

but the time it takes to get good at it takes a long time right but the quarter turn you could spam without giving up your back yeah so that's might be worth learning first and if you do the quarter turn safely repeat it spam it not give up a back then maybe you could turn a little bit more into it that's something might be worth doing also. That's just my opinion. Foot sweeps? Foot sweeps? Oh, I mean, yeah.

I think it's hard to make the argument that in most forms of grappling, and yeah, wrestling maybe people are more proficient at like grabs, but it's inherently such a low risk. And importantly, energy, inexpensive technique takes no energy. And I think something that's overlooked is you can wear on somebody's focus and concentration by doing something that you can ingrain in yourself

that's instinctual by doing this sort of movement training. But now they're not used to that, right? So they have to consciously devote a portion of their attention toward your feet which means away from your hands right that sets up the grip in so now if you can become proficient with foot sweeps and grip fighting it's a large area that they have to devote their attention to and that takes concentration and effort and energy. And it's also your hands and your feet are the two parts of your body that are A farthest away from each other and then you can move the fastest.

So think about if you know a punch is coming from here, that's a lot easier to contemplate than now what if I'm going to kick you now, I'm gonna, from the hook, I don't really know anything about striking but. Yeah, you do that more like you. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

I'm not making fun of you. No, no, no. But it's, yeah, so I try to, again, like with my training, ingrain these into my everyday. So I don't have to think about them, but they have to think about them but they have to think about them and now I'm wearing on them they're worrying about my hands

they're worrying about my feet they're worrying about my face but I'm not even thinking I'm just on autopilot yeah and so and it's so unorthodox even when you do because like a normal wrestler would be thinking about like grapplers like the thorn under hooks in there and then they pull them in then right chest to chest but the way you're moving it's a little bit more right this thing stopped recording okay all right where can these guys find you bad boy medicine on Instagram that's sad boy medicine doing a lot of nogi stuff right yeah pretty much only nogi and again that's where I feel like I can contribute you never had a coach to

teach you no no it's a product of your own mind and your own mind dojo. That's pretty cool. I'll tell you. Right now, I'm going to put Reagan in a rash guard and he's going to be ragdolling for 40 minutes straight. get ready, Reagan.

Sure. All right, thanks, man. Great episode. Thank you. And we're going to make some more. We're going to film now.