The Shintaro Higashi Show - Jimmy Pedro

Episode Date: July 5, 2021

Shintaro sits down with Jimmy Pedro, a World Champion and a two-time Olympic medalist Judoka who has coached many top-level Judo competitors including Travis Stevens, Kayla Harris and Shintaro. Jimmy talks about his experiences training and competing around the world, the upcoming Olympics and his current projects like the American Judo System. Please support us on Patreon if you can: https://www.patreon.com/shintaro_higashi_show. Any amount helps!

Hello everyone, welcome back to the Shintaro Higashi show with Peter Yu and today we have a very special guest. We have Jimmy Pedro in the house. Welcome Jimmy. Thank you buddy. Thanks for having me on. Yeah, Jimmy Pedro, for those of you who doesn't know, he's a world champion, a former world champion in judo, right? He's a two-time Olympic medalist, is that correct? That's correct. That's correct. And you know, we have a very long history meeting you, right Jimmy? We go way back, buddy. We go way back. And it all started with me looking at the Real Judo magazine and seeing pictures of you.

You remember that cover when you were like this? 1999. 1999. I was a little tween and I saw that and I was like, who is this guy? And I would go to these tournaments. And then, you know, so you started off in my world as like uh someone that i looked up to greatly and then i had a chance to work with you you know at your dojo for for a year right i trained under you yeah and uh now i work for you also at fuji sports isn't that right yeah we keep it all in the family buddy yeah that's right it's been a very very uh long journey. And, you know, sometimes

I feel a little bit, you know, you're like this guy, right? It's like a little bit, you know, oh my God, Jimmy Pedro, I get to talk to this guy all the time. It's pretty cool for me. You know, people know you, who you are and stuff. So yeah. All right. Let's get started. Thank you, Jimmy. That's for my listeners. And, you know, tell me a little bit about uh your judo history uh for those people who are listening who may not know right history goes way way way back i started judo in 1975 i was five years old at my dad's dojo which was massasoya judo club in pbd massachusetts so goes way back then but i really got introduced to sport much like you did from the day you could walk right dad's an instructor you're always at the dojo. You're always around the sport. So that's when I got started. For me, you know,

judo wasn't something that I loved when I was a kid. It was a place that I went that had lots of other kids and we played all kinds of other games. But the judo training under my father was really, really hard, right? It was, you know, it was demanding. He trained everybody's butt off. He wanted to only produce champions. And so the training was grueling and I really didn't like it. Not necessarily the hardness of the training, but just the whole competitive environment and being pushed to the limit all the time. It wasn't something I loved as a little kid.

But, you know, as I got older, I started getting better. And when I was in my teens, I realized I had a lot of potential. And that's when I took training, you know training very, very seriously and ended up making my first Olympic team in 1992. I was my dad's first student ever to make the Olympics. So that was a big moment for us as a family and as my dad, as a coach. And then having not medaled in 92 at the Olympics, I was crushed. I was devastated. It was something that I had, you know, wanted to do my entire life and had dedicated my entire life to.

And I felt like a failure after 92 because I didn't step up on the podium, which led me to pursue the 96 Olympics, which I trained for more years. I lived in Japan for six months in preparation for those games and ended up winning my first olympic medal and you know that was that was truly a a dream come true because it's something you you've always pictured is stepping up on the olympic podium and when i finally got to do it it made all the training all the blood all the tears all the sacrifices it made it all worth it and it was special yeah in atlanta right too it's like an american soil and all that i remember watching that as a kid man it's like that was the best time ever like yeah when you went when you win an olympic medal in your home country and the entire

crowd at the time i think it was 7500 people you know in the crowd were behind you chanting usa usa yeah it was electric it was really electric and beating a Brazilian throwing free pawn for the bronze medal was yeah it couldn't have finished a better way really so nice there was that then you know four more years of you know struggle and training and sacrifice I had three kids at the time yeah you know I was reigned world champion in 99 going Going into the 2000 Olympics, I'm going to be America's first ever gold medalist. I was in all the magazines, Sports Illustrated, ESPN, like lots of news coverage. Went to the Olympics and just was flat, just over-trained, just a flat performance. It was a little bit of a weird tournament.

The Olympics didn't actually start until 3 p.m in the afternoon yeah you know because of tv time so it was like it took me totally out of my normal routine no excuses but when you're expected to win and you come home finishing fifth you're just crushed devastated so you know bad olympics in sydney very upset about the performance and then decide after two years leave of absence that i got to do it one more time which is after yeah you know and then the athens olympics comes and you know i finished on the podium again i can end my career on a high note and feel like i was i was a winner in the end and it was it was a special career but yeah you know i remember watching uh fury on the mat do you remember i mean i'm sure you remember but i remember watching that and that was a big

moment uh when you made that comeback it was like hey marie i'm gonna go for it again you know i know we have all these kids and my neck is banged up but i'm gonna go for it you know and i was like i remember watching that like man oh my god you know yeah that me and my one of my buddies i used to work at monster.com and my buddy was in the uh video department he helped me pull together all my old videotapes and all my old stuff, put them on DVD, and then helped me create that film. Yeah. Dude, I remember so many of the watching it as a kid, man.

There's so many tidbits of it. It's like I remember one of the things was like, hey, man, like I've never lost until I was like nine years old or something. And the first time I've ever lost, I've had all these wins. I was completely undefeated. I was an absolute savage. Was it the half Nelson turnover that you ran through I've had all these wins. I was completely undefeated. I was absolutely savage. I had the, was it the half Nelson turnover

that you ran through all the kids with? Yeah. Right? And then it was like, and then it happened. I remember thinking, I don't know why it left such a lasting impression on me. You know,

though I was 11 years old, I had never lost a Judo tournament. I said nine, sorry. From six to 11. I won every junior national championships. Every had never lost a Judo tournament. I said nine, sorry. From six to 11. I won every Junior National Championships. Every tournament my dad ever took me to. How many matches was that? That must have been crazy.

We went to everything. Hundreds? Thousands? I don't even know. So regardless, I had never dealt with a loss before. And I had a father who every time I saw any of his students lose, I always saw him yelling at the kids and telling them what they did wrong. He was loud.

He's aggressive. He's abrasive. I've taken that from your father too. Yeah, I remember that. I never wanted to be the guy on the receiving end of that, so I always won on the mat so I didn't have to get my dad mad at me. I thought he was going to be angry. So when I lost that fight, I just collapsed on the mat.

I just fell. When the hand went up, it was a split decision they gave the the match the other kid i didn't know how to deal with it i just emotionally just fell on the ground crying yeah and i think at the time that's when my dad realized like man this kid's under a lot of pressure like i can't believe it's affected him in this way like he had to carry me off the mat pick me up carry me off the mat, pick me up, carry me off the mat, take me home, and tell me it was okay. It was a tough lesson. Yeah, oh boy. Man, that must have been tough doing all that stuff as a kid, right?

I mean, did you guys have a lot of good stuff in between too? Like, hey, you know, sometimes if I won a tournament with Taitoshi, like he'd buy me ice cream or were there like soft moments like that? Yeah, for sure. Like for us, the Junior Nationals in judo was the was the one week we took for vacation as a family so wherever the junior nationals was we tried to do something fun in the town afterwards you know so we went to like knott's berry farms and we went to six flags and yeah after the tournament my dad always wanted to do something celebratory so that it wasn't just about sport. It was about sightseeing and visiting other places and doing some fun stuff.

Would it be like at the end of the three? Because they usually have the three, right? So it was like a triple crown situation back in the day. Do you remember that? It was like the USJA. Back in the day, for me, it was just the JA Nationals and the JF Nationals. USA Judo didn't have like a – they didn't exist. The JF was the biggest Nationals. In the summer didn't have like a... They didn't exist. The JF

was the biggest Nationals. And the JA was another National. We used to go to both. We tried to go to both. The USJA Nationals and the USJF. Nice, nice. So you had this very very illustrious career and then eventually you transitioned into coaching. I know you have a

very successful dojo. I took part in that for a long time. I used to visit you. I went to all your camps. And then I was training coaching. I know you have a very successful dojo. I took part in that for a long time. I used to visit you. I went to all your camps, right? And then I was training there. I even lived in your house, right? The athlete house. That was a great time in my life.

Thank you for having me there. Oh, you're welcome. You know, yeah, it was great. A lot of the stuff that, you know, you preach, I lived it, right? I was there. After the competition career, now you transitioned to the coaching side. How was that transition? Like, did you love it? I mean, I know you've already now you transitioned to the coaching side. How was that transition? Like, did you love it?

I mean, I know you've already produced a lot of champions and stuff. Like, is it the same fields, the same highs, or is it a little different? Uh, so it's, it's definitely, you know, it's definitely different, right? I mean, when you're an athlete, when you're an athlete, then when you win, everything is because of what you've done, right? You've earned the right to win. As a coach, you're relying on your athletes to perform. So you're more of a puppet master. You're trying to get the most out of your athletes, but you're not the one that directly, you know, affects whether you win or lose. Like you help in the process,

you're part of that process, you prepare them mentally, you prepare them physically. At the end of the day they have to execute and so that's that's where it gets tough when especially when they don't follow directions or they don't do things the way you want them to do it gets frustrating because if they if they competed the right way they probably would have won that match you know so it's hard to live with those mistakes but you know as a coach it's it takes um it takes more patience you know it really does yeah you can't just put your head through the wall and do it because that's what you do for yourself you've got to figure out a way to reach this person motivate them encourage them you know show them teach them reinforce it like it's it takes a lot longer as a coach to get things done. Yeah. I'll never forget, man. I was, you know,

I know you preach to over under pass. I know you're a master at that. And I think you, you were the beginner, you know, the starting guy with over on it. You were doing over under pass before it was cool. Right. Because that's the pass that doesn't prevent the person from turtling up. And it's an effective pass in judo. right yeah and I remember you know at a tournament guy goes for a sumi or something you like split the legs and then I was like ah man I don't know if I'm gonna get it yeah I might get stuck a good and I like

kind of like didn't go for it guy turned out you like this I remember that so I saw the frustration in your eye then and you know yeah I hear you yeah that's uh you know that yeah that's funny is. Yeah. That's, uh, you know, that's funny is that, that over underpass, I started doing that back in like 1988. So you're talking about jujitsu didn't even come to this country until the nineties,

you know, until the nineties after the UFC, you know, the first UFC and stuff like that. So I've been doing that stuff way before, you know, it was really popular. So is that something that you came up with?

Like, I mean, people have done over under pass before, I'm sure. But is that something that you're like, this pass is the one that works in judo? This is the one because I'm locking in the hips with some, you know, the isometric strength that is that immobilizing. And then I climb up the body for the pin. Like, is that something because, you know, I know you wrestled in college, but like, you know, that's not a wrestling move no right that's specifically a pass that's like the best for judo that's sort of gotten adopted and getting a lot of popularity now in bjj so like what made you adopt that into

your system like why why over who taught maybe someone taught it to you yeah i came up with i learned it at a camp i learned it at a training. I was at a training camp at Pat Burris' place in Oklahoma. I think I was 16, 17 years old. Eddie was there. Kevin Asano came. There was a lot of top players in the country that went to that camp. I was just a young teenager. And they were teaching all different types of moves.

And that was one of the moves that they taught at the camp. And then I just learned it and then decided that I was going to perfect it and learn all the nuances of how how to like, you know, if they react this way, then you do this. And it just became my move. And then, you know, I had the luxury of going overseas everywhere. And in Europe, you know, a lot of the judoka have good ground game and they play from their back. They play from the guard position. game and they they play from their back they pay from the guard position so i had a lot of opportunities to perfect that pass when i was traveling internationally and got used to the

different reactions i would see and then just learned how to master it nice nice same with the gripping too right like uh because it wasn't really explicitly taught for a very long time and i remember you talking about it in a practice that i was at they were saying like the japanese put two hands on they don't grip fight they adjust for position and they go and they're just super, super skilled in that area. It's like the best strategy for me, for you, was to not let them get there in the first place. So I developed the system, this gripping system. Right. Was that something that was explicitly taught to you by your father or is that something that you kind of like little by little figured out on on your way to the no see my dad was like my dad was a guy that started judo when he was 19 years old so he was way behind the eight ball and everybody else that he was competing against

he was trying to go to the olympics and gripping was something that was introduced to him you know in his early 20s and he realized that if he he learned how to grip fight properly he could beat those technicians that have been doing judo since they were five or six years old. Because it's hard to get a natural feel for the sport when you start so late. Like you're never going to be instinctually as good as somebody who starts when they're a kid. So my dad learned that gripping was a quick way to get good fast. And what he did as his school is, and since I was at his school since a young boy, he taught gripping to all of our students. And and in fact there was a period of time at my academy where on my dad's academy where every student was taught left-handed judo we didn't have a single righty in the dojo everybody

was left-handed and he made everybody grip fight so being the youngest smallest kid in my dad's dojo for years and years and years i actually learned how to grip fight against bigger better people my entire life so it got to the point when i was like 16 17 years old i could compete against any left-sided judo player in the world it really didn't matter how good they were because i was so skilled at gripping that i could stay with anybody i couldn't throw my technique wasn't as good but i was able to stay in the fight. And then later on in my career, I got, you know, any lefty that I fought in the world, I don't care if it was Qualmance, I don't care if it was, you know, Martin Schmidt from Germany, Udo Qualmance.

Any lefty that I fought, I pretty much beat them all. Yeah, that's amazing. But on the flip side of that, I struggled with righties for a while when I was young up and coming. And I had to learn how to adapt the strategy to compete against opposite-sided players. Interesting. But it's something that was instilled in me from a young age,

and gripping is a big part of the American judo success. So whether it's Ronda Rousey, whether it's Travis Stevens, whether it's Kayla Harrison, you know even the ones that made the olympic team maybe didn't medal but had a really good career and they won a lot of international fights gripping played a huge role in their success and that's very important to the system of judo we're trying to teach here in america because although the japanese you say don't grip you'd be surprised because of how long they've done it instinctually. They know how to position their hands.

They know how to take inside grip. They know how to nullify your sleeve. They don't have a system that they teach. It just comes through doing so many hours of training and so many years of training. They do it really well. And what's funny is that a UNB Tanimoto came to my dojo for about a month to just sightsee and help out and whatever. And we were going over gripping and she saw the concept and she was like, wow, okay, let me show me this. And I was teaching her and then I grabbed her sleeve and I said, please break this sleeve grip.

And without even ever being taught specifically she took her hand she brought it up and used her her elbow to shorten the gi she took her hand inside which gave her some pressure on the and she ripped it out just like we would rip out how we teach athletes to rip out the sleeve she did it instinctually just because that's how to break a grip you know so i think they're not new moves but they're moves that we teach in sequence so that they're easy to understand and they're easy to replicate and therefore it's a gripping system yeah and you know that that couldn't like really connects with your judo system too like because i remember thinking like uh you know oh man like you know

gripping gripping then you can't outgrip the guy you're losing in position and now you kind of start panicking and you go for like a bad tomonage or sumi gaeshi because you're like oh man i can't throw this person this guy's about to throw me tayo and then you go to your back and now all of a sudden you're passing him over on there right so like boy is that like synergy like really tight you know i remember thinking that not to get too technical about the judo side of stuff but you know i'm kind of a nerd and i'm sure if people are listening to this yeah they like it too i dude i will never forget man getting uh working out with you one night like you came in you're like hey higashi let's go and then you know you had the post right because you're left i'm right and you had the post on the collar hand and then i'm on the outside and i tried

to circle on the inside and then you closed it you took two steps and then hit me with a tile but the thing is you didn't have my sleeve yet so like as we're moving right i circled my hand in you took two steps i had no hands on you caught my sleeve and hit me tile you remember that i don't probably don't yeah probably don't but it was like i remember that i was like holy moly if you know if you could do that right that's the idea right that's the idea to, is to always keep inside position. And when your opponent gives up position, you take advantage, right? So yeah, it's all, it is part of the system, but that's obviously a high level advanced feel you have to get for the sport. Is that something that you explicitly drilled? Yes. It's something I drill. It's

something I teach to our students, how to close that elbow. So the person can't come inside, you force them back out and then you take, you know, take good control. It's something I teach to our students, how to close that elbow so the person can't come inside. You force them back out and then you take good control. And listen, I learned it when I was in Japan. I mean, when I was in Japan, I was trying to figure out how to get inside and I couldn't. And I saw what they were doing. And so I trained it. I learned it. And you just pick up things.

As a judoka, you have to be constantly learning. And you have to always have your eyes open. You have to have your eyes open and understand what's going on, and then figure it out, ask questions, and then make it part of your game. Nice, nice. Is there anybody on the international roster now from the U.S. that it's sort of like you're watching from the side, and you're like, man, that's good judo.

I know we only qualify two Olympians, correct? Yeah. Right? judo i know you know we only qualify two olympians correct yeah right today it was angie delgado qualified directly for the olympics and colton brown took the wild card slot at the olympics so we have two definitely going to tokyo but uh nafeli papadakis still has a chance because she's you have to be top 18 in the world to go to the Olympics. She's ranked now 19, so she's out of the qualification. But from what I understand, there's a girl from Slovenia in that division that's currently pregnant who's probably going to pull out of the Games,

and if so, Nefeli will get a chance to go. Nice. That sounds good. Yeah. So let's explain to our listeners about how does one go about qualifying for the Olympics. I know they change it every couple years but this specific olympic cycle which i assume they're going to keep doing this system right it's hard to say you know in 2016 uh there was the top 22 men got to go to the games and the top 14 women that's how it was in 2016 yeah in 20 uh 2020 they changed it to be the top 18 whether you're a male or a female

so eight the best 18 men in each weight and the best 18 women each weight from different countries it's not you can't send more than one from each country so it's really not the top 18 in the world usually they go down to about 25 to 30 to get rid of the repeat countries. But so it's the top 18 men and women is the way it is for 2020. And the way you qualify. Yeah. Oh, it's okay. So not sorry to interrupt you,

but like if you're number one and you're from Japan, number two, three, four, five is from Japan. Number six is from Russia. Then two to five gets pushed to the side. Six goes up to two,

right? Correct. Still the same structure. Correct. Yes, exactly. So 18 rank per country per weight class, essentially. No, 18 ranked per weight class.

Per weight class, yeah. 18 per weight class from different countries. Yes, yes, that's correct. Wow. And then how does the wildcard work now? So the wildcard is given, so the way the IJF has set it up is they want they want representation from every country in the Olympic Games so every national Olympic committee national governing body so France you know Mauritius Cuba Brazil they make sure that there's one

rep at least one representative from that country at the olympic games so every country gets one slot it's called the wild card slot so if you have nobody that directly qualifies from your country in the top 18 jamaica gets to send one person they get to pick their best person to go to the olympics interesting so i have in the united states is that right what's that i have to move to antarctica right i'm not sure they actually have an official judo program there, Shantaro. But that's the idea, yes. And then if you're from a country that qualifies five people, you get to have one wild card.

If you have 15 people, you still get one wild card. You always have one extra from your country who is the highest point gatherer. They have to be the person that gets the most international points from your country who is the highest point gatherer they have to be the person that gets the most international points from your country that person gets the continental quota for that country nice can you explain a little bit about the international point system it changes it's changed a lot and even you know between they extended it one more year from 2020 to 2021 they extended another year and they even changed the points from that in 2021 the points change again so it's constantly evolving but essentially

they take the hardest tournaments the world championships the world masters and they give the most points to that event if you win the world championships now you get 2 000 points 2 000 points wow if you win like a grand slam tournament like tokyo would be a grand slam um paris is a grand slam those grand slams correct right now there are yeah there's one in russia as well so the four grand slam events you get like a thousand points if you win and then grand prixs they have 700 points for gold and you know there's a point total for gold silver and bronze at every one of those leveled events and then yeah they have uh it starts with the world championships the Olympic games is the most points the world championships the world masters

then your four grand slams then there's about 20 Grand Prix events uh around the world and those are on every continent pretty much the Grand Prix. And then they have a next level lower, which is the Continental Cups, which are in a lot of different countries. And those are really good development tournaments, low-level tournaments to kind of like test out your skills at the international scene. The entire world doesn't go. It's pretty much your continent. People go to those events. Not necessarily going to get people from japan and the americas competing together but most of the south american countries go to the continental cups that are in the northern southern hemisphere so you get up you add up your best five your best five uh points

from your best five point that you earned at any of those competitions plus you get either the world championships or the pan am championships as a sixth point tournament. And they take your best six results from 2020. Well, now it's 2021. Your best six results from 2021 and then your best six results from 2020 add up together to qualify for the Olympic Games. Nice. So what is like the bare minimum in terms of points to make it on average? It varies by division, but it's around 2,000 points is what you need.

Between 2,000 and 3,000, I would say, will get you to the Olympics. Do you like the system over the old system where you had to qualify the weight in the Pan Americans and then win the national qualifier, the national trials? Do you remember? That's probably like 2000. I can't even remember when, but like 2008. So, I mean, back in my day, you just have to be the best person in your country and you got to go to the Olympics. So if you were the best American, you didn't have to, you didn't have to win on the international stage. You just had to win the U S trials and you got to go to the Olympic games. Yeah. But because they're trying, because more and more sports are entering the Olympics, stage you just had to win the u.s trials and you got to go to the olympic games yeah but because they're trying because more and more sports are are entering the olympics right there's all these

new sports karate is a new sport skateboarding is a new sport all these new sports that get introduced to the olympics every four years the number of athletes keeps growing bigger and bigger and bigger and so what they're trying to do is control the amount of athletes go to the olympics and the way or limit it and the way they do that is they have to cut back with the existing sports. Like, hey, Judo, you can't bring 1,000 people to the Olympics. You can only bring 600. And then the sport of Judo then has to figure out how they're going to allocate and how they're going to make the best 600 athletes get to the game.

So I think now it's probably the most fair because it is truly global. You can qualify globally against the rest of the people in the world. The part that I struggle the most with is that, you know, some of the best athletes still don't get to compete in the Olympics, right? Because look at 66 kilos Japan, right? You have Maruyama who's world champion and you have Abe who's world champion. They're number one and two in the world without question in that weight class and one of them doesn't get to go so i would like the system to be a little bit i mean the way i think i would recommend changing

is that you know you could have a maximum of two people for a specific country you know uh in a specific weight class in an instance where you have somebody who's world champion and someone who's also world champion in different years, you know, they would get an automatic bid. One of them would get an automatic bid and the other one would have to qualify on the roster. And if they do, then both of them get to go. But also, if you look at the weight categories themselves, like every time you go to an IGF event, they show you how many people are in the tournament. And when you look at 48 kilos and you look at the weight categories themselves, like every time you go to an IGF event, they show you how many people are in the tournament. And when you look at 48 kilos and you look at 60 kilos, those as well as the heavyweights,

you know, the plus hundreds and plus 78s, the number of people that compete in those events is normally, let's say 20 to 30. Yeah. Right. If 20 or 30 competitors on the ends, in the middle, it starts to go like this. So 73 and 81 kilos, you have normally like 60 to 80 people. So you have like two to three times as many people in the main, you know, common weight categories, 73, 81, 90.

Those are the biggest divisions. Same on the woman's side, you know, 57, 63 are the most common weight classes. So they have the most competitors. 57, 63 are the most common weight classes. So they're the most competitors. To me, it would make sense that you'd only get 10 slots at 60 and maybe 10 slots at the heavyweight division. But the 81s and 73s, the top 20 would qualify. Because if you look at the percentages,

a lot more people are competing in those divisions. It's tougher to qualify in those divisions. Yeah. That would definitely make it a little bit more fair, right? Right. It would. How does the U.S. team look this year? I know Colton and Angie, but for our

listeners, maybe they... Let's give a little bit of a run on how they do it. It's like an Olympic countdown event also, collaboration with Fuji. They're both athletes that I've worked closely with. I mean, Angie and Colton were both on the 2016 Olympic team. Um, you know, I've worked personally with both of those athletes. They've spent some time here at my training center. Um, they're both seasons competitors. They've been around for a long time

now. I mean, Angie was winning the, I think it was 2012 or around there, 2012. She won the Grand Prix in the United States when it was in Florida. So she's been at a high level now for, you know, eight to 10 years. Colton's been around for a long time. He's bigger, he's stronger, he's more experienced, he's more professional in his approach. He's doing everything he can strength and conditioning wise to give himself the best chance at the games and you know he's beaten some good players as has angie um they haven't won at the biggest stage yet you know they haven't won at the olympics they haven't won at the world championships i don't think either one is placed at the grand slam level events the tokyo's the paris's when the best in the world are there but you know in order to win at the Olympics, you just, you have to be there, right? You don't have a shot if you didn't qualify. So they're both in the Olympic Games.

Second, they've already been to an Olympics once. So they're not going to be as starstruck. They're not going to be as nervous. They're more experienced. And the more comfortable you are competing, the better you're going to do, you know? On top of that, you know, they've both had a lot of events where they've competed at the highest level and they've been able to train with everybody they're going to compete against. So they've got, you know, they're not wowed by the people. They're in the game. And at the Olympics, it's a special event because most of the top guys feel a lot of pressure and they don't necessarily always perform well. Whereas the young, fearless competitors that just go out there and fight end up doing really, really well. So I'm looking forward to maybe, you know, a top seven

from Angie, a top seven from Colton. That would be a really good result for both of them. Both make it to that second stage where you get to compete in front of the whole, you know, the big crowds and you got the media on you. I think depending on the draw, it's tough at the Olympics now because they seed the top eight athletes. So both Angie and Colton are going to have to beat a top eight ranked person in the world to make it to that top seven. Not saying it's not possible, but it's going to be a challenge. And, you know, whereas back when I was competing, there were no seeds. You know, you could compete again you could be world champion you compete against the olympic champion first round you know there

were no seeds which yeah you could get really lucky with a draw correct so back then you know you had a chance to get three or four wins under your belt with mediocre players maybe you've gotten a good quarter and now you're right to the top seven because you had an easy easy path to get there so it's a tighter road than it ever was before but you know they're both very experienced they both earn the right to be there you know they're capable of having a great day then they're capable of that you know top seven being in the money nice so a lot of the conversations i i've been having with a lot of people surrounding the olympics is people are saying hey did you hear about the they released the american olympic team for the judo

and this this is the hard questions right like americans only qualified two athletes you know it's like how is that possible like americans have great athletes it's we're supposed to be good at athletics like why why is this possible and i'm trying to explain you know and i'm giving my sort of two cents on this stuff like what is what is your take on that? I know this is a little bit more of a difficult question, but I'm sure you have some very insightful thing to say about that. Well, there's a number of reasons. You know, the rest of the world is very professional in its approach to judo. You're competing against countries with huge budgets. We're talking budgets of $10 to $20 million per year that you're putting into their judo programs.

They have professional paid staff at every level. Senior national coaches, assistant national coaches that are traveling with the team all around the world at every camp, every event. They're paying their athletes money to do the sport. And that's at the senior level the junior level and the cadet level athletes are being paid coaches are being paid and it's a professional business the only thing that coach does is train athletes to do judo that's their job and that's japan that's russia that's france that's german that's every country in in the world does that america doesn't do that we don't we don't have a professional paid coach

right now in this country who makes a living coaching athletes. We give some coaches a stipend. We give them a thousand bucks. Hey, go on this trip to Japan for a week. Take off of work for a week and go on this trip for a week. We'll give you a thousand bucks.

How do you feed a family on a thousand dollars? You can't. How do you dedicate 100% of your time to judo when you're not being paid to do it? you can't how do you dedicate a hundred percent of your time to judo when you're not being paid to do it you can't you have to have another job and therefore all of our coaches all of our staff have other jobs they're doing from nine to five or whatever they work and then afterwards they're trying to help coach athletes so we don't have a centralized training center where everybody's training together we don't have a centralized training center where everybody's training together. We don't have a national staff that dedicates 100% of their time to coaching at the highest level. And forget about the junior level and the cadet level.

We have zero coaches that are being paid to do any of that work. Whereas the rest of the world is putting money into their athletes, into their program. So our athletes are falling farther and farther behind. And they're getting bigger and stronger and more developed yeah we're not so it's the infrastructure it's a lack of resources that we have um you know and it's also right now very expensive for athletes to pursue the olympic dream you know the olympic committee only gives us a limited budget they want us to spend that money on athletes that are going to potential to win medals so all the money has to be earmarked towards angie and colton and you know other others that have a

chance to to make the team and potentially win medals we can't spend the money on the development side so there's there's no way we can trickle that money down and give it to the young kids so you know for a parent to to say i want my kid to go to the Olympics in judo. Okay, great. If you're ready to spend $50,000 per year, if you have that money to spend, you can help get them there. But if you don't have $50,000 to spend sending them around the world, forget about it. And at the end of the rainbow, when they do win, right now we have nothing for them, right? Kayla had to go to MMA and make make her living from you know punching and beating

up girls right that's how she makes her living she couldn't make her living anymore in judo so there was no path for her to be a judo professional and i'm actually working with usa judo right now on a plan to help professionalize you know coaches in this country athletes in this country the business in this country. And hopefully it's going to be a long path, but hopefully we can get there because 2028 is right around the corner. We're seven years away from having a full team compete at the Olympic Games in Los Angeles. We're going to get, you know, seven men, seven women,

and a combined team on the mat. So it's an exciting time because now the kids have a chance to make the Olympics. It's going to be easier than ever before. You just got to be the best person in the states to get there ah well so no world ranking list no none of that it doesn't apply to the host country at all no host country come out of retirement no matter what what's that you got to heal up that knee and you come out of retirement i'm ready baby heal up that knee and you come out of retirement i'm ready baby listen if i could do it i would i love it so much like there's no greater feeling than being on the mat and like putting it all on the line and yeah trying to win you know you out of everybody though it's like you know come up

with a new system gripping uh tomoyanagi sumi uh nwaza-based, right? Like, I mean, you could probably do it, you know? Listen, there's no way I'd hang with the top people, but I bet you there's a couple guys out there I'd beat. Oh, 100%. From the U.S., right? Oh, no, I'm talking internationally. Yeah. No, U.S. is not even a question.

Oh, man. So what are some of these main points for this system that you're working on for the U.S. Judo development? Like are you allowed to share some of that? It's really a recent proposal we've made. I mean it starts with the American Judo system. Travis and I started the USAJudo.com website. And that's to teach the American Judo system to anybody that wants to learn it.

It could be a jiu-jitsu guy that wants to learn how to do judo. It could be a guy at home who has no access to a local dojo that wants to learn online, you know, and wants to be introduced to judo and have a systematic way to learn it. It could be a high-level judoka or, you know, a young up-and-coming kid who's 14 that, you know, wants to learn technique the right way and reinforce the right drills. So it starts with the American Judo system as a content platform to educate the country to elevate the level of judo in this nation by having an online resource 24 hours a day seven days a week they have access to judo and how to do specific techniques because that's a problem we don't have access to coaching in this country you know for a lot of people so

that's the start the idea is to bring in other coaches from around the nation, other top coaches, put them on this platform as well so that we have every topic covered, every technique covered in a systematic way, and then eventually break it down. So we have, you know, here's how the toddlers should learn judo. Here's how the kids should learn judo. Here's the recreational adult judo here's you know for every level at every age we have an online learning platform that's that's step one step two is to then create uh camps and clinics around the country where you take the american judo system all the techniques and you get you know feet on the street like boots on the ground where you take your top

coaches and you bring them to the local community and you're teaching the coaches and the athletes at bigger training clinics where you're teaching judo so that they can then use that knowledge to train their students and teach their students. Again, elevating the game in this country, creating excitement about the sport, bringing the nation together at these camps and clinics everybody has a thirst for knowledge everybody wants to get better right now they don't know where to go how to get it so we want to have like eventually you know have 50 camps in this country going on you know 50 different training camps different coaching clinics certifications for coaches you know and then at those camps and clinics you're you're inspiring the next generation

to stay in judo because the clinic is being run by an olympian so they're getting a sea touch and feel the angie delgados the colton browns etc right yep they're teaching the best judo they're signing autographs they're taking pictures and they're they're teaching good stuff to the kids at the same time you're elevating all of the senseis in the area and teaching them world-class judo which hasn't been done in a long time in this country it's all being funded by the organization or by donations and in the community is funding this effort so we can pay the coaches to coach those clinics which puts money in in the pockets of the olympians and keeps them in the sport longer um you know plus it's a chance to identify youngians and keeps them in the sport longer. Plus, it's a chance to identify young talent and invite them to the national training camps,

which then brings all the best kids in the country together, which then helps with development. Eventually have a national training center where they can all go and train together and live and be full-time athletes, get enough money in the system where you're paying a staff to be there with them and travel with them so that they have a fighting chance against the rest of the world you know who does have that staff um you know and then creating careers you know the the goal is to create careers for people in judo so you know whether you want to be a professional coach whether you want to go around the country giving certifications and teaching people how to, you know, we're going to, we want to pay these people to do those jobs and then maybe eventually help Olympians after retirement, open dojos. I own a mat company.

We've got a geek company. You know, we've got, we've got a curriculum of how to do it. We know how to, the billing system, we've got all the systems in place to run a successful dojo well why not why why can't the organization take a stake in the business all right colton brown you want to go open a dojo that's what you want to do for a living yeah because does want to open a dojo oh there you go well yeah we'll help you with the lease we'll help you sign the lease we'll help you with the seed money you know we'll help you with the curriculum the mats we'll set it all up we'll help you market it and then you run it you know you get a couple other people to help you and then as the money comes in you get a set salary until all you know everything gets paid back to you know the

investments paid back and then he's off and running and maybe the organization keeps a percentage of profits you know forever because it's like a franchise that we helped start. Then we do it again with another athlete and do it another. And now we start growing dojos in America where people that want to do judo full-time can do judo full-time. They make money in judo fanatics. They make money from the American judo system teaching. They're making money teaching camps and clinics. They run in their own dojo.

Well, we can get to that level. We've got, you know, 20 to 50 of those going on. Now we're going to have a sport in this country. that's exciting that's a great idea i'm uh very optimistic for the future you know things can fall into place and then it could take off right that's very exciting and then so the sites is set 2028 is that right 2028 baby we we've got it we're under the gun right now we've we've got to come together as a country. The presentation we put together was one team, one dream. One team, one dream. This entire judo community needs to come together for one cause.

The Olympics are coming to America. We're going to have a team on the mat that can compete. We want to impress the world. One team, one dream. One team, one dream. Let's go. Yeah. Can we do a T-shirt, a Fuji T-shirt one team one dream let's go i'll sell it to my international

distributors right because that's my division right jimmy yes shitala's heading up the international distribution of uh fuji sports he's doing a great job making connections around the world we're gonna take it's not about the brand it's about judo in this country right like yeah Jew in this country's got to be I'm passionate about you too if it doesn't come across the way I speak I don't know but I really want it to be successful I think it's the greatest thing did it you know it's the greatest sport that you can do in my opinion in terms of what it teaches you right martial arts all martial arts does but for me judo so hands-on you know it really humbles people it makes you it taught me everything i

needed to know in life on how to succeed and i owe everything i am today to the sport of judo without question yeah well that's amazing that's beautiful yeah so so that's uh that's exciting man i'm i'm pumped i want to be a part of it you know I'm already am a part of it but yeah one team one dream that's beautiful right so that's uh yeah that's very exciting stuff Jimmy you know really really thank you any other things that you want so people could go to American judo system right now and sign up and all this stuff yeah I know but say USA judo.com is the URLl we purchased the url uh we get the

american judo system trademarked uh we're doing it as professional as we can um we only do it three hours a week travis and i go and shoot three hours on a friday every friday we shoot three hours we upload content we're doing live classes every two weeks every two weeks on a sunday one of us does a live class everybody gets to ask questions um you know we'll answer your questions about judo show you how to do whatever technique or whatever problem you're trying to solve where we're there to help and support um you know eventually we're going to get into ideally get into having a promotion system online where you can earn your judo rank send us your videos we'll give you feedback that sort of thing

run our coaches certifications in the country through this this platform as well ideally you know have everything from from a to z for the sport of judo but the other thing we want to get into is events i mean the other big part of this is is marketing our sport properly and we're either going to look at an event center where we put on our own events all the time here in the New England market, or we also get into this special event business. We're just going to showcase live judo events all the time

where we have our young kids in this country showcasing their skills on camera so people can really see what real judo looks like. Are you still doing Jimmy Pedro's judo challenge? I am, yes. When is that? It's usually every March, but this year, obviously, I couldn't get to gym for this March.

COVID wasn't over yet. Nothing had opened up. But usually it's every March. It's a great tournament. We usually have about 500 competitors that come to the event. I try to run it as professionally as possible. Get in, get out, start times for certain ages. Seniors don't need to be there until 1 o'clock in the afternoon.

The kids get in there, fight early, and go home. You had six mats running, I think, last time I was there, right? Yeah, six full mat areas. It's a beautiful facility. A high school I went to, St. John's Prep High School. It's a beautiful facility. Nice. We try went to, St. John's Prep High School. It's a beautiful facility. Nice. You know, we bring in, you know, try to bring in the best refs we can.

But we're all about competition. Like, if, in fairness, if something goes wrong and nobody can decide, go fight again. We don't care. We just want the right person to win the match. We want everybody to get lots of fights. You can move around your divisions. We're very flexible with the way we do our brackets. So try to make it an athlete-friendly event.

Love that. Love that. And it's March. Probably March 2022 will be the time we'll be able to run it. Nice. Nice. Cool. That sounds great.

Anything else you want to plug? Thank you so much for being on this. Anything else? Find you on Instagram. Send you personal emails and messages all hours of the night right jimmy pedro doesn't do facebook i'm not a facebook guy so you can reach me on instagram jimmy pedro usa i run a my own company as fujimats.com i'm also part owner of fujisports.com i mean we're doing some great things in the marketplace that to build the community you know and I've always been about helping people, you know, it's not about profits.

It's not about how much we're doing in sales. It's really about helping people live their dream. Right. And that's, and that's building a dojo that's helping them with equipment. That's helping their athletes get to events, making it a, you know, a coach and athlete friendly environment. And, you know, I've, I've hired at our, at the companies I a, you know, a coach and athlete friendly environment. And, you know, I've, I've hired at our, at the companies I own, you know, I've hired all my past black belts, my past students. Like if you look at the staff that I have, you know, at both companies, a lot of the guys train jujitsu, train judo, coach, run schools, like we're involved, we're martial artists, right? So we know what, what our customers are going through and we want to help support them and, and,

and grow their businesses together. Awesome. Thank you very much, Jimmy. Awesome. Thank you guys. Appreciate it. Shintaro.