The Shintaro Higashi Show - Judo Grand Slam Tbilisi, Antalya Debrief

Episode Date: May 13, 2024

Shintaro and Peter sit down to do an extensive debrief of Shintaro’s recent trip to Tbilisi, Georgia, and Antalya, Turkey, where he had the opportunity to experience and commentate on the exhilarating world of high-level judo competition. Shintaro shares behind-the-scenes insights into event organization, athlete professionalism, and the evolving landscape of international judo through the lens of the IJF World Tour. This special episode offers a comprehensive snapshot of a world seldom seen by fans and hobbyists! Join our Discord server and start chatting with us and other grapplers by supporting us on Patreon: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/shintaro_higashi_show⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Any amount helps!

Hello everyone, welcome back to the Shintaro Higashi Show with Peter Yu. Today we're going to have a very special episode, a debrief from my trip with the IJF. But before we get started, as usual, thank you very much to our sponsors, Jason, Levon, David. Those are our independent sponsors. You too can sponsor us by clicking the link to the Patreon. We'll give you guys a shout out. You guys can give us suggestions, join our Discord chat group, all that stuff. Right, Peter? Want to give a discord chat group all that stuff right peter yeah i want to give you a little bit more about that yeah so we have different tiers obviously every tier gets as soon as you decide to sponsor you get to join our discord server you know talk chat with other

grapplers around the country and the world uh we have some folks in china too and yeah it's pretty cool come and check us out support us if you can and this episode actually I mean I'm sure a lot of people wanted to hear about what happened in Georgia and Turkey but all it was also a suggestion from our patrons Daniel so he specifically wanted to know how the whole what your take on the whole event was, and then who and what impressed you most, and your surprises, and common trends that you observed, things of that nature. So we'll kind of hit everything.

Yep, we'll do it. All right, let's close the window. So loud in New York City. Yeah. All right, so let's start with this. Not everyone knows what happened, what you did. So what happened? Okay.

So the IJF has the world tour. Used to be it was like World Cups, Grand Prix, Grand Slam, et cetera, et cetera. Now the old World Cups are continental opens run by the continental unions, European Judo Union, Pan American Judo Union, etc., Asian Judo Union. So now, anything above Grand Prix, Grand Prix, Grand Slam,

and above are all IJF World Tour events. Grand Prix, Grand Slam, and they have the World Masters. Not like the veterans, like Asian group one, but the top 16 in the world come and they do a special

tournament yeah right and then you have the world championships and olympics yeah that's it so they have the world tour now and it's in these select locations and they're putting tons and tons of money and resources into building this thing for it to be very very spectator friendly and you could follow international high-level elite judo through the IJF on judotv.com. You can use discount code CHINTARO. And I'm not just saying this

as a plug to my thing, but it's a whole thing now. It's an amazing, amazing sporting event. It's a whole spectacular thing. It's like the NFL or the NBA. Yeah, well, I would even say that's like golf and tennis, too. They have the tourfl or the nba you know yeah well i would even say that's like golf and tennis too they have the tour you know all the pros like get the tour card and then go around

the world and play and then they get it gets broadcasted around the world yes and they put all these protocols in place so now you have to go through your country right so us judo you apply with them and they take care of everything and they have to purchase everything from the ijf it's all connected it's super professional all of it yeah right right yeah so that's the event you went then there was a grand pre grand slam in georgia and turkey right yeah yeah georgia the country guys like not not the state and turk i think now they we got to call it turkey right yeah they changed their name in the country so turkey and georgia so what did you go there for did you go there to to compete no i'm i'm way beyond that but they called me to commentate yeah that's so cool event yeah so it was really

really amazing like i go in there there's like a sort of a media booth right and there's like 10 people working in that section from fighting films who've been contracted this job yeah they're doing social media they're making videos they have the instant replays on the bit jumbotron you know they're doing instant replays for the referees for referees review the whole thing there's like a huge media van outside i'm not even talking like a van it's like a massive massive media truck yeah but they drive around and there's two of them, right? And they alternate from location to location. And there's probably like 20 people on the media team. And I'm part of that sitting in this special little booth overlooking the tournament area.

And you have all the matches going. And then you're just commentating. Yeah. For the audience. And you're like next to other commentators like the famous legendary neil adams yeah yeah and then uh you know franco right he's amazing sheldon franco rooks he's like a og commentator you know i actually thought him and neil were sort of the same guy because you know just one british voice right yeah yeah oh actually i didn't know. Two British guys. Yeah, I see. And then I know you went there to get some training, right?

You can't just go on, right? What kind of training did you receive? Well, so Sheldon was supposed to fill me in on all the details and things like this. But the first event, I only did the prelim matches. I see. Yeah, the preliminary matches. I didn't do the final block. And the second event that I went to, Neil wasn't doing that event. So it was me and Sheldon. And we did the prelim matches i see yeah the preliminary matches i didn't do the final block and the second

event that i went to neil wasn't doing that event so it was me and sheldon and we did the whole day prelims and the final block and there was a little bit of a learning curve but right you know sheldon kind of gave me the rundown like hey i'm gonna be announcing i'm gonna be calling sort of play by play stuff you give your expert opinion expert analysis that's easy i see and he has this like really deep judo knowledge of like the people who i'll tell you this man he like named every single world champion and olympic champion from 81 kilograms for the last since 2000 he applied like from off of the top of his head and then i got but you can't do that for 78 plus women's category he goes i, I bet you I can.

And did it. That's impressive. So he's sitting there and he's a professional announcer, right? He does music, you know, specialty award presentations. He commentates for cricket. So like this is what he does for a living, period. You know what I mean? Yeah.

So usually like if you watch soccer, like there's an announcer that does all the play-by-play or like little tidbits. And then there's an expert who jumps in and that was you. That was me. Yeah. So there was a very clear-cut distinction there. So I didn't have to do like, oh, this guy's from this country, that country. He's number 23rd in the world. He had a head-to-head four versus two, you know, all this stuff.

Right. So he would do that. It's like, all right, let's see the matches going. These guys are entering, gripping. And, you know know what do you think shintaro and it's like oh this guy's a lefty he's a righty he's fighting for dominant grip on the collar hand right you know maybe he has a weak side oh he goes for a kataguma that kind of stuff and it was awesome it was really really fun so it's more like a apprenticeship you're already there like you you did a little bit and yeah so i mean you're you know they they

hired you because they saw your stuff well you've done you've been doing that anyway so much of my stuff on youtube is available like me commentating on judo matches yeah it's it's out there right you commented on mine maybe that was uh in your file maybe who knows so that was amazing but really what blew me away was the professionalism of the whole organization yeah you know and call me corporate man or whatever you want to call me but i know some people maybe maybe we'll kind of address that controversy or what do you even call that like some people i know that you know to your when you uploaded that video about you know in in your hotel room yes some people are kind of upset they're like oh are you this are you one of the

stooges of the ijf you know but you know that's uh yeah so like what what what did you feel like what what impressed you most what surprised you about the whole you know organization like i i think we should talk more about the you know the backroom stuff like this uh administrative stuff the organizational stuff yeah so the first thing that really kind of blew me away was like the segregation between the staff and the athletes like it was totally separate you know and i've only been on the other side of the tatami right and they have all these the proper credentials and they're very very strict about security and all this stuff so it's not like uh you know you go to a local tournament you can walk anywhere you can go anywhere it's not like that at all the athletes have the athlete section right the warm-up area

and then the competition area that's it there's limited access and even for them to get to the warm-up area to the competition area they need to be escorted there. And then they go through the proper channels, the people who are checking the judogi control to make sure the measurements are proper. There's an escort with a little kid holding your personal belongings. One coach is allowed. The whole thing, everything. Super professional. So we rarely ever get to hang out and bullshit with them because we're on

the other side of that right there's the staff section right right you know what i mean and even on the staff side it's like well every single person being you know there is being paid they're full staff members yeah professional everyone's wearing a suit yeah you know what i mean there's one dude's like yeah you know talking to one of the higher ups like oh you know blah blah blah the guy's like where's your tie it's in my pocket

then the guy's like then why won't you wear it put it on and I was like okay very very straight professional I was wearing a suit

you know and you're not really intermingling with the athletes at all we're all there for a different thing we're all there for a different thing. We're all there for a staff moving this event forward.

There's like 100 staff members. They probably don't want any appearance of bias or anything like that. I'm sure some of the stuff I'm going to say on the back end, I hope it's okay. If you guys don't see me at a World Tour event, it probably wasn't okay for me to say like on the back end like I hope it's okay you know if you guys don't see me at a world tour event this it probably wasn't okay for me to say it

but they had three hotels different hotels yeah yeah booked for the athletes for the staff and they have the C-level execs and the VIPs

so it's a separate buildings like different hotels separate hotels completely separate hotels and even like I remember in Georgia I saw Yoshida.

Hidehiko Yoshida. Oh, the fighter, right? And he was sitting in the VIP section. It's a special VIP section with food,

catered, drinks, everything, right? And they're just sitting there, you know, and it's just him and a bunch of Japanese dudes.

Man, Yoshida came to watch? That's amazing. Yeah, he was just like watching, watching Judo there, you know? And he probably stayed

at the VIP hotel. Right, right, right. You know what I mean? But he wasn't part of the staff. He was part of the spectators, right? Yeah, no, he was definitely not working there.

He was there on his own time, hanging out and stuff and watching judo. And so that was pretty cool to see that too, right? So there's no commingling at all. I see, I see. I thought I was going to see the athletes, talk to the athletes. Yeah, yeah. See Colton. We know some of them too, right? Yeah see i thought i was gonna see the athletes talk to the athletes yeah yeah athletes see colton you know some of them too right you know yeah i thought like but man it's like i to get to the warm-up area was kind of a hike and then the hotel's 40 minutes away so like i didn't hang out with athletes once yeah so this professionalism i well obviously it's clear that

we're big fans of this you know we don't want you know we've been to this local tournaments you know yeah yeah yeah of course it's tough to i'm saying it's a lot of work to run a local tournament with like limited funds but you know it's great to see at the international level that people are the ijf is putting up a like an actual professional show yeah a competition it is yeah so but you know people may have some like legitimate or not

you know some criticisms about this like oh there's like too much money like why is you know

maybe they want more like the gritty stuff I don't know but what do you say to that like are you

are you a are you a mouthpiece now like what's going on yeah I mean you know I could what do you say to that? Like, are you a mouthpiece now? Like, what's going on? Yeah. I mean, you know, I could be bought. I'm not going to lie, right? There's always a price. You know, if someone wanted me on CNN to be a diehard leftist spewing leftist rhetoric,

like, there's a price for that. You know what I mean? But the price, you know, it's not like huge money for the staff. It's not like a job where it's like, oh, I'm going to be wealthy so you could buy my opinion. It's not really like that. You know what I mean? I'm doing it for the love of the sport. Being there was amazing.

And the number one thing that I liked being there was to be able to watch high level judo, being so close to it and spending all day watching judo, talking about judo. Yeah. You know? So that was like the number one thing that I got from it. You know what I mean? Right.

Uh, I mean, of course you're getting paid but you're like now it's not enough giving yeah you're giving back to the community yeah like it's truthfully man i lose money going on these trips because it's like all right if i could do five privates in a week 10 privates in a week yeah you know i'm not doing private lessons when i'm over there yeah you know i could be doing you know think about it like if i have one week where it's like all right i'm gonna try to make as much money as I possibly can,

cranking out privates and do two seminars over the weekend, that's way more money. Right, right, right. So the amount of money really isn't affecting my decision on this. That may come off crass and whatever it is, but it really is not enough for me to buy my opinions. There's, like, there's full-time staff members who get paid, you know, like, to do this full-time,

but you weren't, like, your deal wasn't, like, a full-time gig, right? I mean, it's definitely not a full-time gig. I'm not working right now. Yeah, exactly.

But, yeah, and also, I think, just to kind of address these controversies, so to speak, we've had, we had, and also I think just to kind of address these controversies, so to speak. Yeah, I could definitely see that. I don't think we really changed our opinions on the IJF or the rule changes, the leg wrap ban, whatever. I changed my mind on a few things.

Oh, okay. That's interesting. Well, I want to just make clear that we have very nuanced views about these rule changes, right? Like we recognize that it is limiting judo but at the same time it does have some benefits and you know it's like a politics right like you have to balance like pros and cons what what do we do you know i think it's mostly benefits you know and whatever i saw behind closed scenes it's not like some like group of four or five dudes like oh we gotta do this we gotta do that no man it's like uh is symposium the right word it's like it's they're all sitting there disgusting there's committees there yeah everything is professional development even like

the referees you know like i couldn't believe the attitude and the professional development that the referees had to go through you know on the regular i was invited to one of those things funny story you know oh yeah oh you kind of mentioned that you want you said you were going to go to one of those yes so if you're a top 20 referee in the world yeah okay you are not just like oh this is a score that's a score you have a very very nuanced understanding of the rules where you're interpreting it and you're looking at the rule book you know the book from front to end you know what i mean and they're going you know from the competition before play by play frame by frame for anything that was controversial referencing the rule book they're like lawyers they're literally like lawyers right there's like a legal handbook and they reference all the article section whatever was this and this is what it says this can be interpreted as that or this it's unclear so

what do you guys think about this why would you score this this way what do you think of that how does this reference all these different things it was like uh yeah it's like i felt like it really was yeah it was like a high court situation that they have for three or four hours every tournament they do this. And this is not the core of their continuing education. And just being there for one of them and how seriously that they took it. And I initially thought it was going to be some like, oh, we're just going to sit around and bullshit. Not even close, dude.

Not even close. And I kind of went in with the attitude of like, you know, I had a rash guard on and stuff. And they were like, what is this? You know, you're wearing a rash guard, you stupid man. And then I ran onto the mat, and they were like, what's the freaking matter with you?

And I was like, oh shit, this is a formal thing. This is formal. You know what I mean? And it was like a whole ordeal, and I was really impressed with the depth of knowledge.

How much judo that they know, how much judo that they know how much judo that they could actually show even in the rep because we're all wearing gis right oh like and they're demonstrating kind of uh going through the scenarios go through the scenarios talking about it discussing it referencing previous things you know like in law it's just like the outcome of it why it was that way if was the outcome, like how does this apply? Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

And I was like, man, this is amazing, you know? And that's just the subsection of that one referee thing that I was into. Yeah, yeah. You know what I mean? And these things, after every quad, they change new rules. They look at the overall vision of judo. And then they always reference back why we're doing these things. Right, right, right. Right? Safety of the athletes, future of judo and then they always reference back why we're doing these things right right right

right safety of the athletes future of judo and then when i was able to talk to all the staff members especially the high level staff members i was able to understand all the different things all the questions that i may have had as a consumer just watching and reading everything on reddit right yeah i lurk on the judo reddit i read it i don't write you know but i'm always there reading about the stuff and i understand the criticisms i read the comments on youtube yeah all that stuff is clear to me now it's crystal clear i see once you saw what how it's it's done in the back in the back end side of things right like i'll give you another one right so like korean senagi band like yeah man all these

dangerous stuff wrapping around the hands around the body head diving oh they're killing the sport killing the sport they're saying all these people who are watching it right uh are they really killing the sport you know yeah i mean that's the maybe the martial art right yeah but the sport side of it needs that for growth right needs it i mean that's the nuance for you i mean i know like yeah there's there's some comments from you on your previous episode i had previous uh episode from the hotel room like people are like oh my god he's a sellout whatever but that's the thing it's a you have to understand that there are pros and cons and then it's politics don't you know it's all about i don't think i don't necessarily think politics is a bad thing

everything is political in a sense it's like we have limited resources and we have to allocate it in such a way that it benefits most of it. Most of us. Right. And for the IJF, they are first and foremost, they need to promote the sport of judo with the IOC. And like and then there are a lot of these competing interests like the athletes the staff the governing organizations the ioc and then of course you know you have to compromise and then make decisions and then these bands are the product of that and then is it perfect of course not like people aren't unhappy i mean that those are legitimate criticisms but at the same time you can't deny the fact that judo as a sport is going the right way with these changes. You watch these things.

And one of the things, you know, Robin, he like runs fighting films with his brother. It's like a family thing. And they have, you know, you guys seen the fighting films. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right? Yeah. Yeah. It's a family ordeal.

And they're huge in the Instagram side for judo TV, you know, all this stuff. And he said something interesting i was like you know we were having a discussion about like brazilian jiu-jitsu guys showing heel hooks and knees getting ripped out and shoulders getting blown out you know why like people want to see that stuff too like people get injured in judo yeah right and there was a lot of injuries at the these events yeah judo is dangerous judo's dangerous now yeah but the way they show judo yeah is completely not dangerous you know and i'm not saying that as a criticism and i was like why why not show that guy who just destroyed their knee and then people gonna engage

wow these guys are true athletes thoroughbredss. That guy dislocated his arm, but he still stepped off the mat. Everyone's clapping. It's amazing. Why not show that? And then somebody, well, Jack and these guys said, jiu-jitsu might do that for short-term engagement, short-term gain on views. But do you think that's really good for judo or jiu-jitsu down the line? What's going to happen when these guys done and they have their kids watching

this stuff online and they're going to decide between Soccer tennis Judo Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, right? Which sport do you think they'll put their kid in if all they see is knees getting torn out guys landing on their heads, right? right soccer Golf Yeah, you know what I mean? So even with blood when they drip blood from their nose, they immediately stop it. Camera goes away.

They take them off the glass, clean them up. Second time, they wrap it. Right, right, right. And then the blood goes on the gi. They immediately wash it or give them a new gi. Because they don't want to see guys getting their arms ripped off, bleeding all over the place. And judo can be pretty gruesome. Yeah.

But the moment something like that happens, the camera pans away. All right, let's go to mat number two. Let's see what the moment something like that happens the camera pans away all right let's go to mat number two let's see what the action's like there you know and it's not like uh we're not hiding you know that danger of judo but they're doing it with a very long-term vision right because judo is supposed to be an education it's a sport we're not trying to like maim kids and like bang guys up and then do this thing it is a gladiator sport but it's also an education there's a cultural side like a cultural martial arts side and then the sport fighting side you know what i mean and they're treading this fine line in between with long-term judo growth in mind yeah i mean do you think jiu-jitsu 20 years from now is going to be bigger than it is now or do

you think everybody right now who's in their 20s doing jiu-jitsu continues and everyone's 40 and all those guys are not going to put their kids in it because it's just such like a gruesome sport and it's not even that gruesome what i don't know i mean what you're asking if they're gonna continue in 20 years in bj i mean like what's gonna happen i mean when every person every parent yeah who has the decision right yeah put their kid in judo jujitsu or some other sport and they're watching it online on instagram right and the guy's ripping the heel hooks and they're going like this and they're wearing the speedos what parent is going to want to put their kid into that program yeah i. I mean, I think it kind of happened with boxing, no? Yeah.

Yeah. It's like... You know? It's not integrating the school system. It's too dangerous. And then everyone's rhetoric now in the United States is Judo is dying, Judo is dying. Yes, it's dying.

That's it. There's 12,000 members in U.S. Judo. That's it. Yeah. That's it. 12,000 U.S. Judo members. That's it. But it's completely opposite around the world you see well so there was a delegate from japan that i got pretty close with you know

because i'm japanese i speak japanese right yeah so we're like shooting the shit and he goes i was like yo is membership like down or they go we have two million registered members doing judo in japan yeah it's not down and then i'm talking to a delegate from france it's like you know it fluctuates 800 000 to 1 million oh my god like okay so when saito was fighting teddy renair yeah there's essentially 3 million eyeballs okay because these guys aren't like white belts doing an after school program doing judo in high school these are registered members in the federation those guys

oh like serious people yeah I wouldn't say serious but they belong to an organization they join a dojo they have the membership etc etc

so there's 3 million potential people caring about this match just between the two countries right right you know and then you watch like

Tashkent and Dushanbe and, you know, they're saying like in Dushanbe there's not an empty seat in the entire building. Right. You know, when the matches are happening.

Yeah, yeah. You know? And when you're watching the stream, you're watching the prelims from the day, right? Yeah. So if it's on a Thursday, you know,

at like 11 o'clock, people are working. They're not going to come and watch this stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But then when you look at the numbers, it's really thriving.

Like on Judo TV's side, like the replays and all the products, yeah. I mean, yeah, like the back-end numbers. You know, how many people are watching it. Russian countries are watching it like crazy. And they're getting a lot of their money from TV broadcasting deals and licensing rights. Because if you're in Georgia,

you care about Judo. And they are exporting judokas left and right to Mongolia, UAE, Spain. Iliadis is another one that fell for Greece. These guys all come from Georgia, the country. With a couple million people living in the thing. So then all of a sudden, judo is this massive thing in Georgia. They're going to freaking put the thing on tv and put it on the news and there's licensing deals to be had and the the governing country has to pay for the event

right they have to host it they have to give money to the igf they have to have local sponsors yeah yeah yeah right so there's enough sponsors to like corporate sponsors to bring money in to run these events in the first place right you know and it's very easy for any corporations to put their name on this thing because it's not bloody it's not gory right yeah there's a uh you know upright like citizens thing about yeah yeah yeah it's a true clean martial art i see so it's like yeah as opposed to some like underground mma events yes yeah yeah so what companies don't want to put their name on that

yeah they can consistently put their name and associate themselves with a premium sporting thing an Olympic sport

an Olympic sport and you know I was talking to a lot of these guys at different levels of Olympic sports and Judo is tier 2 now so they kept going up from like

oh tier 1 is like swimming, track. Tier ones are the ones that like, yeah, running, swimming, jumping. All the stuff that people know. The stuff that is never going to go away is because they're top performing sports from a spectator standpoint. Right, right, right. Everybody watches track. Oh, but judo is moving up.

A lot of people don't know when wrestling, you know, wrestling got dropped. It wasn't like probation. And then they have to fight their way back into it. Around that time, judo was also in danger of being dropped. And that's when all these drastic rule changes happened to keep it up. I mean, a lot of people don't know. all these drastic rule changes happen to keep it up. I mean, a lot of people don't know.

That's another huge part of the context of why the leg grab ban happened. And then initially it wasn't an outright ban, remember? You could do it as a counter. But they probably did all these sessions with the referees and say, oh, man, that's way too fuzzy. Let's just ban it outright just to make it easier to referee. you know you missed the old school big lifting leg grab stuff yes but for every one of those there's 10 sloppy leg dives and i think i said this in a the previous like heart to heart to see one yeah but like me too man i wrestled in college yeah and the only times i was shooting on a leg is to get out of a bad position how many times have i scored from a leg grab freaking one percent of the time really i wrestled too in high

school so when i started judo i did a lot of single leg a high crotch too and then but it wasn't really to throw i did like fireman's carry as like a last resort but yeah yeah so it's like it's one of those things you know what I mean and the criticism like oh this is not good for the street it's not good they don't care about the streets IOC doesn't care about the streets

what is even the mythical street what is that even yeah as a martial arts it's a different thing this is sport judo

this is like for the sport this is an Olympic sport the IOC doesn't care about whether it's a martial arts thing or a self-defense thing or the rule sets. Oh, you're giving up your back, whatever it is. You know what I mean?

Even Neuwaaza, too. Like, the criticism of Judo's Neuwaaza is dying. Yes, it is dying. It's just not the same as Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu because you have unlimited time on the ground in Jiu-Jitsu. In Judo, you spend, what, 5% of the time on the ground like it's very very minimal

if you look at the breakdown of how many out of a 4 minute match how long are you standing versus how long are you on the ground and then Jiu Jitsu is reverse

how long are you on your feet how long are you on the ground majority of the matches 95% of the time it's on the ground and guess what

it's freaking boring to 99.9% of the world I mean that's why nogi grappling is more popular now it's more popular yeah because it's hard for people to get held down yeah there's action there's action there's movement you know so then you have to understand there's no again like i hate it when people become all conspiratorial, conspiracy. I mean, there's so many eyes on this sport that there's no

cabal of shadowy figures hell-bent to destroy the sport of judo. It's all the professionals doing their jobs

and then reaching this conclusion. Of course, it's not going to make everyone happy. No. And you know what? When we go to these events like you hear great ideas yeah for instance where we're sitting on the staff side we're facing right the math this way and behind the state the opposite side of the staff is the vip section and then the athlete section or whatever it is right

so when you're watching the camera going this direction the vip sections all segregated like empty in the middle because they're not there during the day right they're showing up for the final block you know so one of these guys i think it was jack who also works to fight him was like yo let's take everybody in the stadium right now during the day let's fill this section because there's tons of people in the stadium yeah at least make it look like it's actually a sporting event yeah yeah it's like oh no but you know so like these little ideas that can make a huge difference you know there's ideas here ideas there whether they take that idea or not maybe they move the VIP section to the staff side I don't really know maybe they do this maybe I've only been to two events recently in the

recent last 10 years right but even like the signage, the prize money, all of it. And then everyone asks, oh, how much are the winners making? 5,000 euros. Oh, that's not that much. Yes, it's not that much. But consider that there's 700 athletes there. 95% of them being paid full-time salary. They're professional athletes already.

Right, from their own countries. And there's countries paying for it. 95% of them being paid full-time salary. They're professional athletes already. Right, from their own countries. And their countries paying for it. There's a winning stipend for whatever it is. They have private sponsors, all this stuff. And on top of that, they're getting 5Gs. You know what I mean? And then they have these special cards, like debit cards for the athletes.

So the winners who are consistently getting get one of those cards, and they just deposit the money onto the thing, and it's a very professional thing. And all that, man. It's like everything about it. I was like, wow, this is like these guys are true professional athletes. They're coming off the thing. They get an interview. There's cameras.

There are kids going nuts. You know, even like me, dude, walking around in Georgia and thing in the stadium. Shintaro, Shintaro. These little kids are yelling. Wow. That must have been great. Yeah. Yeah. You know, so you kind of feel a little bit like a superstar. Yeah. stadium shintaro shintaro these little kids yelling wow that must have been great yeah yeah you know so you kind of feel a little bit like a superstar yeah you know even even me you know

you're you're a legit influencer but the infrastructure that's in place yeah right the stadium the staffing the continued education the money money flow, all this, all of this, you know, like event to event to event. Yeah. You know, across the board, consistent protocols, systems. Yeah. It really was fantastic to see. You know what I mean?

And, yes, there's other criticism, too. Like, you can't just pick a hotel and stay there and then compete in the thing. No. IJF was through rules. Was it and then compete in the thing. No. IJF wasn't ever? Back in the day? Yeah, I don't know.

I remember like when I went to like Grand Slam in Brazil, Rio Grand Slam, I fought in that, right? Yeah. I remember some

of the US team members were able to stay in their own hotel much cheaper like two miles from the venue or whatever it was. Now, you can't do that you can't do

that right ijf books the room and they sell those rooms to us judo how many rooms you need and then usa judo has to pay for it up front right but there's a huge margin that they charge and that's a good thing because it's bringing money up to the thing and money filters down they could hire their staff yeah you know what i mean people bitch and moan like judo should be free in every dojo all this stuff membership should be 40 bucks a month okay but the head instructor is fucking working at dunkin donuts during the day whatever it is and he has a full-blown career he teaches two classes at night the bathrooms are never clean you're sharing space at the ymca whatever it is if you want nice facilities professional facilities professional judoka teachers,

they need to get paid properly. Yeah. Judo can't be free. That's why I've been saying this nonstop. It's my number one message. I mean, yeah. It's just like if you... Guys, please go to higashibrand.com. You get what you pay for.

And here's the thing. The whole dichotomy between martial arts and the sport of judo. Yeah. I don't think it's here's the thing with the whole dichotomy between martial arts and the sport of judo yeah i don't think it's it has to be black and white like that like it's not a competing thing if you if the sports side succeeds so you can you help you'll have more resources to explore the martial arts side of things yeah and they kind of like grown together in a parallel way. Yeah. Synergetic way. It's very synergistic. Yeah.

You know, and it's kind of the most, it was really amazing, you know, just being a part of that. You know what I mean? And I'm very entrepreneurial and also maverick at the same time, as you can imagine. That's possibly why I'm so unemployable in most cases. You know what I mean? But I felt like I was there and I was like,

this is a big freaking thing. It's a movement and I want to be a part of it. Right. People always say, I want to be part of something bigger. Yeah. You know?

And I get to kind of be the face and voice of that. Maybe. Yeah. You know, if they'll have me back. I haven't got that call yet, but like,

you know what I mean? Like, it was amazing, man. It really was amazing. And then being in Italia, I was able to see teddy veneer oh man how huge how big is he he's a big boy dude he's a big boy he's not a boy he's a man man there's a bear i saw saito and rene fighting saito is a big guy too right yeah but he towers rene towers over that guy like i couldn't believe the height difference man i think to shishvili is going to beat rene in the olympics you're oh okay bull prediction yeah i think so now it's experience versus uh to shishvili's

just the style i think is yeah has the right style for it, you know? Yeah. But, man, I'm telling you, man, like, watching high-level judo in that context is amazing because I have to watch every single match that comes across the screen and talk about it. Yeah. And before, I'll go to Judo TV and I'll pick one or two matches. I'll watch a highlight reel and I'll zip. Yeah, yeah. So I'm really only watching maybe 10, 15 minutes of judo. Yeah, yeah. Every month or so yeah i'm not really consuming it that much and i see the highlight reels i follow judo tv on

instagram yeah all this stuff right and it's coming across my feed but it's a snapshot of a guy slamming somebody but you take out the context of this thing. Right. You know? And then, I'm forced now to watch the whole freaking thing. Yeah. You're paid to do that. Oh, yeah.

That became so interesting to me, too. Like, for instance, I don't know if I talked about this in my previous episode, but did I talk about Klimkate?

I can't remember now. So, the number one and two in the world yeah Klinkade and Deguchi they're both competing for the Olympic spot

I think Deguchi got it but Klinkade is a drop and flop style judo tons of drops yeah normally I would never watch that

I just don't like watching that style of judo yeah you're spamming drop attacks and it was like why and then you just

kept catching them late on the match like oh the person's tired oh the guy got frustrated oh he just caught him with a drop. Not interesting at all. Usually.

Yeah. And I'm watching this woman go from match to match to match and I'm watching every single drop that she does and then

not only is she just dropping but she's adjusting every time. She's doing a drop seeing how the girl reacts. She's like learning how the opponent reacts to her drop attack. So it's like a drop Senagi straight, 180-degree turn. Which way does the girl step?

Around to the right side? So now the turn's too shallow, right? So next she's overshooting it and going maybe 220-degree turn. Almost catches her, right? Yeah. Spamming another drop or two. The other girl gets a penalty, right? She spammed like all these different like right-sided drop Marote turns

four or five times, adjusting the angle every single time and filtering them in. They get another penalty and now all of a sudden she drops to the left. Whoa, okay. Okay. Not that crazy yet. Yeah. You know what I mean? they get another penalty and all of a sudden she drops to the left whoa okay right not that crazy yet yeah you know what I mean

pressuring forward pressuring forward then she fakes and goes coaching and goes back okay not that crazy and then she just drops again

and drops again and there's like a minute left and all of a sudden she like nails it like drops right in between the girl

and launches her over yeah wow you know what I mean but I get that I would have never yeah like you would never She like nails it, like drops right in between the girl and launches her over. Yeah. Wow. You know what I mean? I get that. I would have never paid attention enough. First two drops, I was like, all right, I'm not watching this.

Right? So seeing her do that match after match and having the gas tank to do that, I was like, all right, this is a lot more strategical than I thought. You know? You know, that's, I, so hearing all this makes me think, like, all right, this is a lot more strategical than I thought. You know, that's – so hearing all this makes me think – like I can't help but – I cannot not compare how where the judo as a sport is going to how other like popular individual sports like golf or tennis. And we mentioned – I think this tour model you mentioned that it's kind of like the tennis sports like golf or tennis and we mentioned i think this tour model you mentioned that it's kind of like the tennis or the golf yeah i think they modeled it under from tennis so if you watch i think tennis is more dynamic so it's a little different but like golf you know people say oh it's boring and yada yada but i think once you start watching it and follow a player because golf even professionals make a lot of

mistakes and it's about how to like recover a lot of times and if you want just watch the highlights you just see them like just you know holding at every shot right but that's not how golf is played actually it's more about how to recover from mistakes and then i think that's kind of, I wonder how judo can like play up this aspect and then kind of become like as popular as golf. I don't know if that's even possible, but it's like. With the proper commentators, it can happen. Yeah. I'm not saying the current commentary team is not proper, right? Yeah.

But like getting that message across to the audience who are watching judo actively event after event yeah you know and uh i think that's very important you know and before i wasn't aware of like the preliminary commentated i mean i knew it existed but never really watched it because right when it's live it's a different time zone you know so it's like oh the live feed starts at midnight. I'm going to go to sleep. I forget about it. I watch the highlight reel and I'm content.

Oh, shoot, Abe won everything. Let me go watch all his matches and then go back and watch. That's kind of how I usually do it too. Most people do that, right? But if you want expert opinion and nuanced feedback, or not feedback but like commentary on this thing now this thing is being provided and i think they're really trying to push judo tv.com so much so that they're giving out a discount coach and taro for my audience it's a good nice

percentage and then so you go do something like this and they're really trying to build a uh forward-facing like consumer-facing product as like a watching thing watchable thing you know they have it in japanese russian right i i was actually surprised i was like oh this is very impressive all these different languages yeah yeah and i'll you know yeah go ahead you go ahead so i was just gonna say like i you know it's like a comparative sports analytics you know because i love i love watching other sports and other like i watch a lot of soccer i watch golf i i don't really watch tennis but all these sports the problem is that this they don't the sporting organization the main

organization the premier league or the pga tour they don't actually own all the rights of the broadcasting rights yeah so it's actually it's like a piecemeal solution like for for example masters at augusta like you have to they have their own streaming service yeah but like for other tournaments you have to catch on cbs or like whatever it's hard but judo is in in a very unique position where the ijf has its own streaming where it streams everything i mean that that that kind of product doesn't really exist in other sports but they're giving broadcasting rights too because yeah next to us there was the local tbilisi commentator right so there was a tv team from that country's espn or whatever it is they had their own guys and that was a broadcast yeah so having those coexisted i don't think any other

sport like popular legitimate sports does that like it you know premier the premier league certainly doesn't eat only the individual like the local broadcasting companies have the rights yeah but judo has it both and i think that's amazing and i think they're doing everything to kind of push forward this like judo for the future idea yeah and that's why the rule changes happen you know yeah three penalties and you're out three one penalty two penalty three penalty why did they get a penalty oh he's not supposed to dive his head on the floor because he break his neck oh he stepped out of oh he's not supposed to dive and set up the floor because he'd break his neck oh he stepped out of bounds he's not attacking right

simple it's not they're not arbitrary like every like like Shintaro's mentioned

these professionals who this their jobs they go and like do like a whole like high

courts you know situation right yeah it's amazing you know it really

is uh yeah call me corporate man all you want sell out but no seriously you go ahead guys log on to judo tv.com right yeah use discount coaching target premium service go back to not don't watch my tiblissi commentary you can but i was very like in the beginning I was very gun shy about saying certain things on Talia is where like I got a little bit better

right and then I wasn't saying things like oh my god and Jesus Christ and everyone was like don't say that don't say that

you can't say that you know everyone has a different god what's the matter with you oh okay oh these are like little things you have to consider

because other than this don't say shit don't say stupid other R word or don't say this word that word and i had like a list in my mind i was like don't say those things yeah and then sheldon pointed out that i say oh that's a nice move nice this nice that nice nice nice and they're like stop saying nice so much dude i was like yeah yeah i put nice with like a little circle and an x over it yeah but then i just kept going around

someone gets smoked and i'm like, Jesus Christ. And then they pull it up, and she's like, bro, stop it. You're going to get us both canned. Like, stop it. Yeah. So I got a little bit better. So on Talia, you can go back and watch the commentary.

Guys, if you're listening, check it out. It's really good. And then you guys can give me some feedback, because I spent about a week and a half, two weeks after I did this, just fielding feedback from everybody yeah and somebody some people were very nice about it and even on the ijf i literally went through each of the staff was like what did you guys think can you just give me a couple tidbits you know and then even some

dudes were like you kind of sound like you don't know the rules. So one guy said that to me, you know? I was like, I don't really know the rules that well because I competed 10 years ago. Right. And he goes, well,

maybe you should learn. And I was like, you know what? That's good feedback. I was like, thank you. Yeah. And then that's what led me

to like, you know, go to the referee thing and study the rules. So now I have a much better understanding of it, obviously. Right, right.

You know what I mean? But like, if you guys go back and watch it, you know, give me feedback. Yeah, give us a feedback. All of it, you know? Yeah, I think that was a good debrief, I should say. I mean, maybe people want to know, like, how the hotel was and whatnot. But let me tell you.

Yeah. Food was amazing. Oh, yeah. Food was amazing. By the way, like, everything on the staff is cater whatnot. But I think... Let me tell you. Yeah. Food was amazing. Oh, yeah. Food was amazing. By the way, like, everything on the staff is catered.

Oh, okay. You don't got to do nothing. Georgia, like, I'm telling you, we go, and then even for the staff, it's like,

all right, you're, you know, the commentary team has van number four. Yeah. And then you're on a text chain and then you could tell,

hey, can you, you know, pick me up from this place? I need a car service from that. Takes you, shuttle you back and forth. Every meal is taken care of. You know, you go down to the hotel lobby and the thing is catered and you have a buffet style thing.

And then all you got to do is show your credentials and you eat like kings and queens. Like, man, it was the best. Food was good. Even at the venue, it's like, oh, lunch is ready for the staff. at the venue it's like the all lunch is ready for the staff there's like these you know staff members that work at the local venue you know who like walk around give you coffees and stuff nice yeah did you how much how much of the you know that georgian egg bread i forget the name in georgia kashapuri kashapuri how much of that did you have i just my favorite man oh it's very good i didn't have that much of it and then the day after when the tournament was over i walked

the town i like you know eight different things i had kinkali it's like good i didn't have that much of it and then the day after when the tournament was over i walked the town i like you know eight different things i had king khali it's like their version of soup dumplings okay i don't think i actually maybe i have i think i had it in new york i like it better than uh chinese soup dumplings uh xiaolongbao it's better than xiaolongbao in your opinion i i think it's much better because it's more the wrapping's a little bit thicker yeah yeah I think that's what I remember yeah and then

it's more like meaty and like good ginger good soup it was like more like oh man I'm gonna get jacked eating this

the Chinese one I'm like I don't know what I'm eating what kind of meat's in this yeah you know like but the King Kali man man they told me

how to eat it it's much bigger too it's like bigger you pick it up and you chew it and then you suck the juices out they don't do like

a little spoon with the bite and the thing and the mix no no it's like you pick it up bite it

drink the soup and then you fucking eat it and then it's safe I was like alright as I was eating I was like alright this is a good

10 grams of protein in one of them I had like 6 of them I'm like I walked was like alright as I was eating I was like alright this is a good 10 grams of protein in one of them I had like 6 of them you know I'm like I walked off like alright 60 grams

you know like it was delicious I feel good this hydration I was like alright you just eat xiaolongbao it's like

yeah I gotta you gotta eat tons of xiaolongbao too but it's like it's like a heartier option and they have this weird thing

like they have this little top part which is like denser you know it's like this little top part and they go

oh you don't eat that oh the bun on the bun the top oh you only eat it when food is scarce and you're broke

or something oh so you don't eat it they're like you don't eat it it's dry I guess no I mean it's pretty good it's like it's like bready yeah they're like you don't need it it's dry I guess no I mean it's pretty good it's like it's like bready

yeah they're like you don't need it oh that's interesting and the waiter was like don't eat it I was like alright unless you're poor unless you're a broke ass

yeah that's so funny yeah yeah well so yeah I think I we I mainly wanted to talk about

this whole yeah you know what the IJF is doing like I just want to disp about this whole what the IJF is doing. I just want to dispel this myth or conspiracy that somehow Kano is going to roll in his grave or whatever. It is definitely growing. That's impressive that judo is moving up in tiers in the Olympics.

There's more money that way because there's an international Olympic dividend that they pay out to each sporting organization and that money gets distributed to the different unions. Pan American Judo Union, whatever it is, they have more money coming through their system to run their events. It's a whole thing, man.

You get 90, 100 nations competing in every single one. India had a pretty impressive team. I've never seen that before. whole thing man and you know you get 90 hundred nations competing in every single one india had a pretty impressive team i've never seen that before yeah yeah over a billion people in india yeah imagine india and china becoming like judo powerhouses china already has i think there was a bronze medalist like a few olympics ago but yeah i love what they're doing with like properness, focus on education. And they are doing the moral high ground thing.

Like if you do judo, it's an education system. It's safe. It's not really safe, guys. But it's like it's this whole thing that they're doing and then it's a clean sport.

Yeah. That's their number one thing. With a broad appeal. Yeah. With a broad appeal yeah with a broad appeal and then if there's more money in it could you imagine you know and they did say like not taking russia's money now because of the sanctions okay even russia's not you can't call it russia that's a.i.n yeah yeah a fletta individual neutral oh okay oh yeah oh it's francais everything is francais whenever you go to the meals they say bon appetit oh okay oh i was like how many of you guys are french though oh the french is a

lingua franca huh yeah yeah that's funny okay okay and they did say like there was a lot of money coming in before and now they're sanctioned they cannot you know right but can you imagine you know big corporate maybe not can you imagine, you know, big corporate, maybe not in the U.S. I really don't see U.S. judo growing, truthfully. I mean,

with the prop, I mean, it depends, right? Like how it's, depending on, it depends on how the organization is run, you know?

It's like kind of fractured right now and it's a topic for another day. You know what they need? They need a YouTuber to come in and fix the a youtuber let's put an influencer in charge but yeah so yeah i really wanted to talk to you about this whole back inside i mean

shintaro has been telling me this throughout the trip and i was just thoroughly impressed and then i was hoping that you guys will be able to hear this and again i just want to say you know you don't have to be happy with everything the ijf is doing but you can't be just like oh there's some kind of conspiracy going on you know there's a professionals working towards the to grow the sport of judo and then that everything kind of you know there's no martial arts

of judo the martial arts is not competing against sports it's like we need both you know we need both

yeah yeah you guys could go to sleep at night comfortable that there are people out there 150 people on the staff

just doing this to promote judo. And the goal is to get more people in judo. Judo is not dying on the international stage. It's dying in the United States. But you don't even keep Bryant, who thought my Asian friend was Peter Yu, by the way. Did I tell you about this? You told me about this, but yeah.

Yeah. So anyway, even he was like, oh, yeah, the statistics are great you know numbers are going we used to have 9 000 you know members right around covet time and you know before covet and then dropped to 4 000 we're back to 12 000 great you know but i'm like yeah what about like the 90s and 80s comparatively you know you're only giving me like the 60s or something right like it was yeah you know overall yes short-term. You know, but that's what CEOs do. They look at three to five years.

That's it. You know, that's their span. Cause usually that's the number. Average years. The CEO stays. You know, it is with the corporations.

Your dad was CEO. Wasn't he? He was at some point. Yeah. Well, yeah. So yeah, they,

they usually have contract like three to five year contracts, performance based, you know? So yeah, you know, so like, but. So, yeah. They usually have contracts, like three to five-year contracts, performance-based, you know. So, yeah, you know, so like, but, you know, 12,000 is not enough. 12,000 members. Yeah. You know? We got to be, it's got to be up in the hundreds, like orders of magnitude or bigger, you know. Dude, they need 100,000 members.

USAG don't need 100,000 members and then they get 10x their revenue and they can hire an influencer like me to run the program. What sort of organizational thing do you have experience? I don't have no experience at all.

I don't know. You got an MBA. So, you know, we're more qualified than most. Not running a non-profit organization. I mean,

it's still a business in a way, right? That's true. Money in, money out. Yeah. That's why anyway alright well I hope you guys enjoyed

this episode you know we're always open to your comments you know I almost thought about like replying to you guys when you guys

were talking about the whole corporate thing but you know I think this is a better avenue again we maintain this type of...

We've always had a favorable view of the IJF. Even before they approached us. But I think after working with them, our positive view has been even more reinforced. So that's the thing. And we understand that not all rule changes and moves they make are perfect they of course but i think the important thing is that they are willing to adjust and then modify you know we don't want to be static we always have to adjust them then you

know with the time and yeah all right well anything else no that's it. Nothing else but the fact that I am a corporate man now. Yeah. It's a stooge. That's right. All the IGF. Yeah. All right. And the plant. Industry plant.

And I am a corporate man by association. Thank you. Yeah. All right. All right. Thanks for listening, guys. And we'll see you guys in the next episode.