The Shintaro Higashi Show - Judo Is Hard | The Shintaro Higashi Show

Episode Date: June 2, 2026

Sensei Shintaro and David Kim break down why judo is so difficult and what makes it feel overwhelming at first. This podcast highlight gets into the details behind the struggle and why so many people underestimate the sport. Watch the full conversation for more.Listen to the full episode now on:Apple podcast : https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-shintaro-higashi-show/id1540600589Spotify : https://open.spotify.com/show/343IXJDYlh6PvKgDUSgt9w?si=1b8717c8c4f44e95Subscribe and click the bell 🔔 icon to be notified about new content drops & podcast episodes!🚨 LIMITED-TIME OFFER: 40% OFF 🚨The All-in-One Instructional Bundle just got even better.Every major instructional. One complete system. Now at our biggest discount yet.Grab yours now at 40% off : https://higashibrand.com/products/all-instructionalsThis won’t last. Build your game today.🔥 Get 20% OFF FUJI Gear! 🔥Looking to level up your judo training with the best gear? FUJI Sports has you covered. Use my exclusive link to grab 20% OFF high-quality gis, belts, bags, and more.👉 https://www.fujisports.com/JUDOSHINTARO 👈No code needed – just click and save!Links:🇯🇵 Kokushi Budo Institute (The Dojo) Class Schedule in New York, NY 🗽: https://www.kokushibudo.com/schedule🇯🇵 Higashi Brand Merch & Instructionals: https://www.higashibrand.com📚 Shintari Higashi x BJJ Fanatics Judo Courses & Instructionals Collection: https://bjjfanatics.com/collections/shintaro-higashi/

The Shintaro Higashi show is sponsored by Judo TV, your premier destination for live and on-demand Judo coverage. Never miss a throat. Higashi brand. Train hard, live strong, wear Higashi brand. Hakuin AI. Hakuin AI helps you measure, predict, and solve customer churn. Visit Hacuin AI and start your free churn on it today. Welcome back to the Shantara Higashi with David Kim.

Why is judo so hard? it's wicked hard man I can you know as an old man with my neck in my back it's very hard but I think a lot of times it's like we were talking about

in an earlier episode a lot of it's timing you know and there's just so many things going on at once that you have a thought in your mind of what you're going to do and none of it ever happens

I'll tell you I don't want to start off at judo verse is BJJ, but I'll tell you what Jiu-Jitsu does well that judo doesn't. Yeah. Jiu-Jitsu used to be this way too. It used to be a collection of moves.

Juji, Rene Gajok, Yeah. You know, a heel hook. Yeah. Bullfighter or something. Whatever, whatever, right? Judo still is taught like that. Oh, Soto, Tai Toshimada,

Kouuchi, Haragoshi. It's just a collection of moves taught independently of each other. Right. At least with Jiu-Sut, it's like, okay, take the person down. try to pass to guard. You try to go bow fighter pass.

They ship the ankle. They kick the leg over. And now there's sort of a game and a strategy. It's not like, this is how you do a juji. Even though some jiu-jitsu teachers still teach that way. There's sort of a path to success, a path to winning that's specifically taught. There's a hierarchy of positions that are very clearly defined. Back take is this point.

Backmounds that. When you get here, you're looking for a rear naked choke. You may encounter these. these obstacles, this might happen, that might happen. What are the objectives chest of back? Judo a lot of the time is not taught like that yet. It's still the go-kill. It's still the old-school way.

And then they go a little bit deeper into the three parts of the throw, the kuzhi, the kuzhi, the kakki, the off-balance, the make of the throw, and the execution of the throw. It's just not enough. And I don't think not enough judo teachers are teaching sort of the contextual stuff of, okay, first point on. Right versus left, right versus right. first end on what is the strategy i'm trying to go here or here what are the reactions right oh this person

stiff arm in me they're supposed to stiff arm you yeah it's the same as frames in jiu jitza yeah they've evolved in a way where the learning is oh when you pass the legs you clear the hip line they're going to frame yeah how do you clear those frames you go here you go there and even still some of these jiu jitza classes we go to oh you pass you go knee on though you grab the collar and then you're good. Yeah. Maybe, maybe not.

It's not, you know, because the frame's going to come in, people who are good at frame, and then reframing with their lower...

And I'm just floating out there, like, why can't... Exactly. Why can I get chest to chest? It's the whole skill in itself. Right.

In judo, I feel like a lot of the teachers have not explored that enough to teach that enough because that's how they, they didn't learn it that way. And it does feel like

there's kind of this bimodal, like this divide in judo, because you have kind of on the, hobbyist level or the recreational level. Yes. I feel like they're taught a lot like this. Yeah.

Right. It's a lot of, we practice the throat. You know, a lot of technical, uh, instruction. Yep. Right. You know, almost academic in this way. Yeah.

Like physical academic. Mm. But when you go to the competitive scene. Yeah. It almost feels like they just like they just train a lot. You know, like they just do a lot of Randori. Yep. They do their essence.

see. And then they just do a lot of Reddori. Yep. And then maybe they'll like school around, you know, some people will school around doing some jiu-tutsu or they'll school around doing some, you know, some other stuff. But it really feels like that. And it really is like two branches that kind of diverge very quickly. So sometimes when you talk to someone who's even on the national circuit or something like that, their understanding of judo is very different from someone who's going to their neighborhood, you know, class. And you know it's the Rondori-based training that helps them grow the most.

And once people figure that out, oh, I need to do Rondori to learn and get better, right? Injury risk goes up. And then self-preservation happens because you're going from Uchikomi and drilling and learning independent moves to going live. And there's a huge discrepancy between drilling and then going full-throvers. alive. And in Jiu-Jitsu, yes, you do that same thing, but the risk is much lower because you're not going to get thrown on your head. There's no gravity, you're not going to land in your shoulder, and the risk of injury is a lot lower. Don't get me wrong. Get still hurt and get

hurt and doing Jitsu. Right? But when you're getting slammed, it's like, oh, that person shouldn't learn how to fall. That's not always the case. It's always the guy's fall. Someone who spikes you up to the back of your neck. Sometimes you can't take a breakfall. Sometimes your arms are trapped. Sometimes you don't know it's coming. Yeah. How are you going to take a break for when you don't know what's coming? Yeah. You know what I mean?

Yep, no, 100%. Yeah. Yeah. And that happens all the time. Someone's arm gets strapped. Yeah. And they just, you know, whack the back of their head or having my son in wrestling. Oh, wrestling dangerous too.

Yeah. I mean, his head just bounced off the mat and he was like, wait. You know, it was just the funniest, you know, conversation afterwards. Funny. Well, I mean, I was concerned at the time. But, you know, in retrospect, it was kind of funny because he was like, wait. I was wrestling on that mat, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Wait. Yeah, I was just wrestling, right? On that mat, right? And I was just like, oh, no. This is not good. Yep. I had one of those experiences. I got slammed on my head by the National Champion of Spain.

Oh, no. And then I walked off the mat and I started warming up. It's like, my friend Aaron is like, yo, what are you doing? I was like, I'm warming off of my match. He's like, you just fought. I'm like, you're listening, man. There's no way. Get out of my face.

You're distracted me. I got to stay focused. He's like, you just went out there and got thrown. I was like, I did. Yeah. That's exactly, yeah. That's exactly it. He's like, yeah, dude, you lost.

You're out first round, buddy? Yeah. He's like, damn it. Are you sure? I was pretty, that sucked. Yeah. I forgot about it. Yeah.

You know? Yeah. Those head injuries are for real. And then I went to the medic and was like, what happened? I don't know. I think I'm supposed to be out there. I think I lost. I think I lost?

I think I was up and it was like, all right, you know. So that's setting the stands after that. But that's, I mean, that can be definitely the risk. It happens, you know, all the time, you know? And, you know, that's, the risk is one thing. But I also think, I don't want to put too much way on that too, because a lot of people don't understand the risk. No.

You do. Yeah. Because you're experienced in this sport. I do because I'm old. But most people, they're happy to be like hanging. their knees out there to like, you know, in crushable situations, like they don't understand the risk. So there are other reasons, I think, why people think you those hard.

It happens instantaneously, right? It's like, oh, my Tanya Toshi is safe. I hear this all the time. But it's like, yeah, I guess, you know, what makes you say that? Oh, I know when you do Tanya Toshi, your initial foot has to be behind the other person. And Donahir said this. If your back foot is in front of them and you go Tanya Toshi, you have a risk of sitting. But if you're behind me, you're behind me.

them you're safe yeah okay but in an instant yeah you the person could turn yeah right here okay your foot's here i turn real quickly and now of a sudden that foot is in front of me yeah yeah yeah quarter of a second this can happen yes and then your knee is gone yeah you know so that's why judo's hard and speaking on that instantaneous nature of judo it's very difficult to troubleshoot because all a sudden we talked about timing in another episode you get your legs kicked out from underneath you holy shit, what happened? Yeah. At least with Jiu-Jitsu, it's like, oh, you know, I got past the knee line,

I ran into the frames, and I was suspended there for a second, and that space was filled with the knee coming in. Yeah. Right? Oh, I was trying to pass, but then, you know, these guys cross-collar grip. I keep running into that arm, and you could troubleshoot it and talk yourself through it. Hey, man, I was in this position, 50-50, I got caught like this, blah, blah, blah. Judo, it's like, Sente, did you see I got, I got thrown?

No, I didn't. No, I didn't. I wasn't watching you. Right. And even if I was watching you, I was watching for safety. Yeah. Not for your technical. Exactly.

And maybe it seems like you just got caught a basic foot sweep, but maybe he did something earlier on in the match. To make you. To make you react that way. And then the timing. Good timing. Good time. Yeah.

Right. Yeah. And I think for judo also, I think there's kind of pent up, if you're on the record. recreational side, I think there can be pent up frustration because at least on the jihitsu side, because it is safer, because you're on the ground, all that kinetic chain is not being applied in the same way, you spar. Yes.

Right. Like the randori is there, right? So that kind of pent up demand to like use the techniques you've learned is satisfied because you're going to do at least five rounds or something, right? Whereas I feel like in judo, depending on the club, and for good, reason i'm i'm not criticizing it at all but for good reason you may do a lot of technical stuff a lot of technical study a lot of instruction and stuff and you never get to satisfy that like um you know trying it live yes right and it uh it can create a a weird dynamic right and then maybe when you do

get to go randori people go a little ham you know maybe because they're just like oh yeah i'm going to do all this stuff i learn i know all this stuff i know all this stuff. I've done the kata. I've done the, you know, whatever the names of these different exercises are. We brought out the crash pads. My thing is perfect. I'm going to do this. And it turns into like a guerrilla fight sometimes. And you know, I'll give you an example with this guy, the Joe, you know Big Max? He was on that chip on the pen. He's been working on his Uchima forever. He's a big boy. He's like 240. Yeah. And it's getting better and better and better. And I know for a fact he could throw all those lightweights over there with the biggest which

But he's not allowed to. Because he outweighs him by so much. Before he might have not been able to. Now his Uchamara is good enough to be able to do it. But throwing those guys... 100 pounds lighter. Would be very, very dangerous. He's in 40 pounds lighter.

So it's like, all right, you want to try this new skill that you've developed over the last six months. It's gotten a lot better, but you can't throw all those guys over there. Right. But you could try it on those heavyweights over there. Yeah, yeah. And it won't be as clean. It won't be as satisfying. Yeah.

You know? Right. So that's also the problem. To do a clean pass on someone, you could do it. Yeah. And it doesn't really matter necessarily. I mean, it's easier when they're lighter. Yeah.

But it doesn't make as much difference. No. And then you get there, and then you finish your juji or whatever it is. They tap. You can do that to anybody. Yeah. And you let go. And say, hey, great job.

Yeah. But with judo, someone's getting slammed. Yeah. Yeah. Which is a big issue. Yeah. Yeah. So this is extremely frustrating, I think.

Especially if they're much smaller. Yeah, because you know, in jiu-jitsu, like, you know, passing the guard, there are plenty of women and I can't pass their guard. Yeah, you know, and they might be, you know, 80 pounds lighter than me, right? Very true. But they can retain their guard. Yeah. And, you know, but I think it's harder to do that if you're 80 pounds lighter than someone.

Yeah. You just, you can't. And all these movements are very athletic-based. In Jiu-Jitsu, you don't have to be athletic to make these shapes of these moves. Yeah. You know, there's mobility requirements. I'm not saying Jiu-Jitsu isn't athletic. I'm not saying that.

But anyone can make the shape of a half-guard or a deep half-guard. As long as you have two legs. As long as you have a leg of arms. It's a little bit harder to do rubber guard if you don't have the mobility. But you could do 90% of the things in J-Jitsu. Anybody. Yeah, right? The same for Judo.

A lifting Uchimada where you're on one leg. creating amplitude on one leg while keeping your court tight while keeping your balance hands doing this and that and then working in a very demanding a synchronized way

in a dynamic way where you balance is important but your uke's doing as important it's very difficult I like to put it this way is bodybuilder versus Olympic lifting yeah yeah so how do people make it easier

without diluting what they're doing diluting their training And I know you've talked about this, people are like making judo easier, but I think this is a little bit of different, you know, direction on it.

But how can people solve some of these problems that we've brought up? So people do, what you call me, they do Rondori, and the outcome is sort of a zero-sum game. Majority of the time. It's like you win or you lose, you feel really bad about yourself,

good about yourself and it gives you this survivor bias of like oh I did this it works let me just keep doing that your game never gets better right

so you have to gamify all these contextual things in between like gripping like positional fighting yeah you know I was going with Danny this kid he's a blue belt

he's 140 pounds at the gym yeah he actually just competed in a tournament went six and all I wanted intermediate tournaments nice

he's there like little vizant star he's my superstar I did judo with him yesterday yeah but he was able to outgripped me a few times in a couple of exchanges. Was he able to throw me? No.

But because we gamify a lot of these different aspects of the game, he outgrip me. And then his friends were like, oh my God, you outgripping Sensei. Sensei sucks, whatever it is. And then it was fun. Yeah. You know, so at least he has these little wind along the way. It's kind of like these dumb advantage points in jiu-jitsu.

Yeah. You almost passed my bar. You almost went for an arm bar. Good job. And these guys say, oh, I swept the black belt. Yeah. Yeah. Right?

There is no equivalent of sweeping a black belt or a vantage point in judo because it's either you throw the guy or you submit a person in judithu. So having these little incremental wins, I think, makes it much more fun. It's like a handicap, kind of. Yeah, a little bit. Have these things that you could train specifically that's not full-blown Rondori. Yeah. So it's an in-between between drill, cooperative drills, non-cooperative, combative, full-blown Rondori.

There has to be all these things that you focus on. in between and they all have to have sort of little wins that you kind of enjoy it along the way yeah something you can say I won that I won that exchange yes exactly I didn't throw him but I won that yeah I'm and I'm and I'm four and oh that's right that's right so I think these are the kind of things that you should do and uh yeah all right cool well judo is hard jiu-jitsu is easy okay I'm kidding but uh you know but there are dynamics that you know you have to keep in mind between

the two different sports and judo I mean just as someone who pretends he does it I mean you know as you get older it becomes very clear you like you know every time I go to your spot and like for you know I used to go on like the Friday and I would just be like

horrified I'd just be like these guys there's all these legs hanging out everywhere and it's like I'm too old for this man Sergeant Merta And you know, there's one more thing that makes judo harder is you go to these local tournaments and it's not well attended

and there is no glory. Yeah. I be JJF. You could go to a local tournament, New Jersey Open. Yeah. You could be an older guy. It may not be well attended,

but you have this wonderful shot of you on the podium. Right. Maybe it's three guys in the division. Maybe it's two guys in the division. And the community gives each other love. Yeah. They like each other, tag each other. Congratulations to my boy.

Double gold medal, whatever it is. He's a machine. He's an animal. It doesn't matter if you're in the M-Ford Blue Belt Division. They have that. They have the title. They have the pride. Judo, you're an intermediate player.

I put you in the Liberty Bell. You might get a Russian guy. Who's wearing a green belt. Been probably doing judo for 12 years. Yeah, right. That guy's a killer. Yeah. And at best, if you beat him, you get a plastic metal on milk crate in the dingy gym.

Yeah. There's zero glory. You post that picture. People make fun of you. Come on, man. But the Liberty Bell tournament is a very tough tournament. Yeah. You know, so it's like, that makes it harder, I think.

That there isn't this sort of smoke and mirrors feel good delusion. Yeah. You know? But having this like, hey man. Yeah. You know, I've had people tell me I'm a professional jiu jih Tzu athlete. Yeah. Oh, this guy must be a blackball.

He must be amazing. Yeah. And then he shows up, he's a boo-bo. Yeah. I'm like, what makes you a professional athlete? Yeah. You know? But they could say that with pride.

And they allow that in that community. In judo, whether or not you're on the IJF circuit, that's the only criteria. Yes. Yes. World champion? Very black and white. IJF. That's it.

There's no brown belt division. Blue belt division. There's none of that stuff. Nobody cares. That's why it's so hard, I think. Because there's zero love and zero support for that kind of thing. you either make it over here or you just suck. Yeah.

And I still feel that too. I was on the international circuit. There's another tier above that. Are you an Olympian? Yes. And the answer is no. No. And to those guys, Chantan is just a YouTuber.

You freaking sucks. And that makes judo hard for me. Yeah. Because it's like, wow, you know, I dedicated my whole life to this thing. Yeah. Right. Yeah. And it's another thing that.

But it's you too. Yeah. I'm a legend. I am. Yes. I won one tournament. It was the New York Open good fight. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I won one tournament. I have a black belt. I'm a freaking legend. Yeah. Yeah. So it's a funny thing. Big, big fish in a small pond, I guess. We could do a whole other episode on kind of like American versus international judo and kind of misconceptions on that.

Yeah. But we'll save that for another time. So judo is hard. Accept it. And try to, in your training, you know, slice it up a little bit more. It's not just the full-blown Randori. It's kind of like mini-randori. Yes. Right? So thank you guys. See in the next episode.