The Shintaro Higashi Show - Junior Nationals! | The Shintaro Higashi Show

Episode Date: June 23, 2025

Shintaro Higashi returns from the Junior Nationals in Chicago and shares a detailed, behind-the-scenes look at this major youth judo event. Joined by co-host David Kim, the two discuss standout matches, rising talent, and the evolving landscape of competitive judo in the U.S.00:00 Intro & Trip to Junior Nationals01:30 Event Overview & Youth Pipeline03:00 Event Scale & Social Aspect05:00 Smoothcomp & Tech Evolution08:30 Coaching Rules & Professionalism11:00 Spotlight on Rising Talent14:00 Second-Generation Judoka & Top Dojos16:00 Challenges in Athlete Retention18:30 Developmental Athletes' Takeaways21:30 Next Steps Post-Nationals24:30 Organizational Structure & Gaps26:00 Funding, Politics & Solutions29:00 Building Judo's FutureMany thanks to our patrons: Jason (Red Belt), Drew (Coral Belt), and Levon (Coral Belt) and all our Black Belt members. Your support makes this podcast possible!Join my Patreon for:✅ 1-on-1 video call coaching✅ Exclusive technique breakdowns✅ Direct Q&A access✅ Behind-the-scenes training footage🔗 Subscribe & Support Here: https://www.patreon.com/shintaro_higashi_show 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/David Kim YT/Instagram:  ⁨@midjitsu⁩ 

Hello everyone, welcome back to Shitori Higashi Show with David Kim. I just came back from the Junior Nationals, which was a qualifying event for the Junior Worlds. What a spectacular event, David. Yeah, I mean, I didn't even know you were heading out there being the Philistine, the Judo Philistine that I am, but I guess it was the Junior National and International sort of championships. Yes.

Where was this held exactly? So it was in Chicago, but not even like the nice part of championships. Yes. Where was this held exactly? So it was in Chicago, but not even like the nice part of Chicago. It was in the south side of Chicago. There was nothing there. But I will say the food there wasn't bad. Every time I go on these trips, I'm like such a New York City food snob, but over there we picked a couple of random restaurants, like way outside of Chicago, by the way. And I was like, oh of Chicago, by the way. And, uh, you know, I was like, Oh, okay.

You know, not so bad. You know, they take their cuisine pretty seriously over there. Wait, were you, uh, was this like a protein rich environment you were entering or was it something different? I mean, definitely. You know what? I, we chose like a Turkish restaurant for that reason. So I could get chicken and this and We picked a barbecue place, went to an Italian thing and food was pretty good.

So I was pretty happy about that. I thought you were going to go full steakhouse, that's why. I did go steakhouse the first day. Oh, nice. But you know, when you're a New York City guy, it's very difficult to... You know, New York City, we have Keynes, Club A, Peter, we got all that already, so it's like, you know. Yeah, why do it again?

But, so this is a big event. A big event, yeah. You know, everybody's going from around the country, and it's all youth, right? It's all juniors, and kids, and teens, and all sorts of people. And this basically represents the pipeline for the United States. So in some ways it has a little bit of significance given the upcoming Olympics in a few years.

So there's a few events, national level events for these kids. They have the Junior US Open, the Junior Nationals, the Junior Olympics, and they're held a lot of the times by different organizations, which kind of is confusing, but they all accumulate towards a national ranking system. And then that gives them the right to travel outside the country. And now the two main divisions,

we're talking about mostly like the high level stuff, is the Cadet and the IJF Juniors. Cadet's 17 under, IJF juniors 20 and under. So like those two have world teams that they can make. You can make a cadet world championship team, which is really really competitive in the international circuit, and then you have an IJF world junior circuit as well, like a world championships, right? And that's another one that's extremely competitive. So this was serving as the trials for those events. I see. Okay, so there's still one, well, I guess this is the sort of final to make those teams. Yeah, and then the

one in April, the one we went to, the Scholastic Nationals, that one was the qualifying event for the junior Pan Am team. I see. Yeah, you have to qualify for these things. So when you look at the... like how big is the event? Like how big are the brackets? I imagine they're large, but... Not that big, but I mean, it depends on what you're comparing it to. You know what I mean?

You go to like a youth baseball thing and then you know you get tons of people playing right. It's not really like that you know and even compared to wrestling it's a lot less but there's a thousand competitors there on the weekend and you know it's very very competitive like I said you know and the lighter the weight you know the more competitive the heavier you go like the heavy weights and the cadet usually not as many athletes, you know, right for obvious reasons I'm just a big boy and I'm young That's where I shine back in the day Right, I guess I guess this must also be sort of an interesting social event in a way too because you know probably get a lot of people together that don't get to see each other that often even at the

Sort of a coach and instructor level. So yeah, to see each other that often even at the the sort of the coach and instructor level. So yeah I walked around and doing interviews with all the guys who I used to compete with and you know every era has that those champions right they stick around long enough and the people who are competing with me you know I got to hang out with Aaron Cohen, Colton Brown was there, Chuck Jefferson all these guys who were on the circuit together around the same time those guys are all bringing their kids down they all all have kids. So they have a judo program, they coach judo, they have a dojo, their kids are in the game, and you see a lot of that. And it's really nice to kind of catch up. It's a little bit like a time machine almost. You know what I mean?

Yeah. Everyone's just a little grayer, a little bit, you know, a little grayer a little bit, you know little grayer Yeah, and I remember like seeing somebody that I saw, you know back this woman made the 92 Olympics grace I saw her and I was like, oh my god I haven't seen you, you know in 20 something years and that was kind of amazing So, you know you go back there and it's like, you know blast from the past and it feels like you're stepping into a time Machine and going backwards almost I don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing. The only thing new is smooth comp. That's the only thing that's different Seriously smooth comp. Yeah, I Do want to ask because this has come up in a few like in passing

I think in a lot of different conversations that I've had and other people have had And there are people who have only known sort of smooth comp organized events. But what is the significance of smooth comp and how do you, like what was it pre versus post smooth comp? Because I had you- Smooth comp, yeah. So before it used to be like even my era was a little bit more digitized.

So it's like you have the the match board It's like what matches are coming up and then you go out there kind of a thing But you almost had to like when I was in the 90s It was a little bit more like right, you know, this division is being fought on this mat So you have to be in that region. So I knew Hundred kilograms, you know under 17 had to be on mat number three. Right. And then they have all the brackets listed out and it's these paper brackets that will be posted onto the wall.

And you say, okay, I'm match number four, I'm at number three. So you go there and then they'll start calling, all right, on deck, on deck, whatever it is. And you go out there and then you report to the table, hey, I just won that. Because it wasn't automated through the digital scoreboard. That seems like a good chance for some errors. Yeah, I won that. I definitely won that.

You didn't see that match. I won that match. That's happened multiple times. It's like, wait a minute, why am I fighting and getting called up for a losers bracket like in the consolation side? I should be in the semis. It's a whole thing, right? And then it gets confusing.

The tournament director walks over. But now it's all on your phone and all the brackets are there and then the smooth comp system They have like the care system where there's instant replay So the yeah, so they challenge it and they have the head earpiece in so someone threw someone but it was like that Is back land the DF control was it a counter? you know, we don't really know and the coaches like Challenging it and then they say go like this and they look at the instant replay and then the earpiece and say, okay, this

kid got the throw. And then when the winner is awarded, it automatically goes into the system and then puts the right person through on the bracket. So this is almost recreating like a higher level competition in a way where you have the replay, you have all these tools at your disposal. Yes. It's got to be a good thing right? Oh that's a great thing that's a great thing because it's almost back in the day it was a lot more whoever's sitting in the coaches share. All right so like I would be going against guys from Jimmy Pedro's club or Jason Morris's club and

you know those guys were Olympians and you know if they're the referee on the mat was You know pro Jason or pro Jimmy they might easily just be like, oh he got the score, but there's no instant replay Right, so you could yell and scream all you want but it's like, you know, there was very little that you could do You know, you have to really be definitive now. It's a little bit more Right takes those biases. Yeah, I mean, is it more objective? I don't really know. Yeah.

Well, at least there's a- A lot less, yeah. Yes, definitely. Some kind of justification that means. So it sounds like, so would you then say Smooth Comp, given the name of it, the competitions now are being more smoothly run? Oh yeah, 100%.

100%. Yeah. And you know when you're going to go. So it's like, hey, 10 AM you're going to go. Around this you're going to go. You see all the matches coming up. Hey, you're on the board now. You have up in five matches.

And then you could search by your club competing. By the way, I'm not being paid by Smooth Compensators at all. But yes, even if you're a coach and you have multiple athletes You kind of keep track of who's going when and then just kind of be running around and you know They do everything pretty professionally. I love that about you, though, for instance, like even as a coach You know, I haven't been to the one of these in a long time Yeah, so like I forgot all the rules, you know, and then the guy who was like in charge of the mat was like hey ocean tar. What's up, man? Nice to see you. Great to see you. I love what you're doing

And then I walk out there And then I just sit down in the coach's chair and go Whoa, you got to wait until the athletes bow on and you have to bow and then you have to bow to the other coach You know and I was like, oh, yeah, i'm sorry. I forgot, you know And then he comes back two seconds later and he says you're not allowed to have a hat on in the oh shoot sorry I took it off he goes you know Mr. Gash Sensei there's a dress code you can't be wearing a shirt you have to wear a judo

shirt or a collared shirt if you're gonna be in the coaches chair I was like oh man I'm so sorry you know I'm gonna run and get a shirt right after that this you know? And he like let me slide. And then my guy goes outbound, starts gripping up. I'm like, all right, put your right hand on the collar. Come on, don't push it. And they go, excuse me, excuse me.

You can't coach while the player's fighting. This is an IJF division. You can only coach in between action, kind of like tennis. And I was like, man know it's my first judo tournament I'm so sorry yeah that's pretty funny getting lectured over here you know but then I was like alright and then you know I went and got the shirt and then I was like alright yes that's right and then yeah I followed all the thing but it's great that it's there's a level of professionalism there and

they're enforcing it and then yeah know, I just thought it was amazing that, you know, it makes you feel like you're in a professional setting. It was just great, man. I love all these things that they're doing. Yeah. So maybe some of your IJF experience, you just got to bring that back to the local, the local scene. Yeah, they're doing it. They're doing it. You could just watch that. So I mean, don't get me wrong, there's a lot of issues still with, you know, the organizations and you know, I went around talking to everybody, you know, interviewing people and this and that and, you know, I hear what's going on in the rumor mill also. And it's very, you know, information dense, really. So really good stuff, interesting stuff. You know, we'll get to that.

We'll get to that. Right, right, right. I bet. Let's get to the judo a little bit, though. Yeah. Because I'm assuming, although it was, I'm sure, a very nice reunion, this is the season for reunions, a lot of college reunions, right now. Yeah. But beyond that, there are a lot of kids trying to fight for a place. So any memorable matches, any memorable interactions with the current athletes that are out there, I know you can't keep track of everybody. Yeah. I mean, there's a few standouts and mostly in my own kids division, right?

Not my child, but like when my student, Max, I'm coaching him and he fights in the 60 kilogram cadet division and the IJF division, he fought both, and there is a spectacular rivalry that USA Judo should do a better job promoting these guys and talking about it because there really is no better thing for sport, really. The stories that are behind these athletes.

Jonathan Yang was a world cadet champion last year in Peru. I was commenting that for the IJF. This kid is so good. He's a phenom. We've never had a cadet world champion before in the United States in the history of the judo ever. Right? This kid's so good. He graduates out of the cadets into the IJF and he has a number one and two rivalry with Christopher Velasco who is Herman Velasco's child. Herman Velasco was an outstanding athlete from Peru. I think he was an Olympian world level player. Great! I competed around that time period when he was around. He was spectacular and his

son's now in the game and they're constantly going back and forth and They actually fought in April and Velasco had beaten him It's unbelievable so they're in the division Doug Tono's kid Trent Tono's in the game who's also Spectacular right and then you have Adrian Cohen who is the Aaron Cohen's son Nephi, sorry, he's also spectacular. Now that those two kind of graduated out into the IGF, he's dominating the cadet division. So you have like four or five spectac- and then there's also this Georgian kid, Parsidonian, another one, spectacular. So you have like six kids that are like super high level, world level guys.

And you're watching it and you're like, am I watching, this isn't like a kid's judo thing. You get a Georgian guy doing Georgian style judo, right, you have Adrian who wrestles and does judo at a very high level, does the Kataguma. You know, you have this kid, Velasco and Yang going at it, great Sanaghi's, great lateral movement, Ashiwaza. They have like amazing judo spectacular judo right and

You know my kids in that division he won I think four matches total over the weekend You know between the two divisions, so he's not Beating those kids yet But he's definitely not at the bottom of the barrel either so he really showed heart. You know shot at the max He showed heart he showed that he belongs there and just watching that division unfold was really, really great for me. I was like, wow, I've never really seen this depth

in a junior division in a long time, you know? So that was one division. Can't really go through all the division, but you know, Lenny Scheinfeld, 66, he just won US Nationals, the adult nationals. adult Nationals right and he just won the junior Nationals this kid's another phenom he lives and trains at Jimmy Pedro's he's actually from Staten Island originally this kid Kai Wallace yes 73 yeah Kai Wallace 73 you know Roddy Ferguson's son and daughter are in the game now really just yeah

So like all the usual suspects and their kids are now in the game the second generation is the second gen Yeah, so you know and what I noticed was a lot of these guys come from the main dojos You know you know what is it the Pareto principle 80% of your results come 20% 20% of them Yep, 80 20 and it's really true the top 20 dojos top 20% dojos are producing 80% of the champions You know, yeah, and There's a reason why that is Yeah Yeah, yeah Had historically good. Yeah, you know juniors, but I

Think what happens a lot of the times is they don't make it through because the judo career isn't as compelling as Having a career in X Y & Z Right, you know a lot of the times we lose these kids to wrestling like what if Adrian Cohen who's crushing it right now It's 16 gets a wrestling scholarship and they offer him an NIL situation of I don't know 50 grand a year Yeah, well, it's hard to take that, you know know so like we're gonna lose him to that probably right and then Jonathan Yang You know he's a smart Asian kid. You're losing the medical school. You know that's been my joke all day It's like hey, you know we got to keep this kid out of medical school Keep telling his dad his dad's awesome his dad's there with the camera dad is sold out for judo though

Isn't he kind of loves it loves? Yeah, you know, come on, you're an Asian dad You're gonna are my kid is either gonna try to make an Olympic team or go to medical school You don't have in You never know though. I mean, he's still young. He's boy. So yeah, yeah, they can still chase that dream They're not you don't have medical school in their future quite There needs to be a compelling career. I think yeah, you know and I think I Don't want to say me make it about me. But like, you know, there's a Why not? Visible these kids all know me now, which is really cool, right?

And then it's like after the thing Kai Wallace everyone's talking about Kai And I go to the podium and I'm like, all right guys, if you want to be on my YouTube channel, come down here and bullshit with me. And Kai's like, oh my God, it's like, this amazing. This kid knows me, wants to be on my thing, and I get to talk to him. Well, it's good for them too, because like you were saying,

if USA Judo's not gonna promote these guys for whatever reason, there may be's good for them too, because like you were saying, if USA Judo is not going to promote these guys for whatever reason, there may be reasons for that, but at least you can help get these kids out there a little bit more in the general grappling sort of mind. And people say, hey, I remember he did an interview with Shintaro, and now it's three years later and he's trying to gear up and trying to get you know on this Olympic team like somebody to root for and somebody to Support and you know what? I think just kind of clicked with me being the younger mind young mind that I am

Yeah, I'm 20 but they say a lot of of these young guys wanna be YouTubers when they grow up. And that's a real career. Not like a real career by your Harvard education standards. You go to any public school and ask all the kids and pull them, what do you wanna be when you grow up? YouTube is a real answer. I hear it all the time, my kids at elementary school.

Our friend Arjun's like I want to be a youtuber I want to be a youtuber. This is definitely a generation gap situation. Exactly right so now all these kids who have that mindset is like oh wait a minute Shintaro's a youtuber He has a million views a month or whatever it is like that may be a career path And then potentially I'll talk them all out of go to college just do you know full time right? You can do youtube and go to college kids yeah just want to let you know. Even Shintaro went to college guys. I did I did yeah yeah he

went he has a master he has an MBA. I do. Don't take all this stuff. But that's why maybe that's maybe the reason why I'm not an Olympian maybe But I think it's really cool that you know No, there's some superstars on that team man. It's just Daniel Lubomirski. You know, he's like a hundred He's training at Collins. He's great. You know, he's crushing it Some of these juniors are now so good that they're like uncontested They come in and they walk and just steamroll everyone there right and then they go into the adult divisions And there's 27 year old guys there that's been doing judo for 20 years Destroyed yeah, I'm like what what is going on. Yeah, we just can't lose these kids It's just feel like wrestling though like you got kids that have been wrestling since they were six seven years old Yeah, and it's just you can't

Like if your child started wrestling in high school, like you're just never gonna catch those guys. They're just yes tough And you know, well not to the name-drop like PJ Duke was a product of this judo stuff, too You know, he was a great wrestling club. He was doing jududo his whole life with Leo Loeb's right now. Look at him He's the biggest star right now. I just beat Iani for the world team slot You know great Judo he was a product of this, you know in tournament circuit the Judo circuit Yeah, you see it in his wrestling a lot of upper body stuff a lot of foot stuff, you know amazing I tried to get my son to do some Judo and he just now I'm just gonna wrestle I don't know, man.

It could give you a little flavor, a little different flavor, a little spice. But what do I know? But hey, before we get into talking solely about the phenoms in the division. You did have your own student going there. And so I do wonder, most of the kids there are like, you know, they're not PJ Duke, they're not Jonathan Yang, they're not, you know, they're not these guys that are sort of walking in and you sort of know

who's gonna be in the finals, right? But a lot of these kids go and it's more of a development opportunity for them. Right. Like they're good enough to get there. They're good enough to compete. They're not quite there. So as you're thinking about your own students or even other kids that are sort of in this situation, how do they use this experience to suck the most sort of juice out of that, out of that tournament and sort of what do they take home with themselves to improve? I think you as a coach have to know the kid also, right? And I know my program and I know how it compares

to every program in the country, from a competitive judo standpoint. You can't have kids doing judo once or twice a week and compete out to these things. So when they're like, I wanna compete at this thing, it's like hard no. You doing judo once or twice a week and compete out to these things So when they're like, I want to do compete at the same it's like hard No, you know you train once a week twice a week. You just you're gonna get you're gonna get injured You know, no my kid could do it. You know, you're a great coach It has nothing to do with your kid's abilities or me being a good coach or not

Your kid comes to judo once a week. He's gonna get injured, right? So that's you gotta you know, you gotta take that off the table. We had a kid liam He's like I want to go and I? So that's, you gotta take that off the table. We had a kid, Liam, he's like, I wanna go, and I was like, okay, you know, and he's good enough to be out there that he could take break falls and he could just, he wasn't gonna win it, but this was a great experience thing for him,

and he sort of has this mindset that he could go out there, see these guys, and he's gonna be like, you know what, next year, next year, I'm not gonna, but if he had the mindset of like, oh man, if I lose and he gets discouraged and he's gonna quit if I thought that Was an option you know I'm doing that kid a disservice by putting him out there, right? I would have told him no, but because I know he's gonna come back stronger I know he's gonna experience it seeing those guys being around those guys gonna see the level of it

And then he might ask the question Chintaro like what do you think you know? It's gonna take for me to get there and it's like listen man you gotta do judo five days a week you gotta lift you gotta run you gotta sleep right eat right all this stuff and I think in the next year he could kind of have a drastic you know evolution to where he can potentially be out there and be a contender for a top five thing so like you got to really look at that kid you know and then obviously if it's in your backyard, like if you're from the Chicago midway area, might as well do it, you know?

Just because it's no travel, right? It's like you're just gonna be around it, maybe even go see it. So you really have to kinda know yourself, know your athletes, and then kind of know the competition out there too, because there's some killers that could get injured they can injure your kid, you know Yeah, yeah, I guess always so all those things. It's always a possibility. Yeah

So now that you've got these guys The event's over right? Oh, and you know, these kids have come away with their different medals What is the the follow-up to Like, where do they go from here? Because, I don't know, it's still kids, right? I mean, they're still like sort of teens and whatever, so school is, you know, ending, right? Well, the IJF division, the 20 under, a lot of these kids are, you know, there's always a crop of guys. They finish high school, they live at a training center and that's all they do, right?

Like you know what I mean? So those guys are just training full time, you know? And if you made the team, you're probably going to be ramping up your training a little bit. Doing some camps, doing some international events, maybe raising some funds. You know there's no shortage of stuff. You're gonna be very busy. You know just living a regular college life, it's not easy I think. Yeah, yeah. And are any of these kids sponsored by the athletic club? Yes, yes. Lenny is, Leibovitz, I think Velasco is, Christopher Velasco is, and you know they get their trips

in for, actually they're all coming on Wednesday to do a New York City New York Athletic Club monthly workout on Wednesday. Oh okay. Yeah so I'm gonna see them again, I'm gonna do groundwork with them because you know, my knee's still kind of recovering. Right. But yeah, they'd be good. Is Yang sponsored? No. No. Okay. Yeah. I think

they got Velasco first and I don't know if they were gonna pick the two. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. All right. So these kids are just all in. All the sort of the gold medalists. Majority of them. Yeah. Major majority of them, yeah. Majority of them. And you know, I spoke to a lot of coaches that there's issues like, you know, there should be a dedicated cadet coach that pushes them through to the IGF level, the junior level.

There should be a dedicated IGF, and then it kind of pushes them through, so there's kind of a handoff and everyone knows. You know, and there's continuity in their careers, and oh, I'm thinking about going to college, no, yeah, but then just guiding them through the pipeline. You're going to the Olympics and you're gonna be a YouTuber. Yeah, there you go, but uh, yeah, it's, it would be nicer to see like more collaboration and I think, you know, the biggest money really comes down to and you know you need to raise the funds and you need to have someone you know driving the ship a CEO that's gonna raise money and then have that and then you know your market for certain things to develop but I get

it you know running a national sporting organization it's not always about just athletes right because this when you get a USA judo membership you know majority of the people that pay into that thing they're buying it for insurance purposes yeah it acts as an insurance for the clubs and the athletes you know you get injured right it's like a secondary insurance plan sort of speak you know. And then they provide certain experiences and services like coming to these events, organizing these things, you know? Just having these athletes have a very successful competitive career is not their only goal, you know? It's only a small piece of it. So, you know, I kind of get it. You would think you would be, but it's not. Yeah.

It's definitely not. And you know, everyone is very outspoken about, it should be all about the athletes. The athletes should make money. Yes, they should, but they can't even keep their lights on. You know, they can't, they got a staff of five and you know, they're all barely making minimum wage and they're volunteering all their time

going on these things. You know, you have to be somewhat empathetic about that. Yeah. But you know, it's like, you got to get the right people in there. We got to do a part and vote. You know, the whole political thing. Yeah. You know, that's kind of brewing there. You know, that's for a whole nother day, you know. Yeah, I was out. So I was about to ask, like, you know, it sounds like you had a lot of conversations and is there anything you wanted to share here or are you saving that for other? No, I'm not saving anything for anywhere, you know?

Open book, but I definitely do wanna help to some capacity, but I don't wanna do something, sit on a board and nothing gets done, it's a waste of my time, it's a waste of their time. That's the last thing I wanna do, right? But if I could sort of have the most amount of impact and the least amount of time that I could put into this thing and help them.

Yeah, for instance, I was kinda like thinking this morning, before we were gearing up for this thing, sending an email to Corinne, the CEO, and saying, hey, put me in charge of fundraising. Let me just fundraise. Yeah, yeah. All right, I'll take a small percentage that'll compensate me for my time. I live in New York City. There's a

lot of people who are somewhat wealthy. Let me just raise funds for you guys. You know? Right. And then kind of like start the dialogue there. You know? And people are willing and I had this conversation with Jimmy Pedro and he's like you know people are willing to give. I know somebody rich people. Millions of dollars. They're just out there for the taking. They just don't trust how it's gonna be used. That's a big problem. It's a big problem.

That's a huge problem. So it's like, I want to kind of be involved, but I don't want to get dragged into this bureaucratic thing of like just this and that and playing politics and nothing really gets done. It's kind of like, what's going on now with just everything. It's the problem of everything, literally. At least with what I'm doing, it's's like I know I could teach a technique these kids are gonna see it and win championships with it. They come up to me

and say hey I learned that Uchimata from you thank you and I get this validation. You know the immediate impact on the judo community and it's very fulfilling but being dragged into the world of that might be tough but I'm always thinking about how I can help everyone. Yeah, it's interesting because now we're talking about more like institutional factors and, you know, I'm sure people have tried to like sidecar or almost independently sort of create institutions and, you know, and fund like resources to sort of help things along but it's always hard though when you do that when you're outside kind of the

system yes you know things can get kind of messy right you know there's a guy in the the judo board now called his name is Joe Reagan and he seems like a very good guy you know and he raised his own I think he put in like 200 grand of his own money into the programs. Like I wanna see it on the board, here's 200 Gs. You know, let's make this thing happen. And he's very well connected in the business world. You know?

But if he can't raise the funds and put it in and then blow the thing up, what chance do I have that? You know? Yeah, right, right. So, you know, I don't know what needs to get done, how it needs to be done. You know, there's a partially, my opinion is that we need more full timers, I don't know what needs to get done, how it needs to be done. You know, there's a partially my opinion is that we need more full timers.

I think is the biggest thing. And then you see the top 20% dojos who are crushing it. And you talk to like the Max Kafka, who has 400 students, Aaron Cohen, who has 300, 400 students, something like that. Call this three hundred. So all these guys who have mega dojos all over the country. Yeah. Right. 400 students something like that call this to young so all these guys who have mega dojos all over the country Yeah, right And then there's the people who do it part-time who have 40 people who could barely pay the rent

But they do it because they love it and then break two or three guys to these events You know we need more part full-timeers. We have to take the part-time guys is hey look This is the path to get to a 200 person dojo Quit that shitty nine-to-five and be a full time YouTuber like me. Don't go to college. Yeah, just go to business school. Just get a master's degree. Yeah, and then those guys who have the two, 300 students in the gyms can help other gyms to get there,

and those guys should be sort of in the game, trying to push USAJudo forward. We just need more full time guys, I believe. And you know, Colton did this last year. Colton was on the board for a year and a half or so and he Little by little got a little bit like oh man. Am I really making an impact here? I don't know if I'm just spinning my wheels. I don't know if I can and then he stepped away Yeah, right and you know with him

Maybe a couple guys just like him can kind of be on it at the same time But you know, I think it's very tricky when it comes to political stuff and people like, you know, it's just the nature of human beings. Well, it's sort of a vicious cycle, you know, it's either a virtuous cycle or a vicious cycle. And if everybody is sort of, if you don't have the critical mass,

you don't have the sort of, you know, the revenues coming in and, and then, you know, it's like, okay, well, who are you getting to run the show? Again, this is, I don't know who's, I don't know the organization, I don't know the people or anything. I'm just saying, you can have a situation where,

you're not attracting the best people potentially, right? Because there are different things dictating outcomes. because there are different things dictating outcomes. So it's, and I think it's, it's common for a lot of different sports, right? Like if you're a monopoly, you don't have the market discipline. So you can waste a lot of resources just doing random stuff.

I mean, look at Major League Baseball, is one organization that's a monopoly. So they don't really have, like, there is no other baseball that's competing with them. So they can sort of make a lot of errors and not really feel the sting. Yes, for sure. Now, that's major league baseball. That is like America's pastime. But if you're talking about judo and you've mentioned it many times that you know there's only so many paying members yeah right yeah and a country there's two organizations I think there's four now USA judo or USJ judo

Federation USJ a association and now there's like a you so there's like four different organization fighting over the same peanuts you know it's really really bad and I think someone needs to first and foremost just merge all of it together. A lot of these guys are sitting on double boards. As was I, I was part of a committee for the New York State Judo, I was a committee for the Hudson Judo.

Two separate organizations, but usual suspects. Yeah, usual suspects. And it's like, which one should I get? And back in the day, they were honoring both, right? If you had one, you could have the other they kind of broke that off and it's like really you know someone needs to do it I don't know if it's me if anyone who's listening who has big ideas you know but I'm kind of sick and tired of hearing the ideas too yeah you know people come up to me all

the time like hey man you have the reach you got to put the ideas out there you got to do this and okay you know come talk to me and then it's like I have all these ideas you can do this you can do that but it's like you know unless like there's a there's got to be a mechanism that connects the action with the idea like a lot of people ideas are a dime a dozen right yes for sure how do you turn that idea and what is the trail of bread crumbs that takes you from idea to execution? And a lot of people skip that part of the process. And if there's no direct line between idea and execution, it's very hard.

Maybe I'll try to sit on a board next year and then I'll just put together a slate and then make a full throttle run at it and use all my channels to push and vote and this and that maybe just lay waste well they went to the judo landscape yeah yeah I like it knows man but you know it was really nice seeing everybody you know uh just being out there long days but great and my athletes went out there hard and competed and you, one kid had like a dislocated toe and then, uh, you know, I think his father wanted to pull him out, but I was like, you know, tape it up.

It's a pinky toe, you know? Yeah. And then he fought the next day and you know, it was good. It was good. It was a great experience for all of us, I think. Yeah. But yeah, when I got my yeah When you see all those people you sort of go back like you're saying you go back in time and people you're in the trenches with

Sweating with competing again. Yeah, it's sort of Takes on a different tone, you know many many 20 years later, right? Yeah. Yeah, it's very you know interesting and bizarre So speaking to a Russian guy Aram Gregorian or Gregashvili or something one of those guys and he runs a judo club in California and I said to him casually it seems like you have a lot of students you know. How many you got? He goes I have 800. I was like what did you just say? He goes 800 students he said he has. Why are we studying this guy and what he's doing?

Why isn't he like the center of this thing? You know? That's amazing. You know what I mean? It's like Aaron Cohen, how many guys did you bring to this tournament? 10, 15? Yeah. He's a guest.

You know, I was like, 30? Like higher. He brought 95 kids to that tournament holy smokes yeah and if you have a thousand so that's like one tenth of the kids there are his students right right why you know give him an award give something you know what I mean yeah I mean granted he's from Chicago makes it a little bit easier but but still, you know, what a- Cut it in half, give him a 50k to steal a lot. Yeah, man, we gotta learn from these guys.

We gotta learn, everyone in the dojo landscape should have 100 students minimum, and if everyone had 200, 300 students, now all of a sudden you got something here, you know? And I think that should be the priority always for the USA Judo to help dojos have more students, get more students, double the membership, double everything. That's what my platform would be when I'm a Judo politician.

It is funny because you talk about the role of government and all that kind of stuff and taking on risks that other people don't wanna take. It is interesting because this is not like a one year, two year, even four year problem. I feel like this is like a generational problem. To grow judo to the level at which, that corresponds to the size of the country. Like, I think that is the work of a generation

Maybe too right because Jimmy how long has Jimmy been working on this type of stuff to Pedro? Yeah, Jimmy Pedro a long time right long time, but he was never Vote like he just recently ran. Yeah, he didn't get voted in Yeah, yeah, and you know he probably was the right guy, but there's a lot of people out there who think That you know, he just wants to control everything and then they're a little bit worried To give one person so much power because you know you look at the economics of judo with Gis and mats and tournaments jimmy sort of the king of that Yeah, it's like we're gonna give this guy more power and I think that's what freaked a lot of people out

but to me who's relatively close to Jimmy and who I truly believe like he cares about Judah. Yeah. You know, I think he would have been great for that job, you know, but he's not going to be there forever either. I mean, no, he can be forever, but he can't be the head of USA Judo forever. Maybe it's me. Maybe I'm the guy.

I don't mean to laugh. It could be the right thing. Maybe I'm the Judo Messiah. Maybe. You got the hair for it. You got the hair for it. Yeah. It's hard.

I walk in, new rules. Everyone has to bow when I walk into the venue. They have to bow to your picture. Yeah, that's right. Even if you're not around. We might as well bow as you enter the office. I love the... I was so inspired. When I go to these trips, I always try to work out minimum once when I get to the hotel whether it's like before the competition

International tournaments because of the jet lag, it's usually easier to wake up early Yeah, so I almost always go first thing in the morning if it's US time I usually don't go first thing in the morning, but I try to get at least one but both days, you know Was there you know, it's Friday Saturday, right? We left on Sunday both days after the competition I was fired up after a heavy greasy disgusting meal I was like so nauseous wanted to puke but I was like you know what I'm like choking back you know the steak as you are not to the gym and worked out twice man like it was uh it was great and you know so fired up you know thinking about you don It was great. And I was so fired up thinking about, remember back when I was so hungry.

And just thinking about it and then sky's the limit. And I was joking about what some kids like, yo, what's next? Dream big is the thing I was telling these kids. And I was like, not all of them, but some of them were just having a private conversation. I was like, listen, man, forget medical Yeah, you're gonna be an Olympic gold medalist You're gonna be a billionaire. All right, right and you're just gonna be

Everything you've ever wanted You know what I mean? And then it's like having that when you're a 20 years old like the mindset of like, you know the dreams and hopes You know, I mean, you know Billionaire Olympic gold that's what yes know the dreams and hopes you know what I mean? billionaire Olympic gold that's what you want to be. Yes, have it all. But it was nice to remember back to that and then seeing these kids who have the light

in their eyes you know and then you see some of the older guys who have been and still trying to do it and you're like oh man give it up man. Yeah the time has yeah there's a time for everything. There's a time for everything. Some people still can do it. I saw Mark Fletcher who's in in great shape, he's 50 now, but he could still win at the senior level. That's amazing.

I know, he's in great shape. I would love to be him. So, and I was like, you got any knee pain, shoulder pain? He goes, nothing. And he's like 250 jacked. And then he just pointed at his bicep, right? He's humongous. So like, guy, when he says like, you know,

I'm considering making a comeback, I'm like, God bless you, go for it, you know? Yeah. But nine times out says like, you know, I'm considering and making a comeback. I'm like God bless you go for it You know, yeah, but nine times out of ten, you know when you're after 40 I want to come back and make a comeback for the Olympics. I'm like, oh man. Yeah, it's a hard job. Yeah All right. Well, I think we covered your exciting trip down both memory lane and a glimpse into the future USA Judo and I'm sure you're gonna be having a lot more conversations about this because I think it's just you know we're ramping up to that next Olympic competition and it's

just it's got to be on people's minds for the next few years so it's not going anywhere so and big thanks to everyone who came up and said hi to me you know just so much positive feedback from the community. Kids taking pictures and some people were much shyer than others and some people were not, you know, unrelenting but like, you know, but most 99.9% of the interactions are amazing. I really don't mind it. So if you're out in the tournament scene and you see me, don't hesitate to come up and say hi. I'll take a picture with you, I'll shake your hand, you know, and I'm usually in a good mood at these things. Yeah, soft spot for children. If you're like in your 30s and 40s, forget it. Don't even bother asking.

I'm joking. I'm joking. All right. Well, we'll leave it till next time. Thank you, Shintaro. Thank you, David. Yeah. Bye bye.