The Shintaro Higashi Show - Learning Uchimata

Episode Date: January 16, 2023

Every Judoka at one point or another goes through a phase where he/she wants to master Uchimata. It is one of the most popular throws know for its versatility and beauty. But it remains an elusive throw for many. Why is uchimata so hard to learn? Can we learn it more easily somehow? In this episode, Shintaro and Peter discuss the learning aspect of uchimata, and a new uchimata instructional from Shintaro, which can be found here: https://shintarohigashi.com/judo-courses. 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 Shinto Higashi Show with Peter Yu. Today we're going to talk about learning Uchimata. First and foremost, Happy New Year to everyone, 2023. That's right. I hope you guys got some New Year resolutions for your Judo game, your BJJ game. Work on them, go get them, start going to school again. Yeah, man. What a year 2022 was. It was nuts. Right.

Nuts for me, man. I had the stroke, right? I know. That uncovered sleep apnea, that uncovered atrial fibrillation. I just had heart surgery a week ago, bro. I know. It's nuts, though.

Good as new. Good as new. I feel good already, man. Yeah. It was beautiful for like three days. I know you hurt a lot right after the surgery, you told me, but now it's like, yeah, you're feeling

better. Your heart's pumping better. Yeah, man. Dude, catheter ablation surgery is nuts. It's not open heart surgery. They go through your veins in your leg. They send the catheter up inside your heart and then they burn the pieces that create the aberrations in the electrical circuits. It's nuts.

Science, man. It's crazy, right? Yeah, it's crazy. Yeah, so I did that. I feel much better. Science, man. It's crazy, right? Yeah, it's crazy. Yes, I did that. I feel much better. 2030 season will be better. And I want to kick it off with a little bit about Uchibana. I know we did a little bit

of Uchibana before. Right, right. But this is specifically designed toward me selling you guys my 10-minute Uchibana video that I just made. Yeah, but we're going to... Kind of.

In this episode, we're going to focus on learning Uchimata, like the learning aspect of it. And it's one of the most popular throws. You can see it all the time at

competitions. It's so versatile. It looks so cool. Everyone wants to learn it, but it's hard to learn. So let's talk about that. Very difficult. Why is it so hard to learn so let's talk about that yeah why is it so hard to learn you know what it is because first of all it requires a lot of balance you're on one leg right you lose your balance you don't have a throw anymore so to keep your balance on one leg is extremely difficult and then the applied force through the movement on one leg is extremely difficult yeah yeah you know and when people watch videos of people doing

there's many many different types of uchima yeah and i remember a couple years ago you know there's an old analogy like this is how you teach uchimata traditionally right hand goes up collar goes like this your elbows down your wrist is up and then this one dude who like made a video about it's like no uchimata elbow goes up right remember this one yeah dude that's a huge thing i completely changed that i mean i kind of stopped doing the practicing the traditional way almost i mean the entry still you know you can't enter you can't flare your elbow up first and then go into anything right right right but you draw them forward and at some point you have to provide downward force onto the person's head.

So when that happens, your elbow goes up. You're going to be able to push the head down, right? Right, right. So, you know, but this is the issue with a lot of stuff that happens is like in teaching in martial arts, like this is how you do it, this is how you do it. And then people teach it exactly the way they've been taught. Yeah. You know, and in that scenario, you know, it's generally sort of like this classical methodology, right?

And it completely disregards all like the new sort of ideas, the modifications, the innovations that happened, the different timing, the nuances are all gone because everyone's just kind of echo chambering this one method. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like what your old Japanese teacher taught you. Yeah. And that one's not wrong. Right. You know what I mean? Like whatever your old Japanese teacher taught you. Yeah. And that one's not wrong.

Right. You know what I mean? But there's so many things like, oh, Uchimata, you could go for the far thigh or the close thigh. Yeah. And then generally the next thing that happens is like, oh, if you go for the far thigh, it's called Hanegoshi instead of Uchimata. What's the difference?

What's the, you know? And it just becomes this thing of like this loop. I'm just like, we're not getting anywhere, learning anything. And everyone's just even more confused than they've ever been. So I really distilled everything down into this 10 minute video that I made. And it really starts with defining which kinds of Uchimata that you see in competition. There's usually like three or four. That's it. And then if you're watching Uchimata that you see in competition. Ah. There's usually like three or four. That's it.

Yeah. That's it. And then if you're watching Uchimata videos. Right. Right. Whether it's a backstep spinning away Uchimata or like a two-step Uchimata or like a loading Uchimata

or a kenken Uchimata. That's essentially the four types. Right. Right. And then how you counter it. What's the defense to it? How do you structure your attacks around it right so that they don't see it coming any technique that the other person sees it coming

it's not gonna work right because they could defend it that's the idea so can you can we quickly go over those four types just briefly what what kind of things what kind of uchimata they are yeah so the traditional uchimata everyone already kind of knows it. It's like the one that you see in Kata. You just kind of step across, behind, lift, elbow in, elbow in, Uchimata goes up. That's the Kata one. Two-step Uchimata is you're sort of right

versus left. You can do right versus right too, but you thread that far leg through. Like into the... In between the other person's leg. So one, and then you jump your other leg back underneath you, and then you go. So it's two-step. It's a quick ba-bang.

Yeah. And then the third one sort of is like this spinning away back step Uchimata where you're spinning away from your opponent. Mm-mm. Now, usually you go into the pocket, you spin to the outside. Right, right. And then you whip him around and elevate that back leg because there's no more weight on it. so that's the third one and then the classic kenken uchimata was like the

hopping uchimata yeah you hook it and then try it out yeah i see so those are the four types and if you look at the different hand positions obviously you have to be a winning hand position because it's easy to counter it if you're losing position yeah because you're on your one leg yeah yes so it's like fighting for position, right. And then attacking some stuff to like, sort of cloak the fact that you're going Uchimata cause direct attacks are, you know, really work on very good opponents who know what they're doing. Good defense.

Yeah. Okay. Direct attacks are great for people who don't know anything. Right. Right. So like, think about like a big, strong right hand. If I just walked to someone, punched them in the face with my right hand,

most people would be knocked out because they don't know the cues that it's coming. Right, right. They don't understand range. They don't understand that I'm about to punch on. They're not keeping a good distance. They're not looking at my feet. It's just like I can just walk up to someone and just punch them in the face.

Right? Yeah. But if I have a boxer who's trained in this and then I walked up to him with my hands up, he's going to be like, oh. Okay, okay. Will I be able to just hit him with one shot? No way. Yeah, he's going to slip out of it. Yeah.

He's going to start jabbing me. Maybe he'll counter me. Who knows, right? So it's like I kind of got to set it up now, right? I got to kind of like, you know, maybe like spit in his face or something. He closes his eyes and then I punch him in the face. Pakistan? Yeah, Pakistan. That's right.

He reaches my hand, throws some sand in his eyes and then punches him in the face. Or whatever. Any kind of setup. Yeah. So Judo, same thing with Uchimata. Fighting for position, showing different stuff, you know, maybe show the back step

and then go the two step, which is like one of my favorite, favorite combination. I see. Show the back step Uchimata, two step Uchimata. So it's not like

you're adding all sorts of other crazy moves. It's just like fake Uchimata, fake Uchimata, this type of Uchimata, that type of Uchimata. But you're staggering your attack but you can't defend it because they don't know the timing in which it's just like fake Uchimata fake Uchimata this type of Uchimata that type of Uchimata but you're staggering your attack

but you can't defend it because they don't know the timing in which it's coming this is probably yeah this is probably why it's so

Uchimata is so popular it's almost like all these different types of Uchimata's are a separate throw and then yeah

and the mechanics I guess if you reduce it down yeah you can say that make an argument that the basic mechanic is the same but you know you can string these different types of uchimaras together and you already have like four throws right there and this is the thing right i talk in the video about short and long fingers it's the difference between like when you're playing dodgeball and you like short feint like this. Like, oh, he's about to throw the ball at me. Or like swinging the arm back and then forward

and not actually throw the ball with the longer feint, right? And then you mix that in with the four different types of Uchimata. So if you think about like the different, what is it, permutations or combinations or whatever it is yeah dominant position right short faint

long faint four different pipes what is that like four times two times five times eight I don't even know

factorial right I guess it's a permutation I guess because the order matters yeah does it matter does it

well if you if you do a long feint and short feint and then a classic Uchimata that's different from Uchimata

short feint long feint you know yeah I guess or you go for Uchimata and get stuffed yeah then you step back out

and you feint together then you do a back step right yeah so it's limitless the combinations that you could go into

and you know who does a good job with this like maruyama oh yeah dude he's uchimata is sick and you know he has the physical things that make uchimata better right so like my uchimata is not that it's good i should say it's not good it's fucking great actually yeah but it's not like i don't have the physical attributes for it i'm not a very tall guy right my legs aren't very long I don't have good mobility you remember this thing called the ponche

in ballet is it the one that you kick the leg up yeah essentially it's like an arabesque where they go forward but then their leg

goes straight up to like 6 o'clock right so 6 and 12 like straight through right so if you can do that you have much more mobility to be able to like right kick it up yeah yeah but I don can do that, you have much more mobility to be able to pick it up.

But I don't have that. And I'm much shorter than everybody. So generally the Uchimata that I do is also a time to backstep Uchimata or Kenken Uchimata. Because if I can physically pull the guy's head down, I don't need that

leg height when I throw all of them. If I can physically shift off his head to the floor almost, right, then I could just like elevate the leg just enough so he tips over and then rotate him.

You know what I mean? So Uchimata becomes this thing like it is be able to be used by everybody. Right. But not in the way that it's traditionally taught.

So how does you think Maruyama has all the flexibility and leg length? Yeah, flexibility, balance, leg length in that division. so how does Maruyama you think Maruyama has all the flexibility and yeah flexibility balance leg length in that division

you know I'm not saying he's like the tallest guy in the division you don't have to be but he's super dynamic he's unbelievable he shows these little feints

and he has a couple different types of Uchimata that he has to then and then he has great hand position you know it's just like what you know and he has

a bunch of other stuff that goes very good with it while we're at the top he has the cleanest judo yeah really the cleanest judo man yeah i think so too yeah i actually lost to abe for that olympic i know i'm partial to mario i was sad oh yeah i was sad you know abe it's like bro you got he's so young like you do the next cycle just bow out. Yeah, give it up to the first Senpai, man. Yeah, dude. I was like, fuck. I was so sad. When he didn't make the Olympics, dude,

it was worse than when I didn't make the Olympics. It was worse. Seriously. I felt sad. I was like, Jesus. You know what I mean? I couldn't even watch the Olympics after that. I was like, God.

Yeah. You couldn't watch Abe just running through everyone. I was like, God. Yeah. You couldn't watch Abed just like running through everyone? That was my favorite match of the season because it gave me such a strong reaction. Ah, like emotional reaction. Yeah.

Yeah, because during the pandemic, no one knew who was going to the Olympics. I know, yeah. They fought in the Kodokan like under these circumstances with all these masks and all these COVID tests

and no one was allowed to watch. It was live streamed and they went into a 20 minute overtime. It was a year two years ago now? Yeah. It was 2020. Yeah. I stayed up to watch it live. It was broadcast on YouTube for free. It was 10 times better than any

match I've seen all year. It was like the saddest, most Yeah, you guys have to watch it. I don't even watch sports. I don't even watch judo. But I watched year. It was like the saddest, most... Yeah, you guys have to watch it. I don't even watch sports. I don't even watch judo. But I watched that and I was like, damn, this is why I don't watch sports. So emotional. Yeah, yeah.

While we're on the topic of good people with Uchimaras, maybe we can touch on Ono also and Inoue Kosei. Maybe we'll touch on themo also and Inoue, Kosei. Maybe we'll touch on them quickly. So what, Maruyama versus Ono, how are their

Uchimata's different? Maruyama has more depth and variety in his Uchimata timing. Ono's amazing because he's the most powerful Osoro and then the Tomanagi that goes with his Uchimata. And his Uchimata is a full-body committal head-to-the-floor kind of Uchimata.

Yeah, he whips it around. He really uses his rotation. Yeah, brings his head all the way down to the floor. And he does a backstep Uchimata also. Yeah. He does a backstep lifting and then diving his hip to the ground. I think that relies so much on athleticism. I see.

And I'm not saying Maruyama does not, but I think a lot of people can do Maruyama-style Uchimadas with the different entries. Maybe they can't bring their leg all the way up to the ceiling. Right. But the entries and the thing is very, very athletic but skillful. You know what I mean? With Ono's Uchimada, most people can't do that ever just because it requires a commitment with a head dive and it's just too risky.

You know what I mean? So it just cannot be replicated the way he does it. There's so much force behind it. And like I said, with Mauro Yama's Uchimata, it's a lot more varied in a very small, compacted way. Right. There's more nuances to the things that he does as opposed to Ono does it one way, you know, but it's very good because it works with all the things. Because he can do Osono, Tomonage, Uchimata, all that losing position.

Yeah, yeah. Maruyama has that too, but it's very different, you know, it's very nuanced, nuances are different. How about the ultimate legend, Inoue Kosei? You went with him. No, Wotan. He kicked the shit out of me. I was there.

First time. We weren't friends back then. How is this thing? He's like the king of Uchimata, right? Yeah, man. His Uchimata is unbelievable, dude. He does like a lot of, there's a lot of nuances before, right? Contextual stuff that I always talk about.

Positional stuff, faking, right? Moving here. And I made a video about him like shelving the hand high onto the collarbone, shelving the hand high on the collarbone, and then entering. But he does a two-step Uchimata. He does a one-step Uchimata. Yeah. He's a master of Uchimata, man.

But people forget his Morote Sanagi, his drop Sanagi is unbelievable as well. And he has a Kosoro. And he has a Harai. You know, he has an Ouchi, Osoro. In a way, he's the best, man. I got to tell you. He's like the all-time greatest. Yeah.

Jose, in a way. Jose. Jose, I call him. That's right. Yeah, he's the best, man. I'm telling you, those three. To rank, though, I got to say, man man like people love ono but i gotta say it's like kosei first yeah yeah yeah he's the top and then i gotta say like uh just look up kosei in a

way okay you guys just watch him watch the highlight reel the first thing that pops up and i think like ryoko tani yeah she she's amazing too. She's like 48 kilograms, but like a small 48. She won like four times or something, right? Yeah, she was one of the most dominant judo players of all time, dude. And she is so fast, so good, so dominant. I mean, it's unbelievable how good she was.

I love watching her stuff. The highlight, I watched that. Koga. Maruyama. Oh no, no. Yeah. Oh, no. Yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah, he's like a freak

athlete, too. Kind of. Alright, well, those are the Uchimata specialists that we like. So that kind of goes to show like the versatility of this throw it's almost like I said all these different types of throw

Uchimata's are different throws and they yes they are doing the same using the same mechanic but all these players have adopted Uchimata to their game and body and this is why learning Uchimata to their own game and body. And this is why learning Uchimata can be hard.

Yeah, very hard. Yeah. I'll give you a tip, though. Yeah. I focused for years on, like, doing it on the wall and bringing my leg as high as possible.

Right, right, right. I focused on that for years and years and years. Literally got nowhere with it. It was a huge waste of time. Seriously. Huge waste of time. Because the older you get, the less flexible you become and you lose it. It was a huge waste of time. Seriously, a huge waste of time. And the older you get, the less flexible you become and you lose it.

It's just a waste of time. 100%. Don't freaking do it. Do that movement, though, to refine your balance, to be on one leg. And then people are like, oh, you use the wall as a crutch. And then don't use the wall anymore so you can keep your balance on your own. Yeah. I think that's horrible advice. Because when you're doing judo with someone

and when you're in a moment, you're always using the opponent to hold yourself up a little bit for which amount of one leg. Right. Right. But you need to keep that balance and then that feel of like connection with something. You're not doing which one in the air by yourself.

Yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah, sometimes when you're loading them, but majority of the time you're not loading them and launching them. And even when you do, when you bring them down, you're using that sort of as a support structure.

So like use the wall and do the Uchimata and work on your balance. Staying on one leg, being comfortable there, that's key. And then I like to visualize bringing my toe into the ground because everyone's weight drops back and then the weight goes back into the heel. And when the toes come off the ground, then your weight shifted backwards. And you know you did that wrong. So if you consistently use the wall with your heel off the ground and you're driving and swinging the leg back, swinging the leg back, that's how you kind of do it first, initially. Ah.

You know what I mean? And then little by little, you do it with a partner. Start off with Kenken Uchimata so you get comfortable with it. Okay? Don't try to do the lifting, launching Uchimata. You're never going to get it. Right? Ah.

And then you want to progress through it. This video that I made is not really like a step-to-step, like learn the basics. It already kind of assumes you know the basics. Uchimata, yeah. Because every person who's buying these videos already have a Judo sensei. They're already in the room doing Judo. They know what Uchimata looks like. They know the traditional wa. Let's skip over that basic nonsense. Right. It's not nonsense, sorry. The basic stuff that already isn't working for you.

Yeah. Right. Right. Right. And then I go right into like the contextual stuff and then the different types of Uchimata and then how to add things and elements to make your Uchimata better right away. That's the key, right? Dude. That's how I'm doing. I want to buy it right now. You should 100% buy 10 of them.

Yeah. Same thing though. No mace rate, no. You can get it for $9.99 instead of $10. This is fun. A hundred simple payments of it too. So I can give out all the, I'll buy 10 and I'll give it out to my 10 other judo friends. Yeah.

Yep. There you go. So what else? So it's more about like how to make your Uchimata work, assuming you know. Kind of, yeah. Do you talk more about the setup or more combinations of all of the above? Maybe you can give us a little teaser. The idea is, man, it's giving you a conceptual framework of like how it begins all the way to how it ends, right? And then it comes in many different

forms yeah which matter is yeah right and it's like sometimes it's this sometimes that i show this i gain here i go there i move here i'm gaining an angle here i show this and then i go for that and then the person doesn't see it coming because you have to always take into consideration what your opponent's seeing right if you're only looking for one thing and then you only have one entry to it, they know what's coming to. Right. Right.

Right. It's like when you're, you know, playing basketball and you can only go to one side, that's it. That's me playing basketball.

It's like I can only pass to the right. Right? Yeah. And I can only do a layup to the right and I don't have a shot. You know what I mean?

So if I fake a shot, no one's going to go to block it because I'm going to miss anyway. Yeah. Right? So I to the right and I don't have a shot. So if I fake a shot, no one's going to go to block it because I'm going to miss anyway. Yeah. Right? So I fake the shot and I go around, but like everyone knows it's coming. How do I make that work? Right.

It's just not going to work. Right? Right. I need some tools. Right? And it's like someone would have coached me on basketball. It's like, all right, first work on your jump shot. Right?

Work on your jump shot and then maybe cut back to the left side and then pretend you're gonna go that way right so i suck at dribbling the ball with my left hand so it's like get better at dribbling the ball with your left hand right so now you can kind of zigzag right and then all of a sudden you know you fake going to the right he stops and then you fly by and then you get a little bit of space and you jump shot right so now you kind of have this visual right every sport is very easy to see this kind of thing because it's so intuitive.

Put the damn ball in the net, really. Right? But, oh, just go ahead and put the ball in the net is the equivalent of, oh, here's, this is the traditional way to do Uchimata.

Go throw that guy. So I'm kind of giving the tools of like, hey, stop and go. Here you go. Fake the shot. Go over here. You got to get good at your left hand. You know what i

mean did you guys like my basketball it's good right oh yeah dude that i mean that's how it is with all the sports right basketball judo feints and you can't be one-sided basically it's like a game of chess it's chess it's chess bro you have to take account what the other person's doing too right anyway thank you guys uh i'm sorry if it was a little bit choppy this video because peter's camera crashed on him but it's okay you know you guys get the gist i have this 10 minute judo uchimata course it's super concise super easy literally it's like 10 minutes it's 10 less than two starbucks coffees go please check it out and then you know i want to make more of these.

So please let me know if you guys liked it or not. Seriously. Reach out to me on Instagram. If you liked it, ask me questions, you know. Sounds good. All right.

Well, thank you guys for listening and we'll see you guys in the next episode. Thank you guys.