The Shintaro Higashi Show - Leo Lopes: Empire State Judo | The Shintaro Higashi Show

Episode Date: August 11, 2025

Join Shintaro Higashi for an in-depth conversation with Leo Lopes, a central figure in New York’s thriving judo community and a visionary in growing the sport nationwide. In this episode, dive into the story of Empire State Judo; the rich culture, the challenges, and the future of judo in one of America’s biggest judo hubs.🚨 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!

The Shintaro Higashi Show is sponsored by Judo TV, your premier destination for live and on-demand judo coverage. Never miss a throat. Hakuun AI. Hakuun AI helps you measure, predict, and solve customer churn. Visit Hacquen AI and start your free churn on it today. Hello, everyone. Welcome back to the Shantara Higashi show.

I'm with my great friend, Leo Lopes. Dude, can you give everyone the next one? Give us a little intro about you, man. My name is Leo Lohsi. We've known each other since we were teenagers back in the day. The owner of Total Form Fitness Judo Club, current president in New York State Judo. Love Judo, love wrestling, love Jiu-Jitsu,

been doing it my whole life. Long and short. Yeah, that's awesome. I love that, man. And you know, you know what I love about you, man? There's a lot of judo coaches out there doing judo, teaching judo, but you could do judo. Good. Thank you. I love that. It's like one of my favorite things about you. And you just showed a Tomonagi on your Instagram. And it was so sharp, so clean, so stable. But, you know, a lot of people can't distinguish between the two, you know? Can you tell us a little bit about, like, how you started judo as a kid and your competitive thing? And, like, you know, maybe it's a little bit sensitive, but like how you kind of went away from judo and then came back to it later in life. Sure, absolutely. I started judo. We came to America from Brazil. I started judo. We came to America from Brazil. I started judo.

like around 9, 10 years old. I think I was fortunate and lucky to have a coach who was also came from a very good pedigree. He was a Brazilian national champion. He had moved here to America to work. And he, I guess, came from one of those top sensees from Japan that had moved to Brazil. So the training was solid. We started as kids. We grew up in Danbury.

Parents always working. So we were always hanging out, you know, on the streets and fooling around. And this guy saw us one day. And he was like, why don't you guys come to the club? We went down to the club on a Saturday morning. And I remember practicing, working out, loving it, and then put us to do some Randori. And he had this girl that was really good back in that time. And she slammed me, knocked the wind out of me, saw stars.

And that was kind of my start. I was like, oh, I can't let that go. I'm coming back tomorrow. So then we started competing in the area, started training. It was the Boran Memorial Judo Club at the time. So in Connecticut, we started doing all those tournaments in Connecticut, some in New York during my time. A little bit older guys than me, there was like Brandon Griskowski, Chris Cummings, Tony Gizio.

So Connecticut had pretty solid judo back in the day. So I got to just come up in that pipeline. and from then, you know, got into my teenage years, judo kind of kept me grounded, kept me out of trouble. And then when I got to high school, my parents decided to, I got to a decent level. By that time in high school, you know, I was already kind of competing against some of the top guys in the country,

certain tournaments. I was winning. I'd won Amcans, Liberty Bells. I turned about 16. I turned 16. That's when I started competing in the senior black belt division. I think I won my first Liberty Bells and MCANS in the senior black around 17, 55 kilo and 60.

But I wasn't a citizen. So my biggest problem in the U.S. was always, you know, the heartbreak was that we weren't citizens. So I couldn't compete on the national circuit. So I couldn't get exposure. I couldn't get. So then I started wrestling. wrestling didn't have any of those things and I wasn't really doing any freestyle or greco

so that never kind of came up I did well I did well in high school and as my first after my first year I know you give me a hard time that I was Connecticut but whatever it is so I did well I mean I started winning in high school

and I got I started as a varsity in my sophomore year as my first year wrestling a few you know about a month into the season, I was able to secure a spot. Do you have the record right now for most pins or wins in Connecticut or something like this? Yeah, I'm not the record. I'm like a second, I think, second on the all-time list for my high school record. I was like 100 and 10 and 3, something like that.

So the percentage. Percentage-wise, I'm up there in the books. All judo, right? I mean, at the end of the day, all that was judo. Like, you grab my leg, I was just going to throw you. It didn't matter. And you had a full ride to a Division I program. Yeah, eventually I went to, first it was Southern Connecticut.

Again, the citizenship thing did come into play with the financial aid. But at Southern, it was a Division II school. I got a full ride to wrestle at Southern. Did well there. I started our first year, but my sophomore year, they dropped the program. So going into my junior year, my brother was coming out of high school. He was a highly recruited wrestler. So we kind of both got a package deal to go to Sacred Heart.

And we wrestled at a sacred heart. But like a lot of judo players, you know how it is. Immigrants, too. So life's a little bit tumultuous. So things get in the way. Life gets in the way. And my parents had moved back to Brazil. I had this wonderful family who let us stay with them.

The Camisa, as you know, Frank and Frankie. Yeah, yeah. Head coach at Bridgewater State today. And Mark Camisa was his dad who's president of USA wrestling in Connecticut. It's done great things for their program there. But yeah, so it was just like kind of a back and forth. So I kind of got to start with judo because I had done well. And I couldn't go any further.

So I moved over to wrestling. And then I would say like around 2002. So all of that happened between like 91 and 2002. And then 2002, we were able to get, um, 1999. 2000, we got our paperwork. And then like 2004 I got my citizenship. Wow. So then around 2002.

I started making a comeback. I was like, man, maybe I'll get my citizenship before, you know, it was Greece, right? It was Athens and didn't come through. But I was able to kind of climb my way back up, claw my way back up. I wanted to miss Midwestern Classic in Chicago. I'd one of them cans again that year. I probably got up as high as fourth at some point. But, you know, what you know, it's tough, man.

Like, it's not institutionalized. There's no system. So if you don't have, you know, the finances or a backing, it's kind of difficult to be out there. Especially if you're training at a mom and pop shop, you know, and there's no big team. And, you know, it's very difficult to kind of make it through, especially because there's no support. There's no financial support, you know? Yeah. Yeah, it's a rough time.

But I was, I had the pleasure of watching you do judo because, you know, we kind of grew up in the similar region. And, you know, the first time I met you was that a Jimmy Pageo Training Cat, National Yeah, yeah, I remember that. And watching you from the sideline just smoke all the top guys in the country, you know, and it's like, who is this Brazilian dude, you know? Yeah.

Why aren't you competing? Why aren't you doing this? And you're like, ah, you know, I'm illegal. You know? And it's like, wow, what, you know, it's kind of nuts, you know, that you could be so good and not, you know, kind of be in the spotlight.

Yeah. And I think there's a lot of us out there, right? There's a lot of us that, there are tons of foreigners here. You see them. Like, who is it? that kid from Georgia, like that, uh, Tertsvili, what's the name? There's one kid, the 66 kilo, um, I'm blanking on his name at the moment, but like, you'd see him just smoking everybody.

It's like a different level, right? There's like levels. You see this guy and you're just like, Jesus. Yeah. So it's kind of sucks. I mean, it was definitely heartbreaking. I definitely have, but I'm happy because look, at the end of the day, guys like you, it means the world to me like you

I feel pretty I feel respected in the judo community the guys who got to see me train or trained with me I didn't get to the highest level like you guys didn't get to participate in the world or in Olympics but judo is judo you know that's one language on the mat like it is what it is right I'll tell you though man you know what it is

like most people can't really distinguish but if you're watching technique online the best guys know who has good technique yeah let me show you my tatoshi and then someone does it and they're like I used to be a champion. It was like, where are you?

You know, but then when you see somebody who has refined skill, ripple technique, so sharp and clean, it's like that guy is good, you know, even though it's in like a cooperative setting, like you could tell. No, I think you could tell. I think the body moves the way the body moves. In our eyes, you know, I think you're used to seeing

or we spent our whole life trying to be perfect, right? So then when you see someone that, you know, could use a few more reps, you're like, hmm. you know so at the end of the day definitely like i always try to like i think that was always a philosophy in my dojo especially with my my sensei perr i was like you got to be perfect you got to try and be perfect you would you call me he's got to be perfect your practice has got to be perfect yeah and then in the wrestling i think the wrestling mindset also helped that right because wrestling like it's just a different animal like in the u.s and i feel at times that like it's almost

the opposite of the rest of the world in judo um judo is big outside the u.s wrestling's huge here you know like i don't know a ton of brazilians that do wrestling freestyle recco you know it's not in the schools it's a niche sport but when it comes to you know what's funny story man you know veto chowlin did you yeah of course yeah dude he told me he won brazilian nationals in wrestling yeah but you know and then he competed in the pan ams and wrestling i was like oh my god you must be unbelievable and he goes not really like my jiu jitsu's good but you don't know like no one does wrestling in brazil right you told me that and i was like how could you be wrestling in the pan am championships for wrestling and not be good and you're from brazil he goes no one does it it's

it's not a popular sport and i think it goes back to like not being in the schools there's no system it's just like judo here you know what i mean like we do have some amazing athletes here you know like yourself, Travis, Kayla, Ronda. We had Olympic medalists, Justin. But, you know, wrestling in Brazil is even on a small level. They've never had any Olympic or world medalists. So how much judo did you do as a kid in Brazil? None.

All my judo, I started judo here. I actually thought until now that you did a lot of judo in Brazil. No. You started late. I started late. My coach was Brazilian, though. Pereira? Pereira.

was Brazilian. That's Brian Pereira's dad? Brian Pereer's dad, yeah. He was good. He was real good. That guy was the Brazilian national champion. Japanese sense,

one or two from Jagoro Kano. They had those old crazy stories, you know, like in order for them to get their black belts, they'd fly in two Japanese guys. You had to beat them. If you didn't beat them, you didn't get your bell.

So that was the school. Yeah. That's kind of nuts how that existed in just like the middle of nowhere, Connecticut somewhere. You know? Well, Danbury's not quite the middle of nowhere. I know like those Westchester boys think it's in the boonies.

Yeah, for sure. I mean, we had solid, though. Connecticut at that time, think about it. Like, you know, Raskowski was on the team. He made a few Olympic teams. Chris Cumming was there. Alex Adiano. Oh, I don't know he's from Connecticut.

Yeah, that whole crew was all Connecticut. Interesting. Interesting. So those guys all kind of paved the way, I would say, to create a solid, you know, pipeline for those where everyone's coming up. And then you took that experience in judo and then you started a gym, total full fitness, and then you have a very successful gym. So tell us about that. And I want to get into your coaching and ultimately I want to get into the New York State Judo, like administrative government sort of a thing that you're kind of doing. You're the president of the New York State Judo.

So, yeah, let's start with that. Like your gym, your business, like how that happened. And you're very successful at it, too. You ever run a gym? You know, I think it's not like a lot of these guys are like, oh, I'm a teacher during the day and I go teach judo at night. No, you have a full-blown business slash judo school. So tell me about that.

Thank you. Thank you, Jen. I have a gym. I started Total Form Fitness in 2007. So in college, I was doing some personal training. I started working in Scarsdale for another gym called Evolution and then decided to go out on my own. Started in a small little like 800, 900 square feet. But with that mindset of like never quit and wanting to be the best, I wanted to, my original idea was I was so passionate about trying to make it to the Olympics.

It was the only thing that, you know, I ever really wanted to do. but you know that didn't happen so I wanted to create an Olympic training center right so I wanted to create a fitness facility that I could cater to athletes who wanted to go to the highest level through physical fitness but also cater to the parents and cater to the customers who could afford it right because most athletes are broke at the end of the day right they're chasing dreams and you know but there are a few out there who have the support but so I wanted to create a spot that you know the parents could come and feel good, get better, get healthy, and where the athletes could, you know, reach the highest level,

you know, have, you know, a V-O-2 max machines, all these different types of equipment that could give you data-driven results. And from that on, I just kind of started working on myself. I had to, life got complicated, you know, about my senior year of college, so I had to kind of come out of that and start working. So with that, I started working on myself, business skills, books, whatever, everything that we can do to kind of grind and just hustle and figure things out.

And slowly I started growing my gym. I went from one employee to four to six to eight to 12. And then I was able to get a second location going. And I've been managing those ups and downs like small businesses all have. COVID came in and just threw everybody for, you know, complete tailspan and been recovering from that we recently moved to a slightly smaller facility which has been great you know less overhead all different kinds of things um so i'm very happy i'm happy with the gem the gym is definitely um provided a very stable you know lifestyle for my family for myself um it i feel like

it's growing again and great great guys and stuff of the best guys yeah and you have a multiple business too you did contracting a little bit you did the what is it the flooring yep yep the epoxy flooring. I'm kind of one of those guys that like just a serial entrepreneur. You know, you're... You're the same. Look at you. I'm the same. Yeah. Bitcoin mining. I love that. I'll never forget, man. You were like, you know,

you know, man, like downstairs, I had this rig in my gym and it's eaten up a ton of electricity. Every time I turn the power on, the whole neighborhood would go down. Yeah, it was bad, dude. I got a really sweet wife. Let me tell you, she's very supportive. I had 40 Bitcoin miners going

at one time in my basement. So definitely been a wild ride Trying to make it Just try to be successful At the end of the day That's what it's about right So you come here You have that mindset

Especially I think immigrants in general I think all of us Like all you know guys who get to a certain level In sports Whatever it is that you are very driven in At the end of the day I think it ends in success right We're not

We're very success oriented people And so all of these ventures All these things So I got some stuff in Brazil. I'm trying. I'm trying things everywhere, man. Awesome.

And then in the last five years, you really started Total Form Fitness Judo. Used to be like a little program in your gym. Yeah. But now you have a standalone program, right? And it's kind of the most amazing thing is you get your kids involved in the judo. Yeah.

Yeah. Tell me about that. So Total Form Fitness Judo, I actually started way back, man. But like, I didn't really do it officially. You were actually one of the people, and I think Jimmy and some conversations that I had with some people, Jay, that really made me kind of change how I looked at judo. I kind of think I had the same mindset as a lot of clubs in judo where it's like a hobby. You know, it's an after-school thing.

It's like it's a thing I do after work. And I had a small program going back to Jojo and Miomi with the real. could be dojo in um in stanford so that was like 2004 and in 2007 when i opened up my gym i wanted my my kids were little so i was like man i got to start this thing and then i had vicky you know vicky's dad uh victoria gonzavis she had her dad had reached out to me asked me to train her at the same time my nephew matt um and pj they were nine 10 years old my brother was coming down to Total Farm Fitness

for them to work out John Marsh was there so Pete was bringing down Diesel he was bringing down Chris Crawford Matt and Pee Jean

I was like they were like yo would you do judo with the kids and I was like absolutely be my pleasure so I kind of started

that was like the beginning that was like just in the back room of the gym it was awesome dude it was like a small underground fight club for judo

young like up and come in and I would dip in every now and then and work out with you guys there wasn't like a full bone adult program but like youth program like everyone knows PJ Duke now he's like a star in wrestling you helped guide him in judo

you were his judo coach yes and did you wrestle with him to at all no he had always he always had coaches he had um katee he had he had various places um that he worked out and he had you know

His wrestling was, you know, the other guys taught the wrestling. But I wrestled, so what I would say, look, this position here, this is where you could see the judo. This is where, you know, wrestling is going to see it this way. This is how I see this position. You know, here, you know, I have a, I have a, I have a wizard. Everyone is thinking sprawl separation. I'm like, I'm pulling you up on my hip and I'm launching you. You know what I mean?

So just different perspectives. And you can see it in his style now. Very much. Body stuff. And then people don't like tying up with them. I advise you not to, but you know what I mean? You know, he is, you know, I've been saying it since he was a little kid, you know, like, he's just different. You know, if you know, like, when you know, you know, if you've been to a high level, you've touched many Olympic champions and camps and training, sometimes you just touched that unique person.

And I think the amazing thing about PJ is, one, is his mindset, right? Like, his mindset's different. You know, he, he, he is trying to run up the score on you until the last second. He has that judo mentality. Like, I always remember Koga saying, like, my coach used to tell me, if there's seconds on the clock, I still have a chance to win. And he embodies that. But I think he's also the first one shin that's been able to blend both styles effortlessly. There's no thinking.

There's no lag. Yeah. It just, it's natural, you know. trust me i've tried with others it doesn't flow the same yeah um so i started that it started growing and then it got to the point where it was interfering with my business i would have 20 kids running through the gym i remember that i remember that too and i remember like you know these guys doing pull-up's dad and then it's a very different demographic the judo kids that were tough that were going to be champions and then the primary demographic of Scarsdale clientele, very different

group, you know? Very different. One is private personal training and the other ones are judo guys, right? So like wrestling and judo. And, you know, what was great about that time, and I'm back to it a little bit, but we could train those kids hard, right? So like the things that we encounter today, it's just different times, right? So, like, Matt, PJ, Chris, Diesel, I mean, their dads were like us, just 100% in.

I mean, trusted us with full faith and said, you know, we want to be the best in the country. And so those kids were doing things that, you know, you just don't see kids doing today, you know, physically and on the mat. And then with that, having talking to some other people who have been successful in judo, and I just was like, you know, if you're really going to make this thing a real thing for your boy, for your. your boys and my daughter and my daughter at the time was really good isabella won the u.s open one national shit one everything i was like you kind of got to make this real like you can't just be doing this as a hobby you got to have a place you got to have partners for them um p j's dad used to always tell me it's their friends you got to have their friends you got to have friends they got to have friends if they don't have friends in the program if they don't get they're

hanging out with going to rock climbing paintballing they get they get bored like they're not going to want to do it yeah you know so I was like I got to do this real so then in 2000 in 2000 around two I would say 2016 25 right right when COVID happened sorry it's 2019 yeah um it's wonderful client of mine his name is Colin Morris he um also came here from South Africa, you know, big hedge fund guy and done tons, super nice guy. I was telling him about my project. I wanted to create a dojo, but I wanted a dojo that did both. That was very important to me. My dad, my dad got sick when he was like 61, 62, he got dementia. And he had always told me about this dream that he had, that he wanted to make a sports school for underprivileged

kids. So I'm telling Colin, look, I have these kids. They're high level. I think I can make high-level kids, but it's also important for me to try and give back, you know, because I feel very grateful for all the things you know have given me. So this, he basically helped me start my dojo, you know. He came in and he funded the project. He, I got the mats, I got the, the wall pads, everything. And, um, and that's, that's where it started, you know, and it was awesome. He, I have kids, I have refugee kids.

I have a kid from Ukraine in my program. I have a kid from that from Afghanistan. in my program. I have kids who have, you know, autism in my program. I have kids, all different kinds of kids, but I also have kids who are ranked top five in the country. Yeah. So it's been a good experience. Nice. And then so now that you're in the dojo game, you're running your dojo like a business, you're teaching the kids, coaching the kids. And, you know, my kid goes there sometimes. Yeah. Hasn't in a while. She chose ballet and ice skating over judo, you know, and I'm kind of trying to get her back into it. But I don't want to be too forceful. But anyway, we'll be back, right?

Yeah, for sure. In the meantime, you've grown this thing to this amazing dojo, and you have a lot of position now in New York State judo. Like, what is that whole thing about? Like, what is that like? Like, what are we doing for judo in the New York region? How can people who are listening to this apply that to their region? Yeah, I think, you know, when I came into New York State,

it was kind of going through, you know, Rusty Kondoggi, the lady who got judo into the Olympics she i believe started this whole thing way back in the day and um they've been running it for a long time and i think new york state had a point there where it was hot you know had you had the st leger's had darius you guys were you know i would say half of the national team was from new york state dude new york had a roster a roster roster yeah and i think ultimately i have two goals i would like to get us back to that you know obviously on the competitive side, right? But I think that we need to really come into to the reality of we're not an institution.

Like judo is not in the schools. We just need more people doing judo, right? So, you know, the competitive aspect is one thing, but I think the main focus is just trying to get more people to do judo. You know, and when I came in, it was pretty broken, right? So we had COVID, I mean, dojo's got killed. Jim's got killed, you know? Yeah. The senseys had a hard time kind of rebounding.

If you were running a place that was like a hobby, you didn't get any PPP money. You didn't get any money to help you kind of stay afloat, you know? And so we took that on. We had basically like no money in the bank account. We had like, I don't know, a little bit over like $1,500. So that's very difficult to run anything, right? You go to rent a venue.

You know what it's like. Any venue you rent today. So, you know, we've been able to, you know, we're somewhere up in the mid high 20s now. We've gotten the state tournament back and running where now I'm starting to hear people talk about, hey, there's the New York States. New York States are back. New York States are back. What is that again? It's in November.

So November, open to everyone, right? So open to the jihitsu guys, the guys, those guys want to come. Like, we're, that's the other thing. I think that's my main mission. My main mission, I think, and there were the few things that, like, when I came in, I wanted to see change. So when I came in,

we were still doing paper tournaments. So I was a huge force in pushing for us to use an electronic system, like SmoothComp. Originally, I did the first, my first one was using Flow, but SmoothComp just turned out to be friendly or user-friendly for us and just better. Ricard, the owner from SnoothComp is awesome.

He's very helpful and accommodating. And, you know, now, of the whole USA judo system is run on smooth comp which makes things much me and you talk about this all the time remember showing up with your kids that's 9 o'clock in the morning waiting till 3 day in the afternoon to fight we don't want to do that and you have to find your index card with your name on it right and then if you didn't report that you won to the front desk they forget about you and then the wrong kid goes up in the bracket you're like no no no i won that match and then you can't change it remember all that yeah brutal remember like at the liberty bells

you just have the card. You have to find your card in the morning and you couldn't lose that thing. So, you know, kids would always lose that card too. Of course they're going to lose it. They're nine years old, bro. Yeah, why would you not lose it? Yeah, they're too worried about, you know,

I don't know, the snack they're going to get after the tournament, you know, whatever. So that was one of the big things that I wanted to do is modernize the system a little bit. And we were able to do that. The second thing is what we're doing now. I think that, you know, yes, the numbers are better, but in some ways, they're embarrassing when we compare it to other sports, right? It's embarrassing. It's embarrassing. Yeah. That's not, I'm going to be, you know me. I'm straight. I'm going to be honest. No, yeah, 100%. But we can't be patting ourselves on the bag. Oh, we increase the membership by 8%. Like, we got to really go really, really big here. You know, we've got to double, triple these things.

100%. 8% is like 10 people. Yeah. It's like, you know, like, we want. We want. You're not, you know, we have thousands of people doing judo in the U.S. Wrestling has hundreds of thousands. Yep. It's true. It's just a different game. How do we do that?

How do we do that? I mean, I know you have your idea like big time NCAA, NCAA, high schools, you know, all that stuff. But something like someone listening to this podcast right now, like, all right, actionable thing, you know, small stats. Like, what do you have based on your space with New York State Judo? Well, I have to put it out. out there in the universe, you know, that, yes, that is my long-term life mission is to somehow convince the people at USA Judo or someone out there to get us officially to become an NCAA sports so that when a kid comes into our dojo's at 8, 9, 10 years old, we can say

the parents, there's a pathway for you to go to college. Yeah. That is, again, my ultimate life goal. They do have an amazing program now at UNC Charlotte where, yeah. Yeah. So this is legit, super hyped. I'm actually bringing four kids down next month. Talk to Ed Lidie and Israel Hernandez is running the center. You apply to the school. If you're ranked in the country, you pretty much, you have someone that will help you with the admissions process and all that. You get automatic in-state tuition. So that's a huge help for kids. You know, it's tied to Chapel Hill. So you're going to get a UNC degree. Pretty amazing. And if you're ranked, they will help you with some funding. So that is exciting. It would be nice to have a bunch of those out there.

But I think, like, if we're going to start at the bottom, I think it's just getting more people, more grassroots programs. I think doing what we've been doing, me, you, Colton, doing these dual New Britain and Skelly and all these guys, trying to go back to those community-type events, right? So, like, we do dual matches, we do quads, we do tries, We do all these interclub tournaments to, not even, let's say, in tournaments, but like, workouts. Yeah.

You know, I think those things kind of help. I think those are going to keep the community and kind of the spirit alive. But at the end of the day, I think coach development, you know, also developing our coaches to understanding, like, we can make a professional living doing this. getting more guys to be um you know all in yeah um and partnering partnering with different you know jujitsu gyms like just being more open you know what i'm saying because we don't have the luxury of saying you know this is judo you know i think that that time has passed yeah you know um i think we need to reach out to the wrestling communities i think we need to be involved and, you know, guys like you and I go back to our high schools and we, you know, show something.

And they're just being more involved, more engaged. I'm excited. I think the younger generation is starting to kind of take over. I think the older generation set, you know, the groundwork. But I think we're different. I think we're hybrids. We're not, you know, one-track minded. Look at what you've done.

You know, I think you, Justin Flores, some of the social media stuff has, brought judo back into the spotlight right it's yeah you know you can look at like i don't i think it is absolutely spectacular like what kela harrison did she won two olympic gold medals Travis won a silver but how much did those medals translate to more kids on the map i don't think that much ronda yes ronda during that time period i think yeah and i think ronda caught the unique moment in the UFC where I was coming up and coming it was spectacular we see a woman out there just like killing it you know what I mean unstoppable and trust me Kayla's unstoppable right oh no she's the monster yeah but you know how do we translate that into bodies on the mat

you know and I think that it's it's it has to do with us just being more open more welcoming and having guys like yourself doing the podcast you you bother me all the time to do it you know you're like like dude you got to put yourself up and i'm just like oh it's not me but at the end the day i think i i run it back in my head i'm like are you hurting judo by not doing you you know what i mean yes because then for everything that you don't do and all these other guys who aren't good do it you know yeah that we want better content out there for everybody so a guy like you should be kind of making content out there what do you think about like you know my primary demographic that I like

is adults, right, for judo? Yeah. I have a big intermediate adult program, you know, but you are really much more focused on the kids. Yeah. That is the sort of the path to growth of judo because I feel like once you get

adults and they feel like it's cool, they buy more geese, they, you know, spend more at these events. I don't know. I feel like that's a, I'm not saying which one's better, but why kids and not adults? The honest answer, man, adults break too easy, man.

That's the honest. You know, like, judo is hard. Wrestling is hard. It's tough. You get slammed on your face and your head. And I'm, you know what I mean? I'm old school, dude. Like, I'm really, like, you're coming to train.

Like, you're going to get thrown. Yeah. If you're not getting thrown, then what do you want me to teach you? You know what I mean? Like, you want to learn a water level down at judo? But I've also changed, man. I have a decent adult program now, and I understand it's for fitness and education. It's not my mindset with the kids is like,

I feel like I can be really impactful. I feel like I can take a kid who might have like been getting seasoned school or been headed down a wrong direction or just maybe a kid just by traveling didn't have the exposure. And I enjoy that. I enjoy making the feeling like I'm making a difference, right? What difference am I going to make in a 45 year old lawyer's life? You know what I'm saying?

Yeah. That, you know, has this. Yes, I can give him maybe a quality better life, give him some more confidence. he can walk in the office and feel like, yeah, I can, you know, smash some dudes in here. I can slam somebody. But like that kid, like Leo, like Tantaro, who could have went, you know, down the wrong way. And we were, instead, we were at a tournament or he just set his minds on, like, being better than he was yesterday. I don't know.

I just think that that's kind of where my, I get more drawn to that, you know, like, I enjoy that process, man. I enjoy the process of watching them grow up and, and, you know, watching them overcome like you know there's nothing better right like go you know this like yeah you find this one doing this dude keeps beating this crap out of you and just smashing you're like you just go back and like man hate that guy you know like yeah yeah and then you get up in the morning and you go run in or you go do some pull-ups in your room and then that one time you beat him you're like gotcha now that's it the best you know so like I enjoy watching that from the outside I enjoy, like, putting in, like, little, like, confidence seeds in their head, like, not today, but tomorrow, you know?

I got to bring my kid back. I got to bring you back there. He's not thinking about you, but you're thinking about him. You know what I mean? So, like, that process for me is exciting, you know, whereas with the adult, it's, it's, it's different. I get it now. Yeah. You know, and I think for, for a business, for the growth of judo, you know, it's important to have both.

Both, 100%. It's important to have both. Yeah, you know. Yep. And you know, the best people to be on the mat is like a dad that brings their two kids and all three of them do judo together. Yes. Like there's nothing better than that.

I never lose those guys because when the dad's doing judo in the beginner adult class and then they get their orange or greenbelt and their kids are in the program, they talk about judo. They go to the events together. That's really the ideal, you know, it's ideal. It's 100%. It's the family. I have that family right now, right?

I have a family, the Gregory's, the dad's, his yellow belt. The boys are like orange, green. And, you know, I crack up. Their conversations on the ride at home, you know, he tells me, he's like, dad, he's like, what was that that you were trying today, dad? That's not like, that's not judo. What are you just going to lay down again in your family? I love that.

I love. They'll never stop, because it's true. It's the family. And what I love about that situation, though, dude, the best thing that I love is this. like before the parents do judo they're always like telling the kids you got to do this you got to do that why don't you just pull them down and then they tried judo and they're like oh it's a lot harder than than i thought you know so those are my definitely my favorite so we're working on i have two great guys now i have a c and bert um they're running the the bird's helping with the

kids and the adults it's we're trying you know the black belt yeah yeah so it's been a great addition to our team he's yeah helped me a ton and you know just staying focused on not only the judo but also the business you know it's not easy it's a lot to cover sure where do the guys find you like people who are listening I'm sure they've seen you at the competitions uh wouldn't they find you on the internet

the seed the stuff that you're doing yeah so involved with new york state judo um the new york state judo the best way you can get involved i mean is showing up to our tournaments and donating you know to help us you know we're trying to kind of put some younger teams together to go to the quebec open and just really do some training camps at the end of the day, I, instead of giving individuals money, I would like to start hosting some camps like

what we did, you know, like, um, I think that's where you really develop, um, I'm more than happy to work on that way. Yeah. I mean, and we need it. I mean, I've told you this a million times. Like this, this is not moving. The needle's not moving without guys like yourself and guys who are actually out there and can't move the needle. Um, and also to give back. I mean, the, the wealth of knowledge that you bring to judo on the mat, off the mat is something that, that, you know, these kids need to see and touch. And, you know, they can find me on Instagram, Total Farm Fitness Judo Club. TFFFJW is my website at the tournaments as well.

The goal is to grow. You know, I would love to see judo at the next level, you know, in terms of just numbers. Yeah. You know, we have Olympic medals. We have world medals. We have amazing guys. But it would be nice to, like, have a dude, you know. Mike, jujitsu, look what jih Tzu's done.

Yeah, man. You know, so. Yeah, if we all have 300 person gyms, man, that'll be great, man. It's like so many more guys just doing it, period. Yeah. You know? So that's the goal. Yep. Well, thank you, Leo, so much for being here.

And, yeah, it was great, man. We've got to have you back on again. I appreciate it, Shin. I appreciate you having me. Thank you for everything that you're doing, man. Really definitely elevated the game for all of us and just getting us out there and keeping, you know, judo still in the line. So appreciate you.

Same here, man. Hi, brother.