The Shintaro Higashi Show - Leveling Up Your Judo

Episode Date: August 2, 2021

You know your throws. You know your ground techniques. But, for some reason, you just can't land them during randori or competitions. This is when you need to go beyond basic techniques and "level up" your Judo. In this episode, Shintaro and Peter discuss how you can take the next step in your Judo journey and "level up" your Judo. Please support us on Patreon if you can: https://www.patreon.com/shintaro_higashi_show. Any amount helps!

Hey guys, how's it going? My name is Shintaro Higashi with the Shintaro Higashi Show with Peter Yu. Today, we're going to talk a little bit about leveling up your Judo. Like, immediately leveling up. Right. Ways to think about it, ways to approach it. A little bit of techniques and tactics and stuff like this, right? So, yeah, so we're talking about, like, you know the basic techniques, you can do the throws. Everybody knows the

techniques right but then like exactly osorigari ochi how do you level up from there inside trip outside trip arm throw everyone knows that so maybe like oh you can't you've been working on this particular throw but it doesn't really work in andro that well but how to how to actually like level up and you know execute those throws in the real setting that's right so so what uh what would be the first concept that you would recommend thinking so let's start off with like okay how do people train most of the time here's an arm throw do it arm throw arm throw arm throw doing it repeatedly repeatedly now it's like go try it right doesn't work you're only going for arm throws doesn't work there's no context surrounding it right there's a lot of precursor skills that are necessary before you can throw

the person with an arm throw or you're attacking a very specific time right so now you can look at it like ipan sanagi kochi complementary because it goes back and forth now you have two attacks right it's like if you're wrestling single leg leg high crotch. That leg, that leg. I'm attacking the right leg. I'm attacking the left leg. Now you could chain those two moves together. But chain wrestling is a little bit different from judo because when you're chain wrestling, there's nothing holding you back with the gi. If someone has a hold of you, now you're stuck in that position.

As opposed to wrestling wrestling inside control can slip right hand position is very very fleeting right unless you take the person out of position so grip fighting positional fighting looks a little bit different from wrestling and judo right so now you're thinking ipon senagi koichigari back and forth but it's not enough because you haven't really taken into account grip fighting yet right right so that's level two immediately putting together techniques in a complementary way but knowing that's not enough to be able to throw someone consistently right so here's a couple of uh yeah go ahead oh just uh i was gonna ask so when you how would you suggest you uh people practice the combination? Just like kind of when you do uchikomis, just try to do, pick a combination and work on it?

So before I even like talk combinations, I just want to talk complementary throws. Complementary throws, yeah. And then the basic level up is misdirection. I fake one way, go in the other direction, right? I fake this way, I go like that. Like if you're doing like a crossover in basketball. Right, right, right. Right? It go like that like if you're doing like a crossover in basketball right right right right it's like that i see so it's not about just like oh pick a pick your favorite two throws and then practice them together it yeah it can be yeah it can be but misdirections first because that concept is a lot easier to understand

so you pick two techniques going in opposite directions right and now you can sort of shorten the complementary sort of opposing directions right kochi tayo right so it's going like this like this right it's angling off like that's just the same side yeah yeah based on the opponent's reaction right right right and a lot of people do this kind of thing like okay i go kochi into tayo why doesn't it work uh what am i doing wrong it's not what you're doing wrong it's the opponent's reaction if they're not giving you a specific reaction that second technique's not going to be there. Kochi, tai otoshi. Small inside trip to the leg throw. Tai otoshi, body drop.

Right? Trying to hit this. But when I go kochi and the person drops to his stomach, there is no tai otoshi. That's just an extreme example. Right, right, right. That's always sort of that range of like, how is this person reacting? Inside trip, the person's hopping away from you, right? And going backwards, there's no more turn throw because he's not giving you that reaction for the turn.

So a lot of the times like Ouchi, Ippon, Senagi. Back attack, forward attack, right? So now we're trying to drill this and people are trying to force it. It doesn't feel right. It doesn't feel right. Yes, because the person's hopping away from you and the momentum is going in that way therefore ochi osoto inside chip outside chip because they're going in that same direction yeah right so now it's like not that's a little bit more of a combination as opposed to a misdirection right

right right i see so that's sort of the tier up from just doing inside trip, just doing outside trip. And you have to have that fundamental building block to be able to make these shapes of these techniques with a cooperating body. You have to have that before you move on to this. So you have the individual attacks. Now you have the complementary attacks. And you're going to drill these things using this misdirection concept. Like make it look like I'm going this way and then i go the other way right right right so then so now uh you you kind of learn this uh uh complementary

attacks and then like kind of misdirections and whatnot so what what what would be the next level would be sort of combinations now now yeah and i've already made that example ochi soto and i'm reading my opponent's reactions right right right so that's sort of the next level up from there and now we're not really talking randori yet we're only talking cooperative i see not even render because if we're trying to apply this idea now we're drilling this stuff i want to do this to peter in a live setting and slam them right like yeah we have to have position we have to have better positioning right if you're pulling down on my head and then my posture is compromised i'm not a very athletic athlete there yeah yeah i'm not capable of making these movements because my movement is restricted

right right so if you're going to do it in live then you have to have positional advantages positional abilities right grip fighting even if you're losing right there's degrees of how bad you're losing in position right right right if you look at an extreme example right if i'm down on my hands and knees and you're behind me with your hooks in you have my back we're doing nirwaza there really is no tai toshi or ochi or soto that's an extreme example right right so there's varying degrees of that right i see even if i'm losing my position just a little bit i can still kind of go for stuff right although maybe it's not the most the smartest thing to do, but you still can go for it. I could overcome slight losing positions by being stronger or faster

or surprising the person. I could still do that. I see. So you kind of gave us some examples on the complementary throws, like the Sasai to Harai, all these opposing throws. elementary throws you know like the society to her eye all this like opposing throws so what are what would be the what would be some of the examples of these combinations you already mentioned ochi to osoro so there's like a a little bit of different way to mixing things up here right yeah so misdirection really is like i do one thing the person gives me me a reaction. I fake that one thing and go the opposite way.

Right. And so people confuse that with combinations. Not really a combination. I'm anticipating a reaction and going in the opposite way. That's sort of that complementary thing. Right. Boom, boom. Quick, quick, quick.

Right. Fake Ippon Senagi gives me a defensive reaction backwards. Fake Ippon Senagi go Kouchi. I see. Right. But if I do an ouchi boom create space and the person pushes back into me I turn and drop senagi and now the person's going above me right that's a little bit more of a combination right I'm putting together two moves in a way based on

the person's reaction I'm doing it on the fly almost I see so it's in the first case the complimentary throws you with the first technique you're not even trying to throw the person with the first technique, really. I do it once and see if they bite and then if they give me a reaction. If they give me a reaction, then I can try to exploit that reaction. I see. Yeah. But on the combination side, you're really trying to throw with the first the first throw but then if it fails you immediately go for the another one potentially right because it depends on like if i go oh the person keeps

giving me a certain reaction right right as opposed to like faking it and then going into something else i might try to force that same reaction and then use that to go for the next thing yeah right mixed direction is almost like a direct attack. It's like a much shorter direct attack. Right, right. So you have direct attack, misdirection, then combination. I see. The difference between misdirection and combination,

it's just a little bit more of a longer form for the combination. That's how I try to classify it to make it a little bit more understandable for people. I see. Yeah. And then the better position you're in, the more likely they are to respond to the first threat, the first stimulus. So, yeah, let's talk about the positions. Because, you know, all these combinations, misdirections, all complementary throws wouldn't work. Because we were just talking about working on these in a cooperative

setting but we have to move on to non-cooperative setting and then for that you need positioning yeah right so how how would you you know recommend people work uh work on that well there's a whole gripping system right whole positional advantage system kind of hard to teach them now right i guess like listen to me like right hand goes here left hand goes there right so you can check out my youtube videos and then i have a ton of videos and resources on that right right uh but the general consensus is right better position of your hands lead to better application of your techniques right right the better position of my hands the more the threat is for you to get thrown therefore you're much more likely to respond and react to my initial threats right right

because essentially like uh you can force your game onto someone else instead of you reacting to whatever your partner is doing yeah and grip fighting and positional fighting a little bit different grip fighting you're coming out the gate and just fighting for grips fighting for grips a lot of initial contact stuff is very important positional advantages and positional adjustments you're already linked up and now you're making small adjustments to gain incremental position right a lot of the times you do this by attacking the feet moving off balance and showing threats and then adjusting a little bit more. So now you have contextually, the entire context of the thing. You're not just doing inside trip, outside trip, hip throw.

You're doing grip fighting, positional adjustment, and positional fighting, direct attacks, misdirections, combinations. So you see how it sort of cascades all the way through. Right. And then in between, what you don't see is the feints showing the feints cloaking your attacks right right if it's a direct attack a lot of the international guys right grip fighting advantage adjust a little bit looking for that asoto right they don't just dive bomb for one asoto gari right like fake. You're like, fake the Soto, fake the Soto. Right. Quick feint, quick feint.

So now you see how the other person's reacting. Does that person respect your Soto? Right, right. He's leaning in the opposite direction. Now you could fake and then do a misdirection to Sai. Mm-hmm. Right?

Right. It's like, yeah, so it's more like you're kind of approaching your Andorra matches in a more, like you're kind of approaching your Andorra matches more. Like you're thinking more.

You're like trying to make the throw happen instead of just going for the throw directly and whatnot. And all these are specific skills, right? Right. Grip fighting, advantage, over the back, fake Asoro, fake Asoro. The person's like, ah, this guy's not going for Asoro. Asoro, boom! Right? So like now, you you know you have a real threat wow and if you could get yourself in that

advantage position every single time that a soto is going to be very powerful but you can't just bomb a soto every single time because they could just wait for it so that's why you cloak that attack right fake fake fake fake pause pause hey i'm going for it hey i'm going for it no i'm going for society now i'm bombing your soda kind of like that i see i see you see what i mean yeah and it's and all of this i mean it you know it's hard to just it's not easy to get i think it requires a lot of practice a lot of practice yeah but you can practice all this stuff you know and i think there's a missing element a lot of the times when people learn a new skill yeah new learn technique new learn a new combination they drill it for five minutes in a absolutely cooperative setting

and now okay try it go live which is like 70 to 100%. Right? There's a big gap. There needs to be sort of an intermediary. Right. Where, okay, I start with advantage. I'm faking, faking, and then going. Right? And I'm only limited to these attacks.

So now the other person's giving some sort of defense, like 30, 40%. There needs to be that intermediary step. That's something that I've been really trying to work on and teach and preach at the dojo right now. I see. Positional drilling in a way? Yeah. It's like drilling, but it's not really drilling.

It's like modified live almost. I see. I see. But specifically to acquire a certain skill. And, you know, it was a big thing that was missing for a while. Right. I think in the training. And I think a lot of people missed it.

Because it's like, okay, Uchikomi. Here's technique of the day. It's Ochi. Go like this. You know, go do it in Rondori. Go. Right, right. People figure it out.

It's like, ah, I can't do it. I can't really figure it out. I don't understand why. Because there's a big, big gap between learning the technique, doing that one throw. And then hitting it in the live context right right because in a live context the person's also trying to throw you they're trying to counter you trying to pull your head down they're fighting position they're going for grips they're doing ipon senagi they're dropping to the floor they're attacking their waza they're doing all these different things and you're just looking for that ochi ochi how do i do

sensei i can't do it i don't know what's wrong going on and then sensei's like you're not making the circle with your foot it's like no man that's not what it is right right person will probably know the person will probably know how to do ochi properly it's just all the other context around it yeah and sometimes they just can't even make the shape of the throw period you know and then you really can't hit it right and then they say it doesn't work i quit right so i guess yeah this is more of a like a modern more modern way of training i guess in a way because traditionally like in japan there's they could have more mess met time and more bodies to train with so this kind of just happens organically yeah and it's this deliberate

practice situation right that's like sort of in the research now with like if you're looking at tennis and you're looking at a high backhand right right now it's like okay uh i how do i hit the high backhand you know whatever it is and you like oh you go like this okay, how do I hit the high backhand? You know, whatever it is. And you're like, oh, you go like this. Okay, great. You know, do it a few times and now you're playing tennis. And now how many times do you encounter that specific shot in one game or one match or however you call one setting, one practice?

Not that many. Right. But if you have a great coach, like, hey, we're just going to specifically work on this high backhand. We're just going to hit the ball to you every time. You're going to encounter this same stimulus, you know, 150 times as practice. Go. Same thing. Over, over.

So now, next time you see it in a live setting, they're like, there it is. I know how to do this. Boom, right? You didn't hit it. Same thing in judo. Losing position, tomonage. Right. It's like, okay. How many times have you done it yeah how many times have you been in the exact situation going for that

exact same tomonage right that many since they taught it to me the other day i did it four or five times now i'm expected to hit it in a live setting no it'll never work so now all of a sudden you're in a live vandori setting and then you'd span a minute like six seven times every single time every single time the person gets dominant position you drop to your back go for tomonage no one's gonna want to work out with you right right so it has to be a specific dedicated drill of like all right man we're gonna go like 30 i'm drilling this specific thing you could focus on grip fighting and beating me in grips i'll let you get there once i get there i'm gonna work on my tomonage give me like 30 resistance okay right so now oh outgrip fake the tomonage right and then you're doing it over and over so you get 10 15 reps right in a two three minute period so i uh so you said you this is like a

you try to dedicate more time to the for more this directed prac uh drilling or practice i should say yeah i'm trying to right i'm trying to and i'm preaching it a little bit like so if someone is doing you know specifically asking me these questions like hey man during uchikomi time do this kind of a drone set and i've been kind of doing that i see i see not everyone can do it at the same time not everyone can do this period because a good portion of people can't even do tile period right right right so they have to be able to do it and then if you have a partner that can't is not a good uke who can't take the drills period now right you need knowledgeable resistance you need skilled resistance so it has to almost almost be this person can provide skilled resistance.

This person can provide resistance at, you know, X percentage of intensity, right? These two people can work on it. And this person's working on this. This person's working on that. And now there's sort of a synergistic thing where they can make each other better both. And then I'll be like, all right, you guys work on this right okay you guys go over you do that do do oh so when people ask you try to pair the person up with the right okay not when people ask because a lot of times people asking questions that aren't going to lead to this kind of a drill a lot of the times it's

questions like hey sensei how do i do an arm bar it's like don't it's like go ask that guy instead you know that's not you know right and i won't be a dick about it but it's like that's not this drill doesn't really fit into the person that doesn't know how to do an armbar yet right right right this is idea level up yeah so this is a level up episode this is not for you know maybe for white belts yeah right but it's the uh the assumption is that you need to know the basics like you need to know how to hit it yeah a little bit yeah right i it's the uh the assumption is that you need to know the basics like you need to know how to hit it yeah a little bit yeah right i think this is more relevant than waza because everybody can provide and then there's a lot less fear right right right pass the guard

guard retention pass the guard guard retention 30 30 speed you're gonna let the guy pass your guard because the goal is to do guard retention right guy passes the guard You're going to let the guy pass your guard Because the goal is to do guard retention Guy passes the guard You're trying to retain guard You're going to let the person do it Because the person on the bottom is drilling To grow the retention It's a cooperative drill at 30% resistance

Yeah, I noticed that too I noticed that In BJJ practice This is more natural I think Well, there's no fear you could have two beginners do that now it's like all right we're gonna do 30 speed where you're trying to throw a sort of guardian the other guy and then guys chopping at the knees they don't want to get thrown they get stuff and up and now it's like you can't do it you just can't do this

drill safely yeah you know so this sort of has to come into play a lot later when you have skilled opposition, safe people in the room who can benefit from this kind of exercise. Right. So that's like the leveling up part. This kind of like this kind of points to the important fact that about judo where it's not just about throws. You need to be able to take the throws well as well. You know, you need to be able to take the throws as well as well you know you need to be able to be a good partner be able to be a good partner not just to protect yourself but to you know improve help each other improve yeah and do this kind of drilling yeah yeah and you need a good person to sort of guide it if you're taking the drill

yourself and you're having a conversation like oh you see what i'm doing here i'm stepping out and going tile it's easy to take two three minutes of that drill time and spend it explaining to the other person and now you're just talking the whole time no one's actually doing anything like it's very very very very very easy to fall into that trap and i see that time it's like hey man you guys worked out together for four minutes i saw maybe four attacks right like what are you guys doing stop having a conversation you know and i always say like all right we're drilling this now go ahead do it uh no one needs to hear your dissertation about the history of osotogari like give one thing that's feedback one feedback and then let them work on it right especially when there's like a brown belt working with a yellow belt brown belt working with a white belt and

then they're just like explaining it right no your pinky's not in the right place your toes are not in the right place you're not pulling enough kizushi's not there blah blah blah blah blah and i'm like man shut up just freaking let the guy work because yeah all the all those like small details will be picked up by doing them you know you gotta do it first yeah you can't just sit there and listen to the person it's like why wouldn't you just watch a youtube video then they didn't actually do it right and then if you're gonna give feedback give one feedback right make it concise as i always say in the dojo less talking more judo even when i instruct you know i limit my instruction three minute chunks that's it right right i do three minutes go try it give individualized feedback like walking down the line hey peter you do this

or yeah and why don't you guys work on this or whatever it is all right bring it in this is what i'm seeing across the board you know 40 of you guys are doing like this we're going to refine it if you already mastered it we're going to do this new thing here go try it three minutes three minutes three minutes that's it go try it right right so like three minutes instruction four or five minutes to do it three minute instruction four or five minutes to do it efficient a lot of reps reps yeah i see that's 15 20 minutes right there and then on dory yeah well nagakomi maybe yeah oh yeah yeah nagakomi nagakomi yeah that's i guess nagakomi in a way is uh yeah it's more of a that that one you need a good uke too because you and then people tend to chat chat chat during that time too yeah it's like they

get on nagakomi matt and they're like how do you do ipon senagi it's like no man stop asking that question right now this is you're holding up the entire line right you should be just doing a ipon senagi right now like ipon senagi boom boom boom what am i doing wrong like am i doing this correctly feel good like what should i do am i pulling enough it's like just freaking do it man i saw this on youtube the other day like can i try this on you and then it's like um what is it it's like a soda with one arm with a front flip it's like no you're not trying that on me man oh like the competition was like the ronda ralphie thing where you just yeah that's so much all over yeah that's uh flip soda it's like no you're not doing

that exactly yeah well so we have to the basic fundamental thing is you have to have a good foundation you have to know the individual techniques you should be able to do it you know uh in a cooperative setting like perfectly then you can add things on like the complementary attacks feints combinations not and then you can move on to positioning like grip fighting positioning yeah and on top of that you know to work on these things you need to be able to also take that your falls right you have good uke know yep um so it's like this is the level up this is i think this is the real like the where the fun part begins or more frustrating part in a way yeah a little bit frustrating yeah yeah yeah you know and then you could look at nirwaza

transition which is the biggest gap in judo right it's like all right we're doing nirwaza one person gets into this down position okay let's start right yeah all right we're doing the waza one person gets into this down position okay let's start right yeah all right we're doing the waza okay i'm gonna be in bottom guard let's go right as opposed to like judo hit the ground boom the waza begins right who trains that i got national training center trains that all our olympians in the united states train that right dojos do they specifically train that sometimes it's hard right for us too it's like when there's too many people on the mat which is like a frequent occurrence nowadays it's like we can't actively train

transitions because bodies be flying people be getting hurt right so we compartmentalize the training all right we're doing stand-up cooperative drills now we're doing there was a right we don't let these people do tachi waza here and there was going on at the same time because someone will land on some right and that's from a safety and safety perspective right we have to do it like that but that's the biggest gap of june that's the beauty of judo nirwaza over other types of nirwaza yeah because you're really attacking that transition because once you're settled on the ground you only have a finite amount of time one two three four five nothing's happening back up to your feet it's like freestyle and greco wrestling parterre boom hit the ground go for

the gut wrench or lift right away if nothing's happening and you're trying to settle your grips instead of this like okay okay back to your feet right right yeah i think that transition it there was a big gap in my game too i've been trying to work on it but you know i used to go if i go for a turn through like saving nage i'll expose my deck and i will get choked a lot in the competitions yeah and things like that because yeah you're right like how many times do you actually get into that situation during practice yeah i mean you should right i mean i have days where if there's not that many people on the mat which is very rare or at the end of a practice where most of the people have

done their rounds and they've gone home it's like all right yeah you know we're gonna go three pairs on the mat uh failed failed attack transition to nirwaza that's what we're doing right nirwaza transitions and then a lot you've seen me do this okay losing position grip fighting as soon as you you know lose position with the grips you go for tomonage transition there was over on the pass and go right right seen that kind of exercise but it time is so limited when you're running a club right right right you can't really focus and you know people don't like deliberate training that much and it's like specifically doing the same thing over and over and over and over just for the purpose of winning it's not really fun for a lot of people right sometimes it's uh figuring out the

game and being involved in playing this game you know what i mean it's like you enjoy playing chess but how many people enjoy doing tactics yeah or like chess tactics yeah exactly you love baseball right but just working on one small aspect of the game generally is not that fun right you know and people tie together doing those tedious boring exercises with winning that's usually the general motivator right but you know if you're not competing right for fun if you're doing for fitness right competition's not really right right in your mindset then then you know you don't get that much out of these drills right i guess that's not a challenge i mean i think yes and that is true but i think there are ways to kind of

frame the drill this deliberate training in a more fun way like try to yeah you can like yeah you can kind of gamify it like because it's all about the instant gratification and then you get into this you know virtual cycle you know for sure for sure what's been doing like uh okay start in losing position stand and go i've been doing a little bit more of that yeah you know for sure for sure what's and then doing like uh okay start in losing position stand and go i've been doing a little bit more of that yeah you know well it's a but i like i said this is this can be frustrating this leveling up process but this is i think where judo really becomes judo to a lot of the beginners like when you start you know looking at these different aspects of judo yeah and all right well um anything else to add before we end nope that's it hope you level up in judo reach out to us mostly peter on instagram at all hours of the night yeah yeah

yeah thanks for listening guys and stay tuned for the next episode yep bye