The Shintaro Higashi Show - Making a Case for Judo

Episode Date: October 4, 2021

If you're like us, you may frequently find yourself in situations where you have to "make a case" for Judo to people we meet. Why do we do Judo? What are the benefits of doing Judo? In this episode, Shintaro and Peter discuss how we could make a case for Judo to people from all walks of life. Please support us on Patreon if you can: https://www.patreon.com/shintaro_higashi_show. Any amount helps!

hello everyone welcome back to the shintaro higashi show with peter you today we're going to build a case for judo how do you explain judo to your friends that are like hey you've been doing that karate thing right since you were a little kid right right how do you explain yourself what is judo how do you do judo like what is it about people who say oh whenever i my favorite is whenever i say i i do judo they'll be like judo chop yeah judo chop how do you deal with judo chop that's right yeah so we you know this episode we were like talking about like oh you know how could we actually explain judo to people and maybe you're on a date maybe you just uh met a person at a party yada yada

all that kind of situation always yeah building a case for judo and it's not one size fits all yeah right because people come with many different stigmas when we're talking about martial arts right maybe this person knows nothing about martial arts and the only thing that they know is what they see on the mcdojo life yeah yeah some people believe yeah some people believe in no touch knockouts and then it's like what do they already know what do they think about it right and how do you not really sell judo but like get them to understand because it's something that we care so much about yeah right so okay so i think we're gonna go through some scenarios i thought we were gonna structure it that way so uh say let's start with someone who has zero knowledge of judo. So when they say, oh, I do judo.

Oh, yeah, that is also. Say you're on a date, right? You're on a date. Okay, we're on a date. Date. And this woman you just met. And when you say, oh, she would ask you, like, oh, what do you do? And then you say, I do judo.

And then she goes, oh, like karate? Ha ha. You know? So how do you explain judo. And then she goes, oh, like karate? Ha ha. You know? So how do you explain judo to her? First, the most important thing is not to get angry. I've seen situations where people are like, no, it's not karate. Oh, my God.

It's like, how about this one? Oh, my little brother does judo. He's eight. He just got his black belt. It's like, yeah, it's like not the same. Or not even judo. They would say, oh, my little brother does taekwondo or karate. Yeah, there we go.

It's like, oh, I have an orange belt in taekwondo. Like I have my birthday party. I got to cut the cake with the samurai sword. Okay. So immediately what I want to do is distinguish myself from that. I want to be as far away from that as possible. Right, right. I immediately tell her, like, okay, do you know anything about judo? Obviously not.

This person has no clue. Right. She's talking about samurai swords cutting cakes at birthday parties. Right, right. So the first thing I do, right, is what is judo about? I do judo. What is judo about? Okay.

Judo, it's like you ever been scared that someone takes you down and holds you down against your will right that's the fear of every woman really right right street right it's a real thing you know louis ck did a bit on his comedic sketch about like men are the primary threat for women yeah yeah number one not heart disease not cancer but men oh right comedians talk about this all the time girl goes out to the bar right they're going home men like oh man yeah i don't hope i don't puke i get home go home right right right the men is like am i gonna get home safe that's yeah it's number one thing yeah so i immediately go there and then say you know what you ever been scared of this right it's a real

thing right judo prevents that now it's serious now it's not like ha ha ha you know kids karate oh of course i don't want to make it like a serious thing right right yeah i was gonna say like that's a pretty uh heavy thing to drop on a date you know yeah but you know already now i'm distinguished there's a shock factor there right and then so what's that like yeah yeah it's like yeah you could train safely. There's lots of different chokes and holds. Let me show you. I see. I see. Okay.

Then you like sort of break the touch barrier. You do an arm drag and you put them in a rear naked choke a little bit. Right? But of course, you have to get the consent. Right. And it's playful. You have to be playful. You can't arm drag her and choke her in public.

Yeah. Let me show you something don't worry do you trust me right do you trust me right right right this is like a dating coaching sort of podcast that's really weird like do you trust me no let me show you right yeah just like keep it keep it light you know and then you know right so then like i'll grab her wrist like you're comfortable you okay let me yeah you know you asked her consent and then she's like okay yeah i'm good show me right then you grab the wrist you arm drag you spin her and then you put her in a choke hold right right and then you give her one little quick information you know obviously i

can't take her down and throw her on the floor there yeah that's why i opt for the arm dragging the choke which is a little bit more wrestling nogi yeah there's all that stuff in judo too right it's not super judo but it is related to judo and it's as close as judo oh then it is haya karate right right now when you're in that rear naked choke it's like okay notice my arms are reinforced i have my head position probably choking on my head opposite side and then you get to you know give a little hug yeah and then now it's playful now it's like oh so she has an actual like gets an actual demonstration of a technique you know it's not like and then you know if she wants to know more about it a lot of the times you do that you know two second read they're interested not interested right they're like they want to know more oh this is really cool right and then you

start feeling questions and then you could sort of explain it like you know yeah this is part of judo but the biggest part is taking the other person and slamming them right right yeah because judo's like 80 on the feet how to take the person down and if you could take the person down and control them on the ground that person's not taking you down and controlling you on the ground and that kind of goes going back to that let me show you so now like now that's fun now it's like you know you've overcome you know cutting the cake with the samurai sword my little brother does karate right and that's sort of my quick entry into judo now that person knows judo right right right you could also sometimes like pull up a video on youtube and like look this is judo yeah but that could kind of go wrong in many ways too like sitting around

waiting for a youtube video i know yeah it's kind of annoying you can't you know then you get like some dumb video and you have to scroll through no not this one not this one not this one that doesn't build a case for you or judo either right or you have to sift through all these garbage videos before you could find one has to be show off your thing more interactive not just watching the same thing together you know yeah so that's sort of my you know and it hits a lot of points right right it hits you know and it's a good sales pitch for judo too kind of right and if i'm there on a date with her you know this person you know not that i'm like available or anything but available or anything, I don't really want them to come to the dojo, obviously.

Separate worlds, right? Yeah. But if I wanted her to come to the dojo, now I can get her to come to the dojo. Right. Because it hits that pain point, that fear. It caters to that primal instinct of like, am I going to be safe walking home from the thing? Yeah. Or I can take this person down and the thing yeah i did not take this person

down and slam them i did not do this at all with my wife and she well not that she would be ever interested she's not like interested in me yeah she's not but yeah she she she knows what it is at least now you know yeah but anyway so okay so that's like a date situation so how about you're at a party or at a bar and then just like you meet a person man or woman dude you're into okay into dudes oh yeah it's a situation and the guy's like what do you do judo yeah it's like oh yeah yeah but guys are a little bit more knowledgeable when it comes to this stuff because in some way shape or form they have experience exposed yeah guys are always attracted i mean it's not fair to say but you know statistically there's more men doing this stuff than women so they probably have a little bit more base knowledge

yeah right like oh what do you know about martial arts generally my my question right after that is like hey you watch ufc that's always a good segue yes yes or no can really filter down right right so let's just say no right right right then so there's no not much knowledge about martial arts or you know yes doesn't even follow ufc and whatnot so follow ufc never wrestled before it's like hey judo is about taking someone down as hard as they can right slamming somebody they don't want to get slammed right cooperative non-cooperative situation conflict situation you take someone and slam them to the floor as hard as you can right if you can't slam them you drag them down to the ground and you submit them you

choke them on by them you crank on their arm right of course you have to sort of distinguish who you're talking to here young person gonna respond to that like oh man yeah that's cool right yeah yeah older person in their 40s they're gonna be like oh man that sounds horrible yeah right so now you want to go the route of explaining a little bit more about control it's like controlling your opposition so they can't punch you controlling your opposition so they can't kick you in the face you take them down with control so you could slam them on their head or put them down gently right controlling your opponent is the key right so so i usually go for like oh it's just to keep it short i just say oh it's like wrestling you know a lot of people i'm not interested in having a deeper conversation

about it it's the same as wrestling yeah i just say wrestling with a jacket on and i've heard people be like it's like the judo chop and then i'm like you know what like i've done this a bunch of times it's exactly that you're not worth my time yeah and i was just like look at him and just you know it's like oh yeah yeah judo chop yeah and then sometimes it's like you know yeah true to chop yeah and then sometimes it's like you know they think they're funny but they're trying to make that joke at the expense of me doing martial arts right right right and then you know you could always fire back with a little bit of negativity right a little bit of hostility it's like dude you couldn't do it if

you wanted to because you're so out of shape oh man that's and you've never been yeah you're not tough you don't even go to like what makes you think you can do any of this stuff? You can't. Get out of this stuff. Maybe that'll kind of poke him to the right direction. Maybe that's a negative reinforcement

kind of thing. Do that, you know. It's exactly like karate chop. It's what your brother does. You want me to try it out on you right you know so then how about this uh so we talked about people without martial arts how about uh you know you're at a bar someone sees your nice cauliflower ears like oh hey man nice ears what do you do judo bro and it's like oh shoot never done it i've only boxed or wrestled great you know ronda rousey oh yeah probably no ronda yeah everyone knows ronda she's like the ultimate pioneer for judo and mma right right you go carol parisian people would be like

yeah no yeah he didn't have a long career right right? Yeah, people in the know would know. But Ronda, she's pretty universally known. Right, right. Right? So that's like a, you know, kind of, I think that's why, you know, representation, this like kind of celebrity world is important. But if you've done martial arts, right?

You could build a case for judo in a way that it's advantageous for self-defense right right right you're in a winter coat uh-huh you're wearing a winter coat uh-huh you live in alaska guy attacks you he's wearing a jacket you can grab on it what if they don't have a jacket on you have to carry an extra pair of jacket guy wants to mug you here take this jacket put it on for a second okay i'll wait i'll wait take your belt off your pant belt you know the thing that's tiny put it around the jacket and then we'll fight no punching though no punching right right that's yeah that's a thing like a lot of nogi wrestlers might say hey you know why do you wear

the pajama kind of thing but this is the thing right yeah most fights in a bar that i've sort of ever encountered or been in you're not taking these wild looping punches a lot of times because you're in a crowded bar it's close range yeah you look at the subways too it's like you're shoulder to shoulder a lot of the times right and immediately when we sort of go into the conflict mode people do this thing like the bears do like they make themselves look bigger and they go chest to chest like yo what's up what's up right yeah there's no punching power there you don't even need to control the distance you know people think martial arts self-defense hands up control the distance you know out of range cut

the range close the range create the angles it's like no man you're in the bar guy spills his drink on you and you're like hey man you spilled your drink on me you know and he's like oh yeah chest to chest if a person doesn't do that and then actually assumes like a little boxing stance that you should probably not fight the guy right no it's more reason no no no yeah but then that's a different you know yeah and that's the beauty of uh being skilled it's like once your attention yeah attention is more important than anything you know you could do all martial arts in the world you could walk down the street listening to your airpods this is a podcast the shintori agashi show and you get jumped you know you're caught off guard right

yeah oh shoot this guy wants to hurt me he gets in a stance and you're like oh right what kind of stance is he taking right yeah back here doing muay thai is he like here with the boxing or does he take a wrestling stance or does he come up to you chest to chest like this and then you're like all right let me just sweep him. Just take him down. Yeah. I like kneeing him in the crotch first. The real self-defense. So that's the case of judo, right? For self-defense, people have this mentality of like boxing is great for self-defense.

Okay, yeah. What about an elevator? Situationally, up close. Even boxing. How often do you see two boxers in the clinch? Right. They're not good there. They're not good there.

Right? They don't... They get broken up. Yeah. That's right. Muay Thai has more in the clinch than boxing. Right. I'm not trying to argue which martial arts is the best.

I'm just arguing that there are elements in Judo that make it stand out for self-defense so this this is for like average people who might be more interested in the self-defense kind of situation like how many people know how to properly get taken down nobody you throw them control their head and whip their legs into the ground they're not going to stand after that yeah right that's right so the so that's on that angle so that kind of like you know go into like subdivide all these average people so like some people might be this is an interesting angle when you say when they when you say you do martial arts some people have this kind of spiritual view of

you know martial arts you know yeah you have to immediately start going like this yes grasshopper yeah start calling them different things and start talking and right analogies and metaphors so you have to be like water how do you how would you make a case for judo for these more spiritual people well luckily for me there's two very very deeply embedded principles in judo minimum effort maximum efficiency yeah it's like hey you like productivity you probably listen to productivity podcasts and read those blogs right right judo's about that and effort maximum efficiency it shows them the technique and then it's a vehicle for self-improvement through these principles we have an episode for that yeah i have an episode for that yeah and then also right what's the other one peter uh mutual welfare mutual welfare and respect

yeah people who are spiritual are all about respect right but what does respect really mean right and now you can kind of have this conversation and then it's like through taking each other down through the curriculum of judo through the belt system right you're trying to be a better member of society that's principles of judo the philosophy of judo mutual welfare and respect respect all people right think win-win situation stephen covey style stuff right be very efficient be very productive right now you're also a better human right through the art of strangling each other that person signing up the next day that's interesting yeah let's what about aikido though right right right yes aikido has similar principles too judo is a little bit

more practical have you ever been afraid of someone taking you down and holding you down against your will and then you can kind of like you know yeah yeah so another uh another end of the spectrum in terms of like people who are quite you know focused on the mental side of things it's the analytical people there's like a spiritual people on one end and there's some analytical very like you know practical analytical people want to who would like to think through stuff how how would you explain that uh judo to them or yeah make a case yeah we had a guy who came by for a trial right he was super frail but he was super into he was like a math phd he was a phd in math he was like in his mid was like a math PhD. He was a PhD in math.

He was like in his mid-40s, like an academic. He works in academia. He's a professor. We actually have like three or four of those at the dojo. But this guy was brand new, came in. He's like, hey, explain the strategy behind it. Like these two guys are just linking up, trying to muscle each other. It's like, it just doesn't appeal to me.

Right. You know, I ask all these questions. Yeah. It just really didn't appeal to him. He's a small guy. He's frail. He's not not strong he's not going to get strong right right why like why why would he do it yeah yeah so from a mechanical standpoint right it's like you want to fight for advantages it seems like these two people are slapping and gripping and just like hands are falling all over the place and they try to muscle each other right but you can gain advantage

in certain dominant and inferior positions right there's techniques for when you're losing position which puts you at a disadvantage naturally right there's advantage techniques that you can do from an advantage position right that's where you want to be right if you're smaller than the other person linking up 50 50 in an even position right you're much more exposed to the opponent's athleticism power size right you don't want to fight in that pocket right so there's places where you can fight where you can maximize skill and minimize your opponent's abilities let me show you an example right side versus right side i'm much bigger stronger and faster than you you're gonna take the mercy of all of it right right but if i

can't control your posture because you control my sleeve and that's the beauty of judo right you control the sleeve it's not going anywhere right right right there's a methodology and mechanics to hold the sleeve properly so it doesn't come out right so now you fully control my arm in what world can you control my arm when i can dumbbell curl 50 pounds. That's right. This person can control it. It's like, oh no, but it's my hands. My hands aren't very strong. But you're not squeezing the gi.

You're attached to the gi and you're moving with my arm. The only thing you're trying to do is prevent me from grabbing your collar, prevent me from controlling your head. You could do this methodically, skillfully. The gi makes things more methodical and intricate like that i guess yeah yeah and then i could go into the thing like think about the points think about the handles right can you grab my wrist it's

fleeting and sustained grab my sleeve here you grab here you grab here you grab here think about the permutations of right different combinations of you having control of the opposition right right so now you're playing this game of winning and losing right zero-sum game constantly it's always shifting you know people talk about problem solving emotions you know like chess and movement but it's like they can't really explain any of this stuff right talking on math phd you want to have this kind of an intellectual conversation with them and now they're like oh into it you know oh shoot okay so what are the dominant positions this is a dominant position let me show you let me show you why it's dominant right right you want to put two hands on the person you don't want two hands versus

two hands bigger versus smaller right you want one hand on you want to create movement and you want to catch me by going underneath right but there's limitations to this and just as if there's limitations you go against me me going against a gorilla right same sort of a thing yeah and there's physical limitations right i'm up front with that there's physical limitations right will you win the olympics at a heavier division no but it's something that you can do it's something that you can do. It's something that you can master. You can still come in and implement a lot of these strategies in a way. And it's super, super interesting.

And then even the throws themselves and the chokes themselves, all this pressure points, the physics behind it, it gets interesting. Did you say pressure points? Did I say pressure points? I meant like when you pin someone

i didn't mean like and then you pass out no i mean like that's a good yeah yeah so that's the case for judo right he's not interested in putting the hands on the guy drag him to the floor and choke him no no not in the least bit right because it doesn't really play to any of his fears right i mean fears yes but it doesn't really connect with him so now he's on the wave up with the cerebral side of things yeah oh good he got hurt well i think you know because he has that he's satisfying his cerebral needs like this mental needs so i think he'll come back it's relatable yeah right now you can watch judo and understand it right that's what it is because he's going to want to nerd out about it

yeah i want to understand it yeah right and the biggest barrier to understanding something like this is i can't do it oh it's all about the biggest stronger guy always wins right most of the time it is true biggest stronger guys always win uh because when you're watching the olympics something everyone's skilled. Everyone's technical, right? But you have to be big and strong to do this a lot of times. You don't see weak people doing it, right? And that's what we're exposed to when you look up judo competitions.

You see the people who are already good athletes, already tough, who also has skill. We're talking about just generally you doing it. And a lot of the times you're measuring people against people that are already good in the field but for you as a mathematician who's not physically inclined right you want to come in and just work out with average shows yeah and you can do that and after six months a year two years you can take down people who are much bigger and stronger through mechanics through right your intelligence which you feel so proud about. And in the process, you're going to get stronger whether you like it or not.

You're going to be more coordinated whether you like it or not. You probably wanted to be a good athlete growing up, right? No one doesn't want to be a good athlete. Yeah, exactly. He's like, yeah, yeah. So now I built a case for him. Why wouldn't you sign up? Nice. He's like, yeah, yeah, you know, so now I built a case for him like why wouldn't you sign up? nice

Alright, well, maybe now we cover the cerebral people cerebral people How about you talked about you just talked about the you know, good athletes and whatnot How about on the other side like I sometimes meet people who are super athletes tall play football in the one college or something They were basketball whatever like lacrosse very super athletic um but you know never really done martial arts and whatnot so why why would you tell them like why would they choose judo over some other sports they're so good at yeah yeah so immediately like when i get some of those super athletes right yeah and i've had conversations like they like do you think you could take me down oh yeah that people love asking that too yeah yeah and depending on where i was in my life

sometimes i'll be like yeah of course right and then right i mean it's like oh or maybe i'm nursing a knee injury i can't take anybody down right Right, right. So a lot of the times, like, if I'm trying to build a case against those guys and trying to get them, right, maybe they respond to sort of like that primitive, right? Testosterone-driven grappling contest. So with those guys, you know, being I own a dojo, I could just be like, yeah, dude, why don't you come by at like 4 o'clock or why don't you come by X amount of time? And then, right, they could come by and like four o'clock or why don't you come by X amount of time and then, right, they could come by and check it out.

You know what I mean? And then they really, really respond a lot of the times to the fact that, oh man, I'm a freak athlete and then,

you know, you take him down and hurt him. We had a guy like that. Remember, there was a big tall guy, I won't say names, he was a brown belt,

came, been doing judo his whole life. He's like jack the phatic and then you threw him and he i don't want to say what hurt but i don't want to say it but like he hurt he got hurt remember i do remember there was like when i wasn't long uh it was like soon after i joined and they weren't like really like that close so you pull me aside and stuff but you know for those people you've always felt powerful yeah who've always felt oh I play football I'm strong a big strong fast I'll take anyone out and they have this false sense of like I could also fight because I'm a big strong man right one's ever come across me yeah a few times I got

into it at a bar I was able to like swing hard or like out bluster the guy and the guy back down right it's like that lobster theory right like they bluster the other one goes down now like you know what i am good at this stuff right so sometimes for those people you need to get them in the room and then kind of you know put a little bit of a beating on them not the way they get hurt right but to make them feel like that fear that hopelessness and the helplessness right because they never really felt that. And you see that? And you're much bigger and stronger than I am, but it's technical.

It's technique. There's techniques. What if you meet someone that's bigger and stronger than you? You're going to need to out-skill the person. And these are the skill sets to be able to do that. Now they're much more interested in it from that side of things. I'm not saying big, strong guy, grab him, take him down, and beat on him things i'm not saying like big strong guy grab him take him down and beat on him i'm not saying that that's not what i'm saying right but sometimes

they really respond to that like showing them not like there are other sides of things other other aspects you know yeah yeah on the technique do you think you could take me down like dude you wouldn't last eight seconds on your feet like you, you count to five. You count down from five, and I will take it down, and then you will be squealing. I wouldn't go that far, right? Because I could kind of potentially escalate into something crazy. You know what I mean? In college, when I was like,

so there was a martial arts room in the gym, and sometimes football guys would come and work out there. Like, there was a punching bag. They love punching bags. And strangely enough, enough i mean these are like six four two fifty these guys right they'll watch me i was friends with some of them and then they watched me do judo with them and they actually didn't want to do it yeah they were like you don't want to get embarrassed by someone much smaller right maybe that's they get a running start yeah you're done they'll take you right off your feet and i don't care what you know right they got a running start you get like a brock lesnar type i know yeah but they're chest to chest and then you dip and then

you put them in a body lock and then you squeeze them yeah they're just not used to it yeah they're just not used to that and then you know they don't know how to tap right a lot of the times so you squeeze them just enough to where they're gasping for air and then they start scratching at you and then you release them then you go behind him uh it's like hey man i'm gonna squeeze again you know they start flailing and then you put your head in the middle of their back and they can't punch you because their shoulder mobility is not all there then you could like lift them and then clip them then take them down and hold them there right you've done that before maybe i was like but yeah this is so we covered a lot now you know dating uh date average person i'm not advocating violence on this just so you're right oh yeah no it's just uh just like this a control environment

you know mutual welfare we're just trying to make a case for judo because we here's another one will be beneficial to them for the for the gym fitness enthusiast it's a great workout resistance yeah i forgot about those you're using your opponent's resistance right you're trying to pull one way they're pushing one way but it's a great core workout right right it is a great workout yeah great workouts it's almost like you can't even say uh hit training yeah i was gonna say it is high intensity interval training you know and it's the equivalent of like olympic lifting it's fast explosive boom boom super technical right you like sports you're gonna like it it's fun right case for judo man there's so many ways to do it

right i hear one package you know thing that people always throw out right right but it's not you gotta tailor to people yeah it's about you know oh hitting somebody with the planet or it's about folding laundry with people in it or involuntary yoga a lot of that stuff just kind of makes me cringe you know holding laundry with chest yeah it's like motion yeah it's like explain that chest in motion why yeah you know what i mean that's where where people can find it very interesting i think one important point you're bringing up here is that if you want to sell anything to you know people you have to know the people the person you're trying to sell to like so if you want to try to

like sell judo to someone make a case for it you have to know what the person wants what kind of person he or she is and then you gotta yeah why you know how you don't have any friends like you can make friends at judo everybody's so friendly we all go out that lunch we go brunch after it was on saturdays yeah that's another thing yeah if someone moves into new york city wants to make friends and say hey why don't you come by yeah that's a that's a big point you know yeah so you gotta figure figure the person out like ask you know ask questions about them and yeah i mean i don't want to make this about like a sales pitch for judo but it's like you know building a case for judo it's like why judo why do you do it why does anyone do it you know why you should do it you know we cover a lot a lot of different scenarios

right yeah it's not about yeah it's just like oh we're not saying you gotta go out to the world and then you know no evangelize judo or anything it's like whenever this comes about all the time judo judo is probably gonna be a pretty a huge chunk of your life and someone will inevitably ask you about it yep and you can just make a case for it yeah that's right well all right well anything else nope that's it well all right you guys for listening yeah and uh yeah follow us on instagram and youtube yeah send us suggestions send us suggestions messages we're gonna do all that stuff yeah that's right and you know we will

uh if you guys send a suggestion we're gonna try to you know aggregate them and then try to figure out what will be the most interesting topic and we actually do them well you know if you guys have been following us we actually do address those in episodes so yeah keep them coming all right well thanks for listening and stay tuned for the next episode