The Shintaro Higashi Show - Making It to the Olympics for Judo, Then and Now - An Interview with Nicky Yonezuka

Episode Date: March 11, 2024

Shintaro sits down with Nicky Yonezuka, the second generation of the famous Yonezuka family. Nicky shares what it was like growing up in a Judo family with his father, Yoshisada Yonezuka, who was a highly accomplished Judoka in Japan, and making it to the 1980 Olympics at 16 years old. Shintaro and Nicky also discuss what it has been like to be the head sensei at the Cranford Judo Karate Center since his father's passing in 2014, and coaching his two sons, Jack and Nick, who are training to become Judo Olympians themselves. Join our Discord server and start chatting with us and other grapplers by supporting us on Patreon: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/shintaro_higashi_show⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Any amount helps!

Hello everyone, welcome back to the Shintaro Higashi Show with Peter Yu. Today we have a very special guest, Nicky Inetsuka, but before we do, we just want to thank our sponsors. We have Jason, Levon, and David, thank you so much. Judo TV also sponsors us, thank you very much. Thank you, Nicky, for being here, thank you so much. Thank you, it's an honor, you've got a lot of viewers. Yeah, yeah, a lot of viewers, and we're excited to have you.

For those of you who don't know, Nicky was a 1980 Olympian, right? Three generations of judo. His kid is about to make an Olympic team, knock on wood, right? So it's going to be an amazing podcast. Let's start off with that, 1980 Olympian. Yeah, 1980. Long time ago. I was 16.

I didn't have many accomplishments before that it uh i just got a wild card to um i think it took fifth i lost for third i lost to tamok for third in the nationals that year and uh yeah another name that goes all the way back yeah yeah he uh he he beat me for third in the in the nationals and they gave me a wild card spot so um after yeah i got the the spot to the i think they picked the this there were seven uh people in the trials and uh i won those trials so that's how i made the uh how old was tamok back then tam I think, is eight years older than me. Okay, so he was already like as an adult, mid-20s. He's 24, yeah, 24. Wow, nice.

Yeah, different system back then, right? Because it wasn't like your weight class had to qualify for the Olympics first, and then they decide who's going to go. The country decides, right? Was that how it was? Everybody, the country could pick one person per weight class back then. So it was a little bit easier to make the team than it is now. Very different now.

Yeah, yeah. So, yep. And back then they just had the one trials. And like I said, I had no other accomplishments really until in the senior ranks until, you know. So after that trials, they kind of changed the system to a point system. And that was in 1984, I won the trials again, but I ended up not going because Brett Barron, who took third place, had like a quarter more point than me at the time.

Oh, man, that sucks. Yeah, it was really. That's brutal because it's not like you just log on to the internet and be like, all right, how many points do I have, right? Because it's a little bit of a different time. Oh, man, that sucks. Yeah, it was really... That's brutal. Because it's not like you just log on to the internet and be like, all right, how many points do I have, right? Because it's a little bit of a different time. Yeah, it was like... I remember it wasn't like today's, you know, the point system.

Like, Jack's got 2,300 or something like that, right? Yeah. What's he on the world ranking list now? He's right at the end of directly qualifying directly qualifying like so i guess 17 there's 17 yeah so um that's 17 without doubles or are they is that without like doubled on up countries and stuff or no yeah so he's like uh i guess he's probably like maybe 19 but then there's two people that are uh in the same countries doubled up so he moves to the to the 17 so high man that's amazing yeah yeah so in 1980 was kind of an unfortunate year because it was a boycott right

yep so we knew we actually knew right i think right before the trials that uh we weren't going anyway yeah yeah yeah so how horrible is that well well at the time being 16 I thought you know no problem I'm gonna make somewhere some more teams you know and like I said I won the 84 didn't make it then so yeah never never never competed at the Olympics what happened after the 20s like Did you retire? No, I kept 88. After 84, I dropped. I was never a big enough 78 kilo. I was hovering in the

middle. I dropped down to 71 and I did pretty good in 71. I beat Mike Swain twice in the Nationals. Somebody just sent me a video of both 85 and 86 Nationals with Mike, and I might post it on YouTube. Oh, my God, post it.

I would love to see that. Man. Yeah, yeah. So I dropped down to 71 and did well. I won the Dutch Open, took third in the World University. Wow, that's so cool. Went to the semifinals, fought Koga in the, it's not the Tokyo Grand Slam, it's the Kano Cup. Kono Cup.

Kano Cup. Oh, Kano Cup. Oh, my God, that's right. That was a good tournament. Yeah, yeah. What year was that? 86. Wow.

86, I lost to Kogan in the semis, then I lost for third to a Polish guy. Nice. But then, oh, then I went for 88, I went back up because Mike beat me in 87 in the nationals, and he went to the Worlds and won the Worlds that year. And I decided to go back up to 78 and fought 78. But I wasn't like, I was again in the middle, But I wasn't like – I was, again, in the middle and I wasn't –

Yeah, it's a whole thing. I messed up in 88. Then I was getting – I wasn't that old. But in 92, I was in the trials again in 92. I lost to Jason and he took second that year. But – and that was it. So, 92, I'm like 29 years old and my back was bad after that, and I was like, that's it. Yeah.

I remember watching you compete at Senior Nationals when I was like, in 2000s, you made a comeback, and you were. Oh, 2008, I was 44, 45 years old. Yeah, dude, you came out of nowhere. And man, you know, because I grew up in New York, New Jersey, right? And I know your dad, and I know, you know, we're in the same community, you know what I mean? Yeah. But this is the thing. I was born in 1984. I'm 40 this year. So, and you're 60. So I never got to see you compete. You know, there was like a little bit of a, you were on your way

out. And then I was kind of like, just kind of starting my teenage IGF career. Right. Yeah. Yeah. So when you were like, I'm coming back to do a U S national, I was so excited, dude. And I remember you coming off the mat and you were like, I was like, Oh man, wow. That was, you know, and you were like, I've never been so tired in my life. You said those words to me. It was so excited, dude. And I remember you coming off the mat and you were like, I was like, oh, man, wow. And you were like, I've never been so tired in my life. You said those words to me. It was so funny the way you said it, though. Do you remember that? I'll never forget it. I was feeling good at Randuri at that time.

So I was like, you know, let's go down to drive down to, I think it was Virginia Beach and I'll compete. Yeah, that's right. So the first round, the guy threw me like Yuko or something. He was pretty good, but I beat him. I beat him, but it took the whole, like I threw him at the end. It took the whole time. Yeah. I was kind of like, because in my head I was still 20 years old

and just moving the way I was, you know. I got off the mat. I laid down, and I couldn't get up. Like I was, I felt like my kidneys were failing. Like I was dead, dead, dead. My dad was like, for the next round, he's like, you're on deck. Why don't you jump around?

Get used to it. I'm like, Pop, I can't even move. I'm done. That was it. Yeah. Man, here comes me. Hey, what's up, man? I can't believe you were out there. That's so yeah, yeah.

Man, that's so cool, though. I mean, your dad's a legend, right? Because he came to the United States. He was one of the pioneers from Nichidai. Was it Nichidai, right? Yeah. Nichidai, yeah, yeah. And then my father came with the Kukushikan crew.

So there was a huge group of New York, New Jersey, Japanese Judo teachers from the old school Japan. What was that like growing up? Yeah, I mean, that's when Judo was seriously, we had, I remember going to tournaments in New York where there was a hundred kids in your division and they had like a five, they called it a five point system. So if you So if you won by Ypon, you had zero points. But when you get five, you're out. So you would have like 15 matches to win the tournament. There was a lot of kids. It's way different.

And because of all those, like your dad, my dad, they were spread out all over New Yorkork connecticut and uh new jersey and we judo was big i mean it was just really really big back then and so many cool types of tournaments i'll never forget man you guys ran a tournament with the coolest it wasn't like weight classes age categories right you had your base weight and then you would add multipliers and things like this depended on your age and your belt. Remember that? I kind of remember that, but not too good.

Oh, man. I competed in a bunch of those when I was younger. Okay. So if you're, like, you know, under a certain age, you get, like, you know, this many points, and, you know, each pound that you weigh is a certain point, right? And then what belt you are determines like oh okay multiplier this and that so it'll be like all right you know 150 to 200 point division 200 to 250 point division so you could be like a lightweight advanced athlete and then go against a beginner heavyweight

yeah yeah which is like the coolest thing ever remember that did it work out good i don't remember how like uh it was awesome it was the coolest thing in the world because I remember being like a 13, 14, 15 kind of a young teen. And I was able to go with some of the West Point guys who were heavyweight white belts. You know what I mean? Because I didn't have any points from my age because I was younger than everyone. I was kind of heavy and I had a higher belt. So I would have to fight in the higher point divisions even though I was really young. And I had a higher belt, right?

So I would have to fight in the higher point divisions, even though I was really young. And you'd get these, like, super heavy guys. Or, you know, you'd get some middleweight black belts who were, like, younger, you know, like middle age range, like 20-something. So it was a really cool tournament, man. And you could do a lot of that cool stuff. Made it interesting, you know?

Definitely interesting. Definitely interesting. Yeah, man. So growing up, your dad, Yonetsuka Sr., was he tough? Yeah, he was really tough. He was, you know, very old school. He just wanted to make me the best judoka he could, you know. So back in his day, he would do all kinds of crazy, you know know old school japanese judo is they did some crazy

stuff and uh like so he would say you know like training after school like he had me uh do some of this you know stuff that he put two um like handles on a tree trunk yeah not too big like about like this big and he's he's telling me to do uh osotogari on this tree trunk for after school and you know he's not looking and i'm looking at this thing and i'm like i tried it a couple times and i'm thinking i'm not doing this you know it's not really uh but you know like pulling the bands like whatever all that so he was he just always pushed uh you know me and then like in randuri here or you know we would always – we'd had a lot of guys for Randuri. And like Alan Coage, remember?

You've heard of Alan Coage? Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's right. France medalist. Clyde, Mike, Mitch Santamaria. We had all these guys that – and like I go – I'm like, I don't know, 14. And I'm going with Alan Coage. And I'm a Marote guy, so I come in Marote

as deep as I can and as hard as I can, and Alan would just, like, spin me out, like, atop, like, you know, just, it was tough, you know, my father was, like, kind of telling him, like, you know, beat him up, you know. You know, just, not beat him up, but, you know. Yeah, of course, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, yeah. And that's so cool that you're in that building still right now right how long has that been the dojo been there uh 61 years 1962 a year before i was born wow that's that's the golden age because i think my father came to united states 1963 so in the 60s really all the japanese guys came and in the 70s 80s right really judo was such a big thing yeah new york new jersey yeah you know yeah they were all young back then so like they were uh you know doing randuri and killing everybody and it was like you know that that's how it you know when they're young you know it uh it blew up yeah and did you do a lot of randuri with your dad yeah yeah yeah

how was that yeah uh at the beginning you know he would just throw me around obviously like you know and then he got as he got older and i got better we got pretty tight you know and uh what age were you guys say like kind of nipping at his heels kind of uh that's nipping at his heels probably like late teens you know but then um it didn't get he's he hung in there for a long time where it wasn't like i was gonna you know throw him around ever you know yeah and i think after after he um kind of like what i do with my kids after i knew that it was a little bit too much you know like for me it was like five years ago my kids kids were not that old. I mean, five years ago, they're 17 or something.

Like, I'm like, you know what? I think I'm going to back off going right there with them a little bit because, you know. But, you know, same with my dad. But his was even, you know, longer. You know, he was. Yeah. Yeah. It's got to be tough, right?

When you're like at the dojo, you're 60 something and, and your kid's throwing you around, and you get home. It's like, all right, do your homework. And it's like, what? Yeah, yeah. Well, that would never happen. Man, so did you train Jack and Nikki like the same way that you were kind of brought up training? Yeah, yeah.

When my dad passed and i started teaching at the club yeah the one thing i knew was like i don't my business i don't know how to i've never run my own business or anything like that i don't know if i'm a good businessman at all i knew i you know i i didn't know anything about it but i knew i could make kids better in judo because that's all i did my whole life and i know how to because what my dad did with me so um that's what i actually told them when you know the first day i came back i told the class like that's that's what i'm going to do if you want to get better at judo i can make you better at judo and i figure that's the way they're going to stay because you usually yeah like doing what you're good at so if i can make these kids good

they'll stay and i have these this class uh twice a week i you know it's like the advanced class we called it or competition class or whatever and i it's uh i can i would select a couple kids if you're like uh it's invitation only if you're if you're able to enter that class, then I would push those kids. There's a few that came up with Nick and Jack that are still in that. Yeah. And I would push them hard

and do a lot of muscle memory, like drills and just like, just get them ready for, you know, like really, really a lot. And they throw a lot of techniques at them, see what sticks. And so Nick and jack came up with that and at first it wasn't you know they were younger so it was was wasn't um too you know

high level but it was you know and as they grew as they got their level higher and higher um you know the technique the different tech higher technique know, would really go up with them. And then the other kids, whoever's in that class, if they can hang, they can hang, you know, it was based a lot on, on Nick and Jack, you know, like, uh, yeah, that class. And a lot of them, a lot of them didn't hang, you know, a lot of the kids, uh, dropped out, you know, didn't want to do that class. And then, all right. So do your kids do judo every day at the gym at your dojo not at the dojo they they do it's four times a week and then uh after um you know off the mat you know they do other stuff you know and jack and weights and things lifting weights and but jack is really really uh he he's a like a machine like he kind of like he's like a shark if he's a, like a machine. Like he kind of like, he's like a shark. If he's not doing something, moving and doing stuff,

he, he gets maybe anxious or he's so, so he's very, uh, like I didn't, I don't have to push him at all with that kind of stuff. He takes it on himself. And he,

he asked a lot of questions like technique wise, like, Hey pops, what do you think about this and that? Uh, he doesn't ask a lot of questions, but I throw a lot of stuff at him and when i do throw stuff at him like it's surprising that sometimes maybe 70 percent of the time he's already kind of thought

of something similar so we're we're at this point you know we're kind of like in cahoots with you know not all the time but like 70 percent of the time he's already had a thought of yeah and he understands it very quick he gets it you know it comes to it like he knows exactly what we're talking about sometimes it's like nah you know i can't do that i'm not i don't you know but but you know yeah so like i watch your kid do judo on judo tv and stuff right whenever like i know he's coming up like that drop ochi that he does right like that's not like you never used to do that you know you're kind of like a stand-up toochie mata guy right from the very little judo that i've seen you do and the judo that i've heard people talk about what your style was like where did that come from like did you teach him that no i always i know how uh a lot

of other coaches are but my the way i everybody's's got to be – whatever you're good at, this is what you should continue to try to build on. I'm not going to tell everybody to do, let's say, sticky foot or – it doesn't have to be my style. But I understand all different techniques. But I understand all different techniques. So if you have a talent for Uchimata or Marote, whatever, Ochigari, whatever your talent is, then you build off of that to do other techniques from that. You know what I mean?

Don't change. Just do what you're good at and build off of that is my thing. Did your judo style reflect very closely to your father's style? No, not at all. Not at all. He was Hanegos. Yeah. He is Hanegos. I was Marote.

I was Marote and Ochi. Why do you think you were doing Uchimata? I did Uchimata too, but that was, it depended on the guy. Like if it was like a, you'll see like with, if I post that thing about with Mike Swain. Yeah. On lefties, I would do Uchimata because that leg was there i'm a righty so i would you know so uh it's harder to get in front with marote but um definitely yeah for sure especially yeah inside control

outside if you're on the outside you can't do more at all yeah i would do i would do left ipan and and and right uchimata oh Oh, that's a good one to have both. Well, that's what I would do on a lefty. But on a righty, I was always Marote. Nice, nice. So my style was a little bit more like Jack than my other son, Nicky. Nicky, he's just starting to pick up Marote now, but he's more of around the back and pull him in close, that kind of thing.

So that's your judo. What is your overall judo teaching philosophy? Like, we kind of have a gist, but, like, you know, coming from you, like, if you want to explain it, what would that be like? As far as, like, making the kid better? Yeah, making the kid better, all that stuff. Well, like I said, like, I see – if I see they're talented in – first of all, Uchikomi – like, even to get to that advanced class that i i have i watch their

uchikomi and uchikomi is super important so i correct everything in uchikomi and then i see what they're good at like what throw are you good at so how do we make uh that throw work for you it's not just the the steps and the the technique it's timing it's how to uh move your opponent to get make that work the grip all this so um you just like i said i try to make each kid uh like whatever they're already kind of good at uh use that to make you know help them make better and just build on that and go you know from there so when did you take over the dojo completely? 2014. Okay, and then before that, were you like still in the dojo all the time or not so much?

After I stopped competing like in 92... 93. 93 was my last senior nationals and I was already, like I said, I wasn't that old. I was 29, but I'd been doing judo since I'm four years old, competing all the time.

You know what I mean? And I felt like an old 29. Yeah. So, and then my back got, I had to take a whole year off. My back was super messed up. I couldn't walk barely. But then I just, after that, you know, I came back and I just was doing renduri three times a week, then twice a week. And it was just come for renduri. That's it my dad was the the uh sensei and i'm not he didn't really like kind of i don't know how your dad was but

he didn't like kind of like yeah say hey this is how we do the business and i want you to kind of like you know start running classes he never he never did that and i so i was like that's fine i got i have my own job and you do your thing. And I was just coming just for recreational Randuri a few times a week. Nice. Yeah, my father too, man. The way he did the business too,

it was kind of like, everyone was on month to month. People would bring cash and then sometimes like, hey man, you didn't pay, come here. You know, like, and it was just like embarrass the guy. The guy would quit.

Yeah. You know, there was no like process. There no system people will come in get on the mat do randori first day and get injured you know it was like the wild west dude yep yep you know i don't know if you run it like that now no i i did when i first started that's i didn't know any i didn't know anything but i started to like see yeah you know credit cards probably better you know like better so good so good right yeah automatically bill everybody that's that's kind of the way right yeah you guys do contracts commitments um no we um we did but now i'm trying to do um just uh automatic credit card we just have like a three month uh commitment that okay after three months we could freeze it or cancel

it whatever oh good good all right so you're doing all the right things, right? I guess. I don't know. You're the master at that. Got us. Yeah, and you have like a YouTube channel now and Instagram and everything. I love it. You want to plug it?

Where can they find you? The YouTube channel? Yeah, YouTube channel, Instagram. My name is just Nick under Nick Yaneskaca and you'll find that youtube are you still posting every day no no i i like once a month now it's just uh it's just uh it's like techniques and stuff like that yeah it's really good man i really like it you know and there's so much not so good content out there when it comes to judo techniques so i think you're really adding value to the world of judo when you do that you You know what I mean? Yeah. I mean, I started in, what was it, in COVID.

You had done stuff before that, but a lot of people were doing YouTube. Oh, because you're sitting at home watching the stuff on YouTube. Yeah. And a lot of it was pretty bad. So I was like, you know what, let me start one. Nice, nice, nice. So where's Jack now in terms of making an Olympic team now? It's got to be right now is the crunch time, right?

Yeah. I mean, he has, there's like for this year, last year is last year. You can't change that. This year there's six slots for your best scores, your best six scores. He's got three really good results. He took second in the junior worlds. He took fifth in – That counts for seniors?

Yeah. I didn't know that. Really? He got 409. That's a Grand Prix. It's Grand Prix points. Oh, okay, got it. Not Grand Slam, but Grand Prix points.

So then he got fifth in in abu dhabi grand slam and he took uh third in the uh perth uh oceana uh grand prix okay so so then he needs three more he has other scores that he can get do better with so he's he needs three more and he's i think he's got like seven more tournaments or something lined up. Nice. How close is the race for him to make a direct qualification? He's the last,

right now, he's pretty much the last slot people can pass him for direct qualification. Yeah, man, that's brutal. What's the wild card looking like over there? The wild card is looking good, though, though for jack because he's got more points than um it seems like maria will probably directly qualify and then after that um he's got the most points after that so okay that that's pretty good that's pretty good yeah wow so man this must have been such a costly

journey for you too right i mean people listening, they have no clue what, you know, going to these IJF events cost, right? Yeah. It's got to be three to five grand a month, every trip really almost, right? Yeah. Thank God, you know, what USA Judo doesn't, because USA Judo has criteria for, you know, if you're top 20 or top 25 or even top 30, you get a certain amount.

But whatever they don't cover, thank God for New York Athletic Club, we try to expense it, and they give you what they can, and they've been unbelievable. Without them, I don't think we could. There's no way. It's brutal. Were you a part of the Athletic Club too back in the day? No.

You know, I'm so old that there was no IJF, and there was no. No way. It's brutal. Were you a part of the athletic club too back in the day? No. I'm so old that there was no IJF and there was no USA Judo. Really? No. USA Judo was right after I retired. Wow. There was one guy that would, whatever money the U.S. Olympic Committee would give Judo, this guy named Frank Fullerton managed the money.

And he would say there was no staff. It was just him. He would say, okay, we're going to Europe, and we're going to go this tournament, this tournament, this tournament. If you make the team, you don't have to pay anything. As long as you are on the team, you know, you don't have to pay. So that's how. How do you make the team? You have to be the best guy in your weight class, basically. Oh, okay. Perfect.

Yeah. How did they determine that? Nationals? Nationals. There was nationals. There was the U.S. Open, which was a pretty big tournament back then. A lot of other countries would come. And trials. They would have, like, one trials for Pan Ams or Worlds.

I kind of miss that style, you know, like, it keeps the dream going a little bit. You know, like, oh, let me limp at the Nationals, maybe win it, and then maybe I go to a big tournament, you know. But now it's like with the qualifications, it's simply like there's no way to just limp into something local and then take it all the way to the top. Because you have to go to these international events and such to kind of gain any sort of, right? Yeah. It's brutal. Yeah, man. Like the Nationals kind of got watered down because of that too.

Yeah. It used to be that if you won Nationals, you were the man. If there was three tournaments, that was a third of it. Yeah. Yeah, but now it's like why would you risk going to nationals and getting injured in a tournament that really doesn't matter at all for olympic qualifications like why would anyone want to do that right that's right how unless you're sponsored by new york ac then it's true you gotta go yeah i mean it's a pretty good deal

what the new york athletic club is doing for some of these uh amateur athletes you know i think they're kind of a little bit not as you know in terms of like budget wise as big as they were before right but they're still doing great for the i don't know how many guys are on the team now i probably should know but that's amazing man yeah no they they without them i'm telling you no one yeah it wouldn't be happening but you can't go to everything is uh, I don't know, if there's one a month, there's probably 12 events or something or more. Yeah, you got to go to 10 events at least a year to have, you know. Yeah, so, you know, there's no way.

Yeah. When I was coming up, man, they also had the Hudson Athletes spot with New York, New Jersey. That was a really nice thing for a little bit, right? Right. Yeah. I mean, that's a few hundred bucks here and there. It used to be much bigger.

They used to be, they did well for a hot second, you know. And then, you know, with the change in power and all this stuff, and Billy Martin leaving and COVID, it just kind of went away. You know, it's not the same. Oh, right. And I guess also, like, USJF is kind of, you know, getting pushed out a little bit. So, and that's a USJF. Oh, is that right?

Yeah. Oh, man. So what's next for Jack? Like what tournaments does he have left? He just competed in Uzbekistan. He's going right from there to Austria. And I'm going to meet him out there. I'm leaving Wednesday.

After Austria, Tbilisi. Are you going to Tbilisi? No, I'm just going to Austria, coming back. I'm going to Tbilisi now No, I'm just going to watch you coming back. I'm going to Tbilisi now. Oh, for this? For the judo tournament, yeah. Oh, wow. Yeah, I'm making a comeback.

No, I'm not making a comeback. Are you going though? I'm going to commentate for Judo TV. Oh, wow. That's cool. Yeah, so they were like, hey, do you want to do this thing?

And I was like, oh yeah, I'll try it out. So we're going to have like, I'm'm gonna be training to be a commentator like with neil and uh sheldon yeah yeah yeah okay so you know i'll be there i'm gonna be you know they wanted an american accent i think for judo tv or something like this no that's great that's awesome yeah so i'll be in the thing hey oh there's Jackie Nesko. Just talking to his dad. Yeah. Yeah, no, that's great, man.

Congratulations. I'm going to be excited. It's going to be exciting. Is there a camp there? Do you know? There's so much going on. I don't even remember. I know he's not.

I think there might be. There might be. Do they still do camps in between each Grand Slam event? Not all of them but some some of them do have them and you know he he likes if he's there he definitely wants to do the camps you know those camps are awesome man i remember like do you do like the asia tour you know i remember one time i'm from korea to china to japan and then the camp was one week like three or four days in between each tournament and after the tokyolam, we were there for like two weeks.

And then everyone went home but I stayed for two weeks extra to work out with the Kakushikan team. Man, it was like six weeks of just all judo. It was like so awesome. Yeah. No, you need that. I mean, at that level you got to get your hands on the

best players to just to get confidence and to see where you're at. So he does the majority of his training at home in your dojo, though? Yep. Whenever he's – if he's not – like this year is crazy. He has – it's like from – like I explained, he's not even coming home. He's going from Uzbekistan to Austria to Tbilisi.

Then it might be Turkey after that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'll be in Turkey too. Just directly. But on a regular, like 2022, 2023, if he's not doing a tournament and a camp, he's here at the club. Nice, nice. All right, so if you were to give some advice, right, the dads out there, if they want to build their kid into like an olympian you have any advice for those

guys build the kid to an olympian yeah maybe they have like a five-year-old or a seven-year-old they're bought in the dad loves judo they want their kid to be a judo champion and you see it all the time you know most guys who are in it who have dojos they put their kid into the dojo right so well the one thing i would say is um and i've seen this many many times is if the kid is a young a young young kid if he's if he's doing really really good it's almost a bad thing because there's only one way to go after that is down because you know it gets harder if they're if there's i've seen kids that are, really talented and they win everything right off the bat. Yeah.

And the fathers are pushing them and pushing them and they're all into it. But it gets harder as they get older. And then if they don't win, it's like they're – it's not fun anymore. Yeah. So I would say don't push so much at the beginning when they're little. So I would say don't push so much at the beginning when they're little. Wait until, like with Nick and Jack, it was pretty recreational until they were like maybe 13, 12, 13, 14. What do you consider recreational?

Just, you know, competing for fun, like going to practice all the time. But then when you compete, you're competing just to see where you're at. But it's not important. You know, it's not like a win or lose it's what's the difference you know you're just seeing how you're doing you know what's like the training regimen when they were like 10 just coming to class and uh doing you know that's it no no training just no we only had it uh you know like three or four times a week, whatever it was. And their mom would bring them. When they were 10, like I wasn't even involved too much, you know. So when you were, when they were kids, right?

I remember when I was a kid, I was like, Dad, I want to join the Little League, you know. I was like, ah, you don't need to do that. It was like, that was what I did, judo, that's it, you know. Were you kind of the same way? Like were they allowed to to join a flag football league or Tuesday nights they have skating with their friends? Yeah, I let them do whatever they wanted.

When Jack was in grammar school, elementary school, he did basketball, he did soccer, he did all these things, and he wasn't good at all. He did it to – know and i i i sucked at basketball too but i'd go play with him and say like he can't shoot so i'm like you know what get rebound just try to like uh be tough on the inside and nikki did um he did track he actually he lasted till like freshman year in high school he did track nice and then they both decided you know um i'm better at judo i might as well stick

to if you want to be really good at something which they they both decided they wanted to be really good at something they stayed with judo that's kind of me too like my dad like he he kind of said what your dad did but i like i wrestled did you wrestle in high school yeah high school college yeah so i i wrestled in in high school but not like i just did it for the social part of it and yeah definitely fun yeah you know like to have some recognition in the school and stuff like that and uh so uh but i didn't really practice with the i just went to the meets and i you know i did i did good enough so they let me just go to the meets and uh but but my dad you know eventually was like if you want to do something

if you want to be really good you got to just do one thing that's it yeah i mean it is true you got to kind of so you guys have practice which days now uh monday uh monday wednesday thursday and saturdays nice that's a good schedule because then you can kind of have like tuesday and friday off and they're kind of far away from each other to where everyone can just make all the practices reasonably right if you want to be good you know yeah we changed it around a little bit like friday there was class but friday's like in the summertime like i live down the jersey shore yeah and the traffic going south on the parkway is like forget it friday yeah man so what's next for you like are there a lot of guys coming up in your dojo that you also want to bring up who are kind of like also going to be the next generation of guys?

Well, you have a long history of building champs of them is, like, really, really good. Like, I would say better than Nick and Jack at that time when they were that age. Yeah. Then we have another group that are, like, maybe three or four 12, 13-age group kids that are coming up, and they're hanging with that class, doing well. And then we got some really little kids that the that are good but i'm not letting them in that class you know what i mean but their parents are like hey can can we put them in this class and i'm like no no no you got to be patient you know like but um so hopefully pretty soon those kids will be be there too you push a lot of kids to competition like hey you guys should

go no i just i just advertise like when like especially like uh you know ramon and and tony yeah um their tournaments uh uh cory's tournament like just for their sake like i just post and i say if you want to compete let's let's go you know nice nice what do you do during the day over there at the door is there day classes running or no no i don't i don't have any day classes and i probably you know i'm not working too too hard i'm just doing it how about you you got you got the day classes right i have a monday wednesday thursday friday day because i don't teach them okay yeah i don't want to be yeah right you know because when you're young like colton brown has a gym now he's there 6 a.m noon 10 a.m all day all night but it's like

i have a five-year-old daughter you know i to take her to school, pick her up from school, all this stuff. I don't want to be there. Right? The guy's like, hey, can you do a 7 a.m. private? It's like, no, that's out of the question. Maybe like when Nick and Jack, when they take over, they'll probably put more classes and do something. Dude, that's the dream, right?

People say like, oh, you start a business, you give it to your kid, but your dad started the business, gave it to you and you could give it to your kids. Yeah, yeah. Do you have any other job now or no? No, that's it. Wow, you're a full-timer like me. That's amazing.

Yeah, yeah. Do you miss your old job of real estate? Oh, hell no. Hell no, man. That was just to, you know, money. That's all that was about. Now it's totally different. You didn't like residential real estate? Like, oh man, That was just to, you know, money. That's all that was about. Now it's totally different. You didn't like residential real estate?

Like, oh, man, look at this house. Look at this condo. Look at the home. It wasn't bad, you know, like as far as a job goes. But it was a job. I got paid by how many I did, how many appraisals you did. So, you know, you work a lot of hours just to make money. Could you do three appraisals in a day?

Yeah, about three money you know how many could you do three appraisals in a day yeah about three you know and you yeah because you gotta travel go do the thing answer a lot of annoying questions if they're there yeah and you know there's you know your your bosses you know they're they're breathing on your back and stuff like that so you love being a dojo owner and doing what you did what do you do now yeah like like i said it's not a job it's more of uh you know it's something to wake up in the morning and be like you know i want to i want to do this today because like i think it'll help this one or that one you know yeah oh that's great man yeah and then so when you gave that up and then decided to go full throttle with the dojo like were you like a little bit worried at all like because i remember when you found the past and you had to take over i remember we had a couple of conversations about like running a dojo and

stuff because i've already been doing it for my father you know my gym yep right was it like a scary transition or the old you know i guess that my whole life I've been, I kind of dive headfirst into stuff. I'm not like, I don't overthink things too much. And I kind of know myself a little bit. So, like I said, I just, I knew that business-wise I might not be, but when he passed, like the business wasn't doing that great anyway. that great anyway but um i had no uh i knew that i could make kids better if they wanted to be better i knew i could i could do that but as far as the like so i just you know kind of winged it and see i mean it's a tough thing right because mat space is so valuable because everyone's off right after school to like 7 or 8 p.m that That's the time that you can pack classes in.

And then if you have unlimited packages and kids are coming, you know, four days, five days a week, you're not really maximizing the time and space. So from like a commercial standpoint, like you want once a week, twice a week packages and fill as many kids in each of those slots as possible, right? So, boy, it's a tough thing to decide, you know. It's like they want to make a lot more money by having, you know, a lot more students, a maximum amount of time and space?

How do you balance that? I just, I don't, I kind of just want to pack the, like, we're pretty packed as it is, you know? We only have, like, those four days. We have kids class, adult class, and the advanced class. Those are the three different classes we have. Kids is just kids that's it there's no age group segmentation no just uh as long as they're uh young enough or small enough where they can't go to the adult class like it would be just ridiculous in the adult class they stay in that class what

the the depending on the size of the kid if and talent if they're like 14 and they're they're kind of like that some of them come to do both classes you know like one of the kids i was talking about but um yeah i don't know i just uh did you always think you would take it over no my dad was he told me i wasn't right for it. He used to say, you know, your personality is not right, you know, like for a service business kind of thing. And I know what he meant, you know. I'm not like that. People don't think I'm like the friendliest outgoing kind of person, you know. So that's, I guess, what he thought with the service business.

Yeah. I mean, it's a tough business, too. I mean, my father told me the same thing. He's you know it's not right for you you gotta go be a doctor it's like have you seen my grades you know like you're talking about doctor crazy you know but yeah man do you want your kids to take it over i do because i you know you know my dad uh when he was the last thing he said to me before he died was take care of the club. So for me, wow, I love that. The last thing he ever said to me. And I, and I, you know, at the time I didn't think he was going to, he, he died the next day.

And I was like, I didn't think he was going to, but I said, that's, you know, obviously that's in my head forever and I'm doing my best. And then if Jack and Nick can take over, then it's all good for me. You know, I did my part, you know. Yeah, that's amazing, man. Yeah, because I've been there many times to train, you know, and I see behind you the floor tiles, and it's the same, man, the door, wall. You know, like I know like you go out there and take a left,

the dojo's right there. Yeah. What a thing, huh? Yeah, yeah. I remember you. I think the first time I remember you was like, out there take a left of dojos right there yeah right what a thing huh yeah yeah yeah i remember you uh i think the first time i remember you was like remember the uh east coast championships yeah yeah that my dad used to do it in newark yeah and you we would run i would be at the tables doing that and you always used to come around like a young how old are you back then 13 12 10

yeah you were all my life yeah but like um you were always like laughing and uh not taking things too seriously and stuff yeah that's that's that's the only impression i ever the first time i remember you oh man yeah dude i used to get in a lot of trouble at those things too man yeah i used to ask mr sheena if he was chinese and then he would tell my dad my dad would give me a beating dude it was like a thing you know? Yeah, just to bust on him? It was just funny. I didn't even know the guy that well, but I would spread rumors like, yo, did you know they're all Japanese except Mr. Shina?

He's Chinese. It was just like something that I did for fun, and it kind of got out of hand. And then my dad was like, yo, if you do it again, I'm going to freaking give you a beating. No, I could totally picture you doing it. Yeah. Good time, man. Do you want to run tournaments too or i did run tournaments i ran tournaments here at the club and uh you know we would have the

place would be packed and uh it we we didn't charge you know we would charge like 40 or 50 bucks for entries and stuff like that and uh but it's like it's it's work you know it's not it's yeah it's work yeah you know so there, it's work, yeah. You know? There's something nice. Now there's so many tournaments to go to. So after, I guess the last one was probably right before COVID, 2019. And after that, there's a lot of tournaments for everybody to go to. So I kind of backed off and I just, yeah. Dude, there's something nice, right?

To wake up, like, all right, I'm not coming in until 5 or 6 p.m. I just got to go and teach my judo. You're already good at it. You don't have to come up with a curriculum or a lesson plan. You just show up. It's like, all right, guys, it's all in here. Let's work out, you know? That's right.

Isn't there something beautiful about that? Oh, it's awesome. You know, that's why I said, like, I know, like, I don't even have to. I take a look at the mat and I see, like, who do we have? So what level? And go, okay, this is what we'll do today. And if there's, like, more higher advanced, you know, like, okay, this is what we'll do today. Like, it's easy, you know.

Yeah. I mean, we share some students now. You know, like, Cameron goes, he's from there. And when he's in New York City, he'll come to mine and he'll go back, right? And then, so, like, my impression of you guys still, because I remember when every time I went, it was like, all right, guys, hang out for a little bit. We're doing Rondori for the rest of the time. Yeah. And there was like no timer, no nothing.

It was just like it would just be Rondori the whole time, right? Is that still how it kind of is or do you teach a little bit more? I teach. It depends. Usually there's like three. It's usually Rondori. We do have a timer, like four minute rounds, but there's a class on Saturday that it's no rendery.

It's all, all instructional on Saturday, Saturday. Yeah. Saturday, 10 30, 11 30. And then,

um, sometimes if it's a little bit like if we have like less than 15 people or so, like I'll teach, you know, on that day, you know what I day you know i mean on that if there's it's a light class just because you know we if there's there's but usually we have so many partners that you know after like hour hour and a half people are you know it's it's not enough so so we just throw rounds in a Randuri, you know. Yeah. Wow, that's awesome, man.

I got to visit, man. I know Lydia goes there too now on Saturdays too, and she's, like, loving it. I know Salama's been going too. Is that right? Salama's good for at least twice a week, yeah. Oh, yeah, Salama's great too, huh? Oh, he's an awesome guy. He's the best.

He's, like, such a positive in the room. He's, like, three or four guys. He's just, like, he's like a plus three in the room. You what i mean yeah go with anybody he won't exactly and he won't hurt anybody and he's always friendly yeah you know is that the kind of culture that you guys try to build actively at the gym or is that something that's happened no i don't know like right now at the gym it's it is like that it's it's um it's it's it's real friendly everybody knows like you know no one's trying to kill each other there's white you're a black belt going with a white belt you you know teach him help him um they're to be honest to be uh jack was a little bit he's the he's the one that was as a kid like uh 15 years old trying to he goes a little crazy you

know he tried like he'll i would when i was going with him and we're going out of bounds or something like that, he'll push me in the back to, like, you know, because he gets upset. He gets upset at himself, but he takes it out on you or the other person. So a couple times I had to tell him, Jack, you got to chill, man, you know. No one's going to want to go with you. Sometimes he was doing it to Nicky. Nicky one time, like, popped him right in the like uh yeah yeah so but other than jack everybody else

is uh you know pretty uh pretty chill that's so cool man that's awesome all right so where can these guys find you if you guys the people who are listening to the podcast you know where can they find you do you want them to find you? Here in Cranford? No, just in general, like YouTube stuff, they have questions for you, whatnot, you know, some people like to promote their Instagram or something, so they're like, you know. Instagram, I just is CranfordJKC Instagram

and the YouTube is Nick Yanesca, Nick underscore Yanesca, and that's yeah. You didn't want to do a GoFundMe or anything for your kid's Judo Olympic thing? A lot of guys are doing that kind of thing. I know, but right now, with the sponsorship that they have, I feel like that's good enough. That's good, good. That's awesome, man.

I like your attitude with all this. It's got to be so stressful, right? It is. It is is it's definitely stressful i'm just like struggling trying to put my kid in judo my daughter she's five and it's like you know it's tough right because like it's such a tough road you know i well i have a 30 year old daughter and i you have a daughter yep i i knew right off the bat she uh it was not with denise with another mom and uh i knew i i knew right off the bat she, it was not with Denise, with another mom. Oh, I didn't know that.

I knew right off the bat she wasn't doing judo. She's a very girly girl and, you know, I didn't push her, you know. Yeah, my daughter loves ballet, princess stuff, you know, dresses. And, yeah, she's not, you know, like, yeah. It's okay, you know. Yeah, yeah. Everybody has to do judo, you know, like, yeah. It's okay, you know. Yeah, yeah. You don't have to. Everybody has to do judo, you know.

It's okay. Yeah, that's true. That's true. Well, thank you for being on the podcast, man. Great to chat with you. Hearing about your stuff. Great three generations of judo. Man, that thing when you said about your dad, man, that's really powerful stuff, dude.

Love it. Love it. Yeah. So thank you very much, man. Thank you, Shitar. And kid and you know we'll all be watching and rooting for your kid judo tv.com so thank you man i appreciate it thanks for having me on