The Shintaro Higashi Show - Peter's Martial Art Journey

Episode Date: May 31, 2022

In this solo episode, Peter talks about how he started his martial art journey, where he is right now in it, and what he is looking forward to in the future. Please support us on Patreon if you can: https://www.patreon.com/shintaro_higashi_show. Any amount helps!

Hello everyone, welcome to the Shintaro Higashi show with Peter Yu. Today it's just gonna be me telling you guys about my martial art journey. We thought we'll give this solo episode thing a try. I'm not as good as Shintaro in telling my story and explaining things. So please be nice to me. And if you guys enjoy my story and this type of solo episode, maybe we'll do more of this in the future. So how did I start my martial art journey? So as you guys probably know, I grew up in Korea.

I was born there and grew up there until I was 15. I grew up in Korea. I was born there and grew up there until I was 15 and Just like every other boy in Korea. I did Taekwondo growing up And I do have a black belt in that you know they They have to they give out this kids black belt where it's like red and black and i think once you turn 18 it automatically becomes a black belt but you know it doesn't mean much i don't even remember any of my taekwondo training but really my martial art journey i guess you could say started in high school when I moved to the States so I my high school at that time didn't have a wrestling team it kind of got disbanded because it wasn't popular they just couldn't recruit enough kids to wrestle but then some of my best friends basically kick-started that team again when I was a sophomore, I believe.

But I didn't join then. I actually just played travel soccer during the winter. And then they invited me out to their summer ad hoc practice. I messed around with them. They taught me double leg takedown, and then I was just wrestling with them. And I really liked it. And they asked me to join the team that season. So my first wrestling season was actually when I was a junior in high school.

So, you know, they couldn't get real wrestling coaches, so they asked one of the substitute teachers to step in. So it was kind of like, you know, we were kind of teaching each other. My best friend's dad wrestled in college so he helped out uh but it was very ad hoc i you know i had fun but i didn't have a winning season or anything like that i did have a few wins here and there i believe um i don't remember my record. Then the next year, my senior year, my school actually hired dedicated wrestling coaches. And I really liked the new wrestling coaches. We got along well.

They made me captain. I did better in my senior year in terms of of the my record i mean of course it's not phenomenal i've i had only been wrestling for two years you know and um i really had fun i really enjoyed it and i wanted to continue this thing called you know wrestling or grappling, right? So I was looking for an opportunity to continue wrestle, continue to wrestle after high school. But as I said before, I wasn't good enough to really get recruited as a wrestler in college. I didn't even really want to be an athlete in college.

Honestly, I didn't think I was cut out for it, honestly. And I definitely didn't want to cut weight in college. At that time, in high school, I wrestled 140, and I thought I would have to wrestle 135. I forget the... I don't really know the collegiateiate rest weight classes but I think it was like 132 or something but I really didn't want to cut that low otherwise I and I didn't think I would be even remotely close to being competitive in the higher weight classes so

after my uh the wrestling season in my senior year, I started to look for some options. And this was in 2009. And at that time, UFC and BJJ were gaining some traction. Like it was getting a little bit more popular. getting a little bit more popular. So my friends and I decided to try this new BJJ thing out. I watched a lot of YouTube videos on the Gracies just beating up on all these different martial artists and I thought that it was pretty cool. And we didn't really join a BJJ gym we joined this like essentially a karate gym that incorporated

some BJJ because I think the founder of that gym did some BJJ training so I I only tried it for six months. I basically just got a taste of what BJJ might be like. And I enjoyed it, but I thought I wanted more takedowns because that's what I was good at in wrestling. And I thought the whole ground fighting, and while it's pretty interesting, what I was good at in wrestling and I thought the whole ground fighting and while it's pretty interesting I thought it was less interesting than the takedown aspect of it and so I was looking for other options and then I

realized that you know judo is very similar to BJJ and I grew up watching judo as a in Korea judo is you know Korea is very good at as a nation very good at judo they always win a couple medals in the Olympics you know they're always in the circuit so I and at that time when I graduated from high school I had an opportunity to spend three months in Korea with my dad. And I was living there at that time. So I asked my dad to find me a judo gym that I could train while I was spending time in Korea for three months. And so that's how I got introduced to judo in Korea for three months and so that's how I got

introduced to judo in Korea it was the gym I went to was a private gym run by a young and graduate you know he was a serious competitor in his younger days he coaches the Paralympic judo team now the Korea saw a national Paralympic judo team now, the Korea national Paralympic team. Very knowledgeable guy, was very nice to me. And his gym focused on sending high't know, Yongin University is like the premier college for judo. You can major in judo, you can even get a PhD in judo, actually, judo education or whatever. A lot of the judo Olympians from Korea graduated from Yongin. And so I decided to focus on judo

in Korea there at that gym and I was able to train with a lot of the Yongin hopefuls like the high school kids who are getting ready for the entrance exam for Yongin. They do like written exams on judo theories and then they have to demonstrate their judo knowledge like all the throws, pins and chokes and locks or whatever. And during the summer, the alumni of the gym who are Yongin students would come back and train with us.

So it was actually quite nice. It was a small gym but the quality of Judo was very high and I was able to learn a lot from them. And another perk was that in Korea, Shoran, the first degree black belt in Judo or in any other martial art, it's not really considered like a pedigree, like a big achievement. It's just, I think we talked about it in other episodes, but it's basically in Korea, you are either in Judo, you're either a white belt or black belt so in white belt, of course, you have all this

Sub-degrees right like the cues in Korean that they're called cup the same same Chinese character actually just different pronunciation, but you don't really get color belts and Once you get to showdown that just means that you know judo You just know how to you know Judo you just know how to you know how to do Judo you probably won't hurt people or you know won't get hurt doing Randoi without supervision so after three months the teacher basically said hey you're good enough for Shodan because you wrestled in high school you know grappling and you pick

you know you train all right i went i trained pretty much every day for like three hours basically i'll go there for their 430 class and i'll just stay around with the high school kids we're getting ready for the entrance exam and i'll go home at like 10 p.m. So he basically said, hey, you're good enough for a showdown. So he was pretty high up in the judo organization in Korea. So he just, you know, pulled his magic and he gave me a showdown. So I thought, you know what, if he thinks I'm ready, I guess I am. And I came back with a black belt. So pretty fast, right right three months um you could say it's like I I used to be a little like I didn't know how to explain these things to Americans before but you know I I was good enough to do pretty well in Rando so I just didn't really care much I guess wearing the black belt. But anyway so then so now that was the summer after I graduated from high school so now

we got to college and for I during college I went to school in New Jersey in Princeton. I went to Princeton and then I trained at a local YMCA. They had a judo gym. And it was also a small gym, but it was very good. Like I got good training there. A lot of, not a lot, but a few college kids would go with me and train and there were some experienced teachers uh there's one colombian international competitor you know he fought wang gichun you know the korean judo champion from back in the day in the youth circuit and so he was pretty it was very good um and then also there was a korean gentleman who was a

yongin graduate so they actually them and other teachers they are really kind of uh smooth out the rough edges on my judo uh because i was at that time i was trying different things out and then i was transitioning essentially from wrestling. So, you know, I wasn't doing a lot of proper judo. I knew all the moves, but it wasn't as polished as I'd like to be. But so during four years, you know, I trained judo there and then also ran the school's BJJ club. judo there and then also ran the school's BJJ club. One of my friends was also really into BJJ and then we kind of, him as a president, I as vice president, we would run like Friday practices and teach, show people what to do and then usually it was very free form you know we had a local BJJ black belt come in to teach us too um and during college

I also competed you know won a few medals in small local tournaments did well enough right but nothing like a national circuit or anything like that and you know i was focusing on my studies anyway so then after i graduated from college i moved to new york city um and that's where i met shintaro i went to i didn't really shop around uh judo gyms there are not that many judo gyms in Manhattan I was living in Manhattan at that time and there are only two so KBI and forget the other gym's name but my one of my college friends who grew up in New York City used to go to KBI so he knew Shintaro so he recommended that I go to KBI so I went for a trial class I had talked to Shintaro on Facebook and you know I never looked back I didn't even try other gyms I love the people I loved how high level the training was the

instruction was you know I could really see that oh Shintaro competed you know at a really high level um and I really clicked with all a lot of people there I met some of my best friends uh are from KBI you know including Shintaro you know they were my groomsmen at my wedding um and I really like that it was a hub for local black belts so I could learn a lot from from them and get really good training so at that time you know also I competed I won a few local tournaments I like went down to New Jersey for the state championship I won that one took third in the New York state championship. New York state championship is tough because you know there are a lot of immigrants in New York City as people know and you know they bring their own style of judo there.

There are a lot of Russians, Polish people, Georgians you know all you know, all throughout the city. And it's pretty amazing how high level of Judo you get in New York. And because New York City is such an international city, you know, I got to meet a lot of famous people in the community like Bernardo Faria, who used to come to kba to train uh his stand-up uh jimmy pedro of course through the connection through his connection with shintaro travis stevens same thing and we i got to meet some gracies like i met henzo gracie at an event you know i wasn't like not like close to him or anything like that but i got to meet some Gracies. Like, I met Enzo Gracie at an event. You know, I wasn't, like, close to him or anything like that, but I got to say hi.

And there's another Gracie named Jairon. He was a teenager when he came to KBI to train. He was, like, a blue belt. He was a phenomenal athlete. I think he's still competing, and he's getting good results. I believe he's a brown belt now. Let me tell you, he's a phenomenal athlete and I hope he does well in the future too. So there was that.

I spent seven years in New York City. Pretty much my life kind of revolved around judo of course I worked you know and whatnot but after work I'll go straight to KBI train hang out with them you know and you know all my friends are from KBI pretty much and you know we I even prepare for to go to nationals that we talk about this in an episode or one of the earlier episodes but we went to Texas together for nationals we like cut weight together we raised money together we trained together and I fortunately I did pretty well considering you know not a full time athlete I took seventh in that which I'm very proud of.

And it was all in all a very good experience and then my judo got like exponentially better during that time and unfortunately I had to well fortunately unfortunately I guess so my I got married in 2020 and then my wife she's a doctor she and she got assigned to Detroit Hospital in Detroit for her residency so we had to move and and during that I was during the pandemic so I I had to you know I took more than a year off from judo you know as most of you probably did so when I went moved to Michigan you know I what judo gym wasn't like the first thing I was looking for, obviously. I had to like get used to the new environment and, you know, try to navigate the pandemic and also started my PhD program, which took a lot of time for me to get used to.

Took me a lot of time to get used to and then when the pandemic was waning down like was getting a little better and then the vaccines were rolling out um i started to shop around the judo gyms i went to a couple maybe a few I can't quite remember now but unfortunately Michigan is has a very small judo scene I guess I definitely compared to New York City so you know I couldn't find a place like KBI you know it's just not possible because of the you know the popular judo population is not big enough or dense enough to support sustain a gym like that for now I know a lot of people are trying to make it that way and I after trying out a few gyms I

really like this one gym for a big especially because I like the people there arm you know I became good friends with them and decide to stay with that jam and but then the problem was that I couldn't really get consistent training like I did in New York City because now for site was very busy with school second of all the gym judoo gym itself was going through a transition and so you know they're kind of like moving between locations and the training practice times weren't consistent and all so I had to kind of

supplement that with actually BJJ. So Michigan has a pretty sizable BJJ community. And Shintaro actually knew a BJJ black belt who owns a gym in Michigan, pretty close from Detroit. And Shintaro connected me with him. And it happens that my old wrestling coach from high school also goes and trains there so I thought you know what, some of the people I respect a lot recommended this place so I'll check it out even though it's just a BJJ gym so and it's just a BJJ gym. The gym is amazing.

There's a lot of young competitors, so I get very good training. Unfortunately, no judo, and they're mostly nogi, but I like that they focus a lot on, spend a lot of time on takedowns too, which I really like. So I was trying to juggle between this BJJ gym and the Judo gym, and after talking to

Shintaro and then considering a lot of options, I decided to be more consistent with BJJ. Shin Tao actually encouraged me to do so because of the quality of practice training I get from the BJJ gym. So I've been going to the BJJ gym more consistently lately. Usually the Gi classes, but occasionally no Gi classes because more people show up to no Gi. I heard that in BJJ, no Gi is getting more popular nowadays too. And it's been fun filling up gaps in my Nehwaza game. Nehwaza was never my forte even in judo I just knew enough to defend and I just knew enough to you know finish quick arm locks and chokes off you know a throw but now I'm trying to approach my nails are more

systematically you know thinking thinking about more positions I could be But now I'm trying to approach my naewazam more systematically, thinking about more positions I could be in and how to get out of things. It's been fun, and I think ultimately it'll make my judo better. So that's where I am. And looking to the future yeah as I said before I think I'm gonna stick with BJJ a little more than judo here I'm gonna try to you know so my main focus will be BJJ and I'll try to sprinkle it with judo here and there whenever I can get and also I I'm learning to accept the fact that judo and grappling are a much smaller part of my life now I have a family and you know I'm married and I my day-to-day social life is not around grappling anymore, you know, like it was in New York City.

And also I need to focus more on my PhD. It's not something you can just cruise, unfortunately. And it requires a significant amount of time and dedication so and which which results in like a decrease in my ability right in grappling abilities I guess so I'm trying to accept the fact that I'm not gonna be that competitive on the map with other people as I used to be I'm also getting older you know I'm 32 now and you know I'm not as I'm not training as much as I used to I'm not working out as much as I used to. I'm not working out as much as I used to. I can definitely tell that I can't do as many rounds as I used to be able to.

But I think ultimately I want to be part of this community as long as I can be because i really love doing it i love the people i meet doing it and you know i just kind of have to learn to let go uh so that i i can enjoy it more you know there we've talked about this shintaro and i in other episodes but you know different goals you can set different goals and you can make judo or BJJ or whatever you do more enjoyable based on that goal and then I think now I'm at the

place where I'm shifting my goals my judo goals I guess so yeah I hope I wasn't you know rambling too much in this episode. But I just wanted to tell you guys about how I came to where I am in terms of judo and what I'm looking forward to in the future in terms of judo.

And as always, thanks for your support uh to our podcast if you would like to talk to me about my uh journey in more detail you can support us on patreon and join our uh discord server there's a it's it's a a good community down there with a lot of you know jurokas and bjj practitioners so and you can talk to me in part uh you know on a more personal level so thanks again for listening and uh stay tuned for the next episode