The Shintaro Higashi Show - Peter’s Thoughts on BJJ After One Year

Episode Date: November 16, 2022

Peter, a longtime Judoka, has been doing BJJ almost exclusively for the past year, and he has made some interesting observations about it. Now, he wants to share his thoughts with you and hear your thoughts! Do you agree with his thoughts and observations? Did he miss something? 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 it's gonna be another solo episode by me peter um we've been very busy lately i've been traveling a lot and unfortunately shintaro and i haven't been able to match our schedule and get together to record some episodes. Traveling is almost done. Wedding season is coming to an end. So hopefully we'll get back to our regular schedule soon. Having said that, I did go to New York City.

I just got back. I went there to attend the wedding and which was a lot of fun And also I used this opportunity to visit Shintaro's gym Kokushiburo Institute and Attended a practice session and it was amazing. A lot of my friends came out old and new and I had a blast training you know I'm still thinking about going through all the randori I've done and then you know trying to find some gas in my game which is always a fun exercise um I did do live randori with Shintaro um he's been very careful about who he does Randoi with lately for obvious reasons. And, you know, we've been training for a long time. We know each other really well. So, you know, he feels comfortable enough to do it with me. And we did, you know, pretty much

100% full on both Newaza and Tachi waza he absolutely absolutely destroyed me still got it um you know his grip game is really strong is he i couldn't get my established my grips at all which you know leads to all kinds of problems and um yeah you can you can find a video of me getting thrown by Shintaro on his YouTube channel now, if you're interested. And even on Nehwada too, I thought because I've been doing a lot of BJJ lately, I thought I could fare better against him. But even then, he quickly figured out my game and neutralized me. Like I usually, my game is pretty top heavy. I like don't pull guard. I pass, I try to pass the guard

and establish my position, side control, north, south, what have you. And then try to hunt for submissions from there. And then he figured that out quickly I've also told him that's my game I guess he was a little he might be he might have been cheating a little but either way he you know neutralized it pretty quickly he actually pulled guard and then wrestled up so that I wouldn't be able to play my old game, you know, my usual game, I mean. But nonetheless, he's doing great.

He's recovering really well. And he's still, you know, his techniques didn't go anywhere, really. anywhere really um so you know i there was uh i hadn't done judo for almost a like half a year by then when i visited new york last weekend um i did i did visit over the summer so i did a lot of judo then too but but in Michigan, I've been doing BJJ almost exclusively. And so this trip made me think more about the differences between BJJ and Judo, like with all kinds of aspects. And then I wanted to talk to you guys about a couple of them. a couple of them to just share my thoughts and you know I'm not I'm just saying I'm an expert in any of it I've there's something as a as a enthusiast

type of both arts I'm just noticing these differences and then I found them very interesting and so let's get right to it and the first one is the takedown this uh you know you guys may think this is an obvious one right you know people if you go on reddit uh the bjj subreddit people love talking about how you know how bad takedown is in bJ, how they never do takedown, whatever. And as a judo guy, you know, I noticed that right away. Even though the gym I go to here in Detroit, it's, relative speaking, very takedown focused. Even then, it's still not as much as you know wrestling or judo so when people talk about the difference between like in terms of takedown between all these different grappling arts they

tend to focus more on the offense you know what kind of techniques they usually use you know for example in wrestling a lot of a lot of it is based on you know the shooting the shot taking the shot right like a double leg single leg high crotch and you know in judo it's more about the throws with the gi or foot sweeps what have you and but in my opinion um i think the big difference is actually not the techniques but the defense to those techniques so because if you think about it even in bjj schools they all teach the basic stuff you know your double leg takedown single leg takedown people know how to do it generally you know in your osoto gari you know deashi barai or you know even nippon serenage sometimes you know bjj practitioners know how to do them but it the

the real difference comes from the defense because if you what i've noticed during bjj practice people tend not to try to stay on their feet. I mean, the biggest reason for that is because of the rule set. You don't get really penalized for getting taken down. Of course, your opponent gets, I think, two points, just like in wrestling, but you don't outright lose the match because you got taken down like judo or you know you in wrestling if you get taken down and you stay on your back you know you lose you get pinned um but in bjj because

you don't get penalized as much for being taken down and people tend to just take the takedown instead of fighting through fighting and trying to defend it and you know so that's why i think people find bg takedown game more i'll say rudimentary uh because you don't need to really because people don't defend you don't need to the context is very simple you know the context that shintaro always talks about you know you don't you don't need to the context is very simple you know the context that shintaro always talks about you know you don't you don't need to chain attack you don't need to use a lot of feints you don't need to try to get a lot of reaction because if you just go for a a technique you you can most likely get the takedown because if i mean if your technique works great of course you're going to get the takedown

and even if your second doesn't quite work people will just pull guard or just get taken down because at that point they figure it's better to play the guard game and the core of l story is that you know that this type of stuff dynamic happens in judo too on the ground like the judo's newaza is very rudimentary compared to BJJ's groundwork because people don't defend as well you know if they go, the defense Jurokai usually use is to turtle up. That's because of the rule set. If you can just stick it out for 5 seconds, you can stand up again. You don't really need to try to retain your guard or regain your guard even. Jurokai don't really need to chain the attacks on the ground.

It's all about catching your opponent quickly with your favorite quick submissions like loop chokes, arm locks, or you just flip them over with your favorite pinning combinations you know so i mean you can also see that in wrestling too i mean it's uh it's more about that right like getting the back exposure points and you know it's it's not as intricate as bjj there's no like You know, it's not as intricate as BJJ. There's no like crazy guard moves and multiple layers and chaining the attacks and whatnot. So yeah, I think that was something I've been thinking about a lot of people on reddit you know when people when they talk about the takedown in bjj they describe it as being a problem uh for bjj and i get what they're trying to say yes i mean i guess it should be a big part of your grappling game right like i mean

a lot of if you look at the all the grappling arts in the world usually they focus more on takedowns um because we're bipedal animals and then uh the focus has been throughout the years that you know we should try to take each other down to the ground and dominate. But the success of BJJ lies a lot on flipping that millennium-old paradigm and say, you know what, we don't have to focus on takedown. We can finish the fight on the ground and so in that point of view it's i don't think it's really a problem it's uh you know i i do have more fun doing the stand-up than ground work but bjj at the end of the day it's

a sport it's a hobby with its own idiosyncrasies. And as long as people are having fun and getting healthy, meeting your friends, well, you know, what's the matter? I mean, most people are not there to, you know, fight, you know. Yeah, people say, oh, I want to do the bgj for self-defense but ideally realistically how many how often do people get into that kind of situation um it's really you know in this modern day and age it's you know learning how to grapple is really just for it's a form of exercise and sport just like you know playing soccer or tennis. So in that sense, I don't think it's necessarily a problem. I wish BJJ people would try to stay standing more with me. Because I think they're missing out a lot on the fun part of grappling.

At least the part that I find the most fun and once you start try to like you know think about defending the takedowns you get to you know you can discover a lot of different things that you don't necessarily experience in your regular BJJ classes. Well, that's what I've been noticing a lot lately. The fact that BJJ people don't try to stay on their feet as much. And another aspect that actually surprised me a lot when I went back to Chincharros Dojo this past weekend was the pace. The pace of the sport is a lot slower for BJJ than Judo and wrestling even and this goes unlike the takedown it goes both well for there was a and touch was up it's BJJ space is a lot slower I think I mean, it probably has to do a lot with has a lot to do with, you know, the culture maybe or, of course, the rule set to because you don't, it's, I guess it's

more about the BJJ rules that encourages people to be more deliberate, I guess, and, you know, improving the positions and then getting, establishing the chokes and, you know, submissions. know some missions and it's it's judo and wrestling are more forgiving for you know going for some hail may Hail Mary techniques not even just Hail Mary techniques so we're just trying attack in general like for example I mean this is this is more pronounced in judo you know you if you go for a throw and then you fail you can turtle up and you can if you stick it out for five seconds which is a lot easier to do than like trying to retain your guard you stand back up so you get to you get more leeway in trying things out and that increases the pace a lot on the foot on your feet and wrestling i you know the fact that it's nogi and also um you know takedown is one of the best ways to get points so and unless you get reversed i guess you know

you're in you the rule set favors people who can take people down because you know if you're to get if you get taken down you can you know you have to stand back up and escape to take on which is it takes a lot of energy i guess um but on on the bjj side because you can you don't have to really defend the takedown you know and all the i mean the pace even on the stand even standing is not as fast and on the ground it's even it's a lot slower too because what i noticed that if you miss going for a submission you get um you can get into big trouble in bjj that's what i've been noticing because in judo uh i don't have to really... I tend to rush to a submission because even a simple, very small chance of succeeding,

I need to seize upon it. If someone gives me a bit of an arm, I need to really go for my arm bar or even the choke, I need to really go for it because you just don't get enough time on the ground and and if you fail to do so you can turtle up and you can stand back up you know but in bjj if you fail that say you're going for an arm bar and you uh you didn't pull the arm up enough to between your legs use and then the person slips out you know you you reverse you're on your back and you little you just lost your top position and you know a winning position right

and even with the chokes you know you've got you have someone's back and you don't apply the choke you kind of rush through the choke and then they escape you know a lot of times they end up on in your guard but in but you just lost the winning position like the having the back of your opponent so usually people yeah they you know of course the pace gets faster as you move up the level like at a professional level they are really fast but even then like I find that you have to be really deliberate and methodical about your attacks because you have so much to lose if you your attacks fail so like the past weekend, I had gotten so used to the BJJ pace, I guess, when I did

the Waza in the judo class. I was surprised because people were going really fast, full throttle. And I almost had to wake myself up again to get used to the pace and then match the pace a little. And that's probably another reason why I get more tired doing judo than BJJ even though rounds are a lot shorter. BJJ rounds at my school usually last like six minutes

and at shintaro school we only do three minutes per piece and i i can't even go twice in a row because i get so tired after even after three minutes um so yeah so those are like the two things I wanted to talk to you guys about. Um, uh, I'll, I'll be very curious to hear what you guys find both for those who do both BJJ and Judo. Um, what you guys think about what, what guys find uh the real differences are between the two arts you know or do you do you disagree or agree with my assessments my thoughts and you know in general what you got what do you guys think about those two i'll be very curious to hear about it. You know, you can text me, find me on Instagram or you can join our Patreon. You can support us on Patreon and join our Discord

server. And yeah, I hope you guys enjoyed it. I'm, you know, I'm not as again I keep saying this but I'm not as eloquent as Shintaro especially on this matter of judo and other grappling arts but I hope you guys enjoyed it and

I promise we'll get back to our regular scheduling soon stay tuned and I'll see you guys in the next episode