The Shintaro Higashi Show - Safety in Judo

Episode Date: April 10, 2023

We all know Judo can be rough on the body. This aspect of Judo can be a limiting factor in growing Judo's popularity. What kind of steps can we take to make Judo safe for everyone? In this episode, Shintaro and Peter talk about some of the strategies we as a community can take to help make Judo safe. 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're going to talk a little bit about the safety in Judo, what you can do, what should be done. I know in lieu of the BJJ lawsuit where that guy broke his neck, it's a huge deal right now. He was awarded $43 million. And I think we all know a Judo instructor that's been sued, right? At some point or another. You know, it's common. Very common. What can we do to protect ourselves, right?

That's right so this is inside the dojo and then maybe we'll talk a little bit about the um the competition wise too yep maybe yeah inside the dojo uh first and foremost you know my biggest thing is that like the IJF does a spectacular job with this stuff you know when they look at the statistics they're very data driven right, right? And they see, oh, too many people are spamming Korean Saenagis and the risk is very high

and the likelihood of throw is very low. Ban it. Right. And I know a lot of people have like a very visceral reaction to this kind of a thing. And they're like,

oh, it's a martial arts. Yeah. You know, it waters down the sport and whatnot and all this stuff. Yeah, I mean, it kind of does,

but like the safety of kids and people who practice it, I think should be the first and foremost priority. Yes, we're doing a martial art, but IJF is a sporting organization. Yeah. Their goal is not to spread judo as a martial art and then people protect themselves. They're invested in the sport of judo, which requires spectatorship, IOC, you know, relations and all these different things.

So we can't make that argument of like, oh, you know. They're a different goal. I mean, it is a sport for them. We're talking about the sport. You know, if you're looking at the martial side of stuff, you can do whatever you want. But there's no regulation with that. If you want to do martial arts related judo for martial purposes, then do leg grabs, do Korean Seidagi, senior dojo, who cares?

But that's also going to open you up to liability as well because the IGF, the governing organization, says, hey, this technique is dangerous, get rid of it. And you're doing it in the room. So there's a lot of things I think that should be done that IGF is doing. And I think the more local organizations should follow suit. For instance, like USJUDO. You know what I mean?

You also have implemented some rules at your dojo too. Yeah. You know, like no Taniyatoshi, that's the famous one. No Taniyatoshi. And, you one yeah no taniyatoshi and you know i tell the black belts like if it's between two black belts if you guys go for it you know just make sure it's safe you guys have to have a real true understanding of it you know doing it taking it nagakomi and such like that's a prerequisite you have to understand the technique before you even try it yeah you know so black belt belt, I don't really mind so much.

If you're spamming it, of course, and if it looks dangerous, you gotta stop that. You look horrible doing it, you're gonna break someone's leg. But as a whole, the dojo, we're not allowed to do tani toshi on each other. That's number one. And no drop techniques on

people below green belt. Oh, like no seoi nage. No drop seoi nage, none of that. You know, and I'm pretty strict about enforcing it. And it does happen. And then sometimes I'll call them out. Hey, Matt, you can't do drop seoi nage on yellow belts. And then first two times a warning, first time's a warning,

but then the second, third time I'm going to be, you know, he's going to hear about it. Yeah. Because it's freaking dangerous. Right. you know, he's going to hear about it. Yeah. Because it's freaking dangerous. Right.

So the first recommendation, your recommendation is to follow, like listen closely what the IJF is recommending. Yeah, but you know, they don't ban techniques that often. You know, like recently, here's a good one. If your head touches the mat in any way, shape or form, you lose.

You know this? Oh, did they decide to be more strict about it? Yeah, so if you go for a drop senagi, and your forehead touches the mat, you're done. How about in uchimara? Done. Wait, so like, you know, Ono

kind of does it? Done. Ono is not going to win the Olympics now. No, I'm kidding. I shouldn't say that. That was a joke. That was a joke. I'm kidding. No, but if you're going for a throw and if your head touches the mat, you lose.

Right. I mean, I get it. I mean, I, you know, sometimes when I force the technique, that happens and it's not good for me either. It's not good for you. The wrist goes hot. Yes. You know, I think that's a good rule. I think people are going to be pissed.

You know, it makes judo less exciting. Definitely. But it makes it safer. Yeah. Head and neck injuries are crazy. Like, it's common in judo, man. Yeah. You know, they have, like, statistics in Japan. They followed, like, in the school system. Not private dungeons. In the

school system, they had over, in the school system. Then over 120 deaths from head and neck injuries from judo. From judo. 120 spanning, I think, a decade or two decades or something like this. Oh, my God.

Which is a lot, man. One death is too much. Yeah, dude. It's like five, six deaths a year easily they were getting. You know, kids dying from getting thrown a sort of guy or drop Sanagi on their head, you know what I'm saying? Right. The issue was right.

They wanted to put Judo in all the schools and not all physical education teachers have Judo experience. So they're reading a book and they're like, all right, this is how you do a sort of guy is how you do Kemi. And then one kid blasts another kid takes that one time. That's a scary thought yeah

and even taking the throws too like if someone goes for a drop say your head touches

the ground to like base out and spin off you're done you know yeah

I think it's a good rule because it protects the kids protects the children so

so those yeah IJF rarely bans techniques outright but they'll adjust the rules here and there like this

to make it safer look at Kani Basami there's a famous video if you guys haven't watched it in the Olympics I think was it? Yamashita? yeah it's a good one and so

so then on top of that do you recommend other people to implement additional rules like you do yeah I think so like what are the things you know so like rank based stuff

you know I think age based stuff too like they do it in France. I don't know exactly what age they can do what, but you know, before a certain age, you can't do drop techniques. Right. Right. Right. And these things are very, very, very important, I think.

And even in Jiu-Jitsu now, who's very, very, BJJ is very, very quick to say like, oh, you know, you can't do this and that in Judo. It's too new. Even those guys are starting to do this stuff, right? You can't jump guard. You can't do heel hooks that in judo. It's too new. Even those guys are starting to do this stuff, right? You can't jump guard. You can't do heel hooks for people below black belt. And they're little by little going in this direction. I mean, it's immutable.

Yeah. The more people who do it, the more people who get injured, the likelihood of it being a litigious thing, it'd be higher and higher, especially in the United States, where it's a very litigious country. And in a way that judo and wrestling have gone through that whole process a lot

earlier and longer than BJJ and it's just inevitable as it becomes more popular, right? I mean, even look at freestyle wrestling versus collegiate style. Yeah, collegiate is a lot safer, right? A lot safer because of certain rules.

You know, like if you were to like back to belly or belly to belly suplex someone, the likelihood that someone lands on their head and have a spinal injury

is very high. You don't want kids doing that to each other. Therefore, you can't really do that in high school wrestling. Like the point system doesn't reward that.

Yeah, no five point throws. No, there's no five point. I mean, you can throw them to their back and then back point

and stuff, right? But, you know, it's a little bit different. Like if you pick them up, you have to control them down. Yeah, no five-point throws. No, there's no five-point. I mean, you can throw them to their back and then back point and stuff, right? Yeah. But, you know, it's a little bit different. Like, if you pick them up, you have to control them down. Yeah, yeah. But in freestyle, you can just throw them and you don't even have to follow the guy. Yes. You get five points.

Yeah, and then they changed the rules for collegiate wrestling for this purpose. For instance, like, if the person's on bottom, right, in freestyle, you can lock your hands around their waist, lift them up off the ground, and spike them on their head. Right, right. You can do that in freestyle wrestling. In high school wrestling, if the other person's down, you can't lock your hands around their body. Oh. Right?

You know that? Clasping. Yeah. It's called free move. Remember that? You can't clasp your hands. Oh, that. Yeah.

You know, when I went to my old high school wrestling practice the other day yeah this kid complained because I did it and then it's like man just wrestle yeah no but it's a very

you can't do that yeah but it's a safety thing right yeah I get it yeah if you're getting up and then you lock them then you can blast them

back up their head it's dangerous right so even like our dojo too here's another one that we do uranage you can't bomb someone uranage if you can lift them that's it you we don't finish uranage can you argue like oh then you know you're finishing mechanics gets a little bit weaker yeah but i'd rather that than someone break a freaking back, a smile. You know what I mean? It's always a trade-off.

You kind of have to err on the side of longevity and safety for everyone than some kind of achievements like, oh, we're going to be the best Ura Nage dojo ever. I mean, you know. So you can be creative based on, I I guess based on your

student population and age groups and whatnot right like you don't have to just follow your your rules like oh no Tanya Otoshi whatever yeah and white belts don't do Rondori that's a great rule right they should do it they should do a lot of drills a lot of movements a lot of understanding of the thing

breakfalls drills combinations Nagakomi you know three person should call me and learning patterns like quick explosive cluster patterns right adjust the hand fake forward snap down cosodo tile that's a really cool you know there's a lot going on there ben and ang right you should do that quick let's go into there a little bit like you know i think that can be very controversial like not letting beginners do randori or live rolling especially in a sport like judo and bjj where that is like the hallmark right like that's what sets uh judo wrestling bjj apart from other striking based ones where you can go full full throttle um so what do you say to the critics

like they say oh you're not doing there's no judo without randori you know yeah we do randori yellow on above yeah you know what i mean if you're coming into the club right and case by case basis right how they interact with them you know what do they look like how do they look like joe and the staff were they able to take breakfalls or a night coming? All those things play a factor. So I don't say blanket, like, oh, if you're a white belt and you never know judo, you're not doing randori. I'm not like that. We let a BJJ furball

do randori the other day. But the issue is this. We don't know what kind of habits they have. If they're only doing collar drags and paniatoshis in a dangerous way and they get freaked out and then they jump guard, I don't know what school they come from a lot of the times.

Even if I ask, I don't know what the norm is there. Yeah, I go to Unity or whatever it is. Okay, cool. But I don't know what the rules are of that rank and role. I don't know what belt they are sometimes, I ask. You know what I mean? I don't know what kind of personality this person is. So in that that way it's just super dangerous you don't know if they have a wrestling

background there's a freestyle wrestling background whatever it is they may have bad habits you know what i mean so it's really tough to like let you know everyone just do rondo right away you got to get to know each other first and make sure that that person is right. You know? So how do, so in your gym, I mean, you're, you say, you've said this before,

you're more like a boutique operation. Like you're more hands-on. So you are able to, you know, get to know the person well and then make case-by-case judgment.

But at a bigger gym or, you know, how, like where you have to be more systematic how can you do that like i think it's good to do like for instance i mean a lot of judo schools if you listen to this and you have a judo school chances are you don't have a that's that that like bigger

than mine yeah it's not like uh there's no mega dojos yet in judo yeah they're mega dojos in jujitsu now they're popping up all over the place and i think they should implement like certain rules like white belts can't you know and they have it now white belts can't join the intermediate class or like white belts you know blue belts can't do the comp class unless they're invited and those things i think are good systems that protect people i see yeah but you know having a sensei that really knows you know in a boutique shop based on watching them and interacting with them, and having guys in the room who are familiar with wrestling, jiu-jitsu, and judo, who are great grapplers, right? Yeah.

And I could put out there sort of as a test case basis and say, hey, go with that guy. You're enforcers. I don't want to call them enforcers. They're like spies. Okay. It's like a reconnaissance. Reconnaissance dudes. Yeah. You know, it's like, hey, go with that guy. Don't bomb him.

Yeah, just feel him out. And I would always say, but protect yourself. So, majority when I tell like George that, you know, he goes out there, he's like, okay. I think he knows exactly what that means. I'm pretty sure he does. Which means go out there, you know, dominate him in terms of hand position,

feel out what techniques he does, maybe throw him once, but then always be on the lookout for dangerous moves. So don't stand in the pocket with them, stand outside, wing grips, and then counter certain techniques, and then protect that and protect yourself, is what I'm trying to say.

And there's some guys that are very good at that in the dojo. And I think you need a couple of those people to be able to keep the dojo safe. How would you grow your students, some of your students to be like that? I think it's just like a matter of teaching proper Judo

which comes from gripping and positioning. If you're locked up 50-50 and people are ripping and roaring, you have a great athlete in there, it's just going to be all sorts of risk, right? But you have to have, like, good fighting, positional advantage, like, all the ideas of, like,

what's winning, what's losing, and then filtering people onto your system, right, and restricting their opponent movement so they don't do anything crazy and dangerous. You know? That's very interesting because it's not just about enforcing some rules it's actually about learning good judo so that yeah that you know force your game so that the other your opponent your partner can't do anything crazy yeah and then when i emphasize all the time safety is this safety is that don't do drops on

those people even when we do Nagakomi, it's like, do not do high amplitude throws on beginners. White belts. I say this all the time. You've heard me say this. Grab a partner who will do Nagakomi, grab the mask, bring him out. Do not do high amplitude throws on beginners.

Hey, Johnny, what is a high amplitude throw? Uchimata taiyo. Good. The things that get whipped onto the ground, don't do any of that stuff. What is a low amplitude throw OG, low, soft sort of guy over there

and you know these assholes are like I didn't even throw them hard shut the fuck up I'll bomb you on your head and tell you I didn't throw you that hard shut up it's like that kid at the park it's hard for you but it's easy for me I get so angry at that nonsense

nonsense is garbage, don't do that i mean yeah low amplitude throws slow ochi also the guy where they can control how they fall yeah the guys who's taking it okay and ogoshi that's an exception because you could decelerate the person and slowly bring them down like a feather yeah so only allowing those techniques on white belts. And then having, okay, you know, Carlos has been doing judo for four months. He's a white belt, but he's a great athlete. He's proven himself that he can handle this stuff. Carlos, you can do some of these throws.

Oh, you know what? You can throw a Carlos, and everyone sort of knows. I mean, it's a very, very safety-oriented messaging always that I have, right, in the room. they start policing them each other someone for a time i thought she's all the day clapper was like don't do that that's dangerous right so now it becomes this thing i mean nick went for a job so there's a yellow belt and somebody you know like a purple ball was like oh you can't do that did you if you you can't

you shouldn't be doing yeah do that yeah I guess that's actually how you systemize this I guess you can't police everyone you're only one person if you instill in everyone how to think about safety then it's like community policing

policing right like everyone can't filter through like that. It's managing expectations in the room with a Dora Dory. It's communicating to them like, hey, this is not a win or loss thing. You're not trying to win every round. The goal is skill acquisition.

Try new things. Getting in the pocket, filling gaps of your knowledge. For instance, if I'm in Georgian B and I suck at it and I want to learn that, put yourself in Georgian B with somebody that you it, and I want to learn that, put yourself in Georgian B. With somebody that you trust, it's not going to bomb you. Learning that way. I'm trying to figure out Tomonage.

I obviously can't do it on a yellow belt, so I'm going to go with a brown belt or a black belt, and I'm going to go for it. I'm going to let him know ahead of time, like, hey, I'm working on this thing. Hope you don't get too frustrated that I'm going to be dropping and flopping all over the place. And then people kind of know, right? And you have to have Rondori rounds where you're

not trying to kill the person, trying something new that you have no clue what it's about. You know, you have to have spent the time doing your homework, drilling and learning and asking questions, watching videos, doing it in Nagakomi, doing it in 3-person Hikomi, and then you can start little by little introducing it to the higher belts.

And at first, it's going to suck. You're just not going to get it, right? But little by little, the more you do it, the higher belt yeah and at first it's gonna suck right you're just not gonna get it right but a little by little the more you do it the better you're gonna get at it i think that's the way to safely like titrate it in and also that also means that if you want repetitions you better learn in the safe way so you can do a lot more of them yes yeah yeah so you know oh i'm gonna learn taiyatoshi and then start doing it and run dory it's probably the worst thing you can do yeah then some of these really gonna get broken so teaching them properly teaching how to fall all the different making them understand and say you

cannot do this yeah until they can sort of prove to you in a cooperative setting that they can do it even then you know most of these instructors it's hard to control all the stuff, right? Because somebody moves or whatever it is. I'd rather outright ban something like Taniyatoshi until, you know, oh, what if you get caught in a competition? You might get caught in a competition. But the fundamentals of hand positioning and such, if you have a great pulse, great frame on the person's neck

or whatever it is with your hand, you know, it's going to make it difficult. They shouldn't be able to do that, yeah. I mean, you can still, but they won't catch you with it, right? The likelihood of you you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's a lot lower. Of course, anything can happen on the mat, but... Even with a strong

elbow frame, like, if they can't close this distance, then you can't get close enough to, like, sit behind the knee. this distance then you can't get close enough to like sit behind the knee so and you can like shift your body weight away and all the stuff but it's just all sorts of dangerous i mean yeah but we have to like do this i know somebody when we're talking about how to grow usgo someone sent our podcast to keep bryant who's a usa judo ceo oh really okay yeah something that he listened he was actually supposed to come to new york for the new york Keith Bryant, who's the USA Judo CEO. Oh, really? Yeah, something like that. He was actually supposed to come to New York for the New York Open.

I don't think I saw him there. Oh, yeah. What did he say? Well, I didn't see him there. Oh, okay. But he did listen to it. He did listen to it, yeah. Yeah, good.

Perhaps he was at the New York Open. I was drinking beer, so I don't really... Maybe I was, you know... Should we try to invite him or something does he want to talk I'm sure he yeah maybe

yeah well maybe that'll happen but yeah you know having you know when I see these kid competitions and kids are going

for drop soda and nagi it's only a matter of time until someone gets severely injured it's only a matter of time

I think it's inevitable that like a 12 year old kid goes for a ura nage and gives another kid a concussion until someone gets severely injured. It's only a matter of time. I think it's inevitable. That 12-year-old kid goes for an urinage and gives another kid a concussion. You know, I had a concussion. I was like 16. Yeah. You know? Yeah, I went for a turn throw.

Merced Mate and the guy like lifted me up and put me right onto my head. I was concussed. Sucked. You know what I mean? And that's okay. It's a regular urinage. You know, it was a little bit of a hairy thing

because it was after Mate. All that stuff. But like, you know what I mean and that's okay it's a regular uranage you know it was a little bit of a hairy thing because it was after mate all that stuff but like you know that should never happen under age 13 period yeah you know what I mean

drop soda right it's like it's yeah when the kid getting thrown will smack their head into the mat

I know a lot of people who are listening now are like hey dude I did judo through the system and I didn't get injured. Yes. Survivorship bias. I cannot emphasize this enough. It's survivor bias. Right? Yeah. How many people do you know that you did judo with back then that ate

one of those that quit? Oh, yeah. Maybe if they wouldn't have eaten it, they would have been standing alongside you right now. Right? Maybe they would have been better than you. Who knows? You got a lot. So we've got to really take into this account. And I think having age-restricted technique ban,

I think, is the next frontier. I think it's necessary. I absolutely think it's necessary. I thought they already have some, right? Like when it can't choke or arm bar. Yeah, choke and arm bar. Yeah, but that's been around forever. It's been around forever.

But then the throws, I guess you kind of see that with BJJ. Well, whatever the art emphasizes, for example, BJJ with the submissions, they don't tend to ban them for kids. No. Yeah, but so judo with emphasis on the throws, they didn't really ban them for kids. Yeah. But it should be more, yeah.

It should be safer for kids. You know, I don't feel comfortable sending my judo kids to competition for that reason. Because I know there's teachers out there who are like, hey, listen, man, they're going to put your hand on the collar, they're going to turn for a soto or push a grima. You just wrap your hands around their waist and dive backwards

you know and I've known teachers who teach this way and it's like yo you know what I mean and now that I'm a parent even more so you know if my daughter like went in for something and some Russian kid spiked out the back of her head man I don't know

what I'd do man I'd be so pissed I've heard that you know know, even in youth soccer, they ban heading. Oh, okay. Yeah, because when I first heard that, I have to look it up, the details, how it's going now, but it was definitely proposed. And then when I heard it, you know, I grew up playing soccer and I thought it's a survivorship. I was like, what? What's, you know Heading is such a big part of soccer but then

after talking to you about all of this it makes sense I've gotten concussed mildly because I try to hit the ball and then I smack my head against another kid's head or foot or whatever

it's not necessary. No, it's not necessary. Because can the kids still do better? Like, what would be better for judo? If we never lost kids because these kids never got injured, right? They stay in the sport. It can be better for the sport because we have more population doing it. Those kids are going to end up getting better,

and then they're going to spread judo more. We have a bigger judo population by protecting the people at the bottom of the pyramid. You know what I mean? We have to protect those guys at all costs. And then you can slowly add these

like dangerous techniques later when they're... Yeah, add them in but let them learn the fundamentals first, man. There's no reason why these kids

need to be doing drop sote and taniya toshi and uranage. They simply don't. Let them learn ouchi or soto. Do it safely.

You know, let them do... You know, they don't even need to do hard randori competitions they don't need to you know Japan has a problem now because they put

so much pressure on these kids for the elementary school championships they outright banned they banned elementary school

dude competitions you should have seen some of the freaks coming out of this thing man I went to Kukushcott High School to train all summer. They had a kid

that was on scholarship coming in to 7th grade. 6th grade, elementary school stopped. 7th grade, he got middle school year one. He had a full scholarship. He was a national champion. Elementary national champion in the Open Division. This kid weighed 340 pounds.

What? He was like 5'9". This kid weighed 340 pounds. What? What? He was like 5'9". This kid was bigger than me. Humongous. Oh my god. They put so much pressure on this kid for winning. He slaughtered everyone at the elementary school championships. Yeah. Elementary school

championships, I'm telling you. Oh my god. Yeah, now he has a scholarship at Krushkod. He didn't end up doing too good. Eventually like i know he didn't do that well but like i remember there was a kid that won cadet world he was 14 years old this kid was like 5 10 195 pounds to the bone he looked like a grown man dude he was like 14 years old dude unbelievable the amount of like pressure that this kid went through and amount of training this kid went through and, you know, kids would go up against them and they would just get injured.

You know what I mean? Yeah. Also, there's so much disparity in how fast kids grow at that age. So now they're like, oh my God, we have too much pressure on these kids. So many kids are getting injured. Nobody wants to do judo anymore. Everyone hates judo. We got to do something. I everyone hates judo we gotta do something

I think they banned elementary school nationals from like 10 and up or something like this and even I think they might have just straight up outright like got rid of it you know because their whole thing now is like we have to make judo fun again right for these kids not like put them through the ring

so even like some of the champs now like suzuki who's notoriously one of the toughest judo guys ever he too is like i'm gonna run a judo club that's fun for kids to do judo in a fun way everything's gonna be fun i'm gonna do rondo with the kids you know like yeah you know it was an amazing thing coming from that guy because he's been through the system he's a kukushikan guy yeah oh no yeah oh yeah yeah he's yeah it's a tough one yeah so that's what we got to do man we're going to make judo fun for kids it can't be about competition it can't be a win at all costs you know who gives a shit if the other kid gets injured that really

is like a horrible mentality some of these coaches that kind of push that kind of thing on the kids you know i think they're losers i really do you know they have a chip on their shoulder like win horrible mentality some of these coaches that kind of push that kind of thing on the kids you know i think they're losers i really do you know they have a chip on their shoulder like when it all costs like you know i don't give a shit if all the kids get injured those guys man like it makes me want to go to their dojo and kick the shit out of those because they want to win not a lot of it is like yeah it's like projection yeah projection living vicariously through their students yeah you know

man it's just like angers me so much like why would you teach your kids that judo kids yeah you're putting all

the other kids at risk why can't this be like a you know I've been pushing for like not like kata like a technique demonstration competition

oh yeah you told us about that I'm all about that thing you know we did it once we did one in my region. Huge success. Every kid got super

excited about it. It was not one injury. Give me one first place, even though, you know. A little bit of nepotism, I don't know. I mean, I wasn't the judge on that, but everyone kind of knew who it was. And, you know. But everyone had a good time.

She went to Rosado, fell back through herself, and then just lied there for a little bit. But, you know, who cares? I mean, she's having fun. But, you know, if she would have gone out there with a kid who would have bound her, it wouldn't be fun anymore. It was fun for me and Yumi. And that's how I want it to be.

And I think it should be for everybody, you know? Right. And you guys are all talking and listening to this, talking about we need to grow judo, this and that. But then still have that mentality of, like, old school Japan in the 60s and 70s. No. It just doesn't fit now in this climate. So we have to adjust. We have to evolve.

We have to do it in a safe way. We have to ban techniques. And we have to make. We have to evolve. We have to do it in a safe way. We have to bend techniques and we have to make it fun. Even for adults, right? Like I told the other day with the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, I go in, everyone's warm.

Hey, how are you? What's your name? My name is this. And they introduce themselves. A lot of hugs, man. A lot of hugs. You know, it should be like that. When you leave the dojo, dude,

you should leave feeling good. Yeah. Yeah. Right? I totally agree. Yeah. I mean, yeah. Some people are like,

oh, I can't believe that guy beat me. Or, oh, I don't know. But overall, it should be a good experience. You walk in, people are friendly. You get a great workout in. You learn something. You're engaged for the whole time. You're not like hoping to pick up your phone and look at dumb reels or something. You're there engaged.

Right. You're making friends. And then, you know, you train in a safe way. You should never feel, you know, unsafe. And then you go home feeling good about yourself and say, you know, you train in a safe way. You should never feel, you know, unsafe. And then you go home feeling good about yourself and say, you know, next practice I'm going to work on these things. And that's how it's supposed to be, you know? And we have to provide that by making some of these restrictions, you know? And we got to do it, man.

Everyone who's listening, please push this, you know, sort of a thing. Safe judo, fun judo, you know? Yeah. And it's not about these regulations or banning techniques it's also has to be

it also has to be complemented by you know teaching everyone this safety oriented mentality so that everyone

can kind of you know watch out for each other you know that's very important too that's exactly right should we talk about should we talk about should we talk about

the current event you know we'll be doing another episode this one's already 30 minutes you know alright alright we'll do it on another episode

we'll do another episode and yeah thank you guys for listening go to shindorohigashi.com please check everything out follow my YouTube please share this safety thing

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