The Shintaro Higashi Show - Sensei Seth on Spinning Kicks, Judo, & Content Creation!

Episode Date: March 24, 2025

Shintaro welcomes Sensei Seth, a top martial arts YouTuber, for an in-depth conversation about his journey from viral spinning kicks and the Bottle Cap Challenge to becoming a Sumo National Champion and one of the biggest martial arts influencers on YouTube. They dive into Seth’s approach to content creation, how he balances training with producing videos, his thoughts on MMA, traditional martial arts, and the future of martial arts education.

I mean, it's easy to joke because I mean, there's some legit takuan dosu schools out there. Oh, yeah. Yeah. But there's also, I think there's like a feud with karate, like whether or not it's spoken. But yeah, I like to feud with them a bit. And I made a lot of, I used to call them safe space karate. Safe space karate. Yep. Yep. I'm going to clip these, you know, and put them on reel. Oh, yeah, that's fine. Hello everyone welcome back to the Shintaro Higashi show we have a very special guest for you today

Sensei Seth what a honor to have you here. Did you do that? Did you do the confetti on my side? I did not that's gotta be your phone thing. It might've just heard my name and was like, yeah. Yeah, it's a sad thing. So dude, you're wildly successful in this region of the YouTube world. Like what's up with that? Tell me more about that. Yeah, it's pretty fun.

I like to tell people I'm very popular in very specific rooms. Yeah, very true. And then everywhere else not so much. So that's pretty fun. I like to I like to um tell people I'm very popular in very specific rooms Yeah, and then everywhere else not so much. So that's pretty fun. I get to have like like a Excitement about me in very small very specific places Okay, so what specific places like like if I go to like a martial arts gym most of the time at least one person will Be like Are you that YouTube guy and I'll be like, yeah, it's I am that YouTube guy. Hi. Yeah It's just enough fame right just enough because like I go to a jujitsu gym

It's like almost always like three, you know, a few people will be like, hey, you know, you're the guy, right? So it's like yeah kind of cool and then every now and then I'll get like an airport like hey, are you the you know? You get those? Yes every now and then I'll get like arm like I'll be in the line for Chick-fil-a Hand me their food my food and be like Are you on YouTube? I'm like yes. Hello. It's me. They're like what are you here for? And I'm like oh, I live here, and I go to this chick-fil-a all the time That's so yeah, it's fun. So how many subscribers you have now on YouTube? I think I'm at like 420, 420,000 on the main channel and then I want to say like 70,000

on the second channel. What's the second channel about? Oh, it's just reacts. So like, like the viewers will send me stuff and be like, Hey, Seth, I think you should watch this and then I'll just give my input on it and sometimes it's technical stuff And I like to break stuff down then sometimes it's just bizarre things Bizarre things that sounds weird and funny at the same time. It's literally just my YouTube like how I watch YouTube, but then I just watch it in front of a camera

And then somebody edits it and we upload it. That's awesome. So it's like that. Yeah, yeah. Sounds like a lot of fun. It is. And you started off as a karate guy though. Yeah, yep. So let's get back into that history

because I met you when you were early on in your career. Yeah, yeah, you took me in. You let me, you trusted me to come train with you despite having like no judo experience. You're like, yeah, sure, we could do rand appreciate that. No, it uh, I started off with karate With a system that was pretty Americanized. We did a lot of the okinawan kata But a lot of the training like like we didn't use any of the Japanese words um, it was we did everything that you would see but it was

really kickboxing focused when it comes to like the application um, and There was a lot of like take one to influence in the American karate like they kind of Outcompeted each other in that way in the 80s They tried to one up the flashiness and the kicks and stuff like that so I had this repertoire of fancy flashy stuff that kind of translated really well to the internet and yeah the jumping back spinning kicker right that was one of the things you taught me we have a video about it oh yeah that's right oh my gosh yeah I totally forgot about that yeah and then um you know just having stuff that I can do that the average

person can't or thinks is cool kind of lent pretty well to short form content on like Instagram and then I blew up that way and and then after that I was like well this is pretty cool and it's it's kind of slowly transitioned to I make content that is more so just like what I like to learn and experience yes it definitely is a different kind of a channel now I've seen yeah I remember like the first one thing I've ever seen was you kicking the bag with the water bottle on it the water bottle jumps up and you back spin kick that yeah remember that one oh yeah oh yeah no I have I've had there's probably like

a six to eight month span where all I was doing every night was just kicking bottles and recording it and being like what's tomorrow's video gonna be? I have to upload tomorrow at noon What's it gonna be and it was so funny that I put so much time and effort into just like kicking bottles off of bags And it like it it went super well for getting me some like some social notoriety but then then people started walking up to me like being like hey you're the bottle guy you're the bottle guy like within our martial arts circles and I was like okay I don't I do see the silliness is a little bit cool how old were you back then oh man I

thought that probably 25 maybe I just finished grad school yeah that's right a. A lot of people don't know this about you, but you have a master's in marketing Yeah, yep master's degree in marketing and about halfway through getting that I was like, I don't want to work for anybody Yeah, that's right, yeah Interesting and how's that going? pretty good so far Interesting and how's that going? Pretty good so far 460,000 subscribers, that's not a simple feat. You know, you're right around the corner from the 500 in the million You know, I'm sure dude the million it feels so far away

But at the same time I'm like, it's it's really I'm almost halfway there, dude. I just hit 250 Yeah, and you know, I'm not like pushing it as much as you because you know I have a daughter all this all this stuff kind of going on sure and you know, I'm not like pushing it as much as you because you know I have a daughter all this all this stuff kind of going on sure You know, but you're really consistent with producing high quality stuff. I'm still kind of like one shot in front of a camera This is my technique kind of a thing I haven't really like grown it in a way but man like do you love what you're doing? Like how's that like is it everything you've ever wanted? What is it like? Before I say that for your content though. There has been numerous times where I'm like like, uh, I guess I don't want to give too much away

but recently I was quizzed on something was like okay do this combo for judo and it was something that I Immediately was like I've seen Chintaro do that and then I had that so there's like such a vast amount of information on your channel It's insane. Yeah, but um as far as how I enjoy that so there's like such a vast amount of information on your channel. It's insane Yeah, but um as far as how I enjoy it. It's There's definitely days that I enjoy it more than others like like this month was hard. I had More content to edit than usual anytime. I have like difficult edits It's not super fun.

Yeah. But for the most part, like, especially when I'm filming, Oh, filming is the best. I get to go hang out and do stuff I love. And then, and then sometimes I'll have to like, tell a story around it. And that part sitting in front of the computer, that part, I don't love as much. The editing is taking a toll on me a little bit, but the filming itself is like fantastic and when it's a fun video it's so easy to edit. Yeah it was awesome that when you came to do the sumo at my dojo dude everyone had a

blast and you're so like raw and natural and you're so authentic right like whatever we saw the final result on your YouTube was exactly what we got in person and that's like the most refreshing thing ever I think from a YouTube audience you know. I appreciate that. I saw how that was fun for you and what we got in person. That's like the most refreshing thing ever I think from a YouTube audience. I saw how that was fun for you and everybody but I can't imagine you sitting there and editing that over the course of I don't know how many hours it took you to edit that. Oh it usually takes me a week to edit each video and I would say probably of that week I'd say maybe five hours a day is what I can stomach sitting down for. Wow five hours a day of editing but you must have gotten pretty

good at it at this point right? Yeah yeah I've almost gotten too good at it to be honest where like if I have a week to edit something I'll do the thumbnail for a day I'll do the intro for a day a week to edit something I'll do the thumbnail for a day I'll do the intro for a day I'll do like three days of full editing and then sometimes that first day I'm like I can do it two days I can do it in two days and then two days goes by I'm like oh crap because I know I can mmm but it just makes life a lot harder and how often do you post on YouTube I try to post one every other week has been my my formula I have a week to like get everything set up logistics. I have a week to catch up on business stuff

That's not editing and then I have a week to edit But if if you're following along February, I have posted I think either three or four videos and There's been a lot December i'm usually about the same. That's a ton. Yeah, when do you outsource that? uh pretty much if i'm behind Which is maybe once every three weeks. I'll i'll you have a guy

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I do. Uh, I have a guy his name's zach. He's he pretty much He edits all of the second channel stuff and then he edits like if you see Like really cool montages. Yeah, sometimes it's me sometimes it's Zach if you see b-roll Like like a history portion or and it looks good. Then it's probably Zach So if it's just like kind of thrown together But what do you like completely outsource it like when you when do you get to the level of like, alright I'm just gonna have to produce more for whatever amount of reason. I'm just gonna get in the front Here's the footage go edit it. When does that happen? I don't know if it ever will is that the way to scale though?

Maybe I think for me the way to scale would be doing bigger stuff. And then I still have the voice to edit it because I think that's the hardest part with my videos. They're so like the the voiceover the narration how the timeline actually happens. All that stuff is on. It's pretty personal and I've tried to outsource it a couple times and I just have yet to find like the correct fit that can do it sometimes Zach Zach can pull some stuff off, but

I'll always have to have like this say in at the end and then I might change up the order I might add some more voiceover stuff like that because most of the time it's just me sitting here and I'll be editing and then I'll like Record the voiceover and then I'll do it again. They'd be like no I don't like that and I'll do it like four more times depending on how it fits with the footage and everything It's a it's a lot and I think Even if I had somebody else edit I'd have to be like hand in hand with them, which in that case I might as well just edit it might as well do it yourself. Wow, that's so interesting how that is man And that's your studio that you're in? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Let me make sure I don't have anything crazy up right now. Let's see. No, yeah, this is what it looks like. This is the- Wow! Sensei Seth's private studio. That's insane. Private studio.

Got a list of video ideas up here. Oh, look. Yeah. Judo stuff.o stuff yeah yeah yeah wow dude you have a whole rig dude oh yeah yeah this is this is my spot i need it otherwise it would be very tough yeah that's amazing you got some uh asian art in the back you're a surfer no that's a skim board so i'm too i'm too I'm too fat to serve I think and there's no waves on the East Coast So there's hardly enough waves to skim board

But yeah, that's a good video idea for you. Like I go skim boarding I train at the beach or something. That could be fun Do you know the beach training in Japan? Karate. Oh, oh, um, oh man It's like it's like uh, I wish I could remember the name of it. It's not called karate. Okay. Okay. Yeah.

In the winter, they go in the ocean and they do like the stuff, you know, I've done a lake in Maryland. That's pretty cool. Some people, some people know about, yeah, I did a Kyokushin video and the video starts off with a, with a bunch of white dudes fighting in the water. It's, it's a very fun video. It's a very fun video. It's cute. So you're doing martial arts content, you know, you've been doing a lot of sumo for your YouTube. Yeah. Do you do the videos and then the martial art or the martial art is like a means to make the videos. That's my

That's a good question. Um, I think Like what are you doing sumo every day if you didn't film it? Like it wasn't even uh, yeah for sumo. Yes. Yeah Um, there's a couple of them that I would do without filming it sumo is definitely one of them For judo, no for judo. I would say yes for judo. I don't think I would do it as regularly judo hurts So you saw the tournament footage it's it's not out yet. I don't think it depends on when you release this but for the judo I I went for about 30 size

Over the span of three matches nice and just spammed it and my groin hurts so bad on both sides I was like walking. Huh? No shins are fine shins are good also you could argue it's like a It's like a he's a Garuma maybe but it it is it hurts so bad The falling I don't mind so much. It's it's the it's how it takes a toll on my body I love how the judo terms come right to you, but sumo terms you're like, oh, yeah, I got nothing Oh, yeah, the difference between the last time we talked and um and Here look so I got I've got the gyok the gokyo up there

These are these are my note cards Wow for all the throws and the terms and stuff. I'm on it right now. Wow, you locked in I did I really did practically a judo guy at this point. I mean Maybe yeah, I Think I have to lock back into sumo because we got nationals coming up in March 28th or the 29th. Yeah. 29th. So I gotta go win that.

That's coming up pretty soon. Nice. So you're gonna go to Nationals, you're gonna make a video out of it so we could follow the whole progress? I might not make a video about Nationals. What? No, why?

I might fully lock in for Nationals. Wow. No video. If I do, it'll be, if I do make a video, it'll be a tie-in to the world's video if I can win nationals again it'll be that'll be the beginning to the world's video I think but it's not a main priority right now these guys that are coming to nationals you know who it is that are gonna probably be there and

you kind of yeah yeah yeah so it's a it's a pretty small community we'll probably have like 15 guys in my division if i had to guess um and i've wrestled probably half of them nice if i had to i would assume probably half there's some new guys to compete in this right yeah yeah all right good then you don't get these georgians and mongolians coming in there no no thank goodness world's world's a different story that was that was a little harder for sure but you know, there's there's some I went to I went to consulates Cup and in Austin last year and there was there's two Georgians there and One of them slapped the slap that piss out of me and it was a fun time

Yeah all right so you've tried a bunch of martial arts. If you listen to my podcast, and I can't imagine anyone who watches me hasn't watched your channel. Because there's a lot of crossover audience, I think. Yeah, I think so too. If you like martial arts, I mean,

you're the main martial arts guy now. And then Karate has Jesse Yankamp. And then I'm Judo. So it's like, we're all sort of part of this ecosphere of martial arts YouTubers. So you've tried a bunch of stuff, right? And any martial arts surprise you? Like, oh, this is really cool, or oh, this one was really bad, or...

Hmm... Hmm... I would say probably surprised me was how difficult Capoeira was I think that one really took me by surprise on just How much they do and how difficult it is to do the um, oh man kicks Not even the cartwheel kicks the the sparring that they do Because the sparring looks like it's like oh, this is flowing and it's fun

But it is so hard, especially for a dude like me with no rhythm. It's I think you don't have any rhythm. I have very little rhythm. I can it's hard because you're heavyweight also Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, very true. Very true. It's it's hard to like Feel out the space and where you're supposed to be. I like the HEMA and the HAMA, the historical European and African martial arts, the historical African martial arts specifically was really cool. And then back hold actually. Back hold which is like the kilt wrestling where you just lock up and then back hold actually back hold which is like the the the kilt wrestling where you

We just lock up and then first person to break the grip loses That one was super fun. I've gotten surprisingly into grappling since I started making YouTube videos Yeah, grapples fun. I mean, that's really cool with the break of the I mean Greco Roman overtime used to be like that, you know, ooh That'd be sick. It was it was like that. Oh, it used to be like that, you know? Ooh, that'd be sick. It was, it was like that. Oh, it used to be like that, okay, gotcha. Yeah, like if your hand slips off or something, like it was like a disadvantage or something like that, you know, it was pretty cool, cool rule.

Yeah, Ruangardner beat Karelin like that. Okay, yeah, no, I know who both those guys are. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Man, so you love grappling, obviously, you're a striker. Yeah, I couldn't tell if you're being serious. No, I have no, yeah, man. So you look raffling off. Are you a striker? Correlin Alexander Correlin No, no man. One of the greatest of all time Greco-Roman. You gotta look up his highlights. You'll have a blast That's one of them that I still haven't done much on is like oh actually

I don't I haven't done a Greco Roman video yet. What about like wrestling straight-up wrestling? I've done a little bit But I what I've been saving that one for I wanted to get into like a like a college wrestling practice Oh, I will love that. I walked into Iowa's room Worked out with these guys. Oh, yeah. And you're puking. Yeah. Yeah, I think that would be the goal.

I would pay money to see that. Ooh. If you were like, hey, I wrestled with. I would definitely get absolutely worked. 100%. I would get worked. I'd get the money. Oh, I mean, without a doubt, they do so much volume

in terms of sprinting, running, up-down shots, wrestling. It's crazy amount of work that these college wrestlers, they're also a college, they're like 20-something years old, peak shape of their life. It's a ridiculous workout, and it's like, I would love to see that, dude. So yeah, if there's any collegiate wrestlers out there and you think your coach should be down for me

to fly in and and literally just try and survive a practice it'd be sick if you're a division one wrestling coach you should go d1 for this you know it's a d1 wrestler yeah yeah yeah if you're a division one wrestling affiliate and then you could kind of bring sensei seth in for a youtube video that would be amazing i'll 100 pay to watch that heck yeah yeah sure I wanna go dude come on let's go yeah I'm not wrestling those guys but you can wrestle with those guys? yeah I don't I mean I I think what would happen is I'd get like halfway through a round and then I'd have to I try not to do this for videos but I probably have to go every other third round in order to just like keep some sort of body available yes for sure you can't get

injured because then you can't do what you're doing no if I go two rounds in a row I think I'd probably die of a heatstroke you know you're working out all the time you know yeah but those guys are different yeah college wrestling is a whole lot animal. Yeah. Yeah I don't do so good with the up and down. I can stay on if I can stay up or I can I can stay down easy Jiu-jitsu BJJ Um, I like BJJ. I think it's

My least favorite of my favorite martial arts to practice probably Like it's it's something that if you were like hey do you want to come to jiu-jitsu class with me I'd be like oh yeah sure yeah let's do it yeah yeah but I would not I wouldn't have to think much about it but I would do it if there was like there wasn't another class that we could have done you know what I mean yeah it's it's just like uh it's not my favorite And it doesn't and to be fair the jujitsu guys don't like me either Really not like people the jujitsu viewers don't watch my stuff about jujitsu. Really is how I should word it Yeah, yeah, yeah interesting cuz Jesse and camp did like all this BJJ stuff and but maybe click baity

Oh, yeah, maybe they associate me with him and they're like these karate guys trying to bash jiu-jitsu. Because I did one video that I thought was like really cool. It was on how many moves are in jiu-jitsu. And I spend a week trying to like catalog every move I can think of. And so for seven days straight, I went to jiu-jitsu classes and like I saw the different instructors and I was like, hey, how many moves do you think there are? How would you classify them? What would you classify them what would you classify a Move as it was just stinker which happens

It happens Wow, that's so interesting man, because I'm sure there's a jujitsu school near you right? Oh, yeah, there's a bunch Yeah, they welcome you in when they see you. Oh, yeah. Yeah, no, no, so that everybody I've met in jujitsu Super kind everybody's very nice to me. Um when they see you. Oh yeah, yeah, no, no, so everybody I've met in jujitsu is super kind. Everybody's very nice to me. Um, but no, it's just the viewership hurts my feelings. How's your feelings? It's my feelings. Double down on that and just kind of start making fun of the jujitsu crowd and just like dude, I might, it used to be, I used to make fun of Taekwondo a lot. Taekwondo. Yeah, I mean It's easy to Joe because I mean there's some legit talk one those schools out there. Oh, yeah. Yeah, but there's also

I think there's like a feud with karate like whether or not it's spoken But yeah, I like to food with them a bit and I made a lot of I used to call them safe space karate Yeah, yeah, I'm gonna cook these you know, I'm putting my real oh, yeah used to call them safe space karate. Safe space karate. Yep. Yep. I'm going to clip these, you know, and put them on real. Oh yeah, that's fine. Taekwondo is safe space karate. Safe space karate. Yep.

Wow. But you know, they do a good job with the marketing and the business side of things, you know? They do. They do. And you're not really like, you're not punching to the head you know it there's varied levels of contact depending on where you train yes that being said the athleticism that it takes is insane yeah yeah but it is yeah I'm gonna stop there actually my favorite thing about

taco dough is I find so amusing to me? Okay. Is they do these birthday parties and they cut the cake. They let the birthday boy cut the cake with a samurai sword. Oh, that's really funny. And samurai sword is not a Korean thing. Not Korean at all. Yeah, it's like samurai, yusto, whatever.

It's like I bit into one of these things. I'm like, what? What? Yeah, it was like a Korean guy talking about the samurai and the sword in the cake and I was like, that's awesome I'm friends with this guy and he's like, yeah, it's pretty good, right? It's like it's kind of like a gimmicky thing, but kids love that stuff. And that's what we do, you know, and I'm like, yeah I mean, I guess I mean to be fair. I guess take one does just kind of like Where Korea was like Oh karate is pretty cool

Take one does just kind of like Where Korea was like Oh karate is pretty cool Let's do it. No, let's not call it karate though. I like a fair amount of the yeah Yeah, a fair amount of the forms are are just karate katas that that are like I remembered I was doing taekwondo for like probably four or five months and I had to really quick learn a bunch of the the basic forms and It was super easy because they were just our P non katas No, like yeah P non. I was like, this is the same and Yeah, and yeah, yeah

Safe that comes from China too, though. Right? Yeah. Yeah, I don't originally come from China. So Chinese the OG You know, we all borrowed from China. That's it. So Chinese the OG, you know, we all borrowed from China. Let's submit that, you know, we all come from over there. And well, they knew but, you know, I don't come from over there. No, I think, and I think a lot of people say that a lot of the Chinese

martial arts and people will definitely argue this comes from India from Kalari Pite was supposed to be the first martial art from like 3000 years ago. That's so interesting too man. Yeah, just comes from over there too. Chess. Okay. Supposedly. Yeah. Yeah. Have you ever done chess boxing? No, but that sounds awesome. Chess boxing is very hard. It's like, have you done it? I've,'ve I've I've never had like a chess boxing match, but I've done a little bit of chess boxing It is very

Confusing on the brain. Oh, I bet I'm already bad at time limit on the chess game. Um, I Think it's gotta be three or something right three two minutes or three minutes. No, sir. It's like a Game of Blitz. It's, yeah, it's definitely speed chess. Yeah, it has to be. Cause it's, you box, or no, maybe, I think you play chess first and then you box and then you play chess again and then you box

and then you play chess again and then you box. Oh, so you play it through the end of the chess. And you can win via knockout or winning in chess. Oh, so it's one game of chess. Yeah, one game of chess. Yeah, that's interesting because at the first minute, like you could just run out your time and you could still make it to the Boxing round and you could kind of double down on the boxing. Mm-hmm, and then hope you knock them out. Yep. I Mean, I want to see man. Can you imagine Magnus Carlsen doing this? No

No Awesome, that's what you should do. You should challenge Magnus Carlson Oh did you have a chance boxing man? I yeah, that would be sick. That would be super fun He'd be like late getting his gloves on or something Like transitioning him from the chest of the boxing and he somehow left in between And he's like got jeans on he's like, oh, sorry. Hold on Wow. Why you know all this story man. That's awesome Heck yeah That's amazing. I love that. All right. So what is your what is so tell me about this judo thing that you've been doing these days Now I know you've been doing judo, but something happened in judo recently, right? Yeah, so um

There was that you don't have to know I mean at least the concept of the video I can talk about Um, no, so I did a video about All the different belt styles and martial arts you were in that one um, you talked about the coral belt and Through that I learned about kind of like the judo belt system and I was like, you know It'd be a really fun video and I'm already practicing some as if I went for a judo belt test Yeah, and as Alex was telling me about pretty much how people are promoted, he kind of talked about how there's like two ways. Traditionally, there's one where you like compete. And then through that you kind of advance through rankings.

So now you're competing with people that you should be. Yep. And then also he says his instructor does a test, which is like, supposed to be pretty hard is how he does the tests where you demonstrate all the throws for like black belts. There's the kata. There's there's Randori do some new waza. And I was like, you know what, that sounds pretty sick. And I did not think about how difficult it would be. And I said, yeah, let's do that. Let's do it. Let's make a plan. And he held me to it. And then like two months go by and he was like, Hey, we still doing this. And I was like, uh, yeah, no, let's do it. Let's do it. And then you and I filmed after that. And you, you're asking me about some of the names of

techniques. I was like, I'm having a hard time. Yeah, yeah, it's tricky. And then after that I locked in and for the last probably two or three months most of what I've done has been with at least judo in mind as far as training goes. So some of it's been for sumo but I'm like trying to relate the two together. So I've been, to relate the two together. So I've been, I've just finished testing and you'll see how that goes when the video comes out. But I also competed, so I wanted to do both methods of testing. I wanted to test myself versus someone else and then I wanted to test what I know by myself. And then, and then yeah, that was a sneak peek and that was hard. I gotta tell you, I'm really excited for the whole video to come out i sent it to all my dojo guys my dojo

guys are now all big fans of you let's go you came in so now they all watch your stuff you know so everyone's always like oh you success new thing i hear that in the locker room you know yeah people people ask me what it's like to train at your dojo and i tell them it is, it's one of my favorite martial arts experiences. It is legit so fun. You don't have to be so- Like everybody in there is so cool. And for you to be such a, like a high level judoka, but to be able to relate to you when you teach stuff

and how you teach it, it makes it a much more enjoyable experience, I think. And also all of the people in your gym are both like safe with you, but at the same time you have to mind your P's and Q's because they will dog walk you. You know what I mean? It's a good time. Oh, thank you, man. I greatly appreciate that.

You got to come back. You got to come back. I do need to come back 100%. Yeah. So you've been doing tons of judo. Do you have any things to say about judo to the judo world? Like judo is something. I do. I do. Judo is whatever. I don't know. I feel like that would be a really good thing for the judo community, you know, because people will love that. Sensei Seth thinks about judo.

Yeah. Like this. Yeah. I think judo needs to figure out what it wants its words to mean. Because as I'm learning all this terminology, like I'm trying to my American education brain is like, okay, I don't know any Japanese. So I have to like equate it to words that I know through like, like weird things. So like, like Sasa and Anza. Yeah, I want my brain immediately goes, oh, like Sasa and Anza. Yeah. I want my brain immediately goes, Oh, Anza sitting on the knees. That's not, it's not right. No, it's wrong. It's the opposite. Yeah. So I have to do that. And then my brain has to go like there's no

easy way to get from one to the other. Yeah. From English to Japanese. And then there's plenty of times where like, sometimes it means shoulder, or sometimes it means like cross, and sometimes it means something else. Kata, yeah. Yeah, and I'm like, it took me a long time to adjust. And I guess to be fair, it just means I had to actually learn it

rather than just like rapid speed learn it. But I had a really fun process trying to, I think learning the Japanese and learning the intricacies of each of the techniques allowed me to appreciate what makes Judo Judo rather than just theandori. I think it's a fascinating art. And there's so much more that goes into the little nuances of throwing someone rather than just like the major motion of the hands and the foot and the body. Yeah, for sure. I mean, they call it like an educational thing, first and foremost. That's what the initial founder was like, it's an education system yeah there's no going around learning the mechanics obviously but also the terminology and the jargon right to memorize the stuff put it

together there's forms and this and that and self-defense systems and ideas and philosophy yeah you know the two main philosophies of judo throw people don't get thrown great guess though you know they have a minimum effort maximum efficiency. Oh yeah. No, what? Yeah. I don't buy it. No, there's two. There's two, right? Minimum effort maximum efficiency. Sure.

Seiru kuzen yo. And then the other one is jita kyoe, which is like mutual welfare, benefit, and respect. So those are the two main pillars of Judo philosophy, which is kind of cool. The second one I buy more. The minimum effort. I have never minimum efforted once and had it work well for me in Judo. I have only had the maximum effort. But again, that's probably on me. Well, eventually you get more and more productive and you know, that's a thing.

But you're really good, man. I think you downplay the skills that you have. But you know, you were in the dojo throwing down with my guys like you were one of us judo full timers, you know, so that's kind of amazing. Well, I appreciate that. I think, I think... You have some wins in competition too. I've got some wins now. We've got some wins now, which they were very hard. They were very hard. We look forward to seeing it. We look for, yeah, I, I fought in the largest at one point I fart.

I fought in the largest, oldest, worst division. So yeah, the heaviest, oldest, because I just turned 30. Oh man, this was so mean to me. I probably shouldn't have done this to be honest, but I wanted to make sure I got as many rounds as I could at this tournament. I've fought in the 30 plus category as far as age goes and I just turned 30. I love that. You're allowed to do it.

The next division up is 46 and up, right? There was nobody in the 30 to 46 and there was nobody. There was one person in the 46 and above. So I had a match with somebody who was 64. Wow! Yeah. Stud. Monster. Love that. Love that. That's cool. You could do that in judo. I mean, you sh- you know. He signed up for it though.

He did sign up for it. And he gave consent. They probably asked him like, are you willing to work out and fight Sensei Seth? And he was probably like sensei Seth of course Yeah, I walked up to him and was like hey I think I think we're up because he was you know I knew who he was because there's only so many competitors that were 64 and He was like okay

And I guess he was waiting for me to like maybe escort him to the match to have a match with somebody else It was closer to his age and then I just turned 30. Please tell me you caught that part on camera. I don't have the part where I tell him we're up but I have the match. I love that man. Good for this guy seriously. Can you imagine being 64 going to the judo tournament as a beginner? That's crazy. I mean I would not let any of my guys do that yeah no he was he was full of spirit did he wrestle before something or I believe so his smooth calm said he was a jujitsu purple belt he scared me a little bit to be honest okay that's a whole nother game then this guy yeah Sam Baggins you know tournament that you

know yeah maybe a little bit no but take you to the ground or, so I don't I think I think it was a situation where they Were like hey you want to do this and he was like, yeah, I don't think he was super familiar with the rules Yeah, that's nice guy saying cuz you know what just the nonchalantness of this guy doing that. I would have freaked out yeah, I think he was super excited for it to go to the ground because First first match I get knee bone Second match because it was just us two. So we did best of three second match I pin him and I think he didn't know that there was a pin like you could win via pin Yeah, and he we were just kind of like working a little bit and I was like, I don't think this guy knows

I'm just gonna sit here Just hanging out then they called it and I was like, okay That works for me Yeah, super nice guy that we talked afterwards. He had done a lot of different martial arts and I think he was just like Yeah, I'm game That's great, man You know, you're so good for martial arts because you're out there putting yourself out there You're not just like all just shit not everybody you're actually going out there showing the best parts of the sport

Being out there competing being like in the community talking to guys You're doing really you're doing God's work. You know that oh, I appreciate I appreciate that That's my phrase What's next for you man like after five years from now? What's that like? What do you see down the pipeline? Oh man five years from now I hope I can just still be making YouTube videos, I think. It's just like surviving long enough. Because the shelf life for YouTube isn't forever. Like lots of our favorite YouTubers

that we watched like five years ago are not making stuff now. So I think it's just kind of like finding a way to allow me to still make content. And do this as a life, because this life is pretty cool. It's so cool man. And then I assume you're doing well enough to kind of support yourself just through YouTube

because you're a full-timer. Yeah, I am a full-timer. I still teach karate but it's like a hobby. And you have a book. Yeah I do. I'm sold out right now. But yeah, no, it's just kind of for fun. I wrote a little children's book and I think it turned out right now. I'd but yeah, no, it's uh, it was just kind of for fun I was I wrote a little children's book and yeah, I think it turned out pretty good

I was I'd never done anything like it before and yeah. Yeah, you didn't draw the pictures though, right? You drew it. I conceptualized No, I didn't draw them. I don't want it out. You made the story and all that stuff Yeah, yeah I used um, I wrote it out and I pretty much made the whole thing in Canva and Yeah, I used um, I wrote it out and I pretty much made the whole thing in Canva and then Sent it to a person to an illustrator and was like, hey, I want it to look like this but better and they helped me out there That's amazing man. Yeah So next big project that you're working on this year for the rest of the year like not something current because we're gonna see that We talked about it, but like what's the big?

project for this year um I'll be doing ultimate so most of its competing to be honest I think I think a lot of my focus has shifted to Is focused to Competing as much as I can for the next couple years while my body like I'm not gonna lie I'm falling apart a little bit But while I'm still able to put myself back together competing some so I've got um, I

Got nationals coming up which we talked about I am I'm gonna win that that's the goal great and then hopefully worlds which will be in Thailand and Then um, and then I got ultimate self-defense championship season 3 Which will be in Lithuania and End of the summer I believe Yeah, and then after that that's that's kind of it. I want to plan a trip to Japan where I get to Try and get into a sumo stable a little bit I don't I don't know if they let that will be suckers like me into the Kodakon, but yeah

Yeah, oh man. I saw a video of you the other day who oh man who are you doing you're doing randori with it was a young Shintaro oh in a way it's probably in a way yes yes yeah getting destroyed I was like 22 years old and he was coming off like a multiple Olympic gold situation and there was a lot of people watching you beat me up pretty good I was do you have a video where there's context of that video like have you talked about it before uh no you know somebody uploaded to YouTube after like shortly after like I worked out with them and yeah it's just kind of like went and now it's being reshared again but I don't know if I've actively talked about it or made like

any contextual thing. I probably should, that'd be really cool. I would love to watch that. Cause I'd love to know like the context of where you were in your career, where he was like, cause there's a bunch of people watching you from the sidelines too. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

It was a seminar in New Jersey and we went and then he was like, all right, I'll work out with some of your guys. And then that was in New Jersey? Shintaro? Was that? I didn't know that was in New Jersey okay. That was in New Jersey yeah he did a seminar and then I was the first person up and he was like come on kid you know yeah and like picked me out of all the people that he could have done rounds with and then when he threw me all my local people were crazy they were like yay it was really cool experience man because he's really the greatest of all time and I was young and on the circuit then I wasn't that good yet

relative to like where I got good too you know but sure it was an awesome experience man also yeah I'm sure it was just very eye-opening. He's a legend in the sport too, you know. Yeah. Like everyone knows him, he's a celebrity, he has like a wife that's an actress slash supermodel like, but he's a nice guy. Yeah. He overhauled the coaching system in Japan too. Really? Okay. Yeah, because before it was old school, like beat the kids, yell at them, scream at them, punishments, negative reinforcement, but he was like, no, we gotta change all this stuff. And he like completely changed everything. That's pretty sick. That's very- I think that's probably as impactful as his competitive career.

Yeah, I would argue he's one of the most influential judo judo people of all time really Especially in Japan. That'd be a cool video You know, he speaks English well, too So you should go see you know if you go see him and make a video with him Yeah, be what a treat that would be we should do a trip to Japan together. Let's do it. Heck Yeah, we'll do like a content making hangout in Japan for a couple weeks kind of a thing 100% do you eat sushi? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah Yeah, I eat a lot of like this white guy tries raw fish for the first time

Like I'm like holding the chopsticks with two hands. Yeah You order a sake bomb at the restaurant you start pounding on the table Yeah, you order a sake bomb at the restaurant you start pounding on the table Get kicked out of the sushi restaurant. Oh, yeah fun. It'd be a fun. I don't want to get Logan Paul'd though You know yeah, that was that was cringy what he did over there in Japan. Yeah, I can't be doing all that guy back in Japan You know I am so nervous to I want to do a trip to Japan But I'm so nervous because I'm the white guy online who calls himself sensei Seth Want to do a trip to Japan, but I'm so nervous because I'm the white guy online who calls himself sensei Seth

So I just I just know what I'd be in for but you're well behaved though So, you know, no one that I'm not like you I try to be yeah like a bull guy What do these guys find you my people that are watching this right now? Where do they find you? I think if you type in Sensei Seth pretty much anywhere. I should be there. I'm most active on YouTube for sure Sensei Seth pretty much anywhere. I should be there. I'm most active on YouTube for sure But Shintaro and I have done a bunch of collabs together So in most of those if you type in Sensei Seth Shintaro Gashi Some fun videos will pop up and then true then you can go from there You know, I still get to this day at my gym. Hey, I was watching something Seth's channel I saw you in there with him and then I found your dojo I said so sick that's crazy you know wow right the reach of the internet yeah literally

that's it's so funny that like um that is why I love this channel so much is because I think there's people out there who are just fantastic and to be able to put eyes on them yeah which is so funny because like you have plenty of eyes already. But it's I think it's I think it it just makes me feel really good when I hear that. No. Yeah. It's a really great thing that we're doing, man. Especially you, you know, highlighting and lifting up all these grapplers and teachers and martial artists. The world needs more of you. So that's how we're doing what you're doing. That's our man. What do they call it in nature when symbiotic relationship. Yes. I get the people into judo and you teach them how to actually do it. Well, since he said thank you. Do you have an

Instagram that people could follow as well? Yeah. Sensei underscore Seth. Awesome. So since he's that thank you do you have an Instagram that people could follow as well? Yeah. Yeah sensei underscore Seth Awesome. So since the Seth on YouTube Instagram send him weird DMS at all hours of the night. He loves it. Oh, yeah. Yep I will definitely not screenshot it and send it to someone and be like hey, yes Yeah, and then if you're a division one wrestler have oh, yeah four on the video. And thank you to my sponsors as well. Jason, Lavon, Drew, HuckQueen.ai and Elijah. Thank you very much for your continued support. You too can support the channel by going to Patreon and subscribing to one of our many options.

Yep. Down in the link below. Somewhere there. You can chat with me, do one to one mentorships, all that. Everything is revamped. It's going to be a great experience Hope to see you guys there sensei Seth. Thank you so much again for being thank you for having me