The Shintaro Higashi Show - Tall vs Short in Judo | The Shintaro Higashi Show

Episode Date: May 18, 2026

Shintaro sits down with David Kim to talk about the tall vs short dynamic and what changes when you’re facing a bigger, taller opponent. They break down how to handle the matchup, what matters more than height, and how a shorter person can approach the game. Watch the full podcast highlights for the key ideas from the conversation.Listen to the full episode now on:Apple podcast : https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-shintaro-higashi-show/id1540600589Spotify : https://open.spotify.com/show/343IXJDYlh6PvKgDUSgt9w?si=1b8717c8c4f44e95Subscribe and click the bell 🔔 icon to be notified about new content drops & podcast episodes!🚨 LIMITED-TIME OFFER: 40% OFF 🚨The All-in-One Instructional Bundle just got even better.Every major instructional. One complete system. Now at our biggest discount yet.Grab yours now at 40% off : https://higashibrand.com/products/all-instructionalsThis won’t last. Build your game today.🔥 Get 20% OFF FUJI Gear! 🔥Looking to level up your judo training with the best gear? FUJI Sports has you covered. Use my exclusive link to grab 20% OFF high-quality gis, belts, bags, and more.👉 https://www.fujisports.com/JUDOSHINTARO 👈No code needed – just click and save!Links:🇯🇵 Kokushi Budo Institute (The Dojo) Class Schedule in New York, NY 🗽: https://www.kokushibudo.com/schedule🇯🇵 Higashi Brand Merch & Instructionals: https://www.higashibrand.com📚 Shintari Higashi x BJJ Fanatics Judo Courses & Instructionals Collection: https://bjjfanatics.com/collections/shintaro-higashi/

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Welcome back to the Shantara Higashi show with David Kim. We're in person. Let us know if you like the format. Give us some feedback. in the comments, we'll read it. And we're talking about tall versus short. Yeah, something you know a little. Something you know about.

I know about it too. Not necessarily fat versus skinny, but tall versus short. What is short? It's relative, right? It all depends on who you are. That's true. When I was fighting 100, I was the shortest person in the division. Even though my online dating profile said 5-11,

in real life, I'm more like 5-8. Right. So it's like that's short for 100 kilos. Yes, definitely. And then the lower in weight I would cut to, the more... The taller you get. The taller I get, exactly. It's just the physics, you know?

Yeah, yeah. But I've had my share going against taller guys. Yeah. Yeah, what do you want to know about? Well, I mean, I think that that relativism is the problem, right? Because sometimes you're the taller guy. Yeah. Sometimes you're the shorter guy.

Yeah. But generally, I find that when you're shorter, I feel like that. I feel like it's harder for the shorter guy than it is for the taller guy sometimes because you just are, they can control the distance more, assuming similar skill level. And so I'm looking for, and I'm sure there are a lot of people out there. And you just had your training session with Gunji. I know that you've been more active on your Patreon and that's something that you went up and it's something you've covered a little bit.

And Gunji is definitely taller than you. Yeah, much taller. So, you know, not that bad. And heavier. But we'll put that aside for now. But, you know, having that fresh experience in mind, I wanted to sort of capture that. Yeah. So I think, you know, you always have to consider limb length and height.

And it's not as simple as tall guys, post Osorah Uchimara, short guys, hip throw, San Agi go underneath. It is and it isn't. You know what I mean? And one of the issues that I used to have in the dojo was there's not a lot of taller. guy so I would play sort of right versus right going over the back pulling the head down and doing hurrah uchimadas and things like this because the majority of my training partners were not that much tall than me yeah but when I go into competition in a hundred kilograms like

lucas copac is someone I fought yeah in competition he's a two-time Olympic chant yeah and that guy is six for six yeah so it's like all of a sudden all the things that I do in training does not apply anymore and within a certain range I used to say within a four to six inch height difference, it could still work, right? If I'm able to get the deep collar grip when they're hinging their hips back and I could control their head downward to where we are around the same height, I could still use Uchimada, still use Oswe.

But it wasn't the same type of Uchimada as I would do against the guy who's my height. Yeah, because the geometry's all off. Very off. Yeah. And then yeah, it's like the floor to crotch length. Yeah. You know, because Like, oh, wait, wait, wait, wait, keep going. exactly that you know

so you know and it's like oh you know taller guys longer limbs you got to get your hips underneath but it's hard to get your hips underneath because they have much more a longer frame with their form you know so it's actually not that simple for me the utchamara

solution was to do a backstep Uchimada to the spinning away yeah yeah yeah because I know I couldn't lift my legs higher than these guys first of all mobility second of all legland so if they're more mobile than me and they had longer legs than me there's no that I get my leg high enough to tip that.

Yeah. Therefore, majority of my Uchima have to be hands-based where it's like I'm spinning, all bouncing, and this hand goes stuffing down, and then the leg goes up and then...

It's really the other side of the teeter-totter. Like you're kind of shoving that. Yes, yes, yes. So it's like that was sort of the methodology that I took in a posture, you know? Yeah, because that's, I mean, obviously, I haven't experienced it a lot, but I've seen it a lot where the tall guys,

they just kind of stiff arm a little, like they're not full extended, but they're just so you're just a little bit too low or you're just a little bit off and then they just step out of everything like they just step out of everything so if you can't if you're not going for like guchima you know um how are you changing your setups because it all starts from beginning like a lot of times it's hard to get a deep collar grip sometimes like you are starting from bad grips kind of I mean we're sort of talking as if well you're just going to lose. But that's how it starts out a lot of times. So a lot of the times like right versus left right versus right changes the game a little bit. But if you're going against someone much taller

in a right versus right setting, you really have to be vigilant about their hand coming over the back and controlling your lapel. Yeah. So first and foremost, as opposed to like someone my same height, I could grip up a little bit, lock in and gain a little position and start forcing stuff. I'm much, much, much, much more vigilant about winning the grip before I enter the range. So I state, sort of on the outside, like right now you can't reach my collar, I can't. Right. Right. So as you're reaching for my collar, I'll stay out here. Right. And then you might reach my collar and I'll try to catch the sleeve here this way. So now I'm out of range and then once I capture this hand, then I'll close the range. Yeah. And this is kind of the strategy. And then at any given moment he takes the hand off and throws a hand over the back. Generally speaking, I don't want to stay in that pocket anymore. So I'll go for a bailout throw. Usually right versus right, it might be a left drop. People on Sanagi, Tomonagi, or Sumigayashi. Right. Right. And you want to cycle through it because if you only go on for drops

Senagi, they're going to strangle you or counter you. Right. So as the head comes over, you play a little bit like, oh, shoot, you're trying to stay in it, escape a little bit, and then you just drop free upon Sanagi. You may or may not score. If the guy sucks, you're going to throw him. Yeah, right. Right.

But the majority of the time, maybe not. Have there any ways a short guy can use his shortness? Because right now you're kind of gripping, you're going grip for grip, right? you're trying to intercept, you're trying to be proactive. Yeah. But is there anything that short guys, again, using their shortness? So, and maybe this is more also for jiu-gizu guys, too, because maybe, you know, it's kind of like the duck cunders. It's like kind of that wrestling style where someone coming over the top is not always advantageous if you can do those types of things.

So if I can't reach you right now, right, doesn't really matter that much, right? But if the person is arm's length away and they have a longer frame, they're definitely winning. Yeah. Even sort of this mid-range when you're like almost, there's some space between you, very advantageous for the taller guy, generally speaking. But super close range where you're hip-to-hip, chest-to-chest, I think it's much better for the shorter guy. Yeah. And I know that seems like this generic thing, but there's always this thing like, do you know chest-to-chest, hip-to-hip? Right. So there's guys who are very tall that can reach over the back and grab the belt who have a very good surrogoshi.

Like, I think his name is Kandinsky or something like that from Russia. Yeah. He's amazing. He goes deep down the back. He goes hip to hip, and he'll launch anyone and everyone there. Yeah. Right. But you get a very, very skilled shorter guy.

Here's a good example. This guy, Muneta. Oh, yeah. Yeah. He's like 5'7, 5'6, 250 pounds. You know, he's the shortest guy in the division by far. And the only game he would play is just very, very close hip-to-hip chest to chest. And then he would just gain position with his hips.

And then eventually he'll throw you to the division. back with Urnagi or Sassai. Right. Guys got to look up in Muneta. He's awesome. Yeah. It's like a meatball. He's a meatball.

Yeah. So like that's a good strategic thing, but only because he knows that position. Right. And you know how to get there. Yes. And I hear things like, oh, this guy's shorter than that tall guy, he should just start doing drop Sanagi's. What if he's never done drops Sanagi?

What if he doesn't train it? There's a skill set. Got a bad need. Yes, exactly. Yeah. I think it's easier for the shorter guy to do a drop Sanagi game than a tall guy. guy, you know, but it's what you trained. Yeah.

I fought Ariel Zeti, who was a European champ. You know this guy? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. He threw him you with a drop lefty pon Senagi. Yeah. And you want to know what's interesting? Much tall than me, right versus right. I went out to start gripping and I outgripped them, but he'd let me.

Yeah. And then he's like, oh, shoot. And I'm like, oh, man, I could probably throw him Hawaii or Soto. I'm going. And then he did a drop lefty ponenagi, just like what I was talking about. That's me to my back. Yeah. There's probably footage of it out there if you guys look it up.

Yeah. Don't look it up. But yeah, so that's an example of a much taller guy having a strategic thing gripping against a shorter person doing a shorter person throw. Right. You know? Yeah. That's like a sniper kind of sniper.

Yeah. It's kind of like if you have fast-twitch muscle fibers, you're better off being a sprinter than a long-distance runner. But can that person be a long-distance swimmer. Sure. Yes, they can. Yeah. You know?

I run a half-marathon once, and I'm not built for long-distance. Yeah, you left your steps in the pavement, I'm sure. Yeah, yeah. That's interesting. So, you know, there's no silver bullets. It sounds like there's no silver bullets. You're going to have the disadvantages you have. You're going to have the advantages that you have.

But really, it's about kind of training into those positions where, you know, you can have success and recognizing that you're going to be there. So this is, you know, I wanted to focus on shorter versus taller just because, again, like you were saying, shorter guy kind of assuming kind of similar skill level shorter guy is kind of feels disadvantaged and so if you're that shorter guy I think you have to be more specific about and you're going up against a lot of taller people you got to be very specific about how you're training because just doing the generic or you know standard stuff the odds are kind of against you I think in those in those cases. Yes.

But I think it's worth exploring tall guys you do also. Yeah. Just because it teaches you what they're looking for on the flip side. Like when I go with some of the guys that are 60 kilogram category that's a significantly shorter, and I like going over the back and then doing the thing kind of, it helps me. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

So it's good. So, but, you know, don't throw women and children, you know. Yeah. You can throw them, but you know what I'm saying. You know what I'm saying. Yeah. All right. Well.

Shorter versus taller. I'm sure if you guys have some comments that you want to make or you know, think that we should cover this in more detail, you know, please please mention that and we'll do it. All right. Thank you so much, guys. Thank you.