The Shintaro Higashi Show - The Art of Asking the Right Question in Judo and BJJ

Episode Date: November 4, 2024

In this episode, Shintaro and Peter tackle one of the most frequently asked questions in the martial arts world: "What am I doing wrong?" Drawing from personal experiences and examples, they explore the critical importance of context and detail in asking meaningful questions. Shintaro shares insights from recent seminars and how asking well-formed questions is essential for receiving practical and actionable advice. Peter connects these lessons to research and problem-solving in other fields, emphasizing the concept of the "XY problem." Whether you're a judo practitioner or just curious about effective communication, this episode provides valuable tips for better learning and teaching strategies. (00:00:00) Introduction (00:00:47) Why "What Am I Doing Wrong?" Is Hard to Answer (00:01:54) Peter's Specific Problem with a Lefty Judo Player (00:03:45) The Importance of Context in Questions (00:05:20) The XY Problem and Its Relevance to Judo (00:13:55) A Real-life Example of a Good Question (00:16:55) The Role of Self-Study Before Asking for Help (00:20:00) Insights from Seminar Experiences (00:24:12) Utilizing Peer Knowledge for Growth

So he's coming with his sleeve hand to your hand that's on the lapel and he's going around the waist with all the hand. Yeah, yeah. Okay, so there's two things here. You could prevent the shoulder from being trapped, right? So by keeping the pulse on the neck or when the arm gets trapped, creating enough distance, rotating your elbow so it rests on the biceps and cutting away. That's one thing.

And then to prevent sort of a later stage sumi gaeshi from coming, if he gets that two on one and the shoulder is there, you want to pulse on that shoulder. You post on that shoulder you know block the shoulder forearm goes over the bicep it's not very helpful you know so nine times out of ten when you're asking me for this kind of a thing it's not going to be helpful you have to ask the right question send me the corresponding video yeah hello everyone welcome back to the shintaro Higashi show with Peter Yu. I want to talk about a question I get all the time. What am I doing wrong?

I get this question day in and day out. I even did a seminar recently out in Michigan. We went to Monroe Jiu Jitsu and we went to Shozhen Judo. And I'm back doing seminar tours now. So if you guys are interested, you reach out to me and then we'll make something happen But so many guys kept these like hey, man. I'm going against tall people What am I doing wrong? And it's just not enough context for me to give very good meaningful advice and I get

Messages all the time through Instagram. Hey, what am I doing wrong? So that's what we want to talk about. Okay. Yeah, so it's like So that's what we want to talk about. Okay. Yeah, so it's like An easy question to ask but not an easy question to answer and that is the problem, right? Yeah, I you think you're gonna talk more about how to ask the right question or What what do you think like it's more about? What's yeah, what are some of those concrete steps to kind of ask the right question? I guess you were involved in two sides of this question. Yeah, you one time said to me, hey man, X, Y and Z. What am I doing wrong?

Do you remember specifically? Was it about like me which with Uchimata? It was like a lefty guy that you talk about. It's very specific. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. So you could ask me now for the public record and I'll tell you if it's a good question or not. Okay. Yeah. I remember that. So I have this guy, he lefty, very good lefty. He played college judo in Japan. Yeah. And he does this very weird style where he does a lot of sumigai kind of thing and kenkayutsu. And I just couldn't close the distance and grab the sleeve arm or anything to attack

properly. What am I doing wrong? Interesting. Okay. So there's a lot of missing context here. First of all, what is his weight category? Oh, he's about my weight class. Yeah. Okay. So he's about your weight class. That's good. What sort of

positioning are your hands right side versus left side you said but do you have inside does he have outside as you go around the back does he have back and sleeve outside sleep or does he go to on one around the waist? He does like the weird stuff that you wouldn't really expect from a Japanese player like get to on one outside a lot lot and even if I get like try to so he's comfortable with me being inside and you can even if I get the outside grip first I'm not too good with the outside grip anyway but he can effectively block me yeah yeah so he can't really do sumigashi when you're on the outside because your arm doesn't get right right but he

will like block my attacks And then he'll switch around to him on or like reach around and then he'll spin me up He loves to like spin me around and then flip the other way. Okay, great. So you can't get that far sleeve It's it's really hard. Like I just yeah, he's so good at like Swatting that away and And then once I get so... Okay, so now we have context. Now I could visually see it in my head. So if you're able to ask this question,

you have to be able to verbalize a lot of the actions. Then we have to diagnose where the issue is. So both parties, the person asking and the person receiving the question needs to be able to have this dialogue in a very specific way. So that's number one. If you had video of it that's a different story. Then you can send it to me. And then a lot of times people send me one little clip of him getting thrown.

What could I have done? That's the worst because I don't know what the gripping exchanges were. I don't know what exchange happened before. I don't know what you're reacting to in order for him to go. I don't know what exchange happened before I don't know what you're reacting to in order for him to go I don't know if that was a direct attack or something he set up way early in the round all these different things that are taking kind of context the worst is if you send me a 45 minute video of the entire class I have to sift through it I'm not gonna do it guys if you do this I'm not gonna respond I even said actually just three days ago someone said hey man this is me doing mand gonna respond. I even said actually just three days ago. Someone said hey, man

This is me doing run Dory. What am I doing wrong? And it was a link to a YouTube video from the class And he was like a whole class. Yeah, it was like guys doing run door He's like it starts around 45 seconds in or something like that I was like I'm not sifting through finding your match specifically and then looking at your match like what it's a waste of my time I'm not gonna do it Yeah If you want me to help you clip your portion of the Vandori and give me specific questions Unless you could even ask me the proper questions with the right

Because if you don't know what's going on, then it's like whatever I'm gonna say is not gonna make any sense anyway So there I think okay. This is very interesting because there's a some there two sides of the Problem so the person asking the question needs to be able to articulate the right question. But a lot of times that's hard because the person asking the question just doesn't know. Yes, that's correct. People wouldn't even know. Like even for me, supposedly someone who's pretty good at judo wasn't able to articulate my question as best as I can right yeah yeah and it's even worse for beginners who would be asking

these questions more often than not so the on the other side is someone who is trying to help the person needs to be able to extract the right question out of that person. And then there's a term for that in the tech world. It's called the XY problem. Interesting. I love it, Peter. You're such a nerd. I know. I love this problem because it happens all the time when I deal with my co-workers Or even my parents when they ask me about technical stuff I can't turn my iPad on can you help me? That's exactly what it is. So a lot of times What happens is when people ask questions

they want to ask Questions of specific questions about what how they're doing things instead of what they actually want to ask specific questions about how they're doing things instead of what they actually want to achieve. So for example, my mom would ask me like, hey, how do I say this is a complex situation? She doesn't even know where the Google search box is. So for example, so it's like, hey, where do I type my search query in Google? But then I have to really find out what she really wants to do is like she wants to buy a handbag or something, right?

Like where do I search for the website? So you need to be able to extract that out of it. So the people ask X, but what they really wanna do is Y. Yeah, maybe she wants to buy a Korean handbag from Korea and you gotta download the VPN and then. Right, but then she, yeah, exactly. That'd be a good answer.

She'll be asking questions about like, hey, how do I access Korean websites that are blocked? And the but that's not really what she may want to do. She might be able to just buy it on Amazon. So she had asked like, Hey, how do I buy a Korean handbag? Yeah, which is what she ultimately wants. Yeah. So it's kind of like I think, what am I doing wrong? This question kind of has an element. So a lot of times people ask the wrong question because they're focusing on, they don't know the right way to do things.

I think for those guys, I think just the visual thing of like, hey, this is me doing run-dori with this person. Here it is, the whole round, one round. And then that way you could give a little bit more. And then a person like me can diagnose it By saying, you know, sometimes you walk out there and get slammed. Oh, gee, what did I do wrong? You just didn't see the thing coming. You know, you don't have enough experience. You're not in a good position Oh, but I was 5050. Okay, that's a good observation

Yes, but you he just so much more of a physical specimen than you you didn't see it coming I just ripped it and you fell over, you know, you got to be able to react you have to prevent this stuff There's that's like what did I do wrong? Yeah, it's like there's just so many things that could have gone wrong for you to get taken down thing Yeah, a lot of times people are saying what did they do what they did wrong? But a lot of times there's a whole context around it that you you just you did everything right, but you still got thrown That'll be the case, you know, yeah. So anyway back to to your thing. Okay so now we have a right side versus left side situation. He's not throwing you, sue me, when you're on the outside. Okay so now my question to you is are you able to get the hand on first? Usually he kind of yeah he lets me he's happy to start gripping. He let you put the initial hand

on first because generally if you like inside and he likes outside, it's very easy for the things to mix. So when you post that hand on, does he immediately go over or does he grab that sleeve? He, man, I can't remember nowadays, but he, I think once I, he's fine with me getting the first grip, but he immediately starts controlling the yeah like he will go

around and then try to suck me in and whatever so he basically immediately neutralizes my sleeve head oh no the lapel hand okay yeah so he's coming with his sleeve hand to your hand that's on the lapel and he's going around the waist with all the head yeah yeah okay so there's two things here you could prevent the shoulder from being trapped right so? So by keeping the pulse on the neck or when the arm gets trapped creating enough distance, rotating your elbow so it rests on the biceps and cutting away. Yeah. That's one thing. And then to prevent sort of a later stage sumi gaeshi from coming, if he gets that two on one and the shoulder is there, you want to pulse on that

shoulder. Like with my left hand? With your other hand. Oh okay yeah so now all of a sudden you know it's very difficult for him then you could posture up and keep your distance so like put my both hands on his his left side you're gonna go double collar double collar okay yeah cuz now okay yeah so now you like you're keeping your posture up right he's going for sumi geish right yeah and now he's gonna try to grab that other lapel hand. Yeah, right, right, right That's when you tuck it and then get that sleeve now. You've got control of the far sleeve, right? So that's one method. The other one is if you punch the hand in the collar, he's on the outside He's looking to grab this. Yeah, right hand on the lapel

Immediately grab your own and you try to strip his top side grip. Right? So, you kind of like abandon and forget that side sleeve. So, now you're trying to gain full dominance over the lapel hands that are into long, right versus left. So, once that hand comes off, he's like, oh shoot, I have to get that hand back on. That's when you look for that sleeve or even for a collar if you can't get that sleeve. So, those are two sort of solutions. and it's not so much like what are you

doing wrong you're not really doing anything. The wrong thing is like you punching the hand you like inside position he likes outside position getting settled he grabs that hand of the sleeve on that lapel hand he's trying to prevent that shoulder and now all of a sudden you're looking for that sleeve you're looking for that sleeve, you wanna have multiple options to prevent getting caught in there. So like that's a good question asked and that's a good question answer given.

You know, because we're both geniuses. Obviously. So ultimately, so I also had the trouble establish my sleeve grip to one side, even if I have a nice inside post. And that's because I'm kind of making things too obvious for him to pull back his arm. Is that what you're saying? The sleeve arm? No, I can't get that sleeve if you can't get it, right?

Even if I get it, he he keeps it really tight away from me. So I can't really get the good kuzushi. Good good. So from there you have that your arm is extended his arm is tucked. Yeah. So now from there if you have a good position on the lapel hand, right? And he's on the outside you swipe that hand across to the chin and you go across body ochi gari and then you drive him drive and drive him. You know what I mean? And then as he's stepping out of the o, you slowly incrementally pull that sleeve hand into your hip. And now all of a sudden the game is a

little bit changed, you know, that's one way that's one. Or like I said, you try to take that lapel hand off by rotating the shoulder and then going back to the lapel of the sleeve, right. And then you go for a society and you bring your body closer to that hand. And now all of a sudden you're in good position, you know, I see maybe this is too technical for most guys And then this is the thing when they text me this stuff through Instagram. I'm not gonna write this all out you can It's not helpful for them. They're not gonna be able to read it like RBL left hand goes here sleeve hands

You know block the shoulder. Yeah forearm goes over the bicep. It's not very helpful You know, so nine times out of ten when you're asking me for this kind of a thing It's not gonna be helpful. You have to ask the right question. Send me the corresponding video. Yeah, well that's been snipped Like snippets. Yeah of the exact action that you want to ask questions and then you can do a virtual private lesson with me What it comes out to because unless we're both fully committed to this conversation, you're not gonna get anything out of it. Right, right, right.

You're simply not. And like I told you, man, and you know, on the other side of this whole thing, regarding you, I went to Monroe Jiu Jitsu in Michigan, in a seminar, and one guy specifically asked me, I wrote this guy, Peter. Oh yeah, Carlos, Carlos, yeah, I love that guy. He's like, I'm tall lefty.

Yeah, Peter kind of does a drop seinagi to the weak side, but not only does he do a drop seinagi, but he drops seinagi, osorogari, osorogari drops seinagi, he alternates. I'm having a very difficult time dealing with it. I get my first hand down, but then he starts turning. What do I do? And similarly, that was a very good question asked very specific it's easy and also you

know what I do there so that's exactly what it was right so he wasn't as specific in the way he asked I fight this guy Peter you know he's on the podcast with the I'm like yeah and then immediately when he said it he's the lefty and he's tall and we were like, you know I know what I do and he goes he does the drop to this side and I was like I'll tell you why that drop Sanaghi is dangerous. Yeah, because he goes he points in I you'll sort of back and then he like cycles through it as He's looking for the sleeve going for his right side. So, okay. Here we go. This is what you gotta do, right? What yeah, and then one of the things is like sometimes you can't kind of Get the first hand out and

game that hand and every now and then you swap the hand out and then as you're punching the collar head you go double collar. So now he can't turn to that side. Oh yeah, double collar. I have to reset and then try to re-grip when someone has double collar. So that was a good exchange, you know, but those are very rare. And then if you catch a seminar, you know, if you have a gym or you know, someone that owns a dojo and you could have me out there.

And if you can ask specifically questions while I'm there, I'm more than happy to answer it. You know, usually half the time it's like after class, Hey, this guy, I have a hard time with this guy. Can you help it's like okay I got 20 minutes let's chit chat about it and then it's a dialogue you know is he righty is he lefty is he shorter is he bigger he's stronger you know you're a green belt what belt does this guy he's a black belt it's like I can't help you whatever specific thing I'm gonna tell you you're not gonna be able to do it yeah yeah whatever specific thing I may be able to tell you right now that guy who's on the international circuit, he's going to do nine other things to counter

those things. So I really can't help you is the proper answer. Yeah. But if it's like two yellow belts, this guy keeps beating me also can't help you because a lot of that stuff is chance. You just don't have enough skill to defend and react and all the reactions even there. But you had like a blue belt versus a brown belt, a brown belt versus a black belt, they're relatively close in skill range, and then they're like similar body size, and then they can ask a specific question,

I could give two or three solutions that work really well together. So like that's the way you get, what am I doing wrong? Like that's the way you get an answer out of me or anybody who is capable Yeah of answering that question. So you really have to this means that as The person who asks the question the question are you have to really do your homework? You have to try to figure out that you have to try to solve the problem first and then gather data points, what works and what doesn't work. And you have to kind

of put more thought into it and then ask the question. I mean, I think this kind of applies to everything really. Like, you know, like, even like, I see that a lot in my in research to like, in engineering, AI, whatever, like, you can't just come to go to your senior student or professor and say, Hey, I don't know what to do. This, this thing is not working. Then they can't really help you. Like you have to say, yeah, what have you done? We know what are your thoughts? What are your intuitions?

Like, you know, a good teacher would ask those questions and yes, but then it gets if they want to engage Yeah, exactly. That's the thing it gets frustrating You know, because sometimes I don't want to engage those like Yeah, that's a great answer But majeure Answer the question guy's bigger than me. He's a great answer. But Major, answer the question, guy's bigger than me, he's stiff on me, I can't get close.

What have you tried? Is the number one thing. Have you watched my videos? I give many solutions. Have you tried all these different solutions at one time or another and cycling through them? What moves do you have? I've never done Tomonage before,

fake Tomonage and go Koichi, cut the hand. It's like, that's not gonna help you either, right? So what do you yeah, what do you do? What is your thing? How much does he weigh? How tall are you guys? So many things but 90% of the time, you know, what did I do wrong? What can I do? You know most guys just be if they don't want to engage just do tomonage bro. Yeah So yeah, you just nailed it. Yeah, I think it's like, yeah, like what kind of papers have you read? Like, just like that. Like what kind of videos have you watched?

What techniques have you been working on? What are you? So you kind of, and then once you show that you've done your research, you've tried your best, I think, I mean, it's more likely that people will engage with you. Yes, if you tried to help yourself already, you know, and you could demonstrate that right off the conversation right away Then I'm much more likely help It's like the guy on the side of the road try to flag people down for help

But then if you already trying to push your car and do it people will jump out of that car Much more likely to help you but there's was there's more Specific things that people can help it rather than something abstract. I like oh do you even have a jack? Do you have a spare tire? You know people are not gonna go and ask like try to yeah, you know, unless they're super super nice. Oh My car doesn't start what's wrong with it? That's so many so many causes and yeah, but anyway, yeah drew Jason LaVon Joe Thank you very much for your sponsoring the podcast judo TV calm best place to watch judo

Yeah, I'm gonna go to Tokyo Grand Slam and commentate. So that's gonna be spectacular Discount for tomorrow. Yeah, it's gonna be awesome. He got she brand calm and Your seminars coming. Yeah, I'm doing a bunch of seminars. I have a tour in the Netherlands a lot of people have Yeah, so, you know if you guys are interested you could reach out to me. Yeah, I'm doing a bunch of seminars I like to do two or three per location like in the Asian, you know kind of make it worth my time to go out there Well, I'll tell you guys I I just attended his seminar in Michigan. It was loved. Yeah. He had the best UK ever. That's okay ever. Well, he had to he had the lightweight guy in me. Yeah. And then he had Christian

girl is yep, or the lefty and then he could demonstrate all his stuff. Yeah, it was amazing. Hey, guys, I have to say I'm not gonna spoil a lot, but it's different. His seminar is different. I've attended quite a few seminars. Shintaro seminar is more practical. If I have to say, like a few descriptors and you can apply things right away. So yeah, it's very good. So make sure you check it out. And now we're doing, it's $3,000 flat fee for the session, two hours.

So you guys don't even have to ask me about that. And then if I could do two at the gym, I will pay for a flight and hotel out of my pocket. You know, given that it's not in Australia. So, but yes, when I go to one of these things, if you can be a little bit more specific about your questions after the seminar, before the seminar, maybe give me a couple of videos

up ahead, I could definitely, definitely help you. You know, but you have to help yourself first. You have to be able to tell me what the issues are. And you know, by the time you do your study, what I say, look into it, look at some videos, and I ask all these questions, a lot of these brown and black belts come up with the solution themselves already. Yeah. You know, so that's why you want to get there, want to get to anyway. What am I doing wrong? So calm. Yeah. How about, yeah, so let's kind of end the pockets with the other side like as a teacher. Yeah. Like when someone comes up

to you saying, it's kind of vague question. They haven't helped themselves yet. What am I doing wrong? What, why, how, what would be the best way to handle that situation? Yeah. So majority of the time at the end of the class, they took a beating or something. Yeah. What did I do wrong? And my go-to answer is I honestly was more focused on people not getting injured. Yeah, you specifically. I wasn't watching with the intent of diagnosing your skill, but I was just watching to make sure you're kept safe. Yeah. Yeah.

I don't know. Give an example. You went for these things. It was kind of dangerous. You almost got taken down. You almost put your hand down here. That's kind of dangerous. I'm not really watching why you were getting thrown,

but if you give me a heads up ahead of time next time, I will keep an eye out for you. But if you're not coming consistently, I'm not gonna help you. You can't come once every three weeks and expect me to help you and have all my time and capital and take all my time. I'm not gonna be able to do that,

but you come consistently, you show me you're serious, and then I'm much more likely to help you. So that's an answer that I will give in the room majority of the time. And if it's a beginner beginner that just started who just signed up for membership, I'm not gonna give him a, I'm not gonna help you because whatever it is,

you gotta prove yourself, I'm not gonna do that. Majority of the time is like, hey, you're not doing anything wrong. You're showing up, you're trying the things. Of course, there's a skill gap. That guy is very good. He's bigger, stronger, faster. He's been at it for six years, for five months or whatever it is. Just keep doing what you're doing. You're doing great.

Which is the right answer at that time. Which is the right answer, yeah. And you're going to feel better. And then, you know, if you're still having the same problems, if you're still getting taken down with the same thing three months from now, I'll definitely keep an eye on you and we'll help you specifically. But right now, it doesn't matter if you get taken down. You should get taken down. Of course you're gonna get taken down. Yeah. And then that will hopefully encourage the student to keep trying, try to help themselves, right?

And then you'll notice more things and then they'll move up the ranks and eventually at the skill level of brown and black belts, you can, they're probably at the point where we can have this kind of more constructive specific discussion about strategies and here's another good one too you kind of empower the students who are intermediate advanced in the room yeah since this guy goes hey i wrestled i want to do a fireman's carry i caught a grimoire how can i adapt this to my judo game i went forward forward a few times. I kept grabbing the legs. I can't get like steps to the other side. What can I do?

It's like, you know what? Ben has a nasty karakuma. Carl says a nasty karakuma. You see them all the time. They're loitering after practice every single day. Stay after and ask them. I'm sure they'll give you a great answer. That's yeah.

That's something that I do. Somebody does a Uchimata Uchimata fake in the Tomonage. I can't get the Tomonage to work Nick does it he's studying it right now. He's not great at it yet, but he's been working on it So why don't you get some information from him and then at least gotta get caught up on the fundamentals of the mechanics of right? I think and then when you still can't do it, then I'll step in and I'll help you But right now you go talk to Nick. Yeah Nick. And that's not like a dickish, like standoffish way to say it.

You just kind of. Yeah, it's like, that happens a lot in research too, in PhD, like when a professor will be like, okay. When the undergrad comes up to you, to the professor's. Undergrad, ew. Yeah, I know. And they'll be like, all right,

one of my PhD students is working in that area, actively researching that area. Why don't you go to talk to them first and then get some information maybe. And then it's like, maybe then the PhD student will be like, okay, I think you're good enough. Maybe you can talk to this postdoc and then try to start your own research project. And then once you kind of prove that, oh, you can hold your own, you get to work with a professor directly or something, it kind of happens like that. I think that's a pretty good setup, I think, because there's so much like, skill gap and vision gap, when you're starting out. So you have to kind of catch up on things. And yeah, up on things and yeah I hope this helps the instructors too because there's guys who are just like we're not pulling hard enough you know they're just kind of like that's like such an easy go-to there's not enough kuzushi you know they just don't have these like pre-fabricated like go-to things like I know I know you know I know everything yeah you know like you're not

watching you're not checking your time enough yeah so this helps everybody what am I doing wrong it's a huge thing in grappling majority of the time when you're asking the teacher he's not paying attention because you can't pay attention to every role in the room you just cannot everyone door around no way it's like 20 guys going at once 10 guys going at once you're concerned about safety and matchups it should be the time they're not motivated yeah it's like oh you're not paying attention You're concerned about safety and matchups. It should be the time to not pay an attention. Yeah. It's like, oh, you're not paying attention. You mean to tell me you're asking something that happened 20 seconds in,

you know, Matt, number three, while there were 13 other guys grappling, you know, like halfway through practice. I can't help you yet, you know, but if you're on the radar and if you could ask the right questions Give me the right context Yeah, yes these kinds of things cool cool. I think I think this was a great discussion Great discussion. Are you added so much value to this episode? I think with the XY testing. What is it X the XY problem? I wish I was able to articulate better, but there's a good Wikipedia article on it guys, the XY problem that's it's I think I encourage that all the time and it's really makes things faster than you recognize that.

So you actually have to ask what do you actually want to do? You know, instead of like trying to solve your goals. Yeah, what are you actually trying to accomplish? Yeah, because you might know a better solution than what they're trying to do. Because a lot of time people ask this question about their supposed solution, which may not be optimal, which kind of happens in this situation, right? Yeah, you're like, I, you know, people, people try to go for crazy things, throws that they saw on YouTube, but they may not be the right things to do. You know,

yeah, I had that, hey, why do you know yeah I had that hey why you know this guy keeps throwing my leg by and jits like what I do is like oh just invert oh yeah I've never done that before but yeah I was to invert and uh I mean now I could but at the time that was so foreign to me I was like yeah okay that seems kind of easy exactly it's like a lot of times that's not a real solution you know you didn't ask enough questions yeah I was thinking that it's like there's no That's not a real solution, you know, you didn't ask enough questions. Yeah, I was thinking that it's like there's no Maybe I didn't write ask the right question either, you know, yeah, so that's why It has to be a discussion and you have to kind of dig deep into to identify the right problem What is the actual problem for sure? Yeah. Yeah. Thanks for listening guys. And yeah, we'll see you guys in the next episode.