The Shintaro Higashi Show - The Private Lesson Series

Episode Date: March 4, 2024

Shintaro introduces a new video series—The Private Lesson Series! This series aims to replicate the experience of a private lesson with Shintaro. Moving away from the traditional lecture format, where Shintaro would typically explain a technique, the videos in the Private Lesson Series adopt a more interactive approach. Here, Shintaro concentrates on addressing specific questions posed by a student. In this episode, Shintaro and Peter discuss this new video series in detail. 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. Thank you guys for being here. Thank you to our sponsors, Jason Levon, Fuji Sports, and Judo TV. Thank you. Can't do it without you guys. And we get hundreds of solicitations all the time by email. Hey, can you push this video game? Hey, can you push this crypto?

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What are we talking about today, Shintaro? Yes. We're going to talk about something like a personal plug, but the private lesson series that I have on my Shopify site. It's a new video series. Okay. Okay. So initially when you told me about this i thought it was the those uh short clips

you've been putting on your on your youtube channel like it's like snippet of your private lesson is it kind of sort of so there's like a way that i teach right like in sort of a lecture style format in the dojo it's three to five minute increments everyone goes and tries it bring it in here's the thing go out there try it bring it. Here are the things that we can build on it. And that's kind of the way I do all my instructions in the dojo. Right. Right. YouTube instructional is different. I'm kind of just talking at the camera, right? Yeah. Hey guys, this is what we're doing. If he goes like this, if he goes like that, I go like this and I go like that. Right. Yeah. So that's kind of the generalized format for every instructional out there.

like that right yeah so that's kind of the generalized format for every instructional out there and i do have a concise instructional series also but this one's a little bit more interactive it's more so like a private lesson like environment oh so i'd say so it's it's you say it's interactive how does that work not for the person actually watching it yeah but i am not just talking at the camera. I'm talking with Greg Reagan, who's my uke, and he's asking questions. So we have three of these out. I see, I see. So we have the Sode system, Ippon Senagi, and we have Sasai.

So we have those three things, right? And Greg Reagan's actively asking questions that an intermediate or a beginner, even an advanced person might ask. I see. It's almost as if you're like splitting up private with greg essentially yes essentially and i got two video products that i sell on my site on my shopify site right i don't want to make this all too commercially uh but the most concise instructional where i'm not going into the actual throw okay it's not like check the wristwatch the hand goes there hand goes there because that's been done a million times right i'm not trying to do that i'm talking like contextual judo like the most important information back to back right with no fluff no redundancies getting straight to

the point finishing the technique setting up the technique and the technique itself how it integrates with all these other systems right hand position timing that's the most concise instructional that right right that's a whole series yeah this is a separate thing yeah yeah because that that that was like the your seo you had a drop seo series but that right yes not to be that guy but i've been selling these super concise videos for 20 a pop. You might raise the prices. Oh, yeah. I don't think that's anything out of ordinary. Uchimata's doing really well.

Hundreds have been sold. Not thousands, hundreds. Not that many. So, let's see. So, maybe we could go maybe I could ask you like this so say I'm a person who bought that which money instructions yeah I'm still not getting the Uchimata well so I want to for example buy this interactive more interactive private series yes if i had am i the right uh yeah if i had a uchimata

video in that series then yes that would make sense yeah so it's not it's a different format that's yeah i see yeah i see so i don't know how can I like ask him more? How about maybe... So I'm having trouble understanding this interactive format. And then what the... So would it be like you have a set topic like Uchimata and then you try to teach Greg and then Greg asks questions? Yes. So we have three in this private lesson series, like I said.

Sode, Ippon, Senagi, and Sasai. Okay. So let's say you buy Sason, Senagi, and Sasai. Okay. Okay. So let's say you buy Sasai. Yeah. I'm teaching Greg Sasai, essentially. I see. Right?

But I'm also teaching to the audience because I've already taught so much of my Sasai on YouTube for free. 99% of my stuff out there is free. Right? Yeah. So people who are like going to buy this, knows what Sasai is, they're not an absolute beginner. They already have sort of an idea of what Sasai right they might have googled it they might have youtube it now they get to see it in depth and the questions that a normal person might ask yeah yeah normal pitfalls like things that make it not work right right surprise timing that is not so common

right to the average person in a regular dojo yeah but if you're on the international competitive scene you see right for instance society that front leg off an ochi i've done this video segment on youtube but how that works with all the other different types of societies yeah i think you can go society both ways right right so now i'm throwing all this information out there but i'm telling greg and greg obviously has questions yeah i see i see what happens if this what happens if that how does this work with that right these kinds of questions and that's what makes this series kind of special and unique because i've been doing lots of private lessons recently right like not repeat private lessons because i haven't been allowing myself or opening up my schedule so much. But a lot of the times I get now visitors in New York.

Hey, I'm in New York. Can I come visit you? How much is private? Can you accommodate me within these hours? I see. Yes, no, maybe, right? Yeah, yeah. A lot of the times I do them on like a Wednesday or something and they have these similar questions hey you know we had one two weeks ago it was like drop senagi

video he bought ipo and senagi standing versus drop like what is the difference with the timing like when do you go high when do you go low is it just a stance and defensive thing you know how do you set these things up how do you integrate it with certain other attacks how can i incorporate it into my system? These are a little bit more intermediate and advanced questions that you might leave a comment in the YouTube comment section, but I don't really read the YouTube comment section. I see.

This is the perfect spot for that. I see. I have a better idea now. for that i see okay so i get i have a better idea now okay so it's uh a lot of it's uh you're trying to basically scale up your private lessons in a sense like you you're collecting all these common questions that come up during your privates and then you try to address them in a more interactive manner for more people yes kind of and i do have another idea i'm like all right i do like random privates every now and then i try not to book myself with like you know 10 15 privates a week because i feel like it's

just i get you know i don't love doing it right a lot of times i do love it but you know it becomes too much sometimes with all the stuff that i have on my plate but i will every now and then take on a new private lesson uh etc etc and you know i have this idea of maybe, hey, if you want, I'll give you a discounted rate because a lot of people are priced out, right? Yeah, yeah. With certain private, especially with me, you know, charging New York City prices. Yeah. Hey, I'll give you X amount of discount if we could film it

and I could use it online, right? Ah, okay. And then perhaps I could get sort of, and that may be an option that I'm kind of considering in the future. Uh-huh. And that's where I got the idea of like, okay, let's see, you know, Reagan, come,

let me show you some SOTE stuff that you've been doing. And he's been working SOTE actively and there's a couple of things that would have helped him right off the bat, right? I see. So that's kind of the idea.

I see, I see. Okay, okay. I think that's actually a cool idea that if you can give people some discount, if they can give people some discount. Yeah. If they let you film the whole session and then. You know what would be cool?

Like, I know last week you said you were working on your Uchimata a lot. Right? Yeah, yeah. So, like, if you sent me videos of you doing training, obviously, you know, some dojos just doesn't allow it. And it's really annoying. You got to set up a camera. People don't want to be on camera. It's a whole thing.

Yeah. Let's just say you're in New York. Yeah. And you're like, hey, man, I want to do a lesson you know uchimata and we could go through the whole thing right right right right and then probably if me and you were doing a private lesson i wouldn't say all right this is how you do uchimata because maybe you know it maybe you don't so i show me uchimata how you set it up where you're getting in trouble okay and then we'll go from there and a lot of people can't even articulate that oh you know i go turn and i go uchimata from there and then it's like

all right let's grip fight a little bit and see like if you know the grip fighting basics let's see if you know the positional basics right and then i'll give them a little bit of an advantage i'll let them enter uchimata to see how the uchimata entry is and the finishing is uh you know we'll see like when he hooks Ochi or something whether he turns it in and converts it into Uchimata all these different things I'll like keep track of right and at the very end of it be like all right these are the things you need to work on you know best ROI I see and it's not hey let's do Nagakomi 50 times and I'll give you a little bit of a uh feedback every single time because that's useless right

that's useless because That's useless. Because you know what? Everyone does that in the dojo already. So for you to get repetitions of doing actual Uchimata in a crash mat format, that's all on you. That's a waste of time to do that with me. Oh, yeah. Huge waste of time.

Private lessons are not for that. It's not your practice time. Not for that. I also don't want to take those falls. Oh, yeah, because it's private. There's a double reason why that's not gonna happen right right right so like when we if you come to new york that'll be a good addition to the private lesson series i'll do i'll let you film me yeah yeah you're still gonna give me a mates rate on top of that oh i'll do it for free

oh yeah but at the very end of it i might just wrap you and then suplex oh yeah that's okay just for the fun of it people love that i wouldn't suplex you yeah but you know what so this reminds me of um so i i don't know i don't know if i mentioned in the podcast a lot, but I'm a big skier and I recently picked up golf. This is quite common in those sports. Yes, I'm sure. Those instructors will put up their own coaching sessions online and then use it as a marketing for their own private lessons

and then their own like material so in the sense that yeah i think this kind of goes uh well with what we talked about last time a few weeks ago about how to grow your dojo uh how to grow judo and how we're in competition with other sports you know there's a lot of things we can learn from other sports and then this is one of those things you know we got a um judo is is an individual sport and then a trained eye can identify issues a lot quicker and then you can improve a lot faster and and this private series will be like a little preview yes and that's the thing with the trained eye too right if you're taking a private lesson from someone if that person who's giving that lesson isn't asking a lot of questions it's not a good it's not very good you know because then first

of all like if i'm first time meeting someone that's walking into my gym for a private lesson i have no clue what that guy knows yeah yeah no yeah. No clue. So for me to be like, all right, this is a technique, like do this and that and do this and that, maybe he doesn't use any of that stuff. Right, right, right. And then a lot of the times these feedback things that you get are sort of cookie-cutter feedback. Oh, bend your knees, turn your thing.

Oh, you're not pulling hard enough. Oh, your kuzushi's not there enough. Those are the things you 100% do without. You know what I mean yeah yeah so sorry to completely like derail what you were saying about skiing and just kind of give my own anecdote no no it's fine but yes a trained eye is very important trained eye is very important right because you don't want a guy that's just going to regurgitate the stuff. I'll tell you this. I got Yumi a violin lesson. Yeah? Yeah?

A private lesson with this woman. Uh-huh. How'd it go? Terrible. Oh, shoot. Okay. This woman, first of all, didn't even give her a tuned violin. Oh, she didn't even tune her violin?

It wasn't even tuned. And I'm not like some musical prodigy. I'm far from it. But I was like, lady, this violin does not sound tuned. her violin it wasn't even tuned and i'm not like some musical prodigy i'm far from it but i was like lady this violin does not sound tuned you play the guitar so not really well i can't even say it right and there was a piano in the room she's like yeah i'm a little bit more of a pianist and then she's like you know playing a little piano it's kind of nice right i'm like okay and then i was like can you tune the violin how did you even get this lady i don't know so

this is the thing she has a cookie cutter thing she's reading off a freaking workbook obviously she's teaching a five-year-old so it doesn't matter right yeah yeah yeah but she's like making her do these like little worksheets throughout the thing and that's a cookie cutter thing yeah yeah yeah and i'm in there with her and i'm like one of the crazy parents yeah right so i'm like you need to you know you need to right i'm that guy let's tune this violin and then can you play something for her so she'd get excited about the violin the woman couldn't fucking play oh she was like playing like uh what was it uh twinkle twinkle little star but like barely oh my god i was like this is garbage i was like this is not you know and then they were like calling me hounding me like like the marketing thing they

did a really good job following up bro i was not signing up for that program right right right that's not a private lesson yeah that's a machine that's a money-making machine because most people just like ah it's 30 minutes 40 minutes whatever i'll drop my kids off on tuesdays and thursdays and they had a whole system with like marketing and follow-up and email and calling and even the owner called me oh wow wow yeah because i had gone to that music school when i was a child hated it never went back right and then i had told the guy like hey i came here when i was a kid once oh he's like oh my god so the owner actually called me like hey remember you know oh man you know so nice to see you after 30 years you know uh i know you're not a musician but you know so great that

you still have the love for it that maybe we planted in your thing haha when are you gonna bring your kid back uh guys and i was like you know i didn't really like the lady and the teacher uh she was like oh we'll get you another one uh i was like you, man? Maybe in a couple months. So I guess this private lesson series, I guess people will be kind of worried, kind of going off what you just described. Maybe I'm paying this much money, but it's not as personalized. But I can't really, I don't live in New York, or getting a private lesson which in time

of it's too expensive like well what do you what do you say to those people like well i mean kind of sort of not really right yeah it is still like a video product so yeah reagan's asking questions that he thinks will be interesting yeah to the audience and what he thinks is interesting yeah yeah so it could totally be off like the mark yeah yeah and it could be totally boring for you you know maybe you have no idea what he's saying or it's just not like a private lesson at all but that was the intent going into it uh that was the intent and it's not a full hour it's much shorter right right because we got rid of all like the parts where he's trying it and doing it or whatever it is.

It's more efficient. Yeah. So it's new information from beginning to end, kind of. That's the idea. It's like a private lesson distilled down to like 10 to 20 minutes. Okay. I see. Because I'm such a believer, right, that 90% of the people who buys long instructionals online don't watch the whole thing.

Right, right. i've done it probably like 37 times i'm gonna buy this instructional i'm gonna watch it yeah probably watch 10 minutes of it and you'll see you could probably skip around and stuff yeah yeah so that's why the concise instructional series came about it's short, you could download it to your phone, whatever, and you could just have it. You know, you could kind of watch it a few times. And then because you blow through all the information, there's no redundancies. It's like you could re-watch it and pick up something new every time. Ah, I see.

That's the idea. You ever heard of Blink? Blinkist? No. What is that? They give you a synopsis of the book in the shortest, most concise way. Like the spark notes? It's kind of like that.

You know Stephen Covey's Seven Habits of Highly Effective People? Yeah, I've heard of that book. Seven Habits. It's a book, a regular book. Yeah, yeah, yeah. If you go to Blinkist, it's like one. One. Win-win scenario.

I win, you win, everyone's happy. Here are a couple of examples. There you go. blankets it's like one one scenario i win you win everyone's happy here's a couple of examples there you go that's the whole chapter right right right i mean that's what it is really yeah i mean it's a little bit more detailed but it's just enough for me to like listen on my drive in to where it's like two or three commutes i get through the whole block so you could you could watch these uh private lesson series Like one of those videos On the private lesson series On your way to That's what I was going for Yeah

I see And then if you guys Purchase it You can reach out to us Through Instagram Patreon And kind of give us feedback Because a lot of the stuff

I'm trying now It's a little bit different And unique You know I hate saying unique Because everyone says They're unique right But I'm trying to be original In the type of content that we create now yeah you know maybe i mean that's a

good way to like if you think greg didn't greg didn't ask some questions that you wanted to ask yeah you could you could uh send shintaro some feedback yeah yeah and then he'll incorporate it in the next video yeah so now experimenting with different formats different types of content if you're in New York reach out to me you may catch me you know where I have an opening in my availability I've been getting a lot of inquiries I don't know nice nice I don't know it's like all these people are traveling to new york now they're like oh i want to do a private lesson with you nice nice and then you're like trying to innovate i mean i think you know guys like maybe someone will complain that this was like a total ad the whole episode was an ad but it's an ad yes yeah it is an ad we're not gonna deny it i mean it is but there's some information that's valuable right how to do private lesson, what to look for in a private lesson, right?

These little things. And, yeah, I'm sorry if it came off a little bit too self-promotion-y. No, I mean, it's our podcast. I think we need to keep talking about these new things people are trying in judo because I think there's a tendency i don't know what uh probably because it's it's like an uh some judo practitioners have this idea that judo is like always like the traditional judo is always the best like the original kano koro kan judo is the best you know thousand uchikomis a day you know whatever i mean yeah thousand uchikomis a day that traditional stuff is great

if you have six hours a day yeah judo every day there's no better way to develop judo than to just be on the mat six days a week doing your fundamentals going through the thing but none of us have the time as hobbyists and majority of the people on the mat are full-time grapplers they're just not they're hobbyists and they love it and those are the people that i want to advocate to for the most it's not even just a hobbyist like if you know if i think oh kind of or in japan you can join a judo club right like at school and it's kind of like think about about high school, middle school sports in America. You get to practice every day after school for a couple of hours.

Yeah, yeah. Which adult can afford to do that? Nobody. And you know what, man? Those people are the heart of martial arts. It really is. Yeah. You know what I mean?

The athletes who are at the top, who are out there competing, they're for themselves. And they're almost a product of the organization. Yeah, yeah. You know what I mean the athletes who are at the top who are out there competing they're for themselves and they're almost a product of the organization yeah yeah you know what i mean and god bless them and you know they're for our entertainment too yeah because watch football baseball the product is the players doing the game doing what they do best right yeah and they sell ad time because the attention that people give them is valuable yeah yeah but the heart and soul of like grappling and martial arts are the people who are doing it as a hobby. Those are the people that really matter. You know what I mean? Those are the people that can be affected in the most positive way.

The freak athlete that comes in and who's already good at judo, jiu-jitsu, who's a great wrestler, who's been good at any sport, that guy's going to be fine no matter what. Yeah. They're going to keep doing it anyway and then i think we're trying to like inject more innovative spirit to the sport i think it's uh i mean even this pocket is a new thing i guess you know it's all to say we're i i'm kind of saying this because i i based on based on, uh, the episode with Jimmy and our previous episode about how to grow Judo in the U S how to grow the gym itself. And I, we've gotten a lot of like,

uh, criticism for being a little like too commercial, like, or like maybe like not doing away with like the traditional hard training. Yeah. You know, it's, and again, yeah you know it's and again not everyone it's a survivorship but not everyone needs that and then this type of private lessons yeah you train hard yeah we all train hard you know what i mean but you can't push that on

everybody yeah like i think what i am different like if if uh like my i don't really take my wife to judo for example like i not even to the competition because i know she would hate it like i think she would not like that people are like sweaty and then yeah throwing each other it's not she wouldn't let you do it yeah exactly you know it's not for everyone and then you know people who come in who just want to get a good workout we need to support that and then they're they who come in who just want to get a good workout we need to support and then they're they're the foundation of the whole activity and that's not the people that's not gatekeep uh and this private lesson series is one of those things that the innovations

that we're trying to do you know yeah and so that it's it's more accessible you know like if you look at like again golf and skiing they did there's tons of this and then skiing golf there everyone's like not everyone's like an Olympic you know racer or a PGA Pro it's that's not what the so how do you select your private lessons instructors when you're doing golf ski all that stuff so that's an interesting question so i usually go uh so for my golf lessons i go to the local range yeah uh and they usually have a school with pga pros the pga pros are like like people like you like they're both expensive so i usually i'm not good enough that uh to really get a lot out of them so i'll usually

go one tier down and i may not be pgo certified yet teaching pros yet but they're like they play college they worked at some other ranges teaching and then yeah that's what i pick one of those guys and we my wife and i take the lesson together and for skiing lessons yeah like i'll go to a decent size resort yeah i'll take usually they'll ask like oh which level are you and i'll you know i'll select it and then it'll be like two hours together yeah you know yeah so that's uh that's how i usually do it because i'm not like i don't't need a PGA pro yet or like Olympic racer yet. Do these guys tell you to take a swing first and then they watch you do a swing first? Oh, yeah.

Yeah. They'll observe first. They'll ask. They'll ask what, so golf teachers usually say, what are your misses? Like what happens when you hit the ball? What's the biggest problem? And they'll watch you hit the ball what what's the biggest problem and they'll watch you hit and they'll videotape they'll you know uh you know like watch the slow-mo together and then

they'll show you some pro how pros do it that's really nice that you watch the slow-mo yeah it's very big now and even skiing too they're like doing that and basically they'll ask like oh what what are you working on what's your problem I'll get say oh I want a bit get better as carving I feel like I'm not like going as fast or something and they're like watch your ski and they'll suggest and drills yeah slow motions you know not taking a bunch of private lessons myself you know and yeah so much now because I'm very good at vetting out the people and then some people i'm like just talk jujitsu to me oh i just want to hear you

talk about whatever you're good at so i could see like i could just kind of like actively try to pick what i love and like and see what's the most valuable to me as opposed to like this guy might not be watching me train yeah yeah it's a good chance he's not oh he's not gonna know what's best for me yet yeah yeah yeah so that's an approach but there's been bad instructors who would kind of gaslight me say oh you're not you're retreating every time you can do this thing or you're not pulling the hand enough and it's like i think i am like no you're not do it a hundred times they see it's getting better now it's like is it i've been doing the same shit the whole time so like that video incorporation is like i really like that idea you know right maybe maybe you should incorporate that to like maybe slow-mo more uh yeah mechanics driven thing i don't know

maybe i don't know if judo is like uh judo throws you have to be that yeah down to the technical level but yeah i mean there's so many segments to work on you know uh yeah before first contact first contact two hands on adjusting for position are your feints you know really feints the actual attacks are you chaining it together are you coming back out after each attack yeah are you reading your opponent adjusting for the guy's defense and then when you enter a throw, how are you finishing it? You know what I mean? And that's a whole other bag of things. You know what I mean? Yeah, I think judo

has more variability. I think golf and skiing are more, especially golf, more repetition, like reliability, but I think judo is more dynamic than that. Say golf is unskilled and we'll clip it and put it on Instagram.

I say it's more about reliability. Judo is much more skilled than golf. Hey, I didn't say that. I said it's more dynamic, which is true. You can't deny that judo is more dynamic than golf. Yeah, and then your reasoning number one, it's like, you know what? If you don't like it, come try to take me down. I challenge all the guys on the PGA Tour

to come take me down yeah if I challenge everyone on the PGA Tour Roy McIlroy come try to take me down yeah that's right

I'll choke you out man can you imagine Reagan just took that and then posted it I know and then and add like actually add

Roy McIlroy he'd be like, who the fuck is this? I bet he's coming off like this. That's funny. But yeah, the Private Lesson Series,

it's something new that we're trying. It's at $40 right now, Pop. Nothing crazy. It's like the same cost as a drop in fee at a dojo.

You know, it costs less than a drop in fee at a SoulCycle. Yeah. Or Pil in fee at a soul cycle yeah or oh man how much is that or orange i have no clue i just made that up but it's probably cheaper it's good they they are not cheap they're not cheap yeah but you know the starbucks and get a beverage it's like eight dollars yeah dude yesterday i went to the grocery store organic strawberries upon it uh eleven dollars dude eleven dollars organic though how much was a regular uh 6.99 okay oh man almost double yeah new york pricing dude i was like

oh man twelve dollars for a pun of the strawberries it was unbelievable dude so two punnets whipped cream dude and i was like what almost the price of the private series yeah yeah guys help shintaro buy some strawberries by uh pay for this private i need vitamin c yeah vitamin c yeah thank you guys for listening as i said mentioned in the beginning of the podcast if you want to sponsor us you can maybe you have a product that's grappling related even if it's not grappling related it's a business of yours and you are a grappler we want to help right yeah i'm sure we can work something out yeah uh yeah we want to hear from all you know the grapplers from all walks of life and you know yes we can we can help you we have a kind of a platform now right

a little bit yeah it's growing thanks to you guys so yeah yeah reach out to us check out the new private lesson series and if you guys have new ideas that we want that you like us to try out you know we're always again we're about all about like looking forward yeah growth mindset you wanna you know push Judo forward so yes we're happy to hear your ideas out. Yes. Thank you very much. Thank you.

All right. Thank you very much. And then we'll see you guys in the next episode.