The Shintaro Higashi Show - The toughest room in NY? | The Shintaro Higashi Show

Episode Date: May 12, 2025

In this episode of the Shintaro Higashi Show, Shintaro and guest David Kim discuss the revival of the Judo program at the New York Athletic Club (NYAC), the challenges of maintaining high-level training, and the collaboration between Shintaro, Colton Brown, and other top athletes to restore the program's energy and excellence.The NYAC is a historic private club in NYC, known for supporting top-level athletes across various Olympic sports. The Judo program, which once thrived, has seen a decline in participation and local involvement, prompting efforts to revitalize it.Join my Patreon for:✅ 1-on-1 video call coaching✅ Exclusive technique breakdowns✅ Direct Q&A access✅ Behind-the-scenes training footage🔗 Subscribe & Support Here: https://www.patreon.com/shintaro_higashi_show 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/David Kim Instagram: @midjitsu David Kim YouTube: / @midjitsu

We gotta get this program up and running again. We want energy in the room. When you see those differences when they're training, there's a lot of action. Hello everyone, welcome back to the Shintaro Higashi show. I'm joined here with David Kim, mid Jitsu. If you guys heard the podcast episode before, if you're wondering who is this guy,

we just did a whole episode about it. I don't know when it's gonna be aired, but very soon you can check that out. I wanna talk today about the toughest room in the country. Any questions about that? Budo Institute. No, I mean kind of. All right, so me and Colton Brown, we were both members at the New York Athletic Club as athletic members for a very long time. We're sponsored athletes as New York Athletic Club. It's a private club in the

city and you've accompanied me to the Westchester location, right? Yep, yep, yep. And these are sponsor athletes they still do and they sponsor wrestling athletes, judo athletes, etc, etc. And we were on that team, right, as we were on the US team and they gave us money to travel and compete and things like this. And they have practices, but the practice in the room has been kind of declining as the membership in the Judo program at the athletic club got older

and older and then the sponsored athletes are from everywhere now from the US. Some live in Texas, some live in Massachusetts. Has something changed to drive that? Yeah, somewhat. So like a lot of, we had a lot of like a local pipeline and then we had like a New York, New Jersey pipeline who were on the gate list who could kind of train.

And then we had a couple of high level guys that were pretty local. Like for instance, when I was part of the New York Athletic Club, maybe like as an athlete, maybe like 10, 15 years ago we had me, St. Lezors, we had Joe Brutus and we had all these guys who were relatively local to New York so it was easy to get all those guys in a room and then you know have these amazing workouts and we had a pipeline of local athletes who were very good coming in the room to train with us and then

you have these stragglers from like this guy came from Georgia to live in the United States, he's coming, this guy's from Morocco, he moved to New York, you know for the big dream whatever it is, but he was a junior national champion. So we always had this like thriving room. And then all the current athletes kind of like just scattered just the way it is Right. So now the training in the room hasn't been what it used to be So now this is an initiative to like bring all these people back in right right and this is with Colton I think I saw yeah so Colton now has a gym and a lot of these

Athletes that are young and up-and-coming have gone to Colton to train and Colton's has a gym and a lot of these athletes that are young and up and coming have gone to Colton to train and Colton's doing a very, very good job and he's coaching internationally, building up these young guys, running these programs. So now he's pretty local, he's in New Jersey. So me and Colton, we got to talking with the president of the New York AC Judo Club and like, listen, we gotta get this program up and running again.

We want energy in the room. Colton, you have a lot of guys. Shintaro, you have YouTube and your members. Let's all get together once a month and have a great workout. And then we've been doing a monthly thing. We just started maybe like a month or two ago. So this is- So you've done it like a couple of times then by now?

Yeah, this is the second time we're doing it. We've had this idea multiple times before. Sometimes it happened, sometimes then, but we did two back. We've had this idea multiple times before. Sometimes it happened, sometimes it didn't, but we did two back-to-back months and it was tremendous. So that's where I was last night. And is it basically you and Colton sort of trading off coaching or is it just pure Randori? How is it structured?

Great question. Just like Peter, but even better almost because you're more handsome and you went to Harvard. That's not possible. That's not possible. Peter is the man. Peter is the man. We miss him very much. But Colton is sort of on that US coaching thing.

And so it's mostly his guys. So I'm like, you know what, Colton, you run the class. You run a great class. He's got some pipes on him. I mean like vocally? Vocally. Yeah. Big voice, big energy. Yeah.

So I'm just kind of yielding. I'm more there now to kind of like hang out a little bit. I want to get a workout in and then the first one happened and I was able to kind of just like not do what I usually do at my gym and just kind of be part of the room and workout myself and I love that. So I want to kind of be part of the room and work out myself, and I love that, so I wanna kind of keep that going. Right? Yeah, that must be nice. Yes. Not having to

run the whole thing. Yeah. And he was, the first one was a lot more novices, it was just kind of two-packed, and then we sort of sent out an email to our guys, and everyone who's sort of semi-involved, let's just do more so advanced guys, and then it was majority black belts last night. We probably had like 40 to 50 black belts in the room.

It's awesome. All right. And some super high level guys. So, you know, between the first one and the second one, Colton kind of quickly changed gears and said, okay, this time we're going to do a little bit of Uchikomi, some Neiwa's Uchikomi, Neiwa's Urandori, Tachwa's Urandori. It was zero instruction.

Getting after it. Yeah, and it was just like round after round. We were in there for like an hour and a half, guys just destroying each other and it was really, really fun. Can you describe the actual facility a little bit just so people have a picture of, is it like Hogwarts? You know, you walk into the club, it's like a lot of wood paneling and then you...

Yeah, it is. Yeah. ...scooter room, that kind of thing. Have you been to the... I'm sure most people have not been there. No. Have you been to the New York Athletic Club in the city? I have not been to the New York one.

I gotta take you. I'm not the one in the city. Yeah. So they have two locations, Westchester and New York City. The Westchester location is like a country club, big pool, big pool house, tennis courts, all that stuff. On the Long Island Sound, it's overlooking the water. It's gorgeous, you know?

It's like a thing that I do with my daughter. Every summer, they have a spectacular fireworks thing. But in the city house, it's an entire building on Central Park South. Entire building. And they have a pool facility on the fourth floor, restaurants, everything is just in that entire building. And then the top floors are like,

you have the restaurant up there the solarium Overlooking Central Park you have the hotel rooms up there only for members. So it's like a members only private club situation and Miraculously, they have a judo program that's been there forever and they have a judo room on the seventh floor Oh, it's on the seventh floor. It's on the sub floor. Used to be- You got a lot of guys getting slammed through someone's roof. Yep. And used to be that the judo room was overlooking Central Park.

It was like the most gorgeous, spectacular thing ever. But then the club was like, listen, you guys aren't really even using the room. You guys are in twice a week. No! Yep. And then you guys can't even fill the room twice a week, like what is going on?

Pilates wants it, yoga wants it, we're gonna convert that, you know, the members are pushing back, we're gonna get rid of ya, we're gonna push you in the back, and then they actually built out a separate judo room. They wanted us to share with the boxing room. Because two not so popular programs in the building, and they were gonna mush us into this tiny thing

and then we fought back. Now we have our own room in the back. We don't have central park views anymore, but it's still a really cool facility. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, you don't wanna be in the same room as boxers. You have like, have you ever, like you've been to boxing gyms, those places.

Yeah, yeah. But I mean, this is the thing, right? High gyms are great. No, yeah, yeah. Yeah. No, but it's this is the thing right? No, but it's a really cool facility, you know, they have an Olympic sized pool downstairs Actually, I don't know if it's Olympic side of a huge pool Right now aquatic center the massage and the billiards room Multiple of event spaces. They have a huge gym. They have a basketball court. The Knicks practice there all season.

There's a very cool. Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah, the legacy sort of old New York boys club, right? Right, and so do these athletes, these judo athletes, not all of them are affiliated though, right, with NYAC? These are just like, because of you and Colton, you guys can sort of put out the call and bring in Yes, whether they're associated or not with the the athletic club, right? Yes. So this was kind of the pipeline

Usually you have the like residential members who were just like full-blown members of the club Yeah, now i'm a residential member you pay money every year. It's a lot There's restaurant food and beverage minimums all these different these different things. Assessment happens, you're on the hook. It's like a really, really, really expensive gym membership. And it sucks paying for it. Because now, right? And then the tier below is like the athletic membership. And there's a very, very select few that get this. You have a sponsorship membership through the clubs, intra clubs. So Judo is part of the intra club system there.

Right, they have many, many intra clubs like a wine and cheese, a fishnado's intra club. You have like a swimming intra club. Right. New York AC track and field guys. And then these intra clubs offer residential members like myself, and I could go downstairs and say, Hey, you know, I want to join the chess club. I can do that and pay like a small monthly

fee. And now French accent club. Yes, exactly. And within these inter clubs, they sponsor amateur athletes that tend to get Olympic medals, world medals and national titles. So any Olympic sport has a big advantage in having one of these clubs and then they take these top athletes and they sponsor them. Right. And you were involved with that program. I was in that program for maybe 10, 15 years. And then so when I wanted to apply for this thing, they go, you know what? We only care about national championships, world championships, Olympics. Obviously, you know, you're what? We only care about national championships, world championships, Olympics. Obviously, you're not that good yet.

If you win a US Nationals, we'll sponsor you, was kind of the deal. And I won a US Nationals, and then here I was. But the pipeline for that is the gate list. So you get like a gate pass, you get put on this list to be able to train there sort of in hopes that you may be able to graduate up into the athletic membership. Yes, and there was sort of this limited slot situation like okay you guys get you know the residential members are already up here.

So you have this many athletic membership slots, this many gate list slots, and then you're feeding that machine. And then you're having Monday and Wednesday training sessions, mostly for the members. Yeah. Right. So the most of the members, you have a bunch of residential members who are generally older dudes who can afford the membership. You have athletic members, people on the gate list, and then people who are just guests who are just like, Hey, maybe this guy can be a potential for a gate pass. And they're limited to their sport. So when I was an athletic member, I could use the gym and then the judo room. But the athletic membership, if you have a full-blown and if you have the card, then

you have more access. You kind of move around the room freely, right? The facilities freely. But if you were just on a gate list, you could only be there, you know, Mondays and Wednesdays during judo time, that's it. Who runs that judo program when you guys aren't there? You know what I mean? Like, so you have this special thing that you're doing monthly with Colton. Yeah. But they do have this judo practices. You do. Who runs that? Aziz runs that practice I think. Aziz, Taymok I think those two are the main guys. They've been there forever. You know Taymok's In his 70s. He's kind of a legend. He was an Olympian for

You know US One time ago and Aziz was a champion from Morocco, but he's also in his 50s maybe even 60s so they run their class but those classes have been very small like I said because the athletic members all those guys are kind of spread out now yeah they're all playing uh Minecraft or something I don't know maybe right yeah we had Johan who's from Cuba who's now an American citizen, training full-time at Jimmy Pedro's. He came down. Alex Seminenko was there on the mat yesterday.

He's the heavyweight. He's probably like 280. He says he's 260, but I know he's lying. He's wrestling for Brown now. So he's like a great athlete, Division I wrestler. And now he came back just for this because the season just ended for wrestling. So he was back in town working out. And then all of Colton's guys and some of my guys.

I haven't brought my top guys yet. But like Gianni was there. It'll be good to see like maybe I'll bring Gunji there. You know Gunji? Yeah. The big Japanese dude. That dude is big dude. He's a big boy. He's a big boy he's a big boy and you know

he'll crush everybody in there but this is the thing right he had two acl surgeries so i don't know if i want to expose him to that risk i don't want him to feel pressured to do rendori with like alex semianenko who's uh you know even bigger than gunji so i kind of want to like talk to him about it a little bit more in depth have done a few of these guys to kind of want to like talk to him about it a little bit more in depth, have done a few of these guys to kind of keep him also safe and protected, you know, because it would be a shame to get a third ACL surgery. Yeah. You know what I mean?

Yeah. This goes back to our earlier conversation. It's just as you get older or more experienced, I think you get more sensitized to the risks involved. Yes, the risks are huge. So this is going to be a monthly activity? Monthly activity, yes. And then for the first one, we were like, all right, I was talking to, I used to be the president too, so I'm involved in the whole thing over there.

And then the new guys, Kevin Earls has always been the top dog running the show. And even when he's not actively president, he's the person, you know, he's the guy, right? So we were chit chatting about it. And we're like, Hey, let's, you know, make sure the first one goes smooth. So I left my camera at home, I left all that stuff. It was just kind of like, let's see how this thing turns out. And it was a great success. I already just emailed Colton like 20 minutes before we got onto this thing. I was like, hey man, let's pick the next date before this thing cools off or something like that.

And then once we have that date, I would love to send it out. I sent it to my buddy Leo, who was a great athlete and champion and so now he might wanna come. And then, hey, do you know any young guys who are very good that can hang in the room that you can kind of bring? And then, Jack Yanecki obviously is one of the best American judokas right now. He's across the bridge, you know?

And he didn't come to the first two. So it's like I could personally reach out to his father and be like, yo, it was really good. There was a lot of 73 guys. And there was a guy from Morocco who's around that weight, who's like a buck 60, who looked so sharp. So like, that's like a buck 60, who looked so sharp. So like, that would be a perfect guy for Jax. So now I can kind of like shop around the local champions

and be like, you know, they all know me. So it's like, hey, you know, come, come, right? And we're gonna try to build this thing, make it a thing. You know, if I could kind of have like more access to these guys who now I could bring them on to the show, now I could show their technique. And I did a little bit of that. This kid Lenny, he's awesome.

He's a young, athletic, 66 guy and then I was like, yo, show me your Uchimana on my YouTube and he was like, yeah, I got you and he showed this deep step, massive Uchimana, so sharp. So it's like a win-win because people want to see that I get to showcase this young kid who's very talented and then so now You know what I mean? So it's a win for everybody. So I want to kind of get for the New York Athletic Club, too Great. It's great for everybody and that's kind of where we're going We've already identified the dangerous people in the room and we're already trying to like, you know, I did my Compliment I don't want my guys going with that guy that We should watch out for that guy. That guy's over there smashing the girls,

you know? We got to do something about that. Yeah. So there's a lot of those kinds of things happening and I feel like it's going to be really good for judo New York and New Jersey locally. Let me ask you this question. When we talk about judo, like in jujitsu, you start out a little spazzy, right? You sort of calm down over over time and then now there's a much more like there's a much wider spectrum of intensity Yeah, right as you get more experienced in judo I obviously appreciate it because you know when I have done randori at your spot You know, Eugene hooks me up with guys. Yeah, like not gonna frickin bomb me

But there's a lot more tug of war, right? Like people don't want to take that fall. Yeah. And they want to you know, they're just, they're just, you know, locking horns a lot. It may be still very technical. But I wonder at a, you know, at a workout like this, where you have a lot of black belts, a lot of experienced guys, a lot of good guys, does the timbre of the room change? I think there's enough of a range even within the black belts, right?

There's like local level black belts and then you have the national level black belts and the guys ready for the international circuit. So when you see those differences when they're training, there's a lot of action because people are getting bombed. So now all of a sudden, the energy in the room is a little bit different. It's not like at a dojo where everyone's a little bit respectful, let me not finish it,

let me not slam somebody. There's a lot of it like, hey, this guy from Morocco I heard is very good, I'm also a young champion from New Jersey, I'm gonna try to smash this guy. So it's not like, you see a lot of action at these things. It's kind of a miracle no one got hurt yesterday because it's just such a rough sport. But there's definitely, it's definitely intense

and guys weren't holding back. Tanya Toshi free for all, big lifting, Ura Nages and back arches, all that stuff. So it was really like a high level judo room and honestly I haven't been in a room like that a long time yeah it wasn't just Colton's guys it was you know this guy that just recently moved from Georgia there's these Moroccan kids that are that are sharp like they're just living in New York you know one guy is like I think like a

bellboy at a hotel you know killer dude yeah you never know man you never know you know because it's such an international sport yeah Judo there's 50 million people doing it globally so you know you're walking down the street you would never know that this guy might be a champion he's driving taxis or something you know and you get these guys now in the room yeah and you know it really was spectacular you know you right it's like kind of unbelievable yeah Tuto's unique that way and this time around they were like guys we're only bringing advanced guys let's leave all the novice guys at

home but I only brought my novice guys I showed up with like a purple belt and a green belt. They were the feed for these guys. But you know you need these guys to kind of like be exposed to that high level judo so it really pulls them up. And you know if they don't get injured and then you introduce them to some of the champions like I said hey Johan, you know I know you just won a European cup. My guy's a purple belt, you know, do the right thing here, you know? And he's like, yes, I got you. I got you, you know? So like this kind of thing really helps a lot of people, you know, and having good leadership in the room, like me and Colton making sure everyone's

safe, making sure everyone gets what they need, but maintaining that high-level judo standard, I think it's very, very unique. And there's just no way with the judo population in the United States to get that many good guys in the room at once. It's like jiu-jitsu also. You know, you could go to the best jiu-jitsu school in the country. It's like, how many of those guys are really champions? What percentage of the room are metal and that consistently at these events? And you just can't get that many guys in the room at once usually, you know?

I haven't felt that in a long time. So I'm, yeah, it's great. I'm excited, you know, seeing these young guys and you know, I've, it felt like I'm the old guy in the room a little bit actually for the first time. Because the young guys like, you want to go? And I'm like, you know, I'm nursing a meniscus thing in my knee. And then I would only go with the super light weights or like the women in the room because

of the weight difference. I'm bigger, right? So I kind of like protect my knee, you know? Yeah. You're leaning out too. I'm leaning out. I'm bigger, so I kinda protect my knee. Yeah, you're leaning out too. I'm leaning out, I'm light. I'm buck 90, dude. Yeah. We're the same weight now, me and you.

Yes, that is true. I'm a little bit lighter, depending on when you catch me. All right, so what was the best room you've ever been in? Oh, geez. I mean. I mean, you're training at Essential essential which is a high level of the jiu-jitsu school. Yeah, I think it's got to be essential. It's got to be there. I mean it's not like when I travel, I mean I went to Checkmat headquarters, I trained there. I've trained at a lot of different places but you know, you know, I'm not like going, I'm not going to comp class,

right? I'm just going to be like the normal general population class. Have you done the comp class at Essential? No. Let's do one. We got to do one. OK. I'll protect you. I'll protect you.

You know, because sometimes you could get a group, right? And I was just trying to tell this to my friend Leo, who's my age, and I was like, dude, he's like, well, I blow my knee out. I'm like, listen, man, we'll work out. Me, you, and a couple select guys. Right? And I'll tell these guys not to chop your knee or whatever your issues are, and they'll just grip fight with you or hand fight with you, whatever it is. Same thing, like if me,

you, and then Pat got in that room and comp, we could run our own thing sort of on the side. Obviously, we're not going to be like messing around doing other stuff, but we could go at our own pace because we're all over 40. Right, well over. You know? Yeah. No, I don't know how Pat does it. He's done it quite a few times. He's an animal.

We're going to have Pat on this podcast too. Yeah. Pat's a great guy. Yeah. He's a great guy. You're taking more of a role now in this podcast. Yep. And for those of you who missed it, you could go back and listen to the Who is David Kim episode,

but tell us a little bit about you so we get the word out there. Sure, yeah, I'm happy to do it. So David Kim, father of four, that's probably the most important thing. Very important, very important. And Purple Belt, Purple Belt and Jiu Jitsu, which who knows what that means means but I have a lot of experience you know fighting from fighting people off my back you know and you know.

And if you want to support me you could join me on Patreon. We have these membership tiered sort of a situation and you have more access to me. I get so many messages every day, hey can you watch my technique, hey what do you think? Is this Uchimura or Hanegoshi? I just can't get to a lot of these messages and frankly because the volume so high a lot of it gets caught up in my spam Filter on the Instagram and then I generally don't check that but if you join me on patreon You'll have direct access to me. You could ask me questions. We could do one-to-ones There's a mentorship program in there. So please click through to the link and check that out.

And thank you so much to our sponsors. Drew, Jason, LaVon, Hawqueen.ai. Elijah, you've been amazing. Please check us out. Anything else about the athletic club thing you wanna ask? You gotta come now. Yeah, I do have to check it out. I mean, this is like one of those classic

New York institutions. And there are a number of them, right? Number of these clubs in the city. And yeah, because, you know, the New York Athletic Club, I think is unique because it has such a focus on all the different, you know, athletic situations. I mean, there are plenty of other clubs where I'm not sure what they're doing in there. But let me ask you a question. Harvard club, they have a sports program. So I think they're well known. They've got a gym, they've got squash courts.

Right. I think a lot of people go there to play squash. But aside from that, I haven't really heard too much about, you know, what else they might be doing, because, you know, you need the facility you need You need the the real estate basically to have all the different so if you're gonna have fencing and judo and boxing and all that kind of stuff And the club is not not that big, you know, yeah, I mean the same scale you go there a lot When I'm in the city, I'll go there. It's like a little oasis

Yeah, you need to use a bathroom. You're in between meetings and you got to chill out someplace for an hour. You walk in and you see all these old dudes on the leather seats, like crashed out. Why are you here? What are you doing? Why are you here? Is there a lot of networking happening? Must be. For some people, I'm sure there is. For me, that's just sort of like where I camp out if I need a place to camp out. Because it's convenient, it's near Grand Central for me.

So it's just a couple avenues over. Is there a space in there that can hold mats? They must have a gym. I mean, they hold events all the time there. And it is very nice. And they have like other meeting rooms and stuff like that. So technically, yes. But in terms of having like a dedicated,

I doubt that they would dedicate space to. We should do a grappling event there. You know, that would be interesting. Create a little interest group, you know, a little interest group there. See who's grappling. The thing is, in New York, I feel like anybody who's grappling, that's an alumnus, is probably at your spot at, you know, Kano.

You know, maybe they're already a member of the athletic club, like they're at Marcellos or, you know, they're doing they're doing their thing. You know, they're they're doing the grappling at the grappling spots yeah and they're probably coming to the club for it would be cool though right if we're just all like you know go to the Harvard Club judo's kind of like symposium or something it would be cool it would definitely be cool they definitely make you pay for it but I think oh I bet you so how expensive do you think it is to rent an evening like that? Well, I have no idea these days, but I'm sure it's not cheap.

I'm sure it's not cheap. But if it's an interest, if it's like an alumnus interest group thing, you never know. It might be some kind of consideration. Do you know any other guys who went to Harvard that are grapplers? You know it's funny because my reunion is coming up and I sent out a message and I said hey does anyone here practice jiu-jitsu because maybe we can hit an open mat because there's a place in Cambridge that's like yeah there's a jiu-jitsu spot near there and they actually have a jiu-jitsu club yeah right which I visited and. And it was Crickets. Crickets! I know two rappers who went to Harvard.

Oh yeah? Like wrestlers or? Yeah, he didn't wrestle in college, but one of my financial advice, he started like a fund, you know, like a financial advisory firm, and he went to Harvard and we were on the same wrestling team together. And then my buddy, Ryu Got Goto he's like the was the violinist yeah yeah who did a lot of karate but did judo at my club for a little bit. I would love to catch up with I would love to meet you know some more guys. I just I was I thought there's got to be someone in my class that does this but it's just been you know crickets so who knows.

Well David thank you for being here thank you for being on the podcast if you want to contact David or you could find him on midjitsu he's on Instagram and I'll see you guys soon