The Shintaro Higashi Show - Tokui Waza

Episode Date: November 23, 2021

Everyone wants a cool Tokui Waza, or your favorite technique. But how do you actually pick one and develop it? In this episode, Shintaro and Peter discuss various aspects of picking a Tokui Waza, developing it and building your Judo around it. Please support us on Patreon if you can: https://www.patreon.com/shintaro_higashi_show. Any amount helps!

hello everyone welcome back to the shintaro higashi show with peter you today we're going to talk about tokui waza t-o-k-u-i waza it's your best move it's your best friend it's going to be very very interesting how do you pick it right right what is it how many people can you throw with it like all these things we're going to go into it but first and foremost we're going to say thank you to everybody who has contributed to our patreon that That's right. Peter, you want to talk a little bit about that? Yeah, so like we said in the last episode, we've got a little community going on. If you decide to support us on Patreon, you get to come on our Discord server

where you can chat with us on a more personal level. We talk about judo, other things in our lives. And another one perk is that we have a special channel for technique reviews where you can post a video and then you can get personal

feedback from yours truly, Shintaro Higashi. And Peter too. Peter will chime in as well. Some of the things that we're going to spend right away away is we're gonna buy new webcams because right now this is being recorded on my iphone yeah right so we're gonna buy new webcams and then we're gonna upgrade the squad cast podcast situation right right so the money is going directly towards improving the quality of the content that we produce for you guys. And hopefully it gets better and better. That's right.

I think people like hearing me talk about judo. But, you know, the quality is sometimes, right, we like whip it together. Yeah. It could be better, right? I mean, I know we upgraded with the mics. But we're going to keep doing it better and better and more professional. You know, before you know it, Peter will be quitting his PhD pursuing podcasting full time. Right right that's the dream huh yeah yeah yeah so he'll lose all his hair you know and then

he'll grow a goatee start doing some uh psychedelics and yeah the korean joe rogan yeah gonna happen to peter that's right so but yeah help us out if you can and it'll really again like shintaro said it all goes to towards improving the quality of our show so back to the main program tokui waza yes tokui waza so what is tokui waza what is it yeah what is it it's your favorite move like i said it's your best friend it's something you know you're trying to go out in the city you call your best friend hey i need you and they're there they come out they're there it's in your back pocket at all times right it's one move right you can always like kind of maybe you're uh uh trailing in points and then you can whip it out

yeah yeah so the it's part of like this branding idea too right so if you think in a way you think yeah if you think koga you think yeah right what what do we if you think what do we think of what's your hair you know i didn't have a Tokui Waza I kind of did but I'm 5'9

I always liked Uchimata but you know it was hard for me to hit that in the 220 or 100 kilo division because everyone was taller so naturally

I was forced to do Ippon Seinagi and then I wasn't very good at it the way I kind of forced my Jo together was contextually right how the moves work together right and that's really something that i teach now specifically right um you know the synergy between all the moves and that's sort

of my main teaching facet right contextual judo and yeah we talked about that a lot in other episodes too so yeah i'm a big believer yeah so then you kind of touched upon it like although you like doing uchimata you could you know it didn't work well against taller opponents so that means like when you try to pick a tokuyo waza all this context still matters so you're it really matters how when you try to pick one yeah yeah body type kind of matters which division you're in right obviously like if you're in the heavyweight division and you're fighting there's no weight cap in judo for the heavyweight right it's 220 plus 100 kilogram plus yeah so doing something like a standing ipan senagi might be very difficult right right so depending on your body type it's gonna limit you you know if you're the shortest person in the

division usually which i was going for something you know over the back and then going for a soto is going to be difficult right so it kind of has to fit your body type you don't even need a tukui waza truthfully right you could be good at all these different things but the main traditional knowledge of judo is like pick one move and be excellent at it you couldn't you have to have a couple of good moves where you're very very proficient in one technique where you know all the different entries you know all the different defenses you know all the main lines of the other person's reaction right you definitely need one or two of those right for certain so would you so right right now we're talking about as if we pick a move first and then work on it but sometimes the move picks you yeah exactly so then how right how

should we approach that like what do you is there a difference between the two approaches or is it more organic yeah a bit i think it's organic you know a lot of the times i have beginners who are white belts like hey what should my move be yeah yeah i hear that right and it's like i don't really know yet you know are you lefty are you righty a lot of times they're figuring out that they want to be a lefty judo player or a righty judo player. And I always talk about this. You don't have to be left-handed to do left-sided judo. You don't have to be right-handed to do right-sided judo. Because these aren't natural movements.

If you're throwing a baseball or something, you're naturally going to have a dominant hand. But with judo, you have the left hand and the right hand. A lot of these movements aren't so intuitive. So you can learn to go both directions. Right, right, right. So based on that like it's going to change a little bit right you could be great at right verse right osoto and can never hit it against the lefty right right so now it's like can you really say your takui waza is osotogari

not really right there's people who there who could only fight right verse right you have no strategy against right verse left or can't even distinguish some people even at you know higher levels can't even recognize oh this person's left right right so like without that it's very difficult to pick a technique that's going to work on everybody right so it sounds like you have to have the foundation of you know doing a lot of randois and then build up a lot of contextual knowledge. Yep. And then it's more that Tokuyawaza picks you then. It really does, man.

Because I've had jiu-jitsu guys come in and they're like, I want to learn how to do a massive haraigoshi because I saw this guy do it, you know, at whatever tournament. And it's like, yeah, but, you know, all your stuff is like bottom bottom open guard why would he pick her eye yeah the risk of missing it is too high right it's going to take you a very long time to get right if you're open guard bottoms very good right and you like right hand on lapel left hand on sleeve and you do open guard from there if you do tomonage from there you're there right right make that your your tukui waza right so you know and some people are more comfortable missing a technique and then going down like for instance drop say nagi guys right right i think drop say nagi guys tend to be a little bit more risk averse right because you go for a big osoto big counter yeah big ochi big counter right uchimata georgian

gonna pick you up and dump you on your head. Yeah. People who are risk averse and don't want to get countered big, pick drop Sanagi because you miss it. And then, yeah, you give up your back, but you're not getting slammed on your head. That's me, though. Yeah, that's right.

That's my Toku Iwaza. That is still my Toku Iwaza, but I kind of hide it on my back pocket until you know yeah i hit the right moment but yeah i think so let's kind of i'm actually curious about these things so like based from body types and what will be a good thing let's kind of go through that a little bit so we deal we you uh talked a little bit about the bjj guy who plays bottom guard, whatever. Yeah. How about tall, lanky people? What are some good options for them?

So if you're taller than the other person, you have more access to their upper collar, which means you control their head better. Right. And this is without taking into consideration leg grabs or singles or doubles or anything like that. So if you have sort of a C5 grip, which is right behind your neck, right, you could control the person's head better and you have more access to that. Then Osoto and Harai, those techniques become very powerful.

Right, right. But if you're shorter than the person going for that C5 grip, right, you're reaching upwards. Right. And it's hard to get because it's far away. And you're not as strong if you're reaching up right yeah you're not as strong you're a little bit more extended yeah you know i've seen people do it but if you're already you know 6 to 12 inches lower than the person if you just turn your hips are already beneath them therefore a senagi type technique might be better right suited

for your body right right right If you have horrible balance, then picking something, you know, using one leg to balance yourself, like Uchimata or Osoro, might be very difficult. Right, right. That's another option.

Right, that's another one. Yeah. Right? Some people feel good with two feet on the ground and, you know, it's like everyone teaches Osoro Garu as a first move.

I've always thought, why? Right? Because now you have to take balance into account. Right, right. With a technique like Koshiguruma, you have both feet down on the why right because now you have to take balance into account right right technique like koshi gruma you have both feet down on the ground you don't have to take in to balance right so picking a technique like that that feels natural that feels intuitive you know for instance like ogoshi right people like i love ogoshi but first you have to get to that position yeah the grip right yeah A lot of the times if you turn and your shoulder is extended and you don't have any shoulder mobility, it's very difficult because you feel extended. Right?

But some people have very, very flexible shoulders. Right. Right? So those things kind of matter. I see. It doesn't matter that much. What matters is actually like picking and committing and training it. I see.

But these things do matter. Yeah. So like these circumstances do influence your choice. But ultimately what matters is you have to train it well. Yes. And then master it in all kinds of angles. So let's talk about that a little you know what what would be the first step to developing your tokui waza all right let's just say for instance

ipon senagi yeah standing drop standing they're both together right okay yeah that guy that says like oh i threw somebody with Ippon Senagi standing or drop and you're like drop and you're like oh I'm not wow that's a microaggression what's wrong

with my drop Senagi yeah so I it wasn't standing yeah that's right I always drop what am I a second class citizen now

because I drop it's always that right it's like that underlying tone for the drop Senagi guys you know he's a senagi guy.

Oh, yeah? He's a drop and flop senagi guy. Anyway, Ippon senagi. Classic, classic. First, you have to train repetition and get the fundamental. You have to understand the mechanics of it on a cooperating body. Completely neutral. Just being able to turn, drop your hips, turn, drop your hips.

Pull the person off balance. Load them on your back. Very, very important. It's not just about uchikomi so you gotta do like moving so uchikomi's first yeah then it's moving uchikomi second right when the momentum's coming towards you and then doing moving uchikomi and attacking it while the momentum's going away from you that's a whole another level right koga does that a lot right yeah koga does that shifting to the left shifting to the right with movement okay so now once you've got those things down you have to drill it repetitively you have to be able to do ipon senagi from winning position from losing position

right how does it work together with your gripping as i'm threatening one thing of getting the hand on the collar right i dive underneath and go Ippon Seinagi. Right? So now you have right side Ippon Seinagi, left side Ippon Seinagi, maybe you have a weak side Ippon Seinagi. How do you throw off the timing? That's another one. Right. You faint and then the person reacts and then you go underneath.

Right. That's another option. Right. Right? Nice. Then you go high, high, and then you go low. Right? So different levels where you're dropping

right if the person's anticipating like a high ponce nagi they just hip check hip check hip check right and then the third time you drop beneath low they go to hip check and then you're way below that and then they trip over you like right falling over a backpack or something right that you're killed up on the floor i see no so so those are different ways to kind of look at it so it's almost as if you're basically like picking up your talk you're picking up a throw for your tokui waza and then kind of study the details like you're kind of obsessing over all these details yeah like it's like a cerebral exercise now you know it is yeah it is and we haven't even talked about the finish right finishing the technique what are the three main

defensive things that their person's gonna do usually they're like this is how you defend ripon senagi step to the side right this is how you defend ripon senagi hip check yeah right or drop like drop your weight on you and stuff like that yeah drop and sprawl yeah so how do you deal with all those uh defenses right how do you how do you usually do how would someone uh you know finish off the uh when someone spins around you for seven yeah how do you do that yeah you know so you run in your feet properly yeah if you just do an ab curl you're never getting anywhere right so it's like going forward driving forward and then running your feet properly. Yeah. If you just do an ab curl, you're never getting anywhere. Right. So it's like going forward, driving forward, and then running your legs and then trying to bring your back to the floor. Like that kind of a finish. Right.

Can go a long way. So do you know that generic finish? Right. Right. If you don't know it, then it's like, okay. It's going back to the repetition and trying to study it. Yeah. Yeah.

You have to study that. You have to study that. And then what if the person's left-sided? How do you do Ippon Senagi there there how does it work together with your gripping do you have a weak side ipon senagi against lefties right right right can you do it so like if you're right versus left and you like outside position that you're not going to do drop senagi from there you just can't right right because the other person has inside control it's a lot harder right you get to bypass that yeah yeah so it's like gripping comes into play again um i see right fighting for inside position so you could use your drop senagi so the talk right that's something yeah it's not just

about the throw even tokuyo waza yeah like it said you know you have to study it even the grip strategy entry the finish everything yeah yeah then so now say you're kind of you've basically mastered all these details about your Tokui waza where do you go from there like it do you should you pick another one or do you use that as a building block and try to work in other throws? Yes, you could always build on it. You could always add more flair to it or different entries, different timings and things like this. But you want to build around it to maximize. Right, right. In a way, he had Uchimata, Uchimata, then he'll do a drop Seinagi.

He'll do Ouchi, Osoro, drop Seinagi, Uchimata uchimata then he'll do a drop senagi he'll do ochi osoro drop senagi uchimata things like this right right right so you want to build around it so then how do you force the person into this place where you could maximally throw them because you're so good at that one thing right you know all the defenses you know all the different finishes right you know how to stagger the timing you go high low all this stuff is like you know just even based on the way I sort of explained it with gripping like Ipanse Nagi there's like 20 30 different ways to enter mm-hmm mm-hmm right and there's that kind of mentality versus I do this one type of Ipanse Nagi and I can force myself through it because I'm just a big strong

and powerful person right like that's another method too right right but you kind of have to know yourself and then be able to force that and then all the other stuff has to sort of feed into that technique right so it's like uh you're going you're always like on your pace when you're in a randori setting or match where you always try to force the setting that you're familiar with uh yes where you could use your tokue waza so i guess like i know you know he would hit the little uh ochigaris so that they'll lean forward and then blast them with uchimata things like that yeah Yeah, the back and forth complementary attacks. Yeah.

Right? How do those things work together? You know, you got to figure that out. So maybe the Tokui Waza is a good way to anchor yourself to add in other... Because a lot of times, beginners would ask, Oh, what kind of combination should I do? I can't hit these moves. Yeah.

But if you pick a Tokui waza or the Tokui waza picks you that could be your anchor point where you could yeah and I bring in everything in in terms of the context yeah dude yeah and then I've seen guys who were unbelievably good at ouchi uchimata right that was their two things ouchi they slipped that leg in, and they either throw you Ochi or throw you Uchimata. That was it. I've seen guys like that in Japan who were just unbelievable lefties.

Anytime they fought a righty, that was it. Inside or outside, it didn't matter. I would slip that leg in and almost throw you Ochi, and then I would go Uchimata. That's it. He had two Tokui Waza, and that's it. He was like, I don't need anything else. Tanahage, else unimportant can you show me a soto i don't know i've known guys like that yeah it's like i do ochi and uchimata and i'll throw 99 of the population with it uh-huh

i've known guys like that i see man yeah then you could you could do it like that Like a screen case Yeah Yeah Yeah You know and then like Throwing out of Positional Strength And then positional weakness

Like that's another one too Right Like Ono does that Right He does Uchimata from winning And losing position He does Osorio from losing And winning position

Yeah Incredible He also has Tomonage From winning and losing position Yeah And that really is the highlight Of his skill Yeah

That he can throw from winning And losing positions yeah and that really is the highlight of his skill that he can throw from winning and losing positions because those are his tokui waza yeah tokui waza he knows it and he has the physicality

to back it up that's Salah right right right I don't have that right but a lot of people don't have that so do you really want to

emulate something that's very specific to him that requires tons of time in the gym and physical training right that's very specific to him that requires tons of time in the gym and physical training right that's a good point yeah look at it that way too yeah so you can't you can't just go on youtube and try to pick the coolest throw you see and then make it make that into your top we was i mean you can get inspired by it but you have to kind of think about the context yeah yeah you know oh there's a different

beast he's seven yeah no I was it could be a took me was it too Oh different angle that's right yeah yeah you know the attack in the transition I've known people who made complete careers out of this right right right they want 80% of their match you know like a little forcing certain It was a thing little I remember I actually learned this I forget his name the Japanese guy who would you know that turn I? do what like turnover I do with the Anyway, I've won butterfly hook. No, not the butterfly hook, but you know, I slipped my hand underneath their lapel Yes, and the and the hand over the back and then i push

him to the side i forget yeah yeah i i saw it from because this guy was 73 kilo and won the uh beat wang gichun which uh was a korean champion yeah with it in the world championship so i thought oh maybe we're kind of in the same body type so i thought i would look that in but he would do this all day he you know of course he was going to touch us up but whenever someone turtles up this was it yeah so that's i'm telling you there was a there's a thing to be said about that too yeah you know uh tight turtle one tilting movement and then pinning the person if you consistently do that the person's not going to turn not going to go for the attacks because he doesn't want to get put in that position right right which severely shuts down a lot of people's offenses right so if you're not as good on their feet like you could double down and your takui waza can be one or two different turnovers one

two different like misdirectional attacks i'll tell you a story this guy brad boland i'm sure a lot of the people who are listening now know who he is. And he was one of the, you know, top US guys for many years. And, you know, he's a friend of mine and we were on many US teams together. His move was the bow and arrow choke. Right, right. His name is Brad Bolin. So, you know, I'm pretty certain I said it first. I called it the Bolin. Bolin arrow choke. Bolin arrow choke. The Brad Bolin. Bolin arrow.

That's funny. And I think he took it and, you know, said, I came up with it. I was like, nah, I think I came up with it. I should probably, like, trademark it or something for him. But no, that's how good, that's what he was known for. Right. Right?

And I remember he was fighting some guy from Brazil. We were in a South American country somewhere. And this dude is ragdolling. Right, right. Throws him Mazzari. Throws him Yuko when there was Yuko. Brad gets taken down. He has two penalties against him.

It's like it was really a one-sided match. Right, right, right. And then we were all saying something in the stands like, dude, it takes one time for the Brazilian to go for a bad drop Seinagi. And Brad would choke him. Bolo Nera and choke. Yeah. Yeah. Guy guy went for a drop say nagi dropped to his knees and then you could just see in his eyes like oh shoot i'm about to get strangled brad like reaches down collar back of the collar here sits him guy just tries to fight the pin he slips his hand in and then dies

over and chokes and finishes right nice that was his thing yeah so you know that was his tukui waza was his stand-up bad no it was good it was fine but you will never drop in front of him because he'll choke you with it right because he was so good at it that limits your then that limits your like you said uh touchy waza because you can't you can't take a lot of risk you know craig fallon he you. Craig Fallon, rest in peace. This guy, he was a world champ from the UK. And he was, not the UK, the Great Britain. He had a turnover pin. And he beat everybody at the world with this one turnover.

Do I suggest that kind of training? No, but I'm sure these kinds of pins found him right he didn't go into judo thinking like oh i'm gonna learn this one pin i'm gonna pin everybody with it right he but then you find your niche you find your niche you find your brand and you go with it you develop your strategy based on what your strengths are and weaknesses are and you build around it now you throw it out there right that's what makes it like an art almost you know so it is it is the case that tokuyo as i find you usually you know yeah i would think so yeah very rarely do i ever hear anybody like this is it i know this is what i have to do yeah right right right that's yeah so i think i guess one thing think about it in boxing yeah you know

like no one ever goes in it's like oh man my left hook is gonna be the best thing on this planet but their guys know them for their left hook right right because left hook probably found them probably maybe yeah maybe just felt right they did it once they're like oh yeah i like it yeah so i think yeah for a lot of the beginners who may have this question, like, what's my throw? What's my combination? Yeah, maybe just it's better to be patient and try different things out, you know. Try different things. That really is the key, you know.

When you're at a dojo and everyone does the same thing. Right. Once you break off from that and try something new and you refine it and you refine it and you refine it now all of a sudden you're the person that's throwing everybody this one thing everyone tries to learn it now that you know you want to be the thought leader you want to be the leader right no more than everybody else so you're going to keep right yeah that makes everyone better yeah repackaging it redesigning it now of a sudden, you go to these tournaments and you pressure test it and see what you can do with it, right? And that becomes this thing.

And now, judo becomes a part of you. It becomes your artistic outlet, right? That's the beauty of it. I think, yeah. And it all starts, yeah, with this concept of Tokui Waza. Right. It's an artistic expression. Tokui means, what does Tokui mean in Japan?

Like, my favorite or my special something like this nice yeah I knew how good it was actually maybe you should be patient and let it find you if it hasn't found me by now then you need to work for it

yeah 35 years of judo right this is the thing i love how the moves work together yeah right and uh it took me a while to kind of figure that out and i always went the route of big strong athletic one took me waza and that was the way i was sort of brought up but that wasn't the way that was the right way for me. Right. Right. Right. Right. So, you know, you could be in the gym and I'm, you know, a bigger guy. Right. Definitely always the bigger guy in the room.

But when you're going against other bigger guys who are much taller than you, different ballgame. Right. So if I'm in the gym going for the over the back and going for Uchimata's and launching everybody at a local level, but now I'm going internationally and now none of that stuff is applicable and that's your entire game right i have problems i see right so maybe you're i love this concept but now i'm in love with a different type of judo different methodology different idea i see different concepts maybe your tokui waza is that you don't have Tokui Waza. Maybe my Tokui Waza is that I'm a genius. Yeah, Judo genius.

That works. I get that. No, maybe it is. Maybe Tokui Waza is not having a Tokui Waza. I think that's even harder, honestly. Or finding the Tokukwila for someone else oh yeah actually yeah yeah i get a lot of fulfillment yeah teaching judo that's right i'm fulfilled yeah right you i love doing it still you know but i don't have any need to like oh i want to go to the competition and i need to show everyone that i got i don't really have that

anymore you helped me you really helped me break out of that. Like, because I was, I was spam, you know, I was spam drop. That was my thing. So, like, left and right.

I could, I could do it. Like, hit it left and right, going forward and all. But then, it was limiting. I didn't really build

my game around it enough. Yeah. And when you're spamming it, you don't really look at, like, you go for it. The thing about the drops, you know, you go for it and you miss it. You're like, yeah, right, right It's like how can I have finished that better?

All right, right So like if you're doing drop say Nagi 180 degree turn in the person right side steps to the backside, right? Every single time they do that they miss a line. Mm-hmm, right the center of gravity away from where you're trying to load it Right, right. So once they do that defense once or twice you have to shorten your turn so you catch them on your back right so it's like you have to mindfully do it as opposed to like oh I'm just gonna drop every time I feel threatened yeah I'm just gonna keep dropping and hope one of these things work yeah and that's one of the things I talk about is hope judo yeah you don't want to play hope judo right right you don't want to play Hope Judo. Right. You don't want to spray and pray.

You want to be more methodical. Spray and pray, yeah. That's right. Well, anyway, I think we've covered a lot. Interesting stuff. Anything else to add? No, you know, if you guys sign up for Patreon and then send me videos of your Rondori clips,

I could help you pick out a Tokui Waza. I could definitely do that. You know, one guy sent a video of him doing Uchimata and stuff. Yeah. I was able to critique some of it. Yeah. Right? That's right.

And yeah, join us if you want, if you can. And we'll be waiting for you. And thank you for listening to the show. That's right. Thank you for listening. And stay tuned for the next episode.