The Shintaro Higashi Show - What Is No Gi Judo? | The Shintaro Higashi Show

Episode Date: January 12, 2026

In this episode, Shintaro dives deep into the concept of NoGi Judo—what it is, what it isn’t, and how it fits into today’s grappling landscape. He breaks down key differences between gi and nogi stand-up, technique adaptations, and the integration of wrestling into modern judo practice. If you're a coach, competitor, or martial arts nerd, this one's a must-listen.00:00 What Is NoGi Judo?00:40 Traditional vs Sport vs NoGi Judo01:20 NoGi in BJJ, Wrestling & Judo Crossovers01:50 Why Gi Techniques Don't Translate Directly to NoGi02:20 Mechanics: Sleeve Grip vs Wrist Grip03:00 Controlling Distance Without the Gi03:20 Underhooks, Overhooks & Closed Loops04:00 Friction, Sweat & Realistic Contact in NoGi04:30 NoGi Judo Instructional on JudoFanatics & BJJFanatics05:00 Wrestling Integration: Singles, Doubles & Kata Guruma06:00 Using Shots to Close Distance07:00 Strength vs Technique: When Bad Technique Works08:00 Importance of Athleticism & Balance08:30 Why Wrestling Background Is Essential for NoGi Judo09:20 Judo vs NoGi BJJ for NoGi Instruction09:50 Shintaro's Recommended NoGi Judo Coaches10:10 Satoshi Ishii's Body Lock-Based NoGi Judo10:30 Why Judo Dojos Should Add Weekly NoGi Classes11:00 Final Thoughts & Where to Find the Instructionals🚨 LIMITED-TIME OFFER: 40% OFF 🚨The All-in-One Instructional Bundle just got even better.Every major instructional. One complete system. Now at our biggest discount yet.Grab yours now at 40% off : https://higashibrand.com/products/all-instructionalsThis won’t last. Build your game today.🔥 Get 20% OFF FUJI Gear! 🔥Looking to level up your judo training with the best gear? FUJI Sports has you covered. Use my exclusive link to grab 20% OFF high-quality gis, belts, bags, and more.👉 https://www.fujisports.com/JUDOSHINTARO 👈No code needed – just click and save!Links:🇯🇵 Kokushi Budo Institute (The Dojo) Class Schedule in New York, NY 🗽: https://www.kokushibudo.com/schedule🇯🇵 Higashi Brand Merch & Instructionals: https://www.higashibrand.com📚 Shintari Higashi x BJJ Fanatics Judo Courses & Instructionals Collection: https://bjjfanatics.com/collections/shintaro-higashi/

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All right. Nogi Judo. What is it? First and foremost, what it isn't is it isn't traditional martial martial. arts judo. That's like as Kano developed it, there's self-defense, there's Kada, it's this education system developed by Jigoro Okano back in the day that we know it as a martial art. After the traditional judo, there is sport judo, which is run by the IJF, international competition heavy, Olympic games, that sort of competitive sport judo. And that's very different from traditional Japanese

judo and now we have sort of this new meta where a lot of these athletes and teachers are teaching no giudo there's the judo without a gipe and then you see it in judo gyms you see it in brazilian jiu jiu jutsis schools even wrestling if you look at a guy like p juk who's one of the best wrestlers in the country right now grew up doing judo does a lot of throws right and then people say oh that's no Girodo. So it's sort of making its way into grappling conversations. So it definitely needed to be sort of addressed. And if you are teaching judo already, is it as simple as doing the same moves without the ghee? And that's really the biggest question. And I see it all the time on Instagram and YouTube and stuff like that. All right. Colla sleeve. Call a tie wrist. We're going to do the same

Sotigari in the exact same way, it does not work, okay? Because there's nuances with controlling the person when you're holding on to a fabric and when you're not. And then the wrist grip is not the same as a sleeve grip. Even though fundamentally you're moving the arm in sort of a direct way or an indirect way where the ghee wraps around the sleeve and you're grabbing the sleeve and you're taking out the tension and you're moving that arm versus you're actually grabbing the wrist and moving the arm, the mechanics are slightly different. And it's the difference between like using sort of a regular dumbbell curl and using a fat grip where the hands are much more weaker, right, when you're holding around the wrist. Therefore, you don't have as much control over the wrist,

you know, and there's a skill with using the key to maximize that tension and control of that person's limb. So it's very different, very nuanced. The distance is first and foremost very, very different. you're doing ghee, you could control someone fully at a complete arm's length like this. But in no ghee, you really can't control someone at arm's length. You could maybe block and post, but you can't really pull someone from arm's length with sort of a wrist or you just don't have that same purchase on the person's body, you know? Okay, so how do you adapt for not having the ghee using traditional judoish techniques? I think a majority of the time you could use underhooks.

overhooks. And that's like sort of the first closer range type of position that you want to lock in to get sort of chest to chest or hip to hip to control your opponent because you must get sort of a deeper control over their limbs. Okay. So overhook underhook, that's the first and foremost thing. Wrist grips, yes, but you can't use it as like a sort of a sleeve grip. And then also forming closed loops around a person's body sort of is the way. Pardon me. There's a phone call coming in. Okay. Yeah, so you want a closed loop around the person's body, whether it's a head and arm or a body lock where you're connecting your hands around your opponent's body or limb. That's kind of the way to go, you know? So it's a little bit different. The range is different. Sort of the, in terms of like friction, it's a little bit different because the more sweaty you get, the less sort of friction that you have. And a lot of this stuff kind of gets forgotten. when it's being taught. By the way,

there is a Nogi Judo throws and Nogi Judo Foot Sweeps and Trips video. It's a bestseller on judo fanatics.com. I think it's also on BJJFanatics.com. If you go there, check it out. You look up Shantara Higashi. It's up there. It's a full-blown video release

that you guys can download and watch right now. Please check it out. Nogi Judo footsoops and trips. Nogi Judo throws by me, by yours and truly. So yes, this wasn't a whole shameless plug about Nogi Judo throw period. I kind of wanted to just do an episode about talking about it. But yes, how does it also integrate with single legs and double legs is sort of the idea as well, you know?

Single leg and double legs. Traditionally, those techniques have been branded as wrestling, but it also used to exist in judo. So how come the single leg is not really a judo take down, you know? If you look at it that way, Kuchikidosh or certain types of ankle picks and leg picks appeared in judo multiple times. Even a fireman's carry is called katagrumah, but what's the difference between a fireman's carry and a katagrumah, right? There's subtle nuances with ki, without ki, different entries, different sitting position.

You could run it a little bit differently because of that part just on that tricep. It's a lot stickier when you have that sleeve or the armpit grip that you have your hands sort of tightly wrapped around. So how do some of these throws gets maximized and how do they get implemented with leg grabs is the question. You know, for me personally, when I used to wrestle in high school and college, I would shoot a bad double and I would climb up the body to just get chest to chest. So using double legs sort of as a mean to close the distance because it's very difficult to throw someone at arm's length with no ghee because you can't really pull them, right?

You can go grab his shoulder like this and pull, but it's not really going to come to you. You know, as opposed to grabbing a sleeve and a lapel and then yanking him into you, right? So keeping that pulse, how do you close that distance? Person's framing. How do you close that distance? You take a shot, you climb up the body. You go for a single leg, get it on the leg. As they throw that overhook in to prevent that single leg, you climb up the body and catch yourself an underhook, right?

And what's the difference between the guy having an overhook and you having an underhook? You know, it's how well you control that shoulder. So all these different things, I'm going to go over it in my video. Please definitely check it out. So all these different ideas need to be considered. And I would hope that if you are selling Nogi Judo content or even teaching Nogi Judo content, that at least the very, very, very bare minimum that you do some research into some of the stuff. And I'll tell you, like, aside from me, J-Flo is another one that's great.

Max Schneider is great. Those two are, I'm going to give you guys my stamp of approval. I've seen their content online and it works. Majority of the stuff that I see, Nogi Judo, this and that, I can't really say like, oh, this is great. And, you know, that being said as a caveat, everything would work.

You know, I'd like to give this example, like, if a gorilla tried to take me down doing Nogi judo, he doesn't know any judo, but is it possible that he just grabs my wrist and throw me with a Tatoshi? Yes, because he's just, the physicality is just so much more than I am, right? And then even similarly speaking, like, all right, one-handed, overhand crossed wrist,

Uchimada, with just using the one hand. Will it work? Not on a person of your size with some athletic ability, but on a 10-year-old child, half your size, of course it would work. You know what I mean? So you don't need, you know, the very best technique if you outweigh the person by a lot, much bigger and strong than the person. The person has zero athletic abilities.

And that's a big one too. You know, you take somebody with no athletic ability. You could take them down with anything. Seriously. I've seen it happen. You know what I mean? I've, uh, no, I'm not going to say that. But there's guys that you could just literally just reach down and grab a pant and

yank it and then they'd fall over because they have horrible balance and horrible core strength, you know? Anyway, good judo, good nogi judo. I think you really need to learn from someone who has wrestling background, right? That's really nogi grappling in its purest. form for stand-up. And we're not talking about Nahuas, we're talking about stand-up, right? So you need to understand

wrestling. You have to have wrestled or done sort of freestyle or Greco sort of at some point in your life to kind of understanding how some of these mechanics work. You can't just take judo, period, never done any other grappling thing before and then automatically you're a Nogi judo expert. It just really doesn't

work like that, you know? Even Nogi BJAJ guys who have a lot of experience, grappling Nogi, they might have a better understanding than a traditional judo guy because they're used to grappling with Nogi, used to fighting for overhooks and unhooks, into getting into these like pinch headlock clamp positions where they're controlling the opponent's upper body and then using their legs to sweep them for Sumi or attack them if they're standing on the feet for Ochi-cochi.

I think those guys have a better chance at teaching Nogi Judo than traditional judo guys who've never done this stuff. But definitely, definitely check out J-Flau-Fle. Max Schneider, you know, Shantaro's stamp of approval. Mine two, Nogi judo for those and trips on judo and BJJ Fanatics. Please check that out. But, you know, you really don't have to, you know. I would go as far as saying, like, as long as you just explore it in your gym with different

types of underhooks and overhooks, closed systems around the body, you know, I think it's very useful. You know who else has a video? That's pretty good. Satoshi Ishi's New Wave Judo. That's another good one. He's a high-level judo. guy who done MMA.

Everyone knows Satoshi Ishii. And he has a lot of body lock related stuff that is really fantastic. And he has a lot of MMA experience. So this stuff is tested. He has a great inside trip. That's another good one that you guys could definitely check out. But yes, Nogi Judo throws. Nogi Judo, a very, very interesting, unique sort of niche now.

I will like it for it to be a little bit more mainstream. If everyone can sort of incorporate a once a week, nogi judo class in your judo gym, I think it'll be a phenomenal addition to your dojos and I think it'll make judo better, truthfully, just once a week. Nogi judo class. And we're not going live, Rondori, killing each other

because you guys got to first and foremost admit, it's a new thing, you guys aren't experts at it, you're going to get people hurt. But to learn it, drill it, try it, I 100% would love to see that happen. And then, you know, we do Nogi judo classes every now and then. you know, not every week, but we definitely do so. Definitely something interesting to consider.

And yeah, please go to judo fanatics.com. Go to bestsellers. Nogi Judo Thoreau's by Euro Truly. Nogi Judo Footleeps and Trips by Yorot Chuli. Check it out. Thank you very much for listening as always. And talk to you soon.