Attack The Attack 360 LLC
This podcast is focused on conversations related to self defense. It is essential that we learn not only to defend ourselves but to also be able to defend our loved ones, should the occasion ever arise. Topics we’ll be discussing include: physical training, tournaments, combat, stand-up game, ground game, weapons... When your being Attacked you have to defend yourself at all cost, so you Attack the Attack that comes at you and be ready and aware in a 360 degree mode.
Attack The Attack 360 LLC
Exploring Judo's Evolution and Impact Today
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
This episode offers deep insights into Judo’s philosophy, its evolution as a modern sport, and the personal growth it fosters within practitioners. We discuss the balance between competition and self-defense, respect in martial arts, and the importance of community engagement.
• Exploring Judo's origins and its evolution as an Olympic sport
• The significance of teaching and mentorship in martial arts communities
• Addressing the ethical responsibilities of martial arts instructors
• Applying Judo principles to everyday life for personal growth
• Highlighting community outreach initiatives to spread Judo philosophy
Please don't forget to reach out and share your thoughts with us!
Courage is the foundation of every warrior. To protect yourself is self-defense, to protect others is the essence of true warrior spirit. So, yeah, man, I had a private lesson this morning and, um, it was actually really good. It was really good. I had the guy I don't know I don't think you probably remember him, his name is mac him and his son showed up and and then he's testing for his sunq oh, wow level three brown.
Speaker 1Yeah right, my level. Yeah, no, you're not. You're. Uh, you should be testing for your black, but I'm a sun cube.
Speaker 2Like you're registered as a sun cube. Last time I registered and competed was as that man, that's like I was trying to look for my. You know how they give you like a little membership card.
Speaker 1Yeah, I was trying to look for my.
Speaker 2You know how they give you like a little membership card. Yeah, you get a card. Yeah, yeah, I was trying to look for it but I couldn't find it. But I really want to find it. It's probably all faded away anyway. Well, either Is it through what? Usja, or it was through both. Through both, yeah, because remember I wasn't a citizen. So when I compete, like at the um, I don't remember it was round robin or double elimination, regardless, um, I was fighting, uh, I was in the upper bracket on my pace to fight for national champions, and they realized that when I put city, I was born.
Speaker 2I was born in mexico and they didn't let me compete because I wasn't a us citizen gotcha? Yeah, I was like my my sensei was like I have never thought to ask you you're a citizen or not, right, yeah? But anyway, going back to your uh original statement of like this guy teaching, how is he doing?
Speaker 1he's actually able to help him out. I was able to help him out. He's ready. His son was a yellow belt but he didn't train for like two years, and so I it was more like a refresher with me, but I went ahead and put him through the ringer and test him everything he needed for his yellow belt. His kid is like probably I would say like maybe 13.
Speaker 2Oh he's like 12, 13, yeah, same age as my son.
Speaker 1So he, um, uh. So he, he went ahead and I just put him through the ringer. I said you know, let's see what you remember and I'd give him a whole yellow belt test. And he did it. He did good. Of course I had to show him a couple of things, but he did it and he looked really good. So I told his dad, I told him I go, let's go ahead and you know, you can start teaching him and showing him stuff on how to get his orange belt and then, whenever he's able to come over and make it with you on the private lessons, then I'll go over some stuff for them and maybe within six, months he can test for his orange.
Speaker 2He's gonna train there at South Texas Jewel.
Speaker 1He's gonna test there oh, I would have him test there whenever he can you know I'm not gonna force it so anything he did for any, any throw he had, his son or him both that they have difficult with.
Speaker 1okay. So honey, make a commie for the dad is one of the tough ones for him. And then his son with his, you know the yellow belt he had a hard time with. His Osoto was good, could have used a little bit more work, but then again he was using his dad as an uke. So you know weight difference.
Speaker 2And then Osoto is such an underrated throw. It's like in concept it looks easy, but it's so hard to master it is.
Speaker 1But if you're understand, if you're understanding to throw your opponent off balance meaning a lot of okay. So if you go traditionally, you're leaning to one side, right. But in sport you want to put that elbow, that's that sleeve that you have, that you're gripping, instead of pulling it off to the side, make a small circle to where it goes like almost in the back pocket, right, if you were going to put his elbow in his back pocket or in your pocket, that way it gives you enough space to raise up your leg and sweep his leg. And when you're doing that, putting the elbow in the pocket that causes the body to lean back like the matrix, right?
Speaker 2Because you can do that even without a key. If you grab the elbow in the pocket, that causes the body to lean back like the Matrix?
Speaker 1right, Because you can do that even without a key if you grab the elbow.
Speaker 2Or you cup the neck.
Speaker 1Grab the arm, cup the head. Yeah, do the same thing. Yeah, whoa. Hey guys, we're back at it again Attack the Attack 360 podcast. Just want to give everyone a special thanks and shout out for following and listening to the podcast. Greatly, greatly appreciate it. Please don't forget to hit the download button. That's the only way we know that we did good numbers. We had a good spike last week and this week it looks like someone or a few of you guys forgot to hit the download, so the numbers kind of went down a little bit. So I just, if you don't mind, please hit the plus button or the download button or whatever, and that helps us with the numbers. Today's podcast we're going to be talking about.
Philosophy and History of Judo
Speaker 2Yeah, I think we're going to step. Jerry and I were talking a little bit about before this and even last night, as I was going to sleep and counting sheep watching. I was counting how many people I throw in judo so I go to sleep.
Speaker 2We just talked about like what, like what we can get with our listeners, how we can engage them, so we thought we're thinking about starting a series, um, maybe three, six weeks, we don't know if you guys like it. We didn't continue it, but kind of dissecting the whole martial arts and the philosophy and history of it, because Martial arts in china or in japan have different origins, um, origins, origins, and then we want to make sure that we strip it down and we concentrate on one specific martial arts and kind of really talk about philosophy and the history of it and just you know, two random students who love martial arts just talk about it in today's society and how it applies and how it influences us, and you can guess what martial art we want to start with.
Speaker 1Obviously, we're going to start with judo and you know, the philosophy of judo still stays the same. The only thing that I see that changes is the student's mindset. What is it that they're going for? Because, in reality, originally judo was a was based off of Japanese jiu-jitsu and it was a self-defense art that added and included takedowns, throws right, and in reality, there was over 62 takedowns in judo, and that's including leg grabs. Okay, but because of how everything changes, time changes. Judo became a sport. Judo's in the Olympics. They took away the leg techniques. So now, when it comes down to testing, there's 42 takedowns, and that's excluding leg grabs, although there's a lot of leg grabs in judo. I blame the French, well, well, it's because they mostly do it, uh, and it's similar to wrestling right, where a lot, of, a lot of leg techniques and and double leg takedowns and whatnot, but that's mostly uh, you know, everything changes yeah, and for folks listeners, we mentioned it last last time in our but judo was actually the first martial arts that was part of an Olympic sport.
Speaker 2So they kind of paved the way for other martial arts to join the Olympic sport. And why is that so key? I believe it's so key because it allows universities and it allows different countries to develop more judo programs. And the more judo programs that develop, the more judo, the more judo students we get around the world. But the counter to that and I don't know, jerry, if you agree is that then it becomes a sport and it loses part of the philosophy or the martial arts aspect of that martial art well, I mean, when it becomes, when it becomes a sport, you know, that's, that's when you have to really think and think about this.
Speaker 1If you're, if you're doing a martial art and I'm going to say this in in general, right, in a broad aspect if you're training in martial arts, what are you training for? And that's what you have to be more specific about, right. It's like for me, when I was training in martial arts, I didn't give a crap about sports. I was like my sport, competitions and all that was like I was already in my 30s. I didn't care about doing competitions or sports or anything like that was already in my 30s. I didn't care about doing competitions or sports or anything like that. The reason why I was doing martial arts was one I was bonding with my son when I put him in martial arts. Number two my mind has that open mind, concept of self-defense, what best works for me? Okay. So if you know that you're going to be in a martial art such as judo and you want to compete in judo, well then that's when you go to a martial arts school, a judo school, and then that's when you say, hey, I want to compete, or I'm not looking for competition. I'm looking for it as a workout or I'm looking at it as a more self-defense base for me to just not only get a good workout, a good sweat, but also learn something in the process that can help suit me in self-defense. And there's a lot of students that do that. And I know, like with us in South Texas, south Texas Judo, patrick and I were talking and he was asking me about asking some of our students if they want to compete in Texas State or in nationals or whatever, right? And I told him I go okay, this is where you have to ask that question Do you want a competition team or do you want to ask students if they want to compete? Because there's a big difference, right. So I told them, don't ask. Tell them, hey, we're building a competition team, you have one week to sign up and once you're in a competition, you're in a competition.
Speaker 1Your mindset there is to compete. Can you use competition judo in self-defense? Of course you can. It's the same concept, it's the same. You're attacking, you're countering, you're throwing, you're sweeping, you're taking down your opponent. So do I think sport and competition helps your self-defense? Yes, I do, because it creates that confidence, it creates that drive. It teaches you how to attack and how to counter, so there's good points to it.
Speaker 2But do you think that it loses kind of the essence? Like if you were to ask most modern day judoka Olympics, do you think they would understand, like, what the philosophy behind judo is, or they would just know how to repeat, like the good kusushi which is breaking off balance? Yeah, for folks that that are out there listening, because I do feel that in many schools, and at least in some schools that I've been to, that I travel to, they predominantly work on the target, which is taking down your opponent, which is scoring a point, and in judo, um, you win by scoring one point. But to score that one point, you have to throw your opponent with force, technique and speed on their back and you get that one point. Yeah, they have to land flat on their back and you get that one point. Yeah, they have to land flat on their back.
Speaker 2Yeah, and from what I've been told and I haven't done my research, but it resembles back then in jiu-jitsu how they were trained with heavy armor, the samurais, if they were to fall with great speed, that armor could really injure them and might even cause paralysis. Yeah, that's why that Ippon started. But going back to my original question, I feel that, like if I don't know I'm going to butcher it because of my American English but the seyuku senyu, which is like the maximum use of energy. I feel like if I were to say that word to a lot of folks in judo schools, a lot of people won't know what that means.
Speaker 1Okay, I mean I could be wrong. No, you're right. A lot of people because they don't. Okay. So when you're, when you look at a lot of schools, they teach, a lot of them are teaching, yes, competition, and you win. And and then, at the same time, that's the instructor too. What's the mindset that you're trying to instill in your students? Right, if you're going to teach competition and moving away from the, I can't think now what you're asking the yuukosenyu. Yes, if you're moving away from that, then you start developing that I must win attitude. Okay. But when you look at the Olympics, like this past Olympics and I was watching all the weight classes, man, there were some beautiful techniques, beautiful throws, good takedowns, good competition, good back and forth. But here's the thing thing, the respect, end of it.
Speaker 1You see all judo players, before they even get up onto the stage, onto the platform, they bow yeah, as soon as they get up, as soon as you get up on onto the mats and they walk over to the edge of the ring and they turn in, they bow and then, and then they get on the mats, they bow to the ref, they bow to each other and then the ref tells them to go. Now, there's a lot of respect there. Even when someone loses, at the end they bow and then they walk off and do all that stuff. Right, that's showing respect. But I did see more than more than a handful, right, I would say like almost almost half of all the judokas that were there. I saw them have an attitude because either they lost and they slam, you know, they slam their hand on the mat and they go come on.
Speaker 1Or they yell or something. Right, that's not showing respect, that's not being humble. And then, when it comes down to when they're, when the ref is calling it, you know they don't even bother with the ref, they don't even bother bowing out, you know. So it all depends on their, their, how they were taught what you know, like what's their mindset, how they were taught what's their mindset. So it's kind of hard to say that. Is it changed from the original? Because it's there? It's just a matter of the person wanting to do that or not.
Speaker 2Yeah, I often wonder if Kano would approve of judo in the Olympics and the way judo is going. Because for me, for folks that don't know, he got okano is the founder of judo, um, and it was established in 1882. Just for those nerds that are out there, um. But for me, um, which you knew, that I didn't know, that with my limited research, is that he was a doctor. He was actually not a medical doctor but a doctor of education and he worked for the government Ministry of Education, so he was an educator. And a lot of folks that, a Lot of memoirs that had the privilege and honor to train with dr Kano, said that he was a fantastic teacher in that he wanted to take judo outside of just the dojo.
Speaker 2He wanted to take it out he wanted to spread it out around the world, and I think south texas judo does that, and a good example of that is like two podcasts ago you talked about how the judo team came collectively and used their energy to just put small contribution to help the big brother mentorship Right. Like that's exactly what Ghana would want. Like Ghana would want them to take that outside and even in their everyday life. Like what's my best way, my best use of energy that's why you see me in sweatpants, bro, because my best use of energy is like fuck what I'm going to wear, I'm just going to be relaxed and do my work. I don't want to waste my energy on what I think, so don't give me shit for dressing like this today. No, I'm not giving you nothing.
Training Philosophy and Community Building
Speaker 1you're at your house, you're relaxed man, okay, you working from home? Yeah, that's right, so no, it's. You know, when you, when you instill into your students to always play everything forward, that's basically what you're doing. You're playing it forward. You're emptying out your cup, right, and what do I mean by empty your cup? When you're learning, your instructor is pouring, think of it as a philosophy term. You have your teacup. Your instructor is pouring tea into your cup, meaning giving you knowledge, helping you grow, helping you learn. And then when we say empty your cup, that means you take your cup and you dump it out, meaning that you pour your cup into other students, showing teaching, sharing what you've learned.
Speaker 1Now what you've learned. You could teach it a different way. I mean, there's all these different ways of teaching, but as long as it goes to the same, it goes to the same point, right, it all goes down to the same thing that one technique. But if you look at all these other techniques, bro, it's like you got one technique that could be changed up four different ways, five different ways, different entries, different attacks, different combos, exactly, and the outcome is how does it finish, right? Yeah, so you know, that's what I like about. That's what I like about not only training and teaching, but when you're teaching, it helps you learn more, because everybody's different.
Speaker 2Yeah, and I feel like the goal of a judo instructor it should be, and I think it encompasses there at South Texas Judo and hopefully in the rest of the judo world is that when you discipline your body and you discipline your mind to use that maximum energy energy we hope it seeps up to your everyday life, like like what's the best use of energy with my kid? Like how do I spend quality time with him, how to spend quality time with my parents, how to spend quality time at my work? Like we hope that that discipline goes there, because that's why we train, that's why we put our bodies through countless times of like falling, falling and getting back up, getting thrown and throwing and feeling good and then feeling shitty. And I think Kano would really appreciate that and I think he would really appreciate South Texas Judo if he was alive.
Speaker 1I hope so. I mean we do try to instill being respectful with each other, being humble with each other, working with each other, being a family, being a really good community, and not just within us but also sharing with other other judo schools. Judo schools, um, like here in town. Uh, patrick likes to talk to sensei author over at, uh, super for super forties is how he says it, super forties and uh, so we, you know, we'll partner up with them, and then we know it's like cross training. And then the one school over at disciple judo in jernington, um, you know, helping them learn more judo and have different ways of teaching and learning. When you're able to collaborate with another school, you're actually sharing knowledge. It's not like, hey, what we say is the right way, and it's the say, all you know, be all. It's not like that's more like hey, what's your opinion, what's your idea? You know, like I said, everybody learns different.
Speaker 2It's just a matter of how you do it and I feel judokas I mean at least true judokas enter conversations with that mentality. I know sometimes I enter conversations and it's not a me versus you, it's more of a discovery conversation I'm discovering where you're coming from, discover where where I come from, and kind of blend in the middle.
Speaker 2I don't care if you're Republican, democrat, green Party, vegan, meat eater, whatever, it don't matter. We're all humans and we're all trying to make the best out of this life. Same thing with judo Like I, like higurakana, and I like Judo because as a kid and we're talking about philosophy and how it's helped me. And then, jerry, I'd like to hear you how Judo has helped you in your life.
Speaker 2For me, when I was looking into martial arts, one of them was because of my nemesis. I know I've mentioned it before in previous podcasts, but another reason is because Higuro Kano was actually a small guy. He was and you probably hear me in the podcast because of my voice. I sound so masculine and tall. You probably picture me like you know, six foot six three, but I'm not. I'm five three. I'm not a tall guy. I do have some muscle on me, but it is so easy for me to take down bigger opponents as a small guy because of my central gravity, so small. So the my best use of my stature and the best use of my energy for me was judo and like that encompasses the philosophy of judo and also, like I said before, it also helped me encompass, like, what's my best use of my lungs? Definitely not smoking this fucking cigarette, you know. So I quit smoking cigarettes because of it, you know.
Speaker 2And then it also helped me build confidence because once you start winning, yeah, you get a little cocky, like you know. Like I said it before, I got cocky like I didn't lose my first 50 matches. Yeah, I'm bragging a little bit, so what? I worked hard for that, um, but like it brought me. So it brought such a new level of confidence, because growing up as an immigrant who english was a second language, broken english, like confidence, not something that, that, what to call that I grew up with in my elementary schools, right, I was like and my mom doesn't know how to speak english, she's coming to the class, everyone's gonna everyone's making fun of me, right because, um, my parents are mongols and I always thought people that had english-speaking people, uh, parents had it so easy, you know, because I always have to translate, so but that's like, that's how judo's helped me, like the philosophy of judo.
Speaker 2Jerry, how has judo helped you in your life, besides meeting this handsome Mexican?
Speaker 1You know it's it helped me out If I strictly just talk about judo. It helped me out by understanding the concept of every time I get down, there's always a way to get back up. There's always options and with judo, you have to figure out, when you're doing randor, when you're sparring, whatever Right, have to figure out when you're doing randor, when you're sparring, whatever right, you have to figure out those options. Yes, when you start creating combinations, you start thinking about things right, foot sweeps, throws. How do I put them together? How do I make it flow? And what helped me? Is this? The same thing, the same philosophy is that I bring into my normal everyday life in general. How do I attack my day as soon as I wake up is what I mean. How do I?
Speaker 2make my day. You're really encompassing your attack on attack. I am in the day, I am everything right, and that's how I look at things.
Speaker 1But it wasn't until recently and when I say recently, like two years ago, three years ago, maybe you know, it's know I always say that I didn't really grow up until I hit like 42, you know, and here I am at 45. So I think about, like the flow, what, year.
Speaker 2When did you start judo?
Speaker 1How young were you? I was in my 30s. Oh wow, Really yeah. When I started judo, when I first started judo, I was like 32, 33.
Speaker 2Yeah, Diaz, who was another student there at South Texas Judo. He started judo at 40.
Speaker 1At 40, right yeah, but he did karate before that. He actually did some type of karate, fun fact.
Speaker 2These people know what's older karate or judo.
Speaker 1That's where we need uh, they need to send us a message and find out.
Speaker 2Judo is older, established judo is older. I was doing a little bit of research, which is funny. I'm gonna say a quick fun fact about karate, if I can, jerry go ahead. So karate was actually influenced by chinese martial arts, um kung fu, and there was a max exodus of chinese folks that flowed to okinawa and in okinawa because of the. I think at that time japan wasn't still open to the world but there was a lot of chinese influence there.
Speaker 2Karate was known as the chinese hand, that's what they would call it right so it was actually exiled like japanese frowned upon people that learned a foreign martial art. So then a lot of jujitsu folks and a lot of other folks liked it and then trained it and then later on in the earlier 1900s I remember judo was in the 1800s they named it karate, which means empty hand Okay, which is kind of funny to see. That, like it was, means empty hand Okay, which is kind of funny, interesting.
Speaker 2Like it was named empty hand, so that's like we name it. And Karate I mean that thing means dome, which means goes back to Judo, since we're talking about philosophy and history of Judo. For those folks that don't know what Judo means, and I don't know why it means that, because as a judoka I sometimes don't think it is, but it's translated to the gentle way, right. But some of these throws aren't very gentle. None of them are gentle.
Speaker 1I don't know, I don't know what happened that they called it the gentle way, so the reason why it's called the gentle way is because you're using the energy. Think about it You're using your opponent's energy. When someone pushes, you pull. When someone pulls, you push. That's the gentleness of it, because you don't use a lot of energy.
Speaker 2Wow, a light bulb just hit my head, see Third degree brown bull, and I just realized this, you guys are helping me grow too.
Speaker 1So I mean, this is where you have to think about it right. When you're looking at whatever style of martial art you're in, think about what you're using it for. Is it applicable for your everyday use? Meaning like I don't mean you go out to work and then you don't you throw a punch your co-worker because you know I don't mean you go out to work and then you don't you throw punch your co-worker because you know he didn't give you a report or something, but definitely not the gentle way. But I mean, like, how do you develop, how do you use your martial arts through your normal everyday activity?
Speaker 2yeah, that's what's also called a gentle way, because there is striking in kata but higher up, but mostly it's not striking.
Speaker 1Mostly it's take down. Yeah, you're just taking down, you're not? Physically throwing elbows, exactly, you're not throwing punches. If you're in kata right, when you move up in rank from shodan, nidan, further up, your kata-based performance is more of a self-defense. And when someone is coming at you with an attack punching, swinging a stick kata-based performance is more of a self-defense. And when someone is coming at you with an attack punching, swinging a stick, whatever right Kicking You're doing techniques that you're not throwing punching or kicking headbutts or elbows.
Speaker 2You're countering with by grabbing and doing a sweeping or a takedown or a throw. Yes, wow, yes Wow, yeah. Well, see, we're all learning something here, listeners.
Speaker 1But 360 combat. Judo is not about the gentle way.
Speaker 2No, well, I mean, I think there is a common theme amongst all martial arts, and I don't know what encompasses a martial arts. Would you consider boxing a martial arts? Yes, yeah, I would too.
Speaker 1It's a combative art, but it's still classified under a martial arts.
Speaker 2Yeah, I would consider it martial arts too, but I think most of them have like have two main principles. It's like how to attack and how to defend, Right. That's like the outline of most martial arts. I can't think of any martial arts that doesn't well, have those two in.
Speaker 1In reality, martial arts is not really how to attack. Your martial arts is how to defend. In all styles of the whole reason of martial arts was because the basis is how do I defend myself? And back then it was more like not like clans like you would think. Oh, like a ninja clan here, a ninja clan there? No, nothing like that. Right, but it's more like family based, a family's style of martial art. That's right versus another style of another. Family is a style of the martial art and it could be something similar, but there's different ways of doing it. And so they're defending not only themselves, but they're defending their family, because they don't want to have a bad name Right, or be put down in any way. So the whole concept was family against family. That's right, right. It was more like hey, my kung fu is better than your kung fu.
Speaker 2And then you say, well, let's go to the streets and prove it and similar was like that for judo, which is like the jiu-jitsu not the brazilian jiu-jitsu that we all know now japanese jiu-jitsu, such a japanese jiu-jitsu. But they had different schools, like that, the ro you or out ru, right you, right, you Like. They all had different kinds. And actually Higuro Kano my limited research I did before the podcast is that he was learning under this really, really brilliant man I forgot his name Starts with an F and that guy ended up dying two years into his training and then gave the dojo over to him to Kano, and Kano was like what the fuck?
Speaker 2I'm still a student like I don't know this shit like so he tried to teach, but he's like hell, no, I'm still a student, I'm gonna go find another teacher. And he went to find another teacher and that's the teacher that in that type of jujitsu. Jujitsu concentrated on takedowns and locks.
Speaker 1Okay so then if you're looking at traditional Japanese Jiu Jitsu, in reality, traditional Japanese Jiu Jitsu is a form of Karate, because you're doing strikes, you're doing takedowns, you're doing arm bars, you're doing chokes and you're doing ground techniques. So when Kano learned that, that's when he developed the judo part of it. Well, I can still do the same thing, but I can throw you, I can add throws, I can add foot sweeps, I can do this, I can do that. That's what came up with the 62 throws of judo. Yeah, right, before they butchered it, before they butchered it later on.
Speaker 1So the whole 62 throws was you're able to take down your opponent go into ground techniques, immobilize them, doing your counters Because there's three types of counters, if you think about it, and it's all in all martial arts. One counter is striking, one counter is a takedown and the other counter is a submission. Submission meaning like wrist lock, arm bar, choke, takedown, any type of way you can take your opponent down and encounter by striking any type of striking technique Head, butt, punch, elbow, knee, kick, right. So in Japanese Jiu-Jitsu there was all that. But Kano didn't really focus on the striking end of it. He focused on a lot of the takedowns, the grappling, the joint manipulation, the chokes, all of that. It wasn't until when he spread it out.
Speaker 1That's when, you know, you got Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, where they focus strictly on just the ground techniques, out of judo, and then you go to sambo, which is in russia. They they did wrestling, boxing and then judo. So they incorporated all the takedowns and the ground techniques with their wrestling and boxing. But then sambo even evolved even more, because now it's like they added instead of boxing it's kickboxing. So now there's headbutts and elbow strikes and knee strikes and kicking and then punching and then grabbing and throwing them down and then sambo.
Speaker 2Right, combat sambo, yeah, but the crazy thing about combat sambo is like you don't get points for that. No, it helps you it helps, or like tap you out, but you don't score points for like punches it's like, oh, that's a rough sport.
Speaker 1But in, in reality, if you think about, if you really sit down and you look and you analyze, there's judo in almost every style of martial art. Look at muay thai. Muay thai does clenching techniques. Yeah, right, and not only they're using clenching techniques for their knee strikes, their elbow strikes, but then they rotate their hips a certain way and then you have an uchimata, yeah, or the uh oguruma, the big wheel, right. So there's those techniques that they have there. They even have osoto and mutai yeah, it's done differently.
Speaker 1Yeah right, so judo's in almost every style, including krav maga. I'm tired of everyone saying, oh, krav maga, this probably I understand it is good. It's a good israeli combat. They really focus to really train. I see it, I enjoy it, I like it. But when it comes down to teaching, when it comes down to teaching people that are in domestic violence or sexual abuse or sexual assault or raped, you don't want to teach your student by yelling at them all the time because they they break down. So it it.
Speaker 2Different styles are good for people, people that want certain things, they train in it yeah, especially like, especially going back to, as all of you listeners know, in case for any new listeners and hopefully we do have a bunch of them reminder to click that download button. It helps us continue producing these types of podcasts for you. But we, jerry and I Jerry is the founder of Healing Warrior Academy. It is a nonprofit that helps create discipline and confidence for survivors of domestic violence, survivors of human trafficking and for low-income folks that just don't have the privilege that a lot of other folks have. So it's up and going. It's hit some roadblocks, but hey, where'd you took us? You throw us down, we're going to get back up. So it's going and going. It's hit some roadblocks, but hey, where'd you took us? You throw us down, we're going to get back up. So it's going to be back up, so we're back up.
Speaker 1But I'm going to tell you something right now. Sure, where are we making a first step this weekend? Hell yeah. So this Saturday I got together with, I had a meeting with the through project. Now, what is the Thru Project? This is an organization that helps out young adults.
Speaker 1I need to stop saying kids right, they're young adults from 18 to 25. And the reason being they help out that age bracket is because those are the kids and that's where I'm going to say kids that age out of foster care. Nobody adopts them. They don't get adopted, they don't have a family, they're in the system and once they get it up to 18, most organizations hand them, like a check for $500 or $500 cash and say okay, good luck, make it on your own. Look, make it on your own. The Thru Project helps them go to college, find a job, get bus pass so they can go to their job, supply them with a cell phone, as long as they follow the rules that you know if they call them, they have to respond. They help them with furniture to furnish their apartments. They help them with groceries. So they help these young students or these young adults try to make it on their own and to achieve and to grow.
Speaker 1Well, I'm going to be working with them this Saturday on a self-defense workshop, and I called it a self-defense workshop because I want them to get interested first before saying, yes, I want to do a class. So this is where we plant that seed. Why is self-defense more so important for the through project? It's important because those young adults end up falling into some type of domestic relationship. They fall into some type of sexual abuse. They do fall into human trafficking because they don't know what to do. They didn't have a family to teach them, and so this is our first step. I made the point to where I told the organization that I don't want to get paid for this. I want them to make a donation to Healing Warrior Academy, and this is our first step.
Speaker 2And that's also encompassing to our theme of this podcast, which is the philosophy in judo and even in today's modern life. I think two things to extrapolate from what you said is modern, like I think two things to extrapolate from what you said is one is you said that you wanted them to get interested before they take a class and I think that's the maximum way to use the energy, because if they're not interested, they're not going to really come to class and sometimes they need to come to class more than once or twice to get that.
Speaker 2I know that happened to me and my little one with hockey. At first he didn't want to and now look at him in travel teams yeah um, but the same thing goes for them that's the maximum energy. And then two maximum energy again is like oh, now we're going to get these financial funds, what's the best use, what's the best maximum energy of this financial funds, and you send it to healing warrior academy, and I think those are great examples of Judo philosophy there.
Speaker 1Yeah, because I mean, I'm not here to try and make a buck off of some people. That's the last thing I want to do. What I want to do is I want to give back.
Speaker 2Not that there's anything wrong with making a buck or two. We all need to live.
Speaker 1Yeah, we all need to live, but the whole concept of this is that if I'm able to give back, let me rephrase that, let me change that If we are able to give back, okay, then more will come our way. And that's what I want. I want people to see what we're doing, how we're helping out others, and then that allows us to grow and keep giving back to the community. That's the way judo is.
Speaker 1That's the way it's supposed to be and that's the way martial arts in general is supposed to be. I was so disgusted over the weekend uh, last week I remember I sent you that text. Oh, I know the taekwondo guy here in san antonio he was an was an instructor and he ended up sexually assaulting a child, you know, touching him inappropriately, making comments, and then, because the student wasn't into it, then he started bullying the student and that's no way he was arrested. The family pressed charges, he was arrested and then now he's being sentenced. So he's, you know, he's being detained for that and that and that's what that gives martial arts a bad rep. And that's why, with Healing Warrior Academy, we're going to make it known that every instructor that comes in they get a background check, that every instructor that comes in they get a background check, they have to take classes and if anything was to go awry they're automatically terminated, plain and simple. I mean, I'm not going to have any.
Speaker 1Yeah, zero tolerance for that I'm going to have zero tolerance for that.
Speaker 2Yeah, and it's important that people come to the safe space and that they know that people go through background checks space and that they know that people go through back to background checks, because it's so sad that in this place, where you're learning how to defend and attack yourself, not only do you get beat up physically but you also get beat up mentally, because the trauma that that brings with you, um, can be very heavy. So, um, I encourage a lot of uh, I was a big machista in the terms of, like I don't need therapy, I don't need to talk to a therapist. I still think I don't need to talk to a therapist. I mean, my therapist says, like I'm pretty, like you know, level headed and level-headed, so it's good, but I do it because I want to encourage everyone else to do it, and in other countries it's normal.
Speaker 2Most people have therapists. In a lot of countries, most and I mean both women and men all have therapists. Like that's part of like their everyday life. And I think it's important because, just like we're born with these hands, just because we have hands doesn't mean I can throw a punch or know how to throw a punch. The same thing with our feelings Just because we have feelings doesn't mean I can throw a punch or know how to throw a punch. The same thing with our feelings Just because we have feelings doesn't mean that we know how to navigate through them. And having that therapy session and having people walk you through that therapy helps you understand how to navigate those feelings.
Speaker 1Well, at the same time too, if you don't feel like you want to go to therapy or don't want to go to a counselor, doing martial arts in a safe place gives you that release. You know we all need an outlet. I need my outlet. Like over the weekend I was so frustrated and fuming that, you know, today, after doing class, I felt so much better and because I was able to train, I was able to teach and I felt so good. You know what I mean. So that's my outlet, and all of us need an outlet. Rather, we think we don't need it, we need it. What is your outlet? It doesn't have to be martial arts. It could be lifting weights, it could be working out.
Speaker 2And to add to what Jerry's saying, is, like, what's a productive outlet? Because most people get addicted to like these dopamine rushes, which is, like, well, my outlet is I'm going to stare at Instagram reels for like 30 minutes, yeah, and like you make that excuse, but it's really not a healthy outlet. As a matter of fact, it's becoming an addiction to you. I was listening to a podcast last YouTube, the Diary of the CEO. Of course you guys haven't heard of it, but he is interviewing this clinical psychologist and the host asked the clinical psychologist do people get addicted to working out? To ask, the clinical psychologist was like, do people get addicted to working out?
Speaker 2And the clinical psychiatrist says, like, yes, they do, but it's very rare, because working out is hard and, like your brain doesn't like it, so, like, so I thought it was really cool to like understand that because, like, sometimes our brains don't like hard things, but doing hard things is what helps us navigate through your everyday life. Because, like we've said it before here, jerry can throw me, I can throw him, patrick can throw us, we can throw him, but ain't no one going to throw us harder than life, right? And if we don't know how to get back up. We don't know how to navigate those feelings. If we're not disciplined enough, we can stay down there. So again, I'm a big proponent of training martial arts, moving your body, doing some cumbia dance and salsa dance, whatever it is, but get active, move and encompass the philosophy.
Speaker 2And it's important if you do join any martial arts. We are so blessed with all this technology and cursed at the same time, but let's take advantage of it. If you join muay thai, learn a little bit about Muay Thai. Give the martial arts its proper respect. Learn a little bit about judo, like fact check um. So yeah, that's kind of like my go-to things. I know we're running close to an hour so I kind of want to end our podcast by asking Jerry, and maybe next podcast, jerry can ask me a question. Okay, hold on. Before you ask that question, I'm gonna pause because Jerry has something to say.
Speaker 1I can see it in his eyes before you ask that question, I do want to say this I have a uh, a little student. She's like nine, I want to say maybe nine, ten years old. Her name's little adrian. I just want to give her a special shout out and a good luck Shout out. This weekend, this coming weekend, she's going to be competing in state for wrestling, and so she, her and I, did a workout. Her dad was there as well and we were doing some drills. I was incorporating some judo into her wrestling, some drills. I was incorporating some judo into her wrestling and she, you know afterwards, I mean, my legs were on fire because she's tiny, so I'm having to shoot down, right.
Speaker 1And so then we ended up doing some stick fighting. I started introducing her into some some Kali and Eskrima and using the footwork, and then I introduced the footwork, and then I introduced the footwork and collie how it's similar to judo, and she was able to pick it up really well. So I just want to give her a special shout out hey, good luck on the tournament this coming weekend. I wish you the best and I keep your head up, breathe and I know you will do well. You, you got this.
Boxing vs. Karate Footwork and Training
Speaker 2Also hopefully it's this weekend by the next podcast you can give us the results of what happened. Yeah, I will, maybe she can give our listeners some word of advice, since she's out there wrestling being a little female judoka. Yeah, hopefully. Let's see how that goes. Here's my fun question. Tell me your question, all right, and then you can ask me another fun question. Next podcast what do you think a better combination is karate and judo, or judo or boxing? Oh, that's a good one what do you think a better combination?
Speaker 1so a combination would be a like you, learn both martial arts right, but judo isn't one of them, it's either than both of them. Right, it's either boxing and judo or karate and judo. Right, you can only learn two. Okay, I would say karate and judo. Okay, the footwork in karate and in judo there's similarities. For instance, in a boxing stance, you're standing somewhat in your let's just say your. Your right foot is back, your left foot is forward. You're almost in a square shape position, almost in a square stance, and then you got your left. Your left foot is forward. You're almost in a square shape position, almost in a square stance, and then you got your left, your left arm out, your right arm back, and then you're throwing your jabs, but you're staying there and you looks like rock them, suck them, but robots, nobody's moving out of the way, unless you get like a Mayweather, which is just dodging and weaving, but his footwork is still the same square stance, dodging and weaving, but his footwork is still the same Square stance, right, slightly, with his right foot a little bit back.
Speaker 1Now, in karate, they teach you how to be not only training to punch with your dominant side, but also teaching you how to change your position to punch on your non-dominant side. Now, that being said that when you're doing certain techniques I'm going to go through this as an example. Let's just say a step side kick. A step side kick is when you're standing in a position, my back leg, which would be my left leg, is stepping behind my right leg. Having my heel point to my target, my right leg is going to come up in chamber, extend kicking with the blade of the foot, bringing it back standing down. That's my step side kick.
Speaker 1Now, where's the similarity that in judo? In judo, if you were to grab your opponent and you cinch in and you're stepping with your right foot, your right foot is in between their legs. Your back foot, meaning your left leg, steps like a Kazushi, off balance. Then you can go with a. You can hit anything. You can hit with an Ouchi, tayotoshi, a Tayotoshi. You can hit with a Uchimata. You can hit with a Hani Ogoshi, you can hit with an Ogoshi. That same footwork is similar to karate and there's a lot of karate movements that I used to do. That, when it comes down to, when I started training again with Patrick, that I was all like, ah, that makes sense, it makes a lot more sense. And if I do it this way, or even when I was doing the Kali system right and the pyramid footwork, or the diamond footwork, or what they call the W footwork.
Speaker 1Me using the footwork there also resembles some of the judo takedowns, some of the entries that you would use for off balance. You don't have that in boxing. In boxing, you're just standing there. There's no footwork that would help you in your judo. Now don't get me wrong. You're a good boxer. You throw those hands. You're gonna get clocked. If someone tries to grab me like if I try grabbing a boxer and I don't, he has nothing for me to grab or I miss a grab, he can easily punch me straight and knock me out. Right, although, glenn, what's his name? Um, ah, the hell is his name. I can Google it. What does he look like? He was. He's an older gentleman now. His name is.
Speaker 2Was he a boxer.
Speaker 1No, he was a judoka, famous Starts with a G. It's like right there, glenn, or Glenn LaBelle, glenn LaBelle, there you go. He fought a boxer, he fought a boxer and they wanted to prove what's better, judo or boxing. Now, granted, the boxer was able to strike him at all. He was able to do it. Glenn was able to. He could punch back if he wanted, but he chose, chose not to, and he was able to throw the boxer down, and then he was able to put him in a submission, and then that was. The match was over, right? So it goes back to how do you, how can you, blend those arts together? And it's hard for a boxer to blend the footwork in for judo, yep.
Speaker 2Okay, I thought you were going to say because of the kicks.
Speaker 1No, no, it's the footwork. In reality, your main thing in every martial art is footwork. You have to have footwork. Where do you place your foot? Where do you go for that entry? Where are you going? Think about, and let's go with the simplest takedown Osoto gari, big outside, reap. What's your footwork have to be? You have to step here on the side of me, right, not in front, right. You have to get actually right on the side of me. You have to hit me with that shoulder to make me lean back, and then your other leg is ripping, reaping my leg, sweeping my leg. So you're doing a big technique, you're doing a big entry.
Speaker 2Which is similar to a lot of karate, where you zigzag in.
Speaker 1Zigzag or you could do, into a forward stance. You're doing that, stepping forward into that forward stance. There's a similarity there, right? You're doing that, stepping forward into that forward stance. There's a similarity there, right.
Speaker 2There's all this footwork that plays a big staple. What about the training and condition between boxing and karate? You don't think that plays an aspect in your decision? Yes, I do, because I'm feeling and I could be naive. I haven't really dabbled myself with karate, but I'm assuming that boxers have better cardio than karate folks.
Martial Arts Footwork and Techniques
Speaker 1Depends on what career school you go to. There's some guys in Japan that, like you know, they train outside in their gi in the snow, wearing shoes and standing underneath waterfalls. And you know I mean, look at our conditioning in judo class. You know it's a little bit more intense than jujitsu class, but then again, who's the instructor? You know what I mean. It all depends. It all depends on what you want.
Speaker 2But in my, in my opinion, when not that I'm advocating for judo and I just I was just genuinely curious. Like while I was doing some research, I thought about it, I was like, oh, and by the way, listeners, we don't like, we don't dry run these podcasts, no, we literally get a topic and we just talk with you all, that's it, that's it so like jerry had no idea this question was coming.
Speaker 2No, it's just off the cuff, like what pops in our head, just like in martial arts, like we know stuff and based on what we throw and based on what we do is based on our attack or our defense tactics.
Speaker 1Well, what would you say? How would you answer this question then? I mean, you actually had time to do that.
Speaker 2Is that your question?
Speaker 1No, it's my question right now, today. I'll give you a question tomorrow.
Speaker 2Or next time we do it. I don't know. It's a hard one for me to ask, but if I had to pick, I would pick Hold on.
Speaker 1Why is that hard for you to answer? But yet you wanted to ask me that question.
Speaker 2Because that was your question, it's not my question I would say boxing. I would go the opposite, really, I would say it. I would go the opposite, really, mm-hmm. I would say, just because I've always wanted to learn boxing, and I think we're going to disagree on this. I think if you put a boxer in a judoka versus 10 boxers that really know boxing, really know judo, against 10 karate folks and 10 judoka folks that know judo, karate and judo, I think boxing and judo against 10 karate folks and 10 judoka folks uh, that know judo and karate and judo, I think boxing and judo would win, because I feel that the karate, the in and out style of karate, is really good and I liked your angle of footwork because I didn't think about that, so that might change the way I think. But for boxing and judo, like we don't, we're okay with closed spaces okay.
Speaker 1So there's a little. There's a little thing that I heard a long time, but when I was in my journey, right, and it was a, it was more like how do you beat a guy who's good with their hands, meaning like a boxer, right? How do you beat a guy that's good at boxing, be really good with your feet? Exactly how do you beat a guy who's really good with their feet, really good with your hands? Exactly because you jam up the kicks right Now. This is where you start incorporating other stuff. So how do you beat a guy who's good with both hands and feet? Well, I would say, in this time, you take him down to the ground. Oh, that's true. Yeah, yeah, yeah, take him down to the ground.
Speaker 1Yeah, how do you beat a guy who's good at going to the ground? Take him back up, keep him standing up, the whole push-pull method, bro. This is where you start thinking about it. If a karate player is good with his hands and his feet and then you incorporate a clenching, a grappling art, a boxer is good with his hands and then he's incorporating with a grappling art. Yeah, it could work, but a karate guy could also use his feet and his knees.
Speaker 2And where a boxer doesn't think about that, but that's why I give the advantage of the boxer, because it's maximum use of energy. Like karate's have so much to think about that. They don't become experts on one thing and a judo and a boxing becomes an expert at fucking throwing punches and taking you down. So they're not worried about getting kneed or kicked because even if they close range, you ain't gonna generate that much power to throw an effective kick or an effective knee. Um, because this is just my train of thought, because I've focused all my energy to be a really, really good boxer, I didn't divide my energy and like boxing, kicking knee in and out, like, so like for me, I could be wrong.
Speaker 2I'm by no means an expert on martial arts and one martial arts combination can be, but that's kind of my. I don't think you can go wrong with either. So if you guys are planning to join karate, join it. If you guys are planning to join boxing, join it. Like we, jerry and I can both agree that you should probably join judo, because judo is basically on both of them. You should probably join judo.
Speaker 2Because judo is basically on both of them.
Speaker 1You know what I was doing, some thinking about this a couple weeks ago because, doing the whole combat judo, the extra class that we're adding in, right, I was trying to think how can I make this work to incorporate blocking techniques, striking techniques, leg techniques?
Speaker 1And that's when I started thinking about okay, how was it when I was training, how was it when I was doing a stand-up striking art, meaning the Jukido system and the Kenpo and the Kali and the Wing Chun, when I was doing all those stand-up striking arts, what was similar and the one thing that came into my mind was the footwork. So if you're able to start off a student who doesn't know anything and you say let's work on your footwork, it's like dancing. You work dancing by the feet in footwork, right? How do you do the box trot? How do you do the tango? How do you do the salsa, the merengue, the pachata, everything right. Country dancing, the country slide, the country waltz, there's all these dances right, and at the same time it's all footwork and it's different types of footwork, which is a similarity in all martial arts Footwork.
Speaker 2Yep.
Combining Martial Arts Styles
Speaker 1Well, there you have it all right, guys, hey, we're gonna call it. Um, alejandro is gonna be out of town next week. We may end up doing a facetime or zoom uh recording, unless he comes back early. Guys, please don't forget to download. Hit that download button so we can get a proper count. I hope you really enjoy this podcast. Also, don't forget to text the host. Tell us your opinion. What do you think will go? Good, let's just pick two styles of a combative art. I'm going to say it like that combative art, because it could be any type of martial art, any type of combative art, whatever it is. If you were to pick two of them and combine them, what would they be? All right, anything to say before I close it.
Speaker 2No, that's it. Go beyond gold your gentle ways.
Speaker 1All right, guys, be safe, be blessed and watch your 360. We're out, thank you.
