Lex Fridman does judo with Travis Stevens, Olympic Silver Medalist
00:00:00.000 | That was intense.
00:00:09.860 | This video is a Judo training session with Travis Stevens from a while back.
00:00:15.080 | He's a 2016 Olympic silver medalist in Judo and one of the greatest American Jidoka ever.
00:00:22.320 | I've trained Judo and Jiu-Jitsu for many years and took some time off on the Judo side, focusing
00:00:28.000 | more on submission grappling than throwing.
00:00:31.080 | But I'm hoping to get back into it with Jimmy Pedro, the legendary Judo coach out in Boston.
00:00:37.640 | I love Judo too much.
00:00:39.240 | I miss it.
00:00:40.480 | Big thank you to Craig Jones and the B Team for letting us use their gym for this Judo
00:00:44.280 | session and I should also say that Austin in general is amazing for martial arts.
00:00:49.480 | We've got 10th Planet with Gabe Tuttle, New Wave with John Donahart, Gordon Ryan, Nicholas
00:00:56.200 | Maragalli and others, B Team with Craig Jones, Nicky Rod, Nicky Ryan and others, and many
00:01:02.920 | more.
00:01:03.920 | I highly recommend you check out these places and who knows, maybe you'll see me there and
00:01:09.320 | we'll get a chance to train.
00:01:11.600 | And now, dear friends, here's the 2016 Olympic silver medalist in Judo, Travis Stevens.
00:01:18.440 | I've been a fan of yours for a long time.
00:01:21.160 | Thank you for talking a little Judo with me today, man.
00:01:23.800 | Spread the knowledge.
00:01:24.800 | Here we go.
00:01:25.800 | I'm going to make you go up and then I'm going to go under and then put you on your back
00:01:31.160 | right where you're standing.
00:01:32.160 | That's the idea.
00:01:33.160 | But I actually don't have to do much lifting, so when I come down and I split, I hold tight,
00:01:40.480 | I get a strong pull, and when I back up, now you're right where you were standing.
00:01:45.400 | The fundamental movement here is the splitting either the hips or you're doing like some
00:01:50.560 | leg to the outside.
00:01:51.560 | You always just got really good at doing this step and generating power from it where when
00:01:57.920 | I kick, I press it hard enough where I'm not overextending this leg and this moves.
00:02:05.300 | What a lot of people try to do is they go here and they overcommit and obviously can't
00:02:10.760 | take that step.
00:02:12.080 | I try to hike and let that slide into place naturally.
00:02:17.320 | It's important that the angle is here instead of straight on unless you're going to get
00:02:23.320 | me to turn and give you that angle.
00:02:27.360 | It's very difficult for you if you take a grip here on the side and then you were to
00:02:31.400 | try to come in and split my legs right there.
00:02:34.080 | You see how I can start to slide and there's a gap on this side.
00:02:38.480 | A lot of times when I do this, people slip off to this side and you end up missing it.
00:02:43.040 | If I change your angle to here, now come in.
00:02:48.040 | See how you got my hip and so you're not worried about coming around because the second I try
00:02:52.400 | to lift and jump over, that leg will be sliding back and that's going to if I try to step
00:02:57.160 | over, my weight's going up.
00:02:58.960 | When you back up, you're going to amplify that.
00:03:03.920 | This is a dream come true by the way.
00:03:06.100 | You're known for this interesting variation, which is the Seinagi throw where you grab
00:03:10.040 | the lapel.
00:03:11.040 | Can you explain how that works?
00:03:12.720 | In a basic sense, you're going to take a grip here.
00:03:15.340 | Don't get pushed, like resist there and then this happens.
00:03:19.040 | I get that back and forth push so that it's effortless on my front leg so that there.
00:03:24.080 | See how you can actually get pulled through when I slip the pressure.
00:03:28.140 | That's the basics of it.
00:03:29.640 | Now I have to get you to a point where you can't sprawl and lower your center of gravity.
00:03:35.520 | What I do for that is when I lower that weight and I lift that weight, I hold it.
00:03:42.120 | That way when you pop up on your toes, the hand at the top of the arc holds you while
00:03:47.480 | I slip underneath and then I can catch you on my hips.
00:03:51.200 | So I've got to get there before you get lower than I do.
00:03:54.120 | And then you're doing this big.
00:03:55.520 | Yes, so typically if I find my point at the center, my foot starts there and then I replace
00:04:02.160 | and I slip and then we come back up.
00:04:05.760 | If you're gripping and I'm holding your hand, which sometimes I do, if I press you at some
00:04:11.280 | point, see how I'm getting you to stand up?
00:04:16.160 | That leg is light.
00:04:17.160 | Now I can come back through.
00:04:20.160 | Yes, but I press them until they press back hard enough where we go from this angle to
00:04:26.280 | up and then I can slide on the legs.
00:04:29.520 | And let's say like, right, I can't attack because this leg is in front.
00:04:32.880 | I also, if you have a good stable position, I can't necessarily move that foot, but you're
00:04:38.640 | off balance point is here at the front and there at the rear.
00:04:42.040 | So if I take my pinky and I hit that point, you're going to turn and face me.
00:04:47.840 | Thank you.
00:04:48.840 | Now it's not in front anymore.
00:04:50.080 | So I didn't, I never had to move it.
00:04:52.200 | So when you're in this position, go ahead and move off of that and then knock me to
00:04:56.080 | that front position, wait, the second you see me starting to rotate, add to that.
00:05:02.720 | Yeah.
00:05:03.720 | Yeah.
00:05:04.720 | There we go.
00:05:05.720 | There you go.
00:05:06.720 | And then I don't feel the weight.
00:05:07.720 | Thank you, brother.
00:05:31.120 | [BLANK_AUDIO]