Kind: captions
Language: en
let's throw a curveball at you first
let's try a quick hypothetical question
uh if I told you right now that I have
with me I brought um I told you I'm
Russian I brought with me back in the
car two guys uh they're waiting outside
both are 73 kg players they happen to be
in the top 10 of the world uh one is
Russian the other is Japanese and I'll
give you $1 million if you beat one of
them in Judo um in a judo match which
one do you
fight oh tough
question a Russian or Japanese which one
would you
face I think I'd take my shot against
the Russian oh
wow and the reason is they're so much
more technical um you the Russians
obviously have great Judo explosive
power um don't get me wrong I mean it's
a tough decision either way but when I
look back at my statistics and in which
which style of player I beat more often
I had more success against Russians than
I did did against Japanese all right
that's the voice of Jimmy Pedro I'm here
at the Pedro jeto Center uh talking with
Jimmy a legendary Judo competitor and
Coach he represented the United States
at four Olympics 92 96 2000 2004 winning
bronze at two of them he medaled in
three World Championships winning gold
in 99 he has coached
many most elite level American jidoka
including Kayla Harrison uh Ronda Ronda
Rousey Travis Stevens Rick H Alex aano
taji Williams Rody Ferguson the Rody
Ferguson uh they work together as many
people know and many others uh four of
those people have been on this podcast
so
um nice uh
your first Judo coach was your dad still
your Judo coach always will be always
will be can you talk about your
relationship with your dad when you
first started Judo did he put a lot of
pressure on you to win
so my dad for those of you that have
ever had the privilege of meeting him
he's uh
Unforgettable uh when I was a kid Judo
was was um mandatory there was no such
thing as I don't want to go to Judo
today it was you're going to Judo
tonight uh and it was every night you
know we only had practice when I was a
little boy three days a week but I was
at the D JoJo five six days a week
running around the mats and watching
classes and things like that but my dad
was very hard on me as a youngster uh
pushed me to compete push me to train he
gave me exercise routines to do when I
wasn't doing Judo I had to do
conditioning off the mat you know that
he'd run me through circuit training and
stuff like that so yeah my dad was a
very demanding father but his um his
mentality was that uh he knew Judo would
be good for me not just to become a
great athlete but for the life lessons
that I would learn through the sport of
Judo and what it would do to to help me
become a better better person person
yeah build character yeah you know many
many parents want their kids to eat
vegetables because it's good for them
and eat healthy because it's what they
want my father wanted me to do Judo
because of what it could do for me and
so I mean that is a story of a lot of
great in sport in wrestling and in Judo
so the question for me is you're a
father now you're a coach
now do you do you and did your death
struggle with that balance between you
know letting your kid do whatever they
want and
dragging them Kicking and Screaming the
training well I'm a different I'm a
different father than my dad was but I
also have my kids have to live in
different shoes than I had to live in so
my father wasn't an Olympic champion he
wasn't a you know a national hero and
and I he he fell short of making the
Olympics himself so I was I was almost
doing it with him and and for him
whereas my kids feel like they're doing
it for me you know where they they every
tournament they go do they have a ton of
pressure cuz the whole world is watching
them because they're Jimmy Pedro's son
and you know there's a lot of parents
that are that can be obnoxious and when
their kid beats my kid it's it's the
biggest deal in the world so my kids
have to deal with all that pressure that
no kid should have to deal with um so
I'm a different father I I give my
children the choice of what sports to
play of course as a as young individuals
they all did Judo um they all competed
up until they were teenagers but at that
point I let them decide what sports they
want to play play what they want to do
right now I have a son who's ranked
number one in the nation in the sport of
wrestling uh as a sophomore in high
school you know he's chose wrestling as
a sport um I have a daughter that went
on to play hockey and softball and now
she's a freshman in college at Bentley
University but I think that the the Judo
training that they they did get when
they were young helped mold them as
individuals and as good people and so I
I wanted them to do it for that same
reason so you think it's possible uh
well certainly it's possible but uh do
you think that that's the path to
success is it doesn't have to
require uh excessive pressure from the
coaches and the parenting in the early
years everybody's different I think
everybody is different in response to
that pressure differently um you know
had I been given a choice I could tell
you right now I probably wouldn't never
have made any Olympic teams or I I
wouldn't have excelled in the sport of
je at all because it's not something I
would have pursued my dad didn't give me
the choice and it wasn't until I was
about 15 years old where I started to
become a man and I started to really
want to do the sport of jle for myself
up until that point I was too immature
and and didn't understand the dynamic of
what was going on and you know I felt
all that pressure from my father and I
despised going to training sometimes or
you know it was difficult but as 15 16
old hey I'm pretty damn good at this
thing and I like winning you know and I
like being around other athletes and I
get to see the at that you know what 15
16 you start to travel you start to go
away from home you're going to camps at
in Oklahoma or Florida or you're going
on trips overseas and starts to become
fun as a teenager right you get to see
the world so that's when I started doing
it for me and that's when it really
became enjoyable and so in those years
late teens uh how did your relationship
evolve uh with your dad then it really
became I was motivated you know I was
always a self-motivated kid anyway but
um really when I was 15 or 16 I turned
the corner and and I
decided that I was uh given 100% all the
time and and my dad truly became um not
just a father but a a I saw him as a
great coach somebody that that had a
wealth of knowledge that knew how to
train athletes that knew how to get the
most out of his athletes and that that
actually exposed me to the world I think
the biggest credit I can give to my
father as a coach is that he sent me
away to learn from other people the
biggest mistake most coaches make is
that they keep their students to
themselves and they hold them back from
reaching their potential because they're
afraid that that student's going to go
on and learn something special from
somebody else and no longer give their
their original Coach credit and
especially as a father it must be a
scary thing to uh sort of give up your
son to somebody else right but my my dad
had said he said Son techn technically
I've taken you as far as I can take you
and and I since I never made the Olympic
team I want to surround you with
greatness I want you to go see that
these other athletes are just people too
and that they're not these these Heroes
that you put on big pedestals but
they're everyday ordinary people that
make mistakes that fall down that get
back up and I want you to be around them
because Champions you be around
Champions to be a Champions see how they
act see how they behave see how they
think and also learn from them and my
dad sent me to all the best coaches in
America at the time which were Irwin
Cohen who who recently passed away and
Patrick burus who was on two Olympic
teams and uh I went to Neil in England
and I learned from Neil and I sent me to
Japan and sent me to Germany and G nor
Rider and I learned from some good
coaches in Japan and I picked up
something everywhere I went my dad said
hey if I'm going to send you away don't
just train I want you to learn I want
you to bring back a new technique from
Everywhere You Go and show me what it is
and I can tell you that as I gathered
all that all those new techniques and
all that new knowledge to this day I can
tell you who I learned all of the
different techniques that I did my
career from which is amazing you know
yeah so that's the biggest mistake I
think that most most coaches make is
they don't allow their their students to
flourish and to to be exposed to the
rest of the world right um and I give my
dad a lot of credit for having the
foresight to do that for me uh is now on
a slightly darker side was there as a
competitor was there ever a time you
considered quitting jto absolutely every
Champion wants to quit I can tell you
numerous times um when I was only um 16
years old I went to the US Open in Judo
it's at the time it was one of the
hardest tournaments on in the world
because the whole world loved coming to
America to compete so we had Japanese
and we had Russians and we had French
and we had Brazilians and and as a young
boy it was a super hard tournament to
compete and I competed against all the
men MH and at that tournament um I had a
great day I lost to the the Eddie litty
who took third in the Olympics in ' 84
and then I battled back and I was
fighting for a bronze medal against a
guy from Korea and I scored in the first
like 30 seconds I threw the Korean guy
and he was a man he was 24 years old
strong as heck and physical and
Technical and I was just this little
scrappy wiry 16-year-old right but I
threw him I scored right away and then
he just grabbed me and manh heled me
across the match it started shaking my
ghee and snapping my ghee and I ended up
getting three penalties and losing the
fight my father
went nutso on me he yelled and he
screamed at me so he embarrassed me in
front of everybody was your mistake in
that match that I was according to my
father I I fought afraid I was I was
scared to lose but physically I couldn't
match this guy he was so anyway long
story short I went out in the snow took
my gear off laid down in Colorado
Springs in the snow and just cried just
fought my heart out fought like eight
fights you know I lost for a bronze
medal 16 years old in one of the
toughest tournaments and I felt like a
failure my dad and I felt like my dad
hated me yeah you know and he
embarrassed me in front of everybody so
I I wanted to quit yeah I had another
time I was in Japan and I had spent six
weeks training in Japan and I went to
the cono Cup and the cono cup is one of
the best tournaments in the world and at
that tournament my I I sucked a lot of
weight after being in Japan for six
month six weeks I sucked a ton of weight
and I was all excited to fight well my
first round was against Sergey cosos
minion
M cos minion was a Russian MH first
match of the tournament Co minion threw
me free Pawn I had no idea who he was I
was all pissed off and
upset K minion then threw Nakamura free
pwn yeah and then so my and K minion
went on and he won the tournament he
took first right my second round was
against Nakamura he beat me by a pawn so
I went 0 and2 in the C cup after being
in Japan for six weeks dieting and
losing a lot of weight made all this
sacrifice and remember sitting on on the
steps at the
budokon you know at 19 years old
thinking of myself I hate this sport I
just want to quit you know this stinks
so how do you find the will where do you
find how do you
continue every Champion wants to quit I
love that uh that's brilliant yeah that
you know loss is part of that the
hardest thing I think the thing that
most people don't realize is that they
only see Champions as winners they only
see the times when they succeed they
don't see those dark days they don't see
those days where they struggled or they
lost or they failed or the or or the day
in training where they got their butts
whooped yeah right uh or those
tournaments where they just fought
miserable nobody ever hears about those
days but we all go through it because
nobody goes undefeated in their career
it doesn't happen so really what makes
Champions is how do you want to go out
you know do you want that to be your
last competition do you want to go out
as a loser as a quitter right or you're
going to suck it up learn from the loss
dig deeper get better remotivate
yourself and and and become a champion
and that I think that was my mindset my
whole career I wanted to be on the top
of the world I wanted to be top of the
podium worlds or Olympics that was my
goal and quite honestly um that same guy
Co minion you know he beat me in the 91
Worlds the next year and then in finally
in ' 92 I I I got him in the finals of
the the Italian tournament the guido
sien I beat him in that in that
tournament so you know perseverance and
and tenacity and sometimes it pays off
is there something uh you regret about
your early Judo years in terms of
training something you wish you would
have done
differently I think early days no
because you know I played a lot of
sports as a kid my dad allowed me I
played you know football papana football
I played baseball as a young kid I
wrestled in high school um I did Judo so
I had a I had a good balance to my
adolescent years and my my childhood
where I got to play a lot of sports and
and learn a lot of things about teamwork
and and really found out that the best
thing about Judo and wrestling and
individual sports is that you ultimately
decide how good you're going to be you
don't have to rely on the rest of your
team or you don't have to worry about
having a crappy coach or you know being
in a bad situation you get out of it
what you put into it so I don't think I
regret anything as a youngster other
than I wish I I I could have enjoyed it
more as a child you know I I had I went
undefeated in Judo until I was 11 years
old I fought when I was six so I fought
6 7 8 9 10 11 I didn't lose a match
until I was 11 years old and that was
the finals of the national championships
so think about the pressure of going
undefeated for all those years you're
scared of losing right basically right
and having your father always bump you
up to the next weight class or fight the
harder person or the next age category
you're always challenging yourself so to
have all that pressure and push the
envelope and the threshold I I had
anxiety about every tournament I went
into up until I was till I finally lost
right you uh you talk often you yourself
are a graduate of brown mhm uh you talk
often about the value of
education so do you think there's
room for um life outside of Judo for
somebody who wants to make the podium at
the Olympics absolutely with
unquestionably I believe that athletes
who live live a balanced life who don't
put all of their energy into just sport
end up becoming better athletes because
it when you fail in sport you feel like
a complete failure if that's all you do
right but if you have something else
that you're pursuing parallel to the
sport whether it's an education or
whether it's a career or whether it's
family if you have something else in
your life that you can put your energy
to that makes you feel good about
yourself then they kind of balance each
other out right so if I fail in sport
but I get an A on this exam I still feel
good about myself huh or if I do lousy
in school but I just won this tournament
I feel good about myself because I found
some reward in something I did whereas
if all you do is Sport and you fail yeah
then you have nothing else you feel like
I sacrificed everything I gave my
everything for this moment and it didn't
happen so I think the lows end up being
lower right and that's why I I encourage
my athletes to you know to either train
you know teach other students get
involved in some other way like they can
they can take pride in their in their
students winning tournaments right you
know in that's a parallel path or like I
said education or work or something else
to provide some sort of enjoyment so
that's not you don't think that's a
negative distraction to that One
Singular Focus towards the I think
there's certain times where you know
obviously six months before the Olympic
Games it's time to focus and put all
your energy into sport okay so I took
when I was at Brown I took a break from
Brown and I focused just on training in
Judo and the Olympics right you know but
I had never really put my life on hold
for sport I had kids you know before I
won the 99 worlds I mean I had two kids
already and one on the way you know so I
was a father and and you know coming
home from a long training trip or
competition run in overseas and coming
home and seeing your two and three
year-olds run up to you and you Daddy
and you forget about you forget about
that guy that just whooped your butt in
Russia or wherever it was right yeah you
know it brings New Perspective to life
yeah uh so you meddled in ' 91 at the
world mhm and in 2004 at the Olympics
and many times in between so that's
that's at least 13 years of being one of
the best Judo competitors in the world
so what what would you what would you
attribute that longevity
to for so long being at the top well
like I said I I wanted to be the best in
the world so my motivation was to to be
world or Olympic champion there was an
injury in there too there's a bad injury
in there yes um well that also plays
into every you know everything happens
for a reason and everything plays into
what you ultimately become um my injury
was pretty devastating can you describe
that by the way for people that don't
know I actually was in a tournament in
the finals of a a Korea and I got picked
up and thrown on my head in that
tournament and really instead of taking
the fall and just losing stuck my head
out and I came right down on the top of
my head and then my feet went over and I
did a bridge I didn't think anything of
it I got up and I finished the fight and
I lost but then going home on the
airplane I noticed that my it got harder
and harder to lift my chin up off of my
chest by the time I landed in Boston the
neck and the disc had swollen so much
that it was hitting the spinal cord and
so my my chin got pinned to my chest and
then I just had radiating shooting pain
down my arm into my hand and it was numb
and it was like that for quite a while
so obviously I went to the doctor's
first
MRI doctor said you will never he said
Jimmy I'm sorry but you will never do
Sports again in your life he said I I
hope that someday I can get you to
become just a normal functioning human
being again W and I remember going the
and I cried I remember being in the
elevator at 23 years old thinking that
the my entire career is over and at the
same time I couldn't sleep because I
couldn't laid down in a bed my my chin
had to stay here and my arm had to stay
here or else the pain was excruciating
if I lifted my head in any way I just
couldn't move well that whole arm and
that chest muscle and tricep shrunk to
zero all the nerve damage was happened
on the right side so I slept many of
nights just sitting in a traction unit
with a a weight over the door in my dorm
room and I would just sit there with my
head trying to pull up and I would try
to sleep because it was the only time I
could ever get comfortable um but it was
miserable and I had about 6 months of
living like that for how long did you
believe this is it that you're not doing
Judo ever again the entire time I was
injured in the pain the pain wouldn't go
away in the arm it was just like a a
dull throbbing pain shooting down the
arm and you had no feeling in your hand
or your your so I knew it was serious
and I I tell you I sometimes the only
thing I could do was I would drink like
eight or 10 be years to pass out I
couldn't I I couldn't stand the pain I
couldn't move you know I didn't sleep in
a bed for that whole time you know and
then even when it started when it I got
lucky I just kept taking
anti-inflammatories I kept doing the the
um traction and I think I just got lucky
over time the nerve regenerated itself
the disc started to go back in I never
had surgery and um I started getting a
little bit of range of motion back and
then I was so excited I went back to the
doctor and I said doc I know you said
I'm never going to do Judo again but
like I can move my head now and the guy
was like you've made a lot of progress
and you know he he said okay now still I
don't want you to run you can't do Judo
no wrestling he said but I want you to
go back in the weight room yeah and I
want you to start retraining that muscle
and that those muscles to move again and
I remember the first day on the Nautilus
machine no weight there was no weight on
the thing I pulled the pin out and my
arm was just like this and I would just
straighten it and then I would pull it
back and I would straighten it and I
would just keep trying to train my
muscles to move yeah first time on the
bench press just the bar I didn't
remember all these girls in the weight
room at Brown and they're all pushing
weight and I remember taking the bar off
and and I trying to get that off and I
just yeah it just shook and it just and
it took a lot of rehab to get that and
then finally
over time I got stronger and stronger
and he said you know started to train
neck muscles and traps and it came back
and it took about nine months to be back
strong enough where I could get back on
the mat and start doing what you Callies
and start to train again it's incredible
and then almost 10 years after that went
a um right a bronze at the the
Olympics so
uh how is the Jimmy pagro of 1991
different from the one of 2004 so at the
beginning of the dominance to the end of
the the I would say that the young Jimmy
Pedro was
Fearless um was
raw
talented just gritty and you got after
it just uh just tough just went after it
um
fast yeah not so not so explosive though
cuz I cut a lot of weight when I was
younger so I wasn't so explosive in '
991 and my my best years in the sport of
Judo were were between um 95 and 99 was
when I was explosive
technical super you know really strong
on the mat um physically real explosive
uh my jeto was real technical those were
my best years in the sport 95 to 99 in
fact
95 I look back and I I should have been
in the finals of the worlds that year I
could have been world champion in '95
I lost to a Korean in the semi-finals by
a split decision and Judah it was a
split flag decision that I thought I won
and I think the Korean thought I won um
in that year the Japanese who won the
who won the worlds three months later I
beat him pretty easily in in uh in
Germany so thought I should have been
world champion 95 and then two weeks
before the 97 World
Championships um which I was
undefeated like the whole year winning
everything two weeks before I was
supposed to go to World Championships I
went to a training camp that the coach
talked me into going to and two of the
heavyweights one guy got thrown into my
leg and he took my M my MCL I had a
second degree sprain of my MCL he just
fell into it but it swelled up and it
was only two weeks before I had to step
on the mat at the worlds and that MCL
could healing time so I didn't I didn't
actually fight in the 97 world
championships as a result of that so but
99 I was 98 99 I I don't think I lost
maybe two three times in that whole run
you know and really it was because I
competed so many tournaments right in a
row one week after another week after
another week your body gets broken down
but but then 2004 you know I was I
retired after 2000 only because I told
my family that this is the end of my run
I'm supposed to win the Olympics this
will be my last Olympics it's time to
start life my wife has sacrificed 12
years waiting for me to come home and
when I didn't win in Sydney uh I started
life I started working
[Music]
and I just didn't want to go out as a
loser as somebody who didn't didn't
medal in the Olympics and I just
couldn't accept it so I was inspired at
the 2002 Olympic Games and I was really
inspired by that and I said Marie I want
to do this one more time so she said of
course I knew this was coming and by all
means let's do it and that was the most
enjoyable two years of my life from 2002
to
2004 I was in the finals of every single
tournament yeah every tournament I made
the finals all the way through no matter
what tournament it was and I just
enjoyed the life of an athlete again and
and you can be selfish you can focus on
your focus on yourself you can train you
feel great you never get that same
feeling out of anything else in life as
being a winner or a champion or having
the crowd Roar and you don't get that
from anything else I'm in business and I
can do some big deals but it's still not
that same feeling yeah it's all on you
all it's it's all eyes are on you it's
all up to you right it's awesome and so
I enjoyed that and so as 2004 athlete I
was I was physically strong I had the
great cardio I had great cardio I knew I
was efficient with my muscles I knew how
to you know spend energy I wasn't as
good of a judo player in 2004 as I was
in 95 to 99 but good enough to
win do do you think uh to be poetic for
a moment do you think like you said with
age um athletes lose the uh the
fearlessness of Youth that how essential
is that that stupid um being brave and
and stupid in your singular focus on
this um just drive absolutely you know
it it I think it's a good balance it
depends on how the athlete deals with
the pressure you know going into the 19
going into the 2000 Olympics I was 99
world champion so all eyes were on me to
win the gold right all the newspapers
all the magazines everybody was talking
about America's first ever gold so I had
all that pressure on
me and it wasn't that the pressure got
to me it's just that first round I had
the Korean guy was top five guy in the
world and he was always a tough match
for me so I just didn't wasn't meant to
be um but going into 2004 I was old I
had experience but I wanted it I was
hungry again I wasn't afraid I didn't
have pressure I couldn't wait to compete
in 2004 you know so I was
older but I had that hunger and what
happened was ironic with Kayla Harrison
you know when she was world champion
2010 she tried to repeat in
2011 well all you could see it in her
training you could see it in her
competition the pressure of trying to
repeat as world champion was so great
she kind of cracked on you know she
cracked on the pressure she felt it
similar to what I did in in Sydney you
feel the pressure you don't you're not
sure if you're doing enough you're not
sure if you're ready and probably the
best thing that ever could have happened
to her in 2011 was to lose and finish
third yes because it set her up that she
wasn't the top dog going into London she
was one of the favorites but she wasn't
ranked number one she was number
four and she was an underdog and she
wanted to climb back on the top of the
podium again so she she had she was
hungry again whereas if she had been a
world champion in 2011 she would have
never won the Olympics in 2012 never
would have happened so what uh now you
don't have to admit this um but have you
ever been broken on the Madden
competition for whatever reason you lost
hope or confidence in the match has
there ever been a guy tough enough uh to
have broken
you I've never I've never been broken in
a jle match and I've never quit ever
just not my mentality I fought some guys
that were tough as Nails you know that
that I had to fight for my life against
but I never backed down never backed
down to anybody I might have got beaten
but I went out fighting never quit I
never quit ever in a match so maybe uh
can you think of anyone in particular
who's the toughest guy youve ever faced
in competition for you personally I mean
I I had so many tough tough fights in in
Judo competition I mean I had some real
matches with Udo quals the German he was
two-time uh world champion Olympic
champion and Udo and when I fought hard
you know five six times um those were
Wars that if was golden school we might
still be fighting
today you know um and and and I there
was a Japanese guy Nakamura yukimasa
Nakamura he was somebody I never beat in
my career like I never beat that guy he
beat me in the semis of the junior
worlds he beat me in the semis of the
senior worlds beat me at the cono cup he
beat me in the finals of France remember
every loss um so he was just a very
skillful and you know Judo is a lot
about matchups if you don't match up
well against somebody then you know you
have a hard time beating him but he was
a guy I had a hard time beating so but I
never backed down and I never you know
nobody ever just ran over
me uh so I remember I talked to teraji
Williams and he said he was really
depressed after his Olympic run I think
second uh what is that life after the
Olympics were you haunted by the losses
as are depression like you will never
achieve this kind of high uh what is
that transition into normal life into a
life of a
coach it's really hard and I can tell
you having been to four Olympics they
were all very
different my first Olympics that I
lost I won two matches I lost my third
but the three guys that were on the
podium were three guys that I had beaten
yeah and I'd beat him many times so I
felt as if I should have been there
and sitting in the stands With My Father
I remember crying thinking I gave up my
entire life I sacrificed all those
trainings in the gym and all that time
overseas and away from home and missed
parties and missed this and missed that
and that's it it's over like three
matches I'm done I didn't do anything in
the Olympics I failed I felt like crap
it was
depressing luckily I was young enough
and stupid enough that you know I wanted
to try again you know again yeah um
winning in Atlanta was fabulous you know
winning in America and walking around
town and have everybody treat you like a
hero and welcome you into their store or
their restaurant or their bar or
whatever it was and show your medal and
take pictures you were a rock star in in
Atlanta and it was awesome but when you
come
home you get tugged in a million
directions by a million people that want
your time so what ends up happening is
you start doing everything for everybody
else hey can you show up to this kid's
thing and you know talk at the school or
can you come to this appearance and sign
autographs and you find that your time
is is all about giving other people your
time and you don't really ultimately
enjoy it anymore
because you could see how sometimes
Stars just feel like they never have a
sense right you never have a sense for
yourself or peace for yourself you never
do anything for yourself it's always
about other people so that becomes hard
but it comes with the I'll take the win
every day of the week over not right so
of course then Sydney was devastating
losing in Sydney was the worst ever it
really was a dark and you retired and I
retired so I felt like a failure and I
felt like you know fifth place in the
Olympic Games for me was a total failure
considering I was supposed to win the
Olympics so that was a hard one to
swallow and that's why I couldn't ever
swallow it forever I needed to fight
again um but yeah I could see how
somebody like a Taraji who didn't medal
in the Olympics who pursued it you know
as long as he did and made two Olympic
teams as great as everybody else sees
that feat as an athlete when you have
your sight set on achieving excellence
and you don't you definitely feel
unfulfilled and you could see that like
I said in
sport you really don't get that same
sense of elation from anything else in
life you know I I ran a marathon and I
ran the Boston Marathon one time and
when I got done people were like oh my
God that must have felt awesome I said
no I couldn't wait to go home I was
tired you know I just wanted to lay down
and eat um but wasn't the greatest
feeling in your world I'm like no would
you do it again I said no why would I do
it again I already did it once you know
but most people for them it's such a
massive accomplishment for me it was
just okay I did it I'm done move on um
you know child birth I hear people say
child birth is awesome it's it is it's
different a sense of but it's a
different feeling than what you get from
from winning and the only thing that has
ever come close to me doing it was when
Kayla won yeah was being a part of
something and I believe that was destiny
that she came here for a specific
purpose some higher being stuck her in
this dojo and the reason why I didn't
win in Sydney is because that girl was
supposed to win in London and we were
supposed to help her on that Journey my
father and myself that we were supposed
to be part of that and that was the
Magic Moment it's an amazing chain of
events that it feels like it leads up to
yeah to and to me I believe in that
Destiny and I believe in karma and good
things so and repeat in
2016 that's hope let's hope it's setting
up nicely so uh in the United
States a country where Judo has
struggled to gain ground over the years
over wrestling
Jiu-Jitsu um compared to other nations
in the world you have produced almost
all if not all of the US medalists at
Worlds and Olympics in the last um two
decades what what is your secret what
uh what is the system that you follow
let's say if if I how do you take a
six-year-old maybe not a six-year-old
but let's say a six-year-old with an
interest in Judo and give them a shout
out at the Olympics medal Stand By the
time they're
22 what is the process you follow to
make so many champions well well first
and foremost there is a system and
that's the that's the thing that most
most other places in America don't have
and that's really the problem with the
entire USA judo is that we don't have a
system to produce High Lev
athletes we've done it here in Boston
and I was part of this elite under 23
program where we took the 20 most
talented kids in the country and of of
that crop came Marty Malloy Travis
Stevens Kayla Harrison Nick Delo they
were part of that U23 program that I was
a part of for six years so that was also
my system and really it it's obviously
to be great you got to be able you got
to be willing to work right you have to
be willing to put in the hours and you
got to be willing to take the punishment
so it's a mentality number one it's a
championship mindset you have to have
second you got to know know how to train
you and we believe in a system of
conditioning we believe in grip fighting
we believe in nawaza and we're big into
strategy so we know that we cannot beat
the Russians we cannot beat the French
we cannot beat the Brazilians we cannot
beat the Japanese by doing more Judo
than they do because it's impossible
right we can't beat them with Judo cuz
they have way more people to train with
right way more opportunity so we have to
beat them with
physicality technical you know strategy
gripping naaza conditioning toughness in
a mindset that we're going to win and
this is how we're going to win and you
got to get your students to believe in
that system that okay we're doing all
and the way we train we train very
intense when I go to
Russia there's or Japan there's well two
different things Russia is a lot of
drilling a lot of technique a lot of lot
of free motion and free feel and not a
lot of
randori right mhm when you go to Japan
it's the opposite it's all randori
really randori heavy wow they all do
tons of they do 15 rounds of randori a
day in Japan it's insane in Russia
they're lucky if they do 15 in a month
right because it's very technical um but
two different schools of thought we do
really intense focus training here and
we we're smart with the periodization of
our athletes yeah so you've mentioned
that you believe in uh the the idea of
you know Peak peing PE performance so
what is uh is it essential to cycle I
why can't you be uh your 100% uh year
round is it U because is it a mental
aspect phys physically you can't be and
mentally you can't be you need to have
times of relaxation and you need to have
times of focus focused training and
actually as a I tried to teach this just
recently to my 16y old boy who's trying
to be the best in wrestling I said Son
you can't go 365 days a year
banging your head against the wall and
not enjoying life because in the end
you'll be like this you you'll be great
and you'll be here but you'll never have
that performance of a lifetime that you
need to have and you need to have this
you need have the time where you're not
at this level but you're at this level
your body needs time to heal your
muscles need time to heal and rest your
mind needs time to heal and rest in
order to have otherwise it gets used to
being in it gets used to being right
here all the time in this Zone we want
to have a Zone where it's above that and
that's what's Olympic champion that's
what world champion is you know but in
order to have that you got to let your
body come down so that it can build from
somewhere right right so you see that a
lot and boxers are actually pretty good
at that I mean they take it to an
extreme where they get so fat and so out
of shape they then it's their training
camp for 12 weeks or 16 weeks right but
that's the idea is that I'm not training
now I'm relaxing I'm having fun so that
I can focus when it's time to focus and
get real serious about this and I can
push my body to limits yes that I
otherwise wouldn't and that's what we
believe in you've mentioned uh your
father uh Jim paser senior is a big part
of the club what role does he play uh as
part of the system he's a huge part of
the system he you ask any of the
athletes he gives his time he I'm a I
work full-time I have four children so
Judo is never going to make me Rich yes
right so
My Life as a judoka has helped me become
pretty wealthy because of being involved
in martial arts so I'm able to I'm me I
just started a brand new mat company the
Fuji Matt company just started that I've
involved in in selling Fuji and hot aita
sports goods for the last year or so um
so I've been able to my make my life
through martial arts and Judo but the
sport of Judo is not what puts food on
my kids table right um so in order for
these athletes to to become great they
need to train more than once a day so my
dad is down here with the every single
morning he runs a morning technical
training session for all of our Elite
guys yeah can you actually describe at
least uh in in Broad Strokes what a
weekly program looks like for an elite
level judoka sure so our athletes train
um Monday Monday morning they train here
Judo technical session it's about an
hour to an hour and 15 minutes of
Technical Training what by Technical
Training so it's like drilling throws
not randori uh sometimes depends on how
many bodies we have and depends on who's
in town training but for the most part
it's mostly drills gripping drills naaza
drills throwing throwing drills three
three manuchi comies speed drills
Sprints in the morning at the end of
practice some conditioning but they're
they're training for an hour to an hour
and 15 minutes every morning right when
they leave here they then go to a
professional Prof strength coach some of
them go to Mike Bo's strength and
conditioning in wbin some of them go to
the place I went with Paul sus one toone
strength training in North Andover but
after they work out here they have a
break they go eat then midafternoon
they're they're at a strength training
place Judo specific strength training
it's not powerlifting it's some type of
circuit train depends on again it
depends on what type of time of year it
is right and what phase of training
we're in what type of lifting doing so
it depends but they are they're doing
something focused for again between an
hour an hour and a half you know with
stretching everything else built in an
hour an hour and a half of of afternoon
then they come back at night and they'll
train uh randori at night we do another
hour and a half randori session at night
so they're minimally doing three
trainings almost every day yes they go
Monday like that Tuesday Wednesday
Thursday they have the morning off so
they just do weight training in in Judo
and then Friday morning only they train
okay and then Saturday Sunday off
Saturday depends on the weightlifting
schedule they're on sometime like a
Friday they only have one training and
Saturday they normally have one training
a weight training but they get Saturday
night off and Sunday off beautiful okay
unless we're fighting in a tournament
then they have to go to the tournament
on the
weekend what has been the biggest
challenge for you uh in preparing for
the 2016 Olympics and R preparing the
team um for me it's been for me
personally it's been balancing family
with Team um I've my wife's been at this
for a long time right so she's been
helping since 1992 she's been living
with me going to the Olympics so yes
after the 2012 Olympics it really took a
hard toll on my family because I had to
travel so much so I took a break after
2012 and I've been home a lot and I've
been focusing on the family I have a
daughter that's sick I have three
teenagers that give Mom hell at home
when I'm away um so I've been really
focusing on family so that's why it's
been hard for me to balance because I
love Judo I love the sport I love
helping the athletes I love being in the
game and and I genuinely feel that the
athletes benefit with having me on their
in their chair and with them and it
inspires them and I think it gives them
a lot of confidence but so that's been
the challenge for me is is balancing
both but now that the Olympics is
ramping up again here and we're just
about to turn 2015 there's going to be a
lot more traveling coming with the team
and but my dad's picked up I've put my
dad in that role you know because the
best two athletes in our country are
Kayla Harrison and Travis Stevens so
they're from our our territory they're
from our home Club so my dad is their
coach and I'm their coach so if they
can't have me they have the next best
thing and that's my dad you know what is
uh the most painful moment moment you
remember maybe one that stands out as a
coach watching Travis Stevens lose at
the semi-final match at the Olympic
Games unquestionably as a coach was the
most painful moment I've ever been
involved in because I see how hard the
boy Works see how much he wants it I see
how much he sacrifices he doesn't he's a
kid who he doesn't drink alcohol he
doesn't he's straight as an arrow yeah
you know and when I gave you that
schedule of three times a day training
not he's out there right now doing
Jiu-Jitsu so he trains four or five
times a day like he's a Matt rat yeah
you know he wants it and when he's hurt
he pushes through he's inred so I felt
really bad for him because you don't
really get those moments back in life
where you're in the semi-finals of the
Olympic Games in fact he may never get
that moment back we hope he does but
that was flip of a coin who wins the
fight and if it goes his way he's a
silver medalist or a gold medalist in
the Olympics you know
so that was really painful and I watched
him cry on the sideline for an hour
after that and then he had to fight for
bronze and normally nine times out of 10
he'll beat that
Canadian you know he beat the boy before
the Olympics many many times just he had
physically drained his body of all
emotion he had nothing left for LeBron's
fight so so you're a coach now but
you're also and forever jidoka so how's
the Jimmy Pedro today different from the
guy who won
to happen your body thinks it's been
there before and that's where it's
supposed to go so it'll go yeah and most
people they never see it happen they
only oh I hope I want to be an Olympic
champion someday but they never
really see it believe it experience it
before it happens and therefore it never
will because they don't think it's
possible yes so Kayla talked about that
that is something you taught her and
then she just felt like uh at the
Olympics she felt like
it's almost like you're an autopilot
it's an obvious fact that she's getting
the gold she's almost walking through
the through the steps that she's
visualized a million times so I was able
to pass that on and and you know they
say sports is like 90% mental right I
mean because if it was just training
everybody Train everybody would train
365 days a year right 24 hours a day
seven days a week um that's it it's just
whoever trains the most but it's not we
all do the physical stuff but not
everybody does that mental stuff I
really as a coach focus on that side of
the game as well as the strategy and
looking at videos and studying how to
beat this opponent and and what our
objectives are in this match and I think
that also rather than just walk out
blindly and and just fight you got to
have a strategy going in right so I
think taking that professional approach
to the
game you know and with our system if you
look at the number of people we have in
this dojo in terms of elite athletes and
the number of bodies we have to train
with there's go we gota be doing
something right right because we're
competing with Japan and Russia and
France and everywhere else with what we
have and we don't have very much money
either right so we're Up Against All
Odds yet we're still getting it done
yeah so I'd say how how is it different
I think I'm a little bit more cerebral
as a coach than I was as an athlete
because I had to learn a lot of it on my
own when I was a player so last topic uh
one that gets a lot of talk uh but in
the last half
decade the uh igf the international Judo
Federation has made a lot of rule
changes uh starting from um Banning leg
grabs can you summarize the rules the
rule changes and um say whether you
think they have had an overall positive
or negative effect on Judo the ig's goal
was to
differentiate Judo from WR from
wrestling they really wanted to
differentiate the two sports so that in
case the Olympic Committee said you know
what we need to get rid of another sport
which sport are we going to get rid of
well wrestling and Judo are kind of the
same they're very similar why don't we
just get rid of one of them right so
they really want to differentiate itself
from wrestling before they they
wrestling
right so that was one reason um second
is they tried to make it a little bit
more uh fan friendly right so man how
much time is spent gripping you know and
ripping and gripping so they've taken a
lot of the gripping rules out of the
game and you're not allowed to break
grip so many times anymore and they
thought that was a boring element of
Judo but the reality of the situation is
that Judo is never going to be a
fan-friendly live sport it just
isn't it's never going to be and if
you're not a jidoka and you don't have
an interest in who's fighting it's
boring right Judo can be very
spectacular if you create a story behind
it and you do a one hour show where
you're only showing highlights of and
behind the scenes and who is this
athlete and get to know him and get the
people to know who he is then show his
series of fights and show his throws or
submissions and and pump him up to watch
the final and then when the final
happens just show the best clips of the
final and have some commentary going
about what's going on right you know
then it can be a good sport but it'll
never be a good live sport because it's
very boring and it always will be no
matter what rules you put in I love I
love wrestling but wrestling if you
don't know who is wrestling it's boring
yeah you don't and it's and same with
the elite level same with American
football though if you truly all the
Europeans say football is so boring you
start you stop you start you stop I
don't get it and because they don't have
an interest in any any team that's they
don't care who wins right they're not
from New England rooting for the
Patriots you know say when we watch
soccer As Americans it's boring
we're not rooting for any team so it's
really the story that people fall in
love with in football and or it's the
team like so yeah they know the players
they know they they have a close
connection with the people you got to be
into the game to enjoy it so no fan
who's who has never done Judo is ever
going to enjoy watching Judo unless it's
a highlight reel and they're like oh
jeez oh and they see the cool stuff
going on so I think all the rule changes
for for not I don't think they're
affecting they're not going to affect
the popularity the sport and
unquestionably they're not going to
affect I go to all of these big Grand
Slam tournaments in Abu Dhabi and
there's nobody stands right you know you
go to all these tournaments and there's
nobody watching everybody's watching
online but nobody's watching so I think
the rule changes to be honest with you I
think it's gotten more towards
sport it's less towards if you think
about what Judah was founded on it was
founded on on sport the Olympic sport it
was founded on self-defense
right as an element as an element of the
sport j has no self-defense element
whatsoever anymore it's all about sport
right no Dojo really
teach self-defense element of Judo and
what are leg grabs really leg grabs a
self-defense if some guy attacks me with
his legs I'm grabbing his leg right
right so they've taken that out of it
and even as a judo player who's in the
sport some guy who's very 6' one and I'm
5 foot five he's got really long legs so
if he comes in high I should be able to
grab it right so you're taking that part
of the sport so I disagree with that um
and then the Kata you know the the the
pre-arrange movements Nobody Does that
anymore really anyway you know so judo's
lost a lot of its it's basically come
down to just being an Olympic sport
these days which is
Impractical for the masses because the
masses are never going to compete in the
sport is too dangerous it's too physical
so if you like Jiu-Jitsu succeeded
because it's taking it to a safe place
it's taking it to the ground nobody's
tumbling and falling and doing 360s and
they're rolling they're getting a good
workout they're learning some
self-defense yeah right you could be 80
years old and but it's safe right but
that's okay that's what if you want to
make the sport popular everybody has to
be able to do it yeah and right now Judo
has become a sport that only the young
can
do that's why I think it's failing the
question is Judo got into the Olympics
in' 64 1964 that's exactly 50 years
ago uh so martial arts in general have
gone a long way in the last 50 years
thanks to the Olympics and even uh I
think very importantly thanks to mixed
martial arts where they kind of uh put
like Sumo and karate and all these
things together and you realize that you
know the the grappling Arts have a lot
to contribute to this is a really
effective art uh an exciting art so
where do you think Judo will be this is
a weird question but 50 years from now
so do you think there's
something um Timeless in terms of value
in the sport of
Judo judo's trying to become more
professional right but it's also
becoming a very expensive sport so what
I see happening over the course of time
is all of the big programs are going to
continue to be big in the sport of Judo
because they're inoss the world yes so
only the big programs though so what's
going to happen is like right now they
have a Cadet circuit so kids 14 to 18
years old they can get on a world
ranking list and there's a Cadet circuit
that they compete against other Cadets
then there's a junior circuit you know
that's up to 21 years old and all these
Juniors have world rankings and there's
a junior competitions all over the world
to develop those athletes and then
there's a senior circuit the problem is
the big countries like a like a Japan
and a Brazil and a France and a Russia
and all a lot of the European countries
they have the budgets and they're
investing in their youth to ultimately
Road run from Cadet to Junior to to
senior so they're going to continue to
flourish as countries and get stronger
and invest more money and grow all of
the other countries including America
who don't have money we're don't we
don't invest any money right now at all
in our Junior program not even our
forget our Cadets our Cadets we we the
parents have to pay us Judo just to have
their kids do Judo but we don't we
invest nothing in our Juniors because we
don't have the budget for it so all we
focus on is the elite side and it's
becoming more and more
expensive
to fund these athletes to qualify for
the Olympics as soon as you shut off
that opportunity for us to qualify for
the Olympics judo's gone in America
it'll be non-existent yeah okay so and
that's the direction we're headed we
have less Elite athletes today in
America than we did four years ago then
we did eight years ago then we did back
in the 70s there's less elite players
today than there was then so J continues
to shrink the more expensive it becomes
I don't even see countries countries
like uh
Peru and um a lot of the South American
countries Argentina Venezuela to have
good full teams of athletes nowadays the
number of athletes that are competing at
the worlds and Olympics they're less and
less and less and less they have less
money to do it they have no budgets
they're going to disappear so what Judo
is going to become it's going to become
a much smaller sport in terms of number
of countries that participate because
there's not going to be any programs in
any of those other countries that can
compete with the rest of the world that
and so 50 years from now I don't think
you'll see I don't think you'll see
anybody from United
States I'd be there's always there
always could be some Renegade Club from
Boston that uh that proves everybody
wrong I'm going to tell you mark my
words right now that if there isn't a
drastic change in this country from
funding from uh that come the 2020
Olympic game you'll be lucky to see two
two Americans on that team two we get
one guaranteed cu the igf will give you
one right so but you'll be lucky to see
two in in in in Tokyo the direction
we're headed because you're going to
lose Travis you're going to lose Marty
you're going to lose Kayla you're going
to lose Nick you're going to lose all
your best athletes right now and I
really don't see the pipeline coming up
yeah I I hope that doesn't come to uh
reality
but me
either on that dark note
uh uh people can find you on Jimmy
pad.com on Facebook uh where else uh I'm
I'm a vice president and a partner in
Fuji Sports and the Fuji mat company so
we love your business and love your
support we uh we we deck out clubs with
uh complete outfitting their gyms with
mats and wall pads and all kinds of gear
and then obviously the GE and gear we do
custom uniforms for GES and shorts and
rash cards and stuff for clubs at Fuji
sports.com um that's the only I own is
Fuji GES like I'm I'm moving to
California now have a closet full of you
know like 20 gese I have to figure out
what to do with them um but uh before we
end I'd like to comment Lex that um I've
done considerable amount of inter
interviews in my day and through the
years I will say say that this is the
most wellth thought out comprehensive
intelligent um thought-provoking
questions that I've ever been asked in
my career thanks I appreciate that so I
won't since you said that I will not
hold your comment in the beginning about
you choosing the Russian um against you
uh so thank you very much for the warm
welcome it's been fun um next time I'll
I'll come with my G on awesome you're
welcome