Hayward Nishioka Reveals How Judo Changed His Life — and How It Can Change Yours!
June 24 | 2013

Like so many martial artists, Hayward Nishioka started training primarily for self-defense. But he quickly discovered that the judo skills and philosophies he was learning had the potential to improve every aspect of his life.
Hayward Nishioka started training in judo when he was 13. He moved into the competitive arena fairly quickly, he says, because as soon as a judo student learns to take a fall and execute a few techniques, he starts to compete. Hayward Nishioka won the National Championships in 1965, and the same year he was ranked fifth in the world. He won the Nationals again in 1966 and 1970, and in 1967, he earned a gold medal at the Pan-American Games. He was ranked fifth in the world once again the same year. From 1968 to 1970, he ran a judo school in California, and in 1972, he started a judo course at Los Angeles City College.
Like so many martial artists out there, Hayward Nishioka started training primarily so he could learn self-defense. “I lived in East Los Angeles, and there were a lot of gangs,” he says. “You never knew who was a gang member and who wasn’t. Once in a while, you would get into a scuffle with one, then you would have to confront all his friends.” Looking back on his youth, Hayward Nishioka, a two-time Black Belt Hall of Fame inductee, admits that his own actions caused many of the problems he had to deal with. “I grew up in a Japanese family where we had certain rules that had to be followed,” he says. “Perhaps those rules conflicted with the rules other kids grew up with, and I got into conflicts with other people, thinking, Well, this is the way it should be, so I’ll tell the other kid he shouldn’t do the things he’s doing.” Often, that other kid had a different view of the way life should be lived and was prepared to defend it, Hayward Nishioka says. “We would get into a fight, and then all of a sudden I was fighting a number of people.”* * * About the Artist:
Hayward Nishioka has written several books about judo. They include Training for Competition: Judo - Coaching, Strategy and the Science for Success (available here), The Judo Textbook (available here) and Judo Heart and Soul (temporarily out of print). To order his three-volume DVD series, titled Judo, go here.
— Editor
Like so many martial artists out there, Hayward Nishioka started training primarily so he could learn self-defense. “I lived in East Los Angeles, and there were a lot of gangs,” he says. “You never knew who was a gang member and who wasn’t. Once in a while, you would get into a scuffle with one, then you would have to confront all his friends.” Looking back on his youth, Hayward Nishioka, a two-time Black Belt Hall of Fame inductee, admits that his own actions caused many of the problems he had to deal with. “I grew up in a Japanese family where we had certain rules that had to be followed,” he says. “Perhaps those rules conflicted with the rules other kids grew up with, and I got into conflicts with other people, thinking, Well, this is the way it should be, so I’ll tell the other kid he shouldn’t do the things he’s doing.” Often, that other kid had a different view of the way life should be lived and was prepared to defend it, Hayward Nishioka says. “We would get into a fight, and then all of a sudden I was fighting a number of people.”
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