Veteran Judoka and popular coach Shintaro Higashi has just been promoted to BJJ black belt by Brian Glick. Higashi is a fantastic grappler and he is well-respected among not just the Judo community but a number of other martial arts communities thanks to his skills in the respective arts. He was actually already also a black belt in Jujitsu, Aikido, and Karate along with training in boxing and being a competitive wrestler at Hunter College while he attended to study a bachelor’s degree in Psychology and a master’s in Education.
Higashi is a lifelong martial artist thanks to an introduction by his father Noboyushi at a young age and has competed across different disciplines. Other than wrestling, he has also competed at a high level in Judo and that is the sport that he’s become most known for. He has entered the USA Judo Senior National Championship multiple times over the years and has come away with a pair of gold medals and three bronze medals during that time. He was once a member of the US national team as well, and has trained to make the Olympic team on two separate occasions too.
Shintaro Higashi is a truly phenomenal grappler and this is far from the first black belt rank that he’s earned, but he can now add BJJ to his resume as well. He was promoted by his coach in the sport and long-time training partner Brian Glick, who is himself a student of John Danaher. Higashi is still only 38 years old as well and as a lifelong competitor, it’s not unbelievable to imagine he might one day decide to compete in a major BJJ tournament, even in a master’s division. It’d definitely be interesting and fun to see how well he’s able to employ his significant standing advantage against other BJJ black belts.
Shintaro Higashi announced the news that he had been promoted to BJJ black belt by Brian Glick in a recent post to his official Instagram account:
