Neil Adams
Appearances
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
I do. I mean, the diet side of it, it's difficult to really admit that, isn't it? That you went to an Olympic Games. And the one thing that you really sucked at, right, was one of the most important things now at world level sport, you know, where you've got the nutrition, you know, we've got it. You would think that most people have got it sorted, but there's still people making mistakes.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
There's still people that haven't got it totally sorted. Yeah.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
That's a good way of looking at it. I never, yeah. Maybe that's what I did. Yeah, exactly.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Yeah, well, I got a sweet tooth, but it wasn't really. I mean, I didn't have a lot of money at that time. particular time either, you know, so the diet wasn't steak and, you know, good nutritional salads and things like that. You know, I did what I thought was best without, you know, proper advice.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
And the crazy thing is, is that I had such good advice as well, you know, when it came to kind of fitness training and things like that. We're quite ahead of our time and, you know, we've really had it nailed as far as the conditioning was concerned. The judo training as well was a way in advance because I was a good trainer and I trained more than most. I can honestly say that.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
It probably got me away with a lot.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
I think in the early days, I didn't think I was going to lose. I never thought it was possible to lose. And I think that I went into every contest expecting to win. So when it didn't quite go my way, I didn't lose that many contests. So the only ones I lost were in the final of the World Championships or in the final of the Olympic Games. So I didn't lose that many. I never lost a European title.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
I had seven golds at European championships, five at seniors, two at juniors, under 20s. And I never lost a final. And then I only lost two on a split decision. So I didn't lose that many. And my attitude was that I wasn't going to lose and I couldn't lose. So I was always surprised when something happened.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
When I, when I look back now, there's a lot of years ago, we should say. It is a lot of years ago. Is that true? It's not far off. When I think about it now, because I'd like to think that I'm a different person now.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
And, you know, since I've kind of calmed down, I see athletes now and I see them, you know, and their kind of arrogance, their walk and it's a strut, you know, and it's a kind of a confidence, isn't it? You know, and as we're older and as I've become older, I've calmed down. But, you know, it doesn't matter what I'm doing.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
It's still that will to win, you know, and I'm much better at masking it now if I don't. But it still bothers me as much.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Yeah, I'm still trying to win, you know. Like, so my son loves to, he loves to play me at bowls because I'm useless, you know, and I just can't throw a straight bowl. So he loves playing me at that, you know, but it bugs me that I'm not better, you know. Yeah, yeah. There are certain things that I do. It really bugs me when I'm not good at it.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
And I guess it's one of the reasons that, you know, long after I'd finished competition judo, people still want to train with you, you know. And even at a, like, kind of an older age, even now, if I do in a seminar or, you know, they'd still, you know, do you still do? Do you want to still go? Yeah. Can I feel it?
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
And one of the things that's in me is that I just, all the way up to 40 years of age, so from 30 when I finished competition up to 40, I could still train with the best. And I could still go with anybody. And then when 40 hit, kind of things started to fall off a little bit, you know, and I used to get, you know, either my hips or my legs and my knees.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
And I realized that I had to pick my practices and that rankled as well. And I had to then just calm it down a little bit. Otherwise I was going to be injured and I was going to be, you know, it's not a good thing when you're getting older and you've still got the same competitive mind. But things change.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Oh, yeah, yeah.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
I do. Well, you know what? Some of these athletes, I mean, like I give you a prime example, right, is Ilias Ilias.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
I mean, he is a monster, right? And you just, of course you couldn't, you know, because just at 60-something, you couldn't. But you like to think that you could.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
You never know.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
You know what you would do? What you can do is you can cause them problems, and they feel it immediately, but you'd last a minute, you know.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
He trained with me. We were training together. Every hotel that we used to go into, we'd end up in the gym together and we'd train. And this one time he was in there and he just wanted somebody to grab and grip hold of. And so we ended up doing this kind of grappling in the middle. You're like the people doing weight training and, you know, different things, watching these two madmen doing.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
I'm glad we weren't on a mat at that particular time. But good fun.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
17, you imagine that, 17, 18 years of age, and he's able to compete with the men. There's not many men can do that, you know, and it doesn't happen very often. It happens later with the men. And often, they're not physically as developed as they, you know, so from me, for example, I fought Nevzorov, who was world and Olympic champion. He was the current world and Olympic champion.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
They sent me to the European Championships senior at 17. Wow. And that doesn't happen very often. And I fought, I pulled Nevzorov. So I fought Nevzorov and I had him really worried, you know, because he expected without a doubt to come out, throw this kid, you know, and junior. Yeah.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
There's a picture of him in his judogi and his judogi is just cut. And he looks the business. And there's me in this baggy, skinny kid inside this baggy thing. And the thing was is that the more he tried and the harder he tried and the more he panicked. the further it went away from him. And so, of course, he got the decision at the end and deservedly, but I worried him.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
And so for me, that was a massive step forward because a year later, I was starting to fill out. And two years later, I was competing for the Olympic title. So-
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Just ripped them out of the ground. And I was saying to Nikki, my wife, and she said, what would you do now – It was different than the way you did then. I never had any pickups. That's not what we did. But you have a look at the young Ukrainians or the young Russians or the young Eastern Bloc Mongolians, and they're ripping people out the ground.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
I mean, it's just different style of judo, and it just looks different. But now they're starting to do traditional style judo as well.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
And of course, In 1990, we saw the introduction of all these Eastern Bloc countries. There were so many more. I mean, it was Soviet Union when I was competing. And then, of course, in 1990, everything changed. And then there were so many more of them out there, different countries, that their wrestling styles were introduced into judo. Put a jacket on them and let's get into judo.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
And then you get, you know, the wrestlers and the leg picks and the double legs, single legs, double legs. And, you know, and it kind of, by 1995, you know, judo was bent over. And so it was the IOC that went to IJF, International Judo Federation. And they said, you got to change this or we're just going to have one wrestling style. It looks like wrestling with judo, with judo jackets on.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
So you either change it or we're going to take one of you out.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
throws and uh dynamic judo and exciting stuff to watch right win by judo not not by wrestling and i think that you know the ones that were shouting about it were the wrestlers right because they they like to compete with both they like they want to do both they want to do you know their wrestling matches and and then come into judo so basically i mean what what we've said is
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Then learn to do judo and there's nothing stopping you then from doing both, right? But not from the other way around. All right. So rules always dictate development. They'll always dictate which direction it goes. So if you introduce a rule that states that you cannot dive at the legs and just pick up, then... you'll have to do it standing up.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
And also it increases the possibility of defense with the hips because actually, um, good defense judo wise standing up is with the hips as opposed to sticking your arms out and then sticking your backsides out there just to defend. All right. So if you attack me and I, I, I move my body in the wrong place. So I'm in the right, wrong place at the right time. So you don't hit the right target.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
And then also I use my hips to You know, so again, it's a form of judo that was being lost. So now we got it back.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
I think, you know, when you say it is a way of life, I mean, I think the great advantage that we have in judo, my young grandson, so I got two little boys. that are three and a half years of age, love going to our dojo. They love it, you know? So dojo was the first word that they used. It was one of the first.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
So when they come to see us, you know, so to see my wife and I, you know, it's like dojo. It's not grandma, granddad, you know, it's a dojo. So dojo, they take their shoes off going into the dojo. You know, so they have respect for where they're at, you know, and I think it has that kind of feeling that like I tried to build my dojo with a feeling of reverence.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
It's kind of almost peaceful, you know, so if I'm not religious, I'm not a religious person, but I like going to old churches because when I go into an old church, it doesn't matter, you know, what the religion within the church, but there's a reverence in there.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
And respect, you know. Yeah, respect. Look at the respect. You know, we were just talking about it just before we came on air. We were just saying that we very, very seldom do we have a situation where there is animosity involved. other than them fighting. So I'm not saying that they don't fight each other because sometimes it does turn into a brawl.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
And at the end, two people bow off and show their respect. And one of the things, so a champion, I see people winning events and they're good judoka or they're excellent. They win world championships, might even win the Olympic Games. But a great champion for me is, is somebody who does the right thing when they lose. So when you see them lose, that's when you see the true them.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
And actually, that was one of the biggest things that I had to really cope with. So when I lost that Olympic Games in Moscow and also the one in Los Angeles, the hardest thing is when the microphone's in there and you've got to... be respectful and nice and the hardest thing is to smile. But actually... Some of the great champions, you know, they'll go, well, it's just one match.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
You know, I remember we've got one great champion, Agbegnenou. She's a five-time world champion, she's an Olympic champion. She's favourite as well to get this Olympic gold medal, French. What a great champion she is, you know, because she lost one of the matches. I mean, she'd come back and she'd given birth, come back after giving birth.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
And everybody was going, well, was she, you know, and then she lost one of the matches on the way through. And she said, well, don't be upset. You know, it's just one match. It's just one contest. You know, next time I'm going to put it right. And she did put it right. And now she's back up there and she won the world title back. So, you know, these are great champions for me.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Twice. Yes. It is tragic. And I do have sleepless nights.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
I hate losing more, but I love winning. When I won the world title a year later, and I had no doubt when I went in that day that I was going to be world champion. No doubt.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
I think that it was – so my weight was better. I didn't have to lose weight. That was one thing. So the nutritional side wasn't as important, but probably, you know, it still wasn't as good as it could be, my nutrition. Although it was getting better and I was trying to eat the right things at the right time. But –
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
I still trained really well, and I was so confident there going into that world championships that I could win it. I had no doubt in my mind that I was going to win. But, you know, obviously, corner of your mind, you're thinking, just don't make mistakes. But, you know, this is the incredible thing is that...
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Once you start to ask you, once I see contests change direction when I'm commentating, so I can see somebody who's in there just going forward, just trying to win, right? So, and that's a difference to somebody who's trying not to lose. And it's two different ways there, you know?
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
So sometimes when you, so when I was world champion, then I had a period of time where every time I stepped out there, I was really afraid of losing. Mm-hmm. And I think that that's what happens later on in your competitive career. You know, the great champions manage to come through that.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Teddy Rene is one of those, you know, he just, he puts it out there and he keeps beating them, you know, so they can't take it away from him. You know, it's fantastic.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
That's a really good point is that if you go ahead in a match and you look at the clock, it depends when you go ahead. So sometimes you can go ahead in the first minute and you've still got three minutes to go.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
So I see the ones then that go into, I don't want to lose because they go into defensive mode and then sometimes they can lose it on penalties or something can go wrong and the other one comes on strong and then they can sneak the contest. And so it's really difficult, but when I was coaching, I was trying to always encourage that positive attitude for the full four minutes, five minutes then.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Exhaustion's the one, isn't it? But it is, isn't it? It's a mindset as well. So actually trying to get your mind positive all the way through. So, I mean, if you listen, when I commentated now is I say I hope – That they don't change the mindset and that they keep on and they are going forward all the time, you know, and actually they're then more difficult to catch.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
We had one just a couple of weeks ago and he lost in the final second of the contest. He was the only one to score. He got penalized all the way up. Two seconds to go and stepped out of the area. But he went like that, thinking the bell was just going. And the bell went one second after he actually stepped out. So he got penalized, lost the match, and lost all of the points for qualification.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
So it was, you know, that's paying high price. That's paying high price.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Yeah, I mean, you just, the thing is, is sometimes, you know, when you're going, when it's competitive as well, you know, hours is a different intensity to like, where you can take time a little bit, hours is bang, it's transitioning from standing down, you've got 10, 15 seconds to go in there, you go in 100%.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
It's a bit like running, you know, full out for 10 seconds, like, and then you've got to decide then Especially if they're defending it, whether you let it go, because when you get up and your forearms are blown, you know, and you've got lactic acid in there and you've still got to grip up. Because remember, ours is about gripping as well on the jacket.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
So if you can't grip up, then you can't gain the advantage. they can throw you, you know, so you have to decide. So I had a massive attack on him and we changed directions four or five times and, and then I wasn't going to let him go, but I still, you know, when I was turning him there, I had to decide, am I going to go all out for this?
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
And, and just, or, you know, like there has been occasions when I've kind of released it to just, you know, if I've got a minute to go and just lock out. Yeah.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Yeah, I knew it. I just, as soon as I climbed his back and then I thought he's not going, he's not going, I'm not going to let him up. You know, so I was just changing, changing, something in my head was going, don't, don't, you know, just stick on him. And, and then it's always about pressure on the arm.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
And, and I just, you know, and of course he was like that, you know, defending, you know, he was almost total bridge trying to get out of it.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Started in turtle because I did an attack, came back out of the attack, and then he went on to his front. And then I was on his back, and then I started the whole turn. Saw an opening and you just went for it? It was an automatic transition. So, I mean, the transitions are what we teach. Because the ones that are quicker down with the transitions are the ones that catch it.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
That's our nawaza, you know, our groundwork is the transition from standing down to ground. It's very, you know, we don't have a situation where you can kind of work your way in. You are in or you're not in, you're standing, you know, so you've got to make sure that you're in. And so I had, I was just on his back like a leech and I never let him go.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Yeah, I mean, he was no mug either. I think he just got third place in the All Japan Championships, which is all weight categories. So he wasn't a mug, you know, he was strong. And I'd fought him once before, and I knew he was a lefty as well, which was really awkward for me.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Better for me than him. It did. It felt amazing, you know, because it was almost like all these things, disappointments and everything had kind of come to this one point where I was at last kind of champion of the world. It's everything I said as a kid that I had no idea how difficult it was going to be. So as a kid, as a 14-year-old kid, I remember saying, I'm going to be world champion.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
I'm going to be the best in the world. I had no idea how difficult that was going to be.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
I like that.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Yeah. Well, I mean, you see it a lot with parents as well. You know, parents, you know, our little Johnny is, you know, he's amazing and he's this, that and the other. And they have no idea what's, you know, out there. I remember the very first time I stepped out in 1974 into the European cadets. And I remember that we were fighting. I'd only ever fought in Great Britain.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
I was the top, you know, I was unbeaten in the juniors, kids. And went out there and there were these different fighters out there that were treating me with total disdain. And I remember thinking... How dare they? You know, and I realized when I came back from that event, there's other people out there.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
There's just a whole, you know, and there are different levels of, you know, the majority of people are just not informed as to what's out there and the different levels that there are out there.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Ezio was one of them. And I fought him, you know, and I beat him in the European Championships. I beat him in, you know, two times and then lost to him in the Olympic Games two months after I'd beaten him in the European Championship. Oh, wow. Yeah, yeah. So it wasn't, that made it even more difficult, right?
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
So that made it more difficult. And so he, Ezio was one and getting hold of, I remember getting hold of Nishida of Japan and he had me going up and down. And I just, I thought, wow, this guy is amazing, you know, and I'd never fought, first time I ever fought Japanese. in a major tournament, you know, and, um, I felt the danger.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
I always talk about the danger when we go out to Japan to train, uh, I could go probably, uh, months without getting thrown in training here in Europe. And, and I go to Japan and, you know, everybody's throwing you, you know, and that's difficult to accept. And the reason that that kind of danger and that kind of, um, um, A feeling of danger is something that puts a real edge on, you know.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
And so that was the first time when I got a hold of Nishida, I thought, oh, my God, you know, this guy, you know, it didn't matter which way he was turning like that. He stretched out and I thought this, I want to do this, you know. And then I ended up fighting him again in Japan.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
It's a different... It's a different thing, isn't it?
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
So, I mean, mine was kind of a mixture. I liked it to be a mixture because there was... The gripping is definitely the key point. So if you get high-level guys that are gripping up, and I always used to put this to the referees when we were doing referee seminars when we first started them. And I'd say, how many... Because they would referee to their understanding of the match. Mm-hmm.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
So they were penalizing for certain grips that were, you know, and actually, so. As an ex-athlete, high level, I would say, have you ever gripped up with high level?
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
All right, because if you haven't, you need to do it because then you will understand why they do certain things with the grips because these guys are like, you know, when somebody grips you and you think, you know you're going to go. When Iliadis puts his arm over your back, all right, and you know you're going to go up and over. You know you're going to go over. You know, that's it.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Not for me.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
It's a mix of everything.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
When I was 84 Olympics, but I'm just going to go there now just quickly. But there was, we had a freestyle wrestler. He's American, actually, but he had English nationality. So he competed for Noel Loban, his name is, and he competed for Great Britain. He got third place at the Olympics in 84. But he was training. We were training at Budokai, and he was training.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
He came to do some judo and put jacket on. And, of course, he was training with some of the lower levels, and he was really handling himself well there. And then he said, I need to feel, you know, when we did randery, you know, so he did some randery with me. And I immediately thought, I got to catch it. I got to stop single leg and double leg because he was really quick, right? So strong as well.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
90 something kilos. He was like, you know, he's a big guy. So I caught a sleeve, immediately caught and controlled him. And then he couldn't start, right? So he said, I needed to feel the difference. So then I thought, I better reciprocate this. So I said, well, you know, so we did the Rando and I throw him a couple of times. He said, I'm really glad we did that.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
So then I said, I need to feel the difference as well. So we take the jackets off. So we took the jackets off and he was a nightmare. This guy was a nightmare and like a monster, you know, and he was like single legging me and, and, you know, it was just totally different, you know? So it was like the jacket makes a massive difference, huge difference.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
to something, you know, and people think it's just a jacket that we're wearing, but it isn't. It's our only tool, actually.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
It's absolutely insane. And then they changed the rules for a little while, and they changed the rules so that you couldn't hold – certain grips were not allowed. You're only allowed a certain amount of time, and there were a lot of penalties for them. And then they had some of the ex-fighters into the referee commission, and so we were pushing for –
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Just let them grip, you know, because that's our game. You know, that's what makes us different. You know, again, if grip up with somebody like, so they were on about Teddy Rene.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Teddy Rene comes out, takes the sleeve.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Big arm over the top. And then, you know, he throws people, right? So they were saying, yeah, but you can't stop him doing it. This guy is six foot nine. Yeah. And he is built like Garth. And not only that, he's skillful as well. And he's got that mentality of a winner. He has got that mentality of a winner there. He just wins important matches.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Well, as long as they throw from it, so they can take any grip, as long as you move them and then catch them kind of action-reaction, really, as long as you catch them on the move, then you can do it.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Yeah, you can't block out.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
So, like, for example, if I've got dominant grip on you and I just block out and I just stop you attacking me, so then what? I get you three penalties, get you off, and you haven't done an attack. So you've got to stop that. You can't have that.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
devastating is is not you know it's not enough really um because you know the strange thing was is coming into that olympics i was tired really tired so my mental state wasn't the best wasn't certainly the same as it was coming into the previous um and i I remember thinking, I just need to get this over with, and then I'm going to have a break and just have a rest.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
And that's totally the wrong attitude. It's just not good for going into an Olympic Games. And so I was coming in there with a different mindset. And I remember... Every match that I had, I was winning well, but I was winning with a struggle. I'd fought Novak, and I was pretty of France, who was one of the strongest physically. That was in the quarterfinals. I beat Brett Barron by an Ippon.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
I armlocked him. I... won my first match by Ipon as well. And then Michel Novak, I was fighting a France and I was lucky to win it. I was up, I would scored on him, but I was like starting to defend and just everything that I talked to you about, you know, and then just about held on and then I won. And, you know, so him and I were talking afterwards, like some years afterwards.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
And he said, I was close, wasn't I? I was close.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Of course. And no, he was right. And it was one of those. So it's through to the semifinal. I fought Lesak in the semifinal. And I'd fought him in the semifinal of the Worlds as well. I'd never gone time with him. You know, I'd never, I'd always beaten him fairly easily and with by upon. And that went time. So I was, you know, I was just, just glad to get it done.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
And I was in the final then against Frank Vinica of Germany. And I'd beaten Vinica before, but he was just a young German coming through. And I, When I started the final, I thought, right, I've just, and I started all my techniques just that little bit off. Nothing was coordinated. Just it was just I can't really explain why it was just a little bit off.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
I see it so often now with a lot of the guys that are going for second, third Olympic Games. And I see their technique just not quite there and they're struggling. And I know when they're, you know, I know what they're going through and I kind of empathize with them.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
I dominated it. Yeah, I was winning. And actually, if it had gone another minute and a half, it would have been all over and I would have been Olympic champion and it would have been done. He wouldn't have battered an eyelid, right? Because he would have fought me really, really well.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Yeah, jumping up and down. And you can look at that, can't you? You go, well, it wasn't Ipom, but would I have got it back? I don't know. I think that actually taking the pressure off, because that was another thing as well, pressure of being favorite. And I see that with a lot of them. And the great champions, the ones that keep coming through, Capellick.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
There's a guy, you know, he can look very ordinary and then comes the big tournament and he'll win it.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Split moment. Devastating. And lived it probably not every day. But, you know, Nikki, my wife, will tell you that woken up in sweats. And, you know, and I think they contributed as well because I had a period of my life after where I was drinking too much. And, you know, and I think kind of when I look back, kind of led into...
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
That kind of dark period in my life, you know, and I never, ever, ever, you know, did it go through my mind, anything else, but it definitely affected me and I was on a downward kind of spiral in a lot of different ways.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
And, um, would still even, you know, I mean, we, we have an amazing marriage and we have an amazing family and everything's great, but I still wake up sometimes and I'll say, I've just dreamt, you know, that, and it's the same reoccurring dream where I'm trying to get somewhere and I'm trying to put it right. You know, and I, I've got.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
this chance of putting this Olympic final right, you know, in, in, in this dream, I've got a chance to doing it, but I can't get there. And the traffic stopping me or something stops me. And I, you know, and then I wake up and I'm sweating and it's, and you think, well, after all this time, that's not possible, but it is. And it happens. Yeah.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Well, you know, his team doctor and coach, he came up to me afterwards and said, I'm just really sorry. And that's all they said is I'm just really sorry. They were sorry because, you know, obviously the obvious sadness about that, you know, and of course everybody takes their – you know, I went actually – Two and a, was it three weeks later, the German Open.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
So he had to compete in the German Open three weeks later. So I went over to fight him and beat him in the final of the German Open. And it didn't do anything for me because it was a much tighter match. He was a lot closer. He had a lot more confidence coming in. So he fought me a lot differently. And then it was me pulling it back. and just managing to win in the final.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
And I thought, well, that might appease, it appeased nothing, didn't do anything.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
It means so much. And I think, you know, but I've got to say this, and this is honestly, you know, if it meant that if I'd have won that Olympic Games and it had to change my life into a different direction, which I probably would have not competed in the 88 Olympic Games then. All right.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
So if it had changed my life and then I didn't have, I didn't meet my wife and I, you know, didn't have my family that I've got now. I wouldn't swap that, what I've got now, for anything.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Yeah. And it is, isn't it? You know, and I think that there's a lot of Olympic champions and world champions that win and then are forgotten. And I said to Nikki, I said, my wife, I said, I don't want to be forgotten and I want to be remembered. So if I'm going to do anything, anything I do, if I'm going to do commentary or whatever it is, or coaching, I want to do coaching to a high level.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
And I want to commentate at a high level. I remember the first commentary I ever did, it was terrible. And I just thought, I've got to do better than this. And I thought, I need to do it well. And I've got to do it professionally.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
I think great champions are made up of the people that handle it in the right way. And you could say, well, I don't like losing. And you could throw your dummy out the pram and you can be a bad loser in front of everybody. And actually, people pick up on that very, very quickly. You know what it's like in broadcasting, right? Somebody has a bad word to say about somebody.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
But actually, the ones that endear themselves to you are the ones that handle it in the right way, the correct way. It doesn't mean that you've got to like it. I didn't like it. And I thought that I handled it certainly in later years in the right way. And I like to see athletes do it in the right way, you know, and I think that it's a make or break situation. It's not all the contests they win.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
It's the one that they lose and then how they pick themselves up and handle themselves after. So I think that that is a big one for me. And also I, I mean, I went through, you know, obviously a later divorce, and that was difficult on my son, really difficult on Ashley.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
And then I was – and I think that some of that was the fact that I was, you know, kind of – I wasn't drinking all the time, but I was drinking in excess at the wrong times, you know. And I think that that's what a lot of people do sometimes is that – They use it for the wrong reasons, you know, and I used to hear it.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
I hear it now all the time, you know, and it's that, you know, I need to knock the edge off and I need to just forget. And I need to, you know, and you need to be in a fuzzy place for a while. And I had a lot of time in a fuzzy place and I needed to get rid of that, you know, and I needed to clear my head.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
I think, you know, definitely, you know, the fact that my marriage, first marriage didn't work, you know, and that was, you know, it's a mix of things that, you know, between us and, and then, you know, so that's not where I wanted to be at the time. And yeah, the effects that it had on my son. And it took a long time for him then to come around and to trust me again, you know, and to have belief.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
He always had belief in me, but to trust me again. And then I think that that was low. And I think that, you know, when I look back, is that a lot of my bad decisions were when I was in that fuzzy kind of haze and that it got progressively worse. That got progressively worse to the degree where it was, you know, trying to hide it and trying to hide how much.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
And I was kind of a functioning kind of drunk. You know, I think you could probably say that. And, you know, I was functioning. I was still able to – I was still training most days. crazily enough, you know, I was training to kind of mask it and cover it. And that was probably my savior that I was still, you know, because I remember I said to my wife, I said to Nikki, I'm probably the fittest.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
If I'm, you know, a drunk, then I'm a fittest drunk in the world. She said, yeah, you probably are actually, you know, I was in great condition for a drunk.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
I had periods of depression. I can honestly say that my depression wasn't that bad. Although I did, you know, when it's like anything that gives you an up, you know, it gives you an even bigger down, doesn't it? You know, and so I hated that feeling and also hated myself for letting it happen because I have got this really bizarre feeling
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
I don't know whether you can call it a power, but I have the ability to be able to say, stop. And I can just, and that's what I did in the end. In the end, there was an incident when I was working for Belgian judo and there was an incident. It was Christmas. It was, I tell you exactly the day. It was 20th of December and me and a Belgian coach, we got absolutely hammered.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
But we were at the wrong place and he got noticed. And so I remember they pulled me up in front of this board and I looked down at these guys and half of them were people I didn't want to be in that situation with. You know, they're not people that I respected and they're not people that I trusted.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
I think if it's to do with drinking, all I can say is that the two days or a week into not drinking, you'll feel different. You know, it'll make a physical difference and you'll like that physical difference.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
And then from a mental perspective as well, because I think that, you know, you have a massive downer, you know, and I think that that must be because of drugs as well, because I had a situation with my brother, you know, he was like, you know, professional wrestling and the drugs was an element there. And, you know, so I'd never touched a drug or even seen one in my life before.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
But, you know, I'd let the alcohol side go too far and then decided never to do that. So then I guess I had people ringing me up, you know, saying, you know, how can we stop? You know, so when they say, can I have a word? Can I discuss something with you? And I know then what they want to discuss with me, you know. And the thing is, is that I would say, you know, if you stop...
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
then feel the effects of it and it will make a difference to your everyday life. And that will make a massive difference. And I think about anybody who kind of, you know, is down all the time is to find the cause of what's pushing you down. You know what I mean? And try and attack that. I mean, because it's never, somebody once said to me, they said, whatever you got, you know,
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
We've got something special. I mean, we have a great life and I've had a great competition record. It could have been better, but it was great. But I've had success with my business and we're still out there and we have a great life. We travel all the world. And there's people out there that would live in your house at the drop of a hat, wherever you are. They drive your car everywhere.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
No matter what car it is, some people haven't got a car. And whatever food you're having and you're moaning about food, there's somebody out there that would take that and gladly eat that. So there's always somebody worse off than you. And I think that we tend to sometimes look at the things that we haven't got rather than the things we have got.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
The most difficult thing I think for anybody is when they have to decide when to stop.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Yeah. You know, and all of a sudden, and I see the ones that are going to second Olympic Games and then third Olympic, and the ones that are there and they're holding on and they're in their 30s now, different to when they were 19 years of age, you know, 30 something is different to 19. And then what are you going to do afterwards? You know, and then how do you become just a normal person?
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
You're never going to be a normal person. As such, but I think you've got to do normal things, you know, and then you've got, I remember the first time that when I finished competition, I had good sponsors. This was, you know, 40 years ago, but I had two really good sponsorships, Vitamin Company and also Judoge Company. And I had a car and, you know, I had money.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
I just, and I was going all over the world. I was successful. And then I stopped. And they took everything back. They took my car. And they did it within two weeks as well. They stopped my funding. And the vitamin company said, thank you very much. It's been a great, you know, we've done well by you. Bye bye.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
88 Olympics.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
So you go from seven days a week or six days a week going into the gym and you're working out the dojo and then you don't have to do it. And that's why you get a lot of... When they finish competition, they finish that 30 to 40. I mean, Ilyas is still doing it now. He's still in there and he's still, you know, because he can, right? Okay. And it's natural. And I did exactly the same.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
And then, like I say, you just get to an age and you just think, well, I'm just going to kind of take a step back.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
It'd be interesting, wouldn't it, just to see what they're doing now. Because at some stage, you have to get a normal job. You do have to stop. You do have to stop. At some stage, you have to decide what you're going to do. It's either into coaching. The judo is either to coaching. Or if you're not in coaching, then it's into – something to do with the media.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
And, you know, I was lucky that I – it was just by accident, really, with the commentary. Somebody said, would you do a voiceover? So I did this voiceover, and that was back in 1982 I did that.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
I did some voiceovers. I wouldn't call it commentating. But I did some voiceovers, and then I did some – we did some different – European Championships, World Championship kind of events. And I did the voiceovers for it. And the way that it was done, that it was more narration. And so it kind of turned into then somebody asked me to do an event.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
And when you listen to the intonation of the voice and stuff like that, it wasn't like it is now. But I guess that's just something that developed as a, you know, because then it was coming from the heart. And I, you know, started to get excited and just do my thing. And it was just me, really. It's just my style.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
I think it's timing as well, isn't it? It's like you get your timing a bit better and know when to go in, when to come out, when to say something, when not. I think that in the early days, I tended to want to talk all the time, and you don't have to do that.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
That's the key, isn't it?
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Yeah, I think there's two kinds of commentating. You can commentate what you see, and then you commentate what... People can't see, you know, and so if you've got somebody that is not really understanding of what's happening in the inner part of the game, so it might be a technical thing or it might be the tactical part of the play here that's going on.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
And if you can introduce that as well, then you've got an advantage.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Okay. Good stuff.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Yeah, I've got to say, Lex, I mean, everybody, still people saying to me, oh, you know, we need more judo on television. They've got judo on television every other week that they can access. All of the top people in all the top events. And it costs $100 a year, you know, to access everything. And they can play all the videos.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
I mean, we've just accessed this here, the Paris tournament, and we're going to have a look at Teddy Renner. But, you know, it's cheap at the price.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
He's the greatest judo winner of all time. Of that, there's no doubt. And I think if you asked him whether he was the greatest judo man in the world of all time, he would say, no, I'm not. And he's not the greatest judo man. There are people with more beautiful judo in some ways, although he's got great technique, but he is the ultimate winner.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Yeah.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
You know, this is just a couple of months ago. And then last week, this last week he was out again and he won again.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
There's people getting closer to him, right? Because he's obviously, age-wise and the amount of time that he's been there, he's obviously somebody that is starting not quite at his best as he was when he was younger. But like I say, he still puts it on the line. He lays it on the line every single time. And then not only does he lay it on the line, but he beats them all.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
And last week he just beat Saito, who's a young up-and-coming Japanese fighter, and he beat him in the final. It was close, and he did well. There are certain people... The smaller ones, actually, not the taller ones, because we're saying about the big arm over the top that he likes and the dominant grip that he likes. There are people that can give him a hard time.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Now, if at the Olympic Games he has two or three of those on the trot, it might work against him. And it's by no means an absolute certainty that he's going to win the Olympic gold medal, but he's got to be one of the favourites.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
top favourite you know no matter what happens now Teddy Renner is the greatest winner that you know and if you asked the great Yamashita he would say the same you know there's nobody that's you know and Yamashita was unbeaten in international competition and I trained with Yamashita a lot over a two year period and And got to know him quite well. And he was one of the greatest of all times.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
You know, for me, he was one of the greatest judo men. And I'm talking about from a technical point of view, from a spectacular judo point of view, understanding the fundamental principles of how techniques work. Sometimes having different techniques that work for you. So if one doesn't work and one particular direction doesn't work, you can change the direction completely.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
He would have caused him all sorts of problems.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
I think so.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Yeah, and he finds it more difficult with shorter people. So it would have been a very interesting confrontation. And I think if you asked Yamashita, he would probably say that Teddy Renner, he's very gracious. He's really gracious. Mm-hmm. It would be really good. It would have been an unbelievable matchup. And I've got to say this, that, you know, Teddy Renner is the greatest winner of all time.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
You see any of the top guys now, especially if they're second time out. So they might catch somebody by surprise. They come out, they go bang, and you go, that was amazing, right? But if they fought again, 10 minutes later, you go- You're not going to catch me with that, right? You've got a different situation here. And so it's slightly different. But the best fighters adapt like that.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
And they're able to see a situation, feel the situation, and they attack once and then go again and attack second, third time. And in the third time, they make it work.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Yeah, sometimes they'll hit first time and it won't go. And then you make a readjustment of the way in. It's a little bit like, I mean, if you take a really easy way of understanding it, is if we're shooting at a target, And all of a sudden you start moving that target.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
You know, it's different hitting a moving target, but it's also different hitting a moving target that's trying to hit you as well. And that's our game, right? So we're not only trying to throw a moving target, we're trying to throw a moving target that's trying to throw us. So it makes it even more difficult.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
When I watch great athletes, most of them can throw over both flanks. Not always going left and right, you know, although our sport always, I mean, the caters are always demonstrated left and right. So like if you demonstrate, if you do something on one side, you know, then can you demonstrate it on the other side, right? Okay. So can you do it equally? No. Okay.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
but you do it differently right on the other side so you know when i'm teaching i i i don't teach left and right i teach so if i was teaching you to do a technique first thing i'd do is say i need you to take a sleeve and a lapel all right so i'd let you decide what was left and right okay because often what happens is we impart on people
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
whether they're going to be left or right when we start teaching. You get a lot of teachers do that. And they'll say immediately, what do you write with, left or right hand? And it's no indicator actually as to how we do judo because I'm left-handed and I do more predominantly right-handed because I lead off my strongest hand. And actually most people do.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
So actually left and right is a bit of a trap sometimes when we're teaching. Better to...
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
get you know because we can go so my point was is that a lot of people can go both flanks so they'll do something over this side and something over this side but anyway it was one-sided he was one-sided but he could he could switch it so he had a um uh c and aggie as well on the other side so he could switch it if he had to yeah and uh by the way your opponent in 84 was he righty or lefty
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
He was a righty.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Well, I mean, again, it was, you know, he could have probably in other contests, he'd hit me with it several times and I just stopped it, you know, and just at the wrong place at the right time for him, right place in the wrong time for me. Right.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Yeah.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
This is final of Paris tournament. And this is against the Korean. The Korean had had a great day, actually.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Again, shorter. So he does find that difficult. Have a look at Teddy Renner. Teddy Renner will try and catch the sleeve. He's after the sleeve and then the right arm over the top. That's the key point for Teddy Renner. And of course, what he has done, if he can't always catch the big Osada Gary over his right-hand side, he's been doing something to the opposite side.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Like I say, he has difficulty always against somebody smaller, dropping with the sea and aggies.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
I've never seen him thrown for rip-on, but he was thrown last week for a nice technique, and he's being caught more and more. So he's getting close. Yeah, and Tseyev, in the final of the World Championships, they had a strange situation there where Tseyev was a technique down and then pulled off a counter, and they didn't count it. But then they overruled it.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Unfortunately, I was commentating at the time, and I went for a score for Tseyev. Anyway, they overruled it, and then they awarded a second gold medal to Tseyev.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Yeah, Basheyev and Tseyev are the two that could possibly go to the Olympics. So that was a close one there from René. That was closest that he'd actually been there.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
So didn't have the sleeve and he relies on the sleeve greatly. Big support there in the French in the crowd.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Yeah, so if they don't attack, if they've got a grip and they've got sleeve lapel or they've got two hands on, if they're too passive and they don't attack, if they've got dominant sleeve grip, they don't attack. That was quite close as well from the Koreans. So the Korean here, you can see, is having a real go. The penalties will come if they don't attack at the right time.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Step outside the yellow area, they'll get penalized as well.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
I mean, it was really close, wasn't it? Nice little Koichi Gary there from the Korean. And if they touch below the belt line with the arms, they're not allowed to grab the legs. They've stopped grabbing the legs.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
The Koreans are having a real good go at it.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
You think Teddy Renner has been there a long time. He's got another guy here in the final of the Paris tournament. He's got 18,000 people watching him. They're all on Teddy Renner's side. They want him to win. And the Korean's out there on his own with his coach.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Amazing pressure. You know, we interviewed him after this and he said, I've got pressure. You know, people go, well, is he going to do it at the Olympic Games? Can I do it in Paris? He wanted to go to Paris. I mean, really? I mean, the last Olympic Games should have been it, shouldn't it? Should have been the final one. But he's gone, no, I've got to do another four years.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Two penalties are on the board already for the Korean. That Korean is really having a great go.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
He's really going after it. You know, it's an amazing effort there from the Korean. And he's getting some last-minute information. I don't know if you've ever seen his coach stood next to him like that, but it's amazing. He's 6'6", and he's about 4'6". He's a real pitch.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
So golden score. How does golden score work?
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
So the golden score. So if it goes without any point on the board from a throw or a hold down or arm lock strangle, then it goes into golden score. So two Shidos on the board apiece. One more mistake now and it's going to be all over.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
And that's it. Teddy Renner just manages to turn it. On the Korean. And that went really against the run of play, didn't it?
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Because the Korean did better, you know. But, you know, Teddy Renner is a winner.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
And he says, right, okay, let's have more cheering.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
And I have to say, you know, that even when he loses, you know, he's always graceful. He doesn't like it, but he's graceful.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Well, he's chasing the gold medal. It's going to be in Paris, which is going to be even, you know, more fantastic. You know, he's already the greatest. You said, you know, what has he got to do to be the greatest? He's already the greatest competitor judo's ever known. And that was even with the great Tally. So Tally was amazing as well.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
I'm part of the commentating team, but it won't be for IJF because it's independent broadcast.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Do you know, I've got to say that 99%, 99.9% of everybody is so grateful that I've commentated their fights all the way through. They know if they've messed up. So if I say something and I'm never disparaging, really disparaging, you know, but what I will say is, you know, it was a great throw by the other guy or... It was a great match.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
And if they made a mistake, so if they walk out, they know that I will say something that will, you know, mean something. So nobody really moans about it. I try and talk the truth if I can.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Only after they want to win by Ippon, you know. And I think that that is the difference is they're the ones that come out there and it's a bit like, you know, when Tyson stepped out there, you knew what you were going to get, you know. And if they went toe-to-toe, if Tyson had somebody going toe-to-toe, somebody was going to get knocked out.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
And, you know, we got the same in judo when people go head-to-head and it's an open match. And I often talk about an open match. I say it's an open match. They're both trying to score. Somebody is going to get scored on. Somebody is going to go. And that makes it exciting. That's so great. When they come out and they close up, then that's not an exciting match.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
I think that judo-wise, he's got to be one of the greatest because he had such versatility. He had... uh, he could go right and he could go left. He could pick up, he could go to the ground as well. He won a lot of his earlier matches on the ground. Um, I think his, uh, Empathy, you know, and how he presents himself sometimes, he falls down.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
And I think that hopefully that should come with tutoring and, you know, how to be a great champion after, you know, it's not just about what you do on the mat, but what you do off the mat as well.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Yeah, I think it's how you present yourself afterwards, how you are with people, how much you can help people. I mean, people, kids, they look up to these great champions because they want to be like them. So the worst thing is when you get somebody that's a bit of an arse and they're not presenting themselves in the right way. So I like to see somebody presenting themselves in the right way.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
That was my first Olympic Games. So my preparation was a little bit different to how it was the 84 and the 88 Olympic Games. And I'd kind of done part of the preparation as well for 76 Olympic Games. I wasn't quite old enough for those, but I was first reserve. So in 1980, I'd had four years build up.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
And I think that it's something that can be taught. It's something that normally comes with a little bit of experience and a little bit of age, you know. And I like to think that I'm a little bit different now than I was when I was 19. Not that I was bad, you know. I just think I was just, you know... I see it often now, you know, just full of beans.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Never lost an Olympic fight. So there's nobody. Right? Yeah. Nobody ever done that. You know what I mean? So that's got to be, it has to stand. He took two years off in between every Olympic Games and came back, did the right amount of events to qualify for. Not only did he having to qualify, he had to qualify through Japan. Now, Japan, remember, have got the greatest depth.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
So they got people coming through all the time, you know, and then he had to win the Japanese trials. I mean, we had a four-time world champion from Japan. This is when world championships was every other year. And this is Shozo Fuji. And he was the greatest middleweight of all time and never got to participate in the Olympics because he lost the Japanese trials.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Twice in two Olympic, you know, possibilities. So, you know, he had to qualify for Japan and then go to the Olympic Games and then do it there, you know. So sometimes some of the best people in Japan can't get outside of Japan. Look at the situation they had with Abe and then they had Mariama. Manayama was, you know, and Abe were both the best by far in the under 66 kilos category.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
This is for the last Olympic Games. And they sent one to the World Championships, one to the Olympic Games, and they both won gold medals, you know.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Well, Abe and Mariama, they had a trials in the Kodokan. It was 26 minutes. I think it was 26 minutes it went. They were battling it out for 26 minutes.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
I touched on the danger, that danger of being thrown when you get hold of somebody or somebody gets hold of you. And I often reflect, I often talk about it when I'm commentating, you know, because I can see immediately. You know, it's easy, isn't it?
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
You know, if we're in the commentary chair or if you're in the coach's chair and you don't really understand totally, absolutely what's going on when you're being, somebody's being outgripped.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
And when they're in danger of being thrown, I mean, you know, if you're in danger of being thrown, the first thing you do is stick your backside out and defend by not being in the position they want you to be in. All right. And so that's danger. You know, you feel the danger. And so in Japan, that was the place I used to go to train because I felt the danger.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
And so my defenses would be heightened. Yeah. And so somebody that was, I went two years, one Olympic cycle, I went two years, two months without having a score on me in any competition. And then I went to one competition in the European Championships, which I won, and I was struggling all the way through it and got scored on three times in my pool of, you know, like my first pool of fights.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
And I was hungry and I was one of these young athletes and I see them so often now that was developing and, you know, full of, I won't say full of myself, but I was certainly confident of my ability and I wanted to conquer the world. And I'd had a couple of really tight matches with the current Olympic world champion.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Mm-hmm. And I was devastated. And I actually nearly lost the whole competition because I was more mortified about being scored on three times when I hadn't been scored on for two and a half years. I had this thing in my head about two and a half years. You know, and then all of a sudden, right, I'm not unbeatable. And then you just, and you go, and I was almost lost it, completely lost it.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
just so fortunate a couple of things went my way and just came out and i scraped and scratched my way to the final and won the final well all right but that was my best match but uh i almost lost it well what do you do with the fact that if you go to japan and you're getting you're saying danger like you're probably getting thrown getting thrown yeah man what's that do to your ego well again it's my you know that that was a winning ego that had to adapt
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
I remember we went to the Case Joe, which police dojo one time, and they wanted to see, they created this groundwork competition because they wanted to see me do the juji, like how I went in and how I, yeah, the armbar, right? They wanted to see how I did it from underneath or over the top. And you just, they created this event. So yeah, they started it.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
So, and then winner stays on competition was happening at the case, Joe. So I did about seven, I think it was seven in. And then my coach came in and said, no, it's finished. That's it now. It's finished. You know, suddenly we realized what was going on. And I was going, no, no, no, no. Don't stop it like that, you know.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
And it was one of those moments where, you know, the boot was on my foot, you could say, you know, rather than the other side, the other way. Because I had been to Japan in situations. I remember as a 16-year-old, I got such a drumming from one of the Japanese guys, older students. And he had a gold tooth. And so he was gold tooth to me, you know, and he was my nightmare.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
And I remember I kept coming out to fight him because he kept throwing me and I was crying and I was upset. And I was like, and then that was another occasion where I got dragged away. And I said, no. So I wanted to go back and fight him. And I went back to the same dojo every year to fight him. He was on my mind. Mm-hmm. Morning, noon, night, he was on my mind.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Gold tooth was on my mind, you know. Did you ever get him? Two years later, I was, two years to me from 16 to 18 was totally different. 18 years of age, I was pretty competitive with him. And it was like, you know, I was standing up with him. 19, he was in the groundwork competition.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Switch happened, you know, because I just... Well, because I remember getting the arm lock and... He didn't put it on immediately. I needed it to last. It had to last. So I spread it. The whole thing lasted as long as I could possibly get it. And it was a long memory as I was looking down at him.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
I don't know. I'm hoping that he remembers me. He has a photo of you. He probably doesn't say a thing about it.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
So I knew that there was a possibility that I could get there for the 80 Olympics. So building up to the 80 Olympics was quite interesting because I was kind of coming through the weights and I was halfway in between the 71 kilos weight category and the higher weight category of 78 kilograms.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
I think it is just something that doesn't happen at this level. We were talking about levels. And then at this level, it never happened. And then I went out in my first European cadet. And all of a sudden, I wasn't this top guy. I was in the mix. And then I had to work myself to the top of that mix. And then...
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
To the top of the next one, you know, because I went to the European Senior Championships and, you know, again, you're not the top and, you know, you work your way to the top of that. And I think it is a frustration, you know, but I think it's that kind of hatred of losing and also... Um, being out of control.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
I think that the first time, first senior European championships I fought, I fought Nevzorov, but he was only one of my contests. Then I had to fight a Frenchman for third place, but he totally outgripped me. And, um, and I remember I was more upset though I won the contest. I was more upset that he totally outgripped.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
out he did outgrip me and and i was more upset and then i fought him a year later and outgripped him all right so it was um it was one of those you know it was a learning process all the way through yeah that like frustration is like whatever that does to your your soul
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
They just... Yeah, there's world champions in the dojo. You know, there's people that never make it out. You know, I remember we were training, like, so... And everybody that goes to Japan... All my friends that have been world Olympic champions, they all know what I'm talking about.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
They know exactly who I'm – what I'm saying is that when we go to the dojos there, we all get thrown by people that never come out to be world champions. You know, they're just in the mix. Or they're going through three years of university and then they go – we had a guy – We had a guy that came in. He was a business guy. He came in with his suitcase and his briefcase like that.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
He's got his tie up like that. So he decides he's going to come in and he gets changed and he's in his lunch hour. He's in his lunch hour, right? So it's got to be quick.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
So he comes in and he goes through. He's working his way through the whole of the British team. We're all lined up, right? He's just working his way through the whole of the British team. And I knew it was my turn next. So I get hold of him and I throw him immediately. And then it was what we were talking about when it happens in the first few seconds of the practice.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
So then I had four minutes of him coming at me and I'm going up into the air and I'm twisting off and I'm like that. And then like everybody's laughing at the side of the map or the whole British team. He's gone through the whole British team. And then he, 10 minutes later, he's just tying his tie up like that, you know, and back to work.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Like, you know, imagine him sitting behind his desk and his computer.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
I'm glad he didn't get out.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
And I got third place at the 79 World Championships, the weight below, for the whole year at the higher weight category. Didn't lose a contest. So I'd beaten everybody in the world. And then I had to make a decision as to whether to drop weight. to the weight below because I was seeded in the weight below. It was a different seeding then.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Hopefully.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Kashiwazaki Sensei is my favorite of all favorites. He is what I would call a judo genius. I don't know if you can get him up here. Can we get him up? Yeah. So go into 1981 World Championships. And, uh, and I'll talk you through the great Kashima Zaki. He was one year, uh, in great Britain and he was, uh, he was a guy that was so much a genius. All right.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
So you want the final of the under 60, 65 kilograms there, the one at the top, this is him. He is, uh, two weight categories below my weight category that I won the world championships same year. I won it. So this is, it's not, I'm not sure if this is going to show his final of. This is a highlight. Watch this. This he did in the final of the world.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Yeah, and then he was on top for the Neuaze and renowned for his groundwork. And he was on top against a really strong Romanian guy, all right? So his transition was just phenomenal.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
So he's just showing you. So he does this coachy thing just to create space. Oh, wow. And it's his follow through into groundwork that is best of all. And then the Romanian, really strong, like I say, he'd gone all the way through to the final of the World Championships, winning most by Ipon, I think, the Romanian. And he's defending really, really well here. And you can see how persistent.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
He knows exactly what he wants. He's just got to get his leg out. Now, watch. He'll tie the arm up, and then he'll pull the top leg towards him. And then he'll push the bottom one off.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
With both feet. Always working. Always working. Readjust the balance. Still one leg trapped. Final of the World Championships. Good referee because he's refereeing something here that's happening, you know, that's going to decide as to whether. So he doesn't call it to stand it up at all. Watch him pull the top one now and he'll push the bottom one.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Calm. Pushes the bottom leg. Leg out. Job done. All finished. This is him again. Watch this. This is another technique that he does. And then just, again, sacrifice directly in. Directly into the Niwaza.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
In Judo.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Yeah, I mean, because we haven't got that long. I mean, we had more time here. They've just brought more time back. So we've got more time to transition in and to get the situation that we want and to get the attacking situation that we want. Because, you know, I remember I was teaching in America to some jujitsu guys and they were saying, oh, we'll never give you our back.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
And I said, with judo rules, certain situations... It happens that, you know, when we try and do throws where we're facing away from our opponent, you know, so like, for example, Cienagis, if they fail, then the back is there, you know, and that's how we get the back. And it's a different situation, you know, than going on your back in the guard situation. Totally different.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
And so I decided to drop into the weight below because I was seeded in the top four. And as it happens, I think it was probably the worst decision I made. Well, because, simply because, I mean, it was the only contest that I lost was the final of the Olympic Games in that year.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
No, because it would leave his back all the time, you know, if it failed. Yeah, if it failed. But he wouldn't have the same kind of grip on the judogi or the jiu-jitsu gi.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
And that's what he did. He learned the game. And I think that is credit to him. And that's why I was saying about wrestling, the wrestlers, I mean, we – Good to learn the judo and for what it is and the mechanics and how it works. And then learn the wrestling. I mean, I do the commentary as well for the freestyle and I will be at the Olympics for the freestyle and the Greco-Roman.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
And I love the freestyle. Absolutely love it. But freestyle is freestyle. Judo is judo. I like to see people doing judo.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Yeah, we've got some amazing crossovers with people like the Mongolians have come in, the Georgians. I mean, the Georgians do massive pickups and different techniques.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
And, you know, if you ask the fighters whether, you know, grabbing the legs, you know, a lot of them would say some of the wrestling styles, you know, the Georgians and the Mongolians might say, yeah, I'd like to be able to take the legs. But, you know, A lot of them just adapted. You get Iliadis, for example. He just adapted.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
So he thought, I'll take my arm over the top and I'll just rip him out the floor that way.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Yeah.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
And they figured it out like that.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
No, exactly.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
They're a different approach, different time scale to them, and they have a different way in. So ours comes from a standing position directly in. We've got a time scale on it. So we have to – like the catch. I always talk about the catch because in judo terms, if you don't get the catch immediately, then the referee won't see the transition in and also the –
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
continuation from plan a b c d you know if something builds so we have to build it and we uh we have to build it quickly and i think in jujitsu terms you have more time to build
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
You've got to show the progression, and that's why, you know, I always had a plan A, B, C. You see there with, you know, that was 1981 there. The great Kashima Zaki had – had a progression. You know, everything was, he knew exactly where he had to be. It was feel, you know, that wasn't by accident. It was, it was trained.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
And I think that that transition there and taking control of somebody's mistakes. So somebody might have made a mistake or not hit properly, or your defense has caused them to make a mistake and then you take advantage of it. And that, that is the difference. Yeah.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
It's that 10 second blast, isn't it? You know, it's, it's, it's like doing sprints all the time, you know, and that, that is really hard. And that's a special kind of condition you need and you need to be able to catch it and know when to go and when not to go. And I think also, I know I was going to ask you, you think it make a difference? I mean, certain, uh, jujitsu, uh,
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
I've got to say that it was the hardest because as I was going up, I was, you know, it was 73, then it was 74 kilos, 75. So I was moving through the weight category. It wasn't like I was stuck in the middle and then I dropped the odd time to compete. It was literally going up in weight by a kilo every month. And then by the time I came to a month or two before the Olympics, it was really hard.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
you can't just throw yourself on your back, you know, into the guard. You have to throw into the situation, you know what I mean? So you have got, I mean, I know Roger Gracie, he decided that he was going to learn judo. He saw the importance of being able to throw for the transition in. And so he came to the Budokai and he was learning off Ray Stevens and, you know, they were doing really a lot.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Yeah.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Amazing, isn't it? But he has about a thousand ways in.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
I think there's the power element as well, you know, that you don't realize how, you know, when somebody's directed in a particular way, then you have that kind of element of absolute power. You can only feel like when Roger's doing a technique. I think that you would only feel it if he did it on you, you know, then you can feel it.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
It's not something that happens, you know, like, so tricks is one thing, but actually being able to do something really well From a power point of view, you know, it's like you say, he only does those few things, but he does them really, really, really well.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
It's about, it's about weight distribution and change of balance. You know, a lot of people don't realize that there's huge changes of balance on the ground. Massive, you know, you know what it's like. I mean, you know, you're a jujitsu man and, and, you know, the detail of the techniques is what really interests me.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
You know, I mean, I'm always looking small ideas, you know, I'm always looking at the jujitsu and I just, it fascinates me. You know, I would have done jujitsu for sure, but I wouldn't have forgotten the, the judo way in to the techniques. You know what I mean? I think that you've got to differentiate the two, but I would have, I would have loved the jujitsu. I would have absolutely loved it.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
But it wasn't as prominent then. Where the nawaza came from, it came from a mistake, me getting beaten in a particular contest. And I went, I'm not going to be beaten again on the ground.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
The phoenix rises. Well, it was 1978, and it wasn't a mistake. It was a particular movement, and I was fighting weight up from my normal weight. But I'm... Stayed in the same position for one second too long, got caught. Choked? Sangaku, yeah. Triangle. Triangle. Wow. And I said, literally, just the same as I said to you when I said, I'm not going to drink anymore.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
I came off and I said, I'm never going to get caught on the ground again. Yeah, never going to lose on the ground ever again. And I never lost in my whole competitive career again.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
But it's not part of the game, is it? The pin, it's submission.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Fought the European Championships at the higher weight category and won that. And so everybody that was on the Olympic rostrum at the Olympic Games was on my rostrum at the European Championships. So... Was it a mistake? Yeah, because I didn't have my diet sorted out. My nutrition was appalling. And when I, you know, it wasn't as kind of readily available as it is now for the nutrition.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
I'm sure I was being set up at one stage by one of the Graces. And that was when he was winning all the matches. But he came with a couple of the cousins to one of my seminars. Yeah. And he was one of the first ones, wasn't he, that... And that's how I love to see the kind of UFC because it was different martial arts, different skills.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
And, you know, I mean, he'd get close and he'd just choke them out or arm lock them or, you know, arm bar them. And that was brilliant. You know, that was, for me, that was a revelation. That was how I saw it.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Yeah. I think one of the biggest things... for the judoka is we've never you know there's no strikes and uh i think that's the biggest um shock if you wish you know that when you get yeah punched in the face you get punched in the face and and and you're not used to that you know that's that's not what we're used to
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Whatever, you know, she decides. I mean, Ronda as well, you know, whatever they decided to do, they're great athletes. Yeah. They hate losing. I don't know anybody that hates losing more than those two. They don't like it.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
I always wanted to train harder than anybody else. I still train now every day. If I don't train, do something. I do an hour of my physical work, and I still go on the mat a little bit. I'm 65 now, so I'm not doing really heavy stuff on the mat. But I still liked to train. And when I was 21, 20, up to 30, I was one of the best trainers.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
But, you know, Jimmy Pedro was one of the best trainers as well. He was one of the – he's one of your dream athletes. You know, when Jimmy Pedro steps through your door – And he was just a kid, you know, he was just young when he stepped through my door. And I had a lot of full-time trainers. So I had up to 20 really good athletes that were training hard. And I only wanted hard trainers.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Give me 10 that trained hard rather than your one prima donna that, you know, you're skillful, the one that… I wanted 10 or 20 really hard trainers because you can do so much with them. You can make champions. You can make them world champions. If you've got somebody that was a special talent and they wanted to work hard, then you had a special athlete.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
And I would say that if anything lost me that final, other than the fact that I was fighting somebody who was terrific, you know, he was an excellent, brilliant athlete. But it definitely didn't help that my nutrition was not very good.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Yeah, when the going gets tough, and I think that was him. He had a special mentality, and the thing is, you see, when you got him in your dojo, All right. Even when you're tired, when somebody's tired and when, you know, what an example to the others. So he'd pull the other ones in as well, you know.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
So I had somebody that when everybody was tired and everybody was sick of it and everybody just wanted to, you know, and he'd still be there, you know, so they had to do it. So that was, for me, a win-win. So I had all the Americans, actually. I had Bobby Berland, and I had Michael Swain, and I had Ed Liddy, and I had them all coming to visit me at different times. Jimmy was there.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
They wanted to be the best. In the end, we had such a great club atmosphere. They wanted to come for the hard work. Mm-hmm. And they knew that if they came, they were going to be dragged out and we were going to do physical training. And it was physical training like they hadn't done before. But it wasn't just physical training. It was the judo and the skill side of it as well.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
And so I always had a great empathy with the U.S., Team, Olympic team. So a lot of your Olympic medalists have been through with me. And so I'm proud of that because we had some great times. And they're still great mates now. And so in New York, in a couple of weeks' time, I'm going to have everybody who's going to be there. They're all coming in.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Twice a day. So we do the preparation training, we do the running, we do the weight training, we do the skills in the morning as well. The skills is for me, one of the biggest advantages that any full-time trainers can have. Because what happens is, is that with most clubs, you're trying to fit everything into that hour and a half or two hours.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
You know, you fit your skills, you fit your physical training and your sparring and your, you know, everything's in there all grouped in. So the biggest advantages of having a full-time group is that you can split your skills and your skills lay your foundation. So the biggest advantage is being able to work specifically on things without having to worry about getting to work.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
don't do your free, you know, your randori or your sparring, or then you've got to go back for, you just do the skills.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
All those things about doing your repetition practice, making sure the repetition's correct. There's good repetition.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
And getting it moving. So one of the biggest, most important things is getting it moving. If we do something static, again, it's that static target. You need to get it moving. So you need to do a repetition and also you need to do a correct repetition because if you're doing a hundred repetitions that are not correct...
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
And repetition's under pressure, too much pressure, without somebody overseeing those skills to make sure that you correct the skills. Because if you're doing a skill, if you're doing it 99 times incorrectly, all right, then repetition doesn't make perfect. Repetition makes permanent. So you've got to make it as perfect as you possibly can.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
So actually, that skills group there is the most important thing. And what I used to do is oversee it. So I'd oversee it to make sure that it was done properly.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
I'll give you an example. Jimmy Pedro. Jimmy was one of the hardest when he was 19 years of age, right? So I was always asking me to practice, always. So he's always on me all the time. So I do groundwork with him. Could I put him on his back? No. I was all on him and he'll tell you, you know, but he just wouldn't go. He was going to be great without a doubt, all right?
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
So I wanted everybody on with him. Everybody. So everybody went on with him, you know, and so they only improved their game and it improved him. And then with, you know, small technical things that have stayed with him that we were doing with the Jujigatami that was passed on to Kayla and then gone on, you know, to Rhonda.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
And it's all small things that I can see sometimes that, you know, it's passed on.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Yeah, and he does it differently.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
It makes no sense. Other than it's every technique starts with the hands. So it's what we call Kazushi. And, you know, you're pulling somebody off balance, getting them moving, pulling them off balance. Tayatoshi means body drop. So it's basically two legs across your partner's body.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
I've got my back to you, all right, and I've already pulled you off balance with my hands, and then I'm going to just flex my legs up just as you're coming onto my back, and then you're going to go over. If I coordinate it all right, if it doesn't get coordinated right, then you're going to come right on my back and try to rip my arm off. So, yeah, I've got to get it right.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
I think that none of the fights lasted time going into the final, you know. So I won fairly quickly, and every match by Ippon, you know, way before time.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
The hands start every technique. So getting the repetition right, first of all. So to get the repetition right, you need a good partner. So actually training your partner to react in the right way is just as important as learning the throw. So actually what happens is, you know, we could get a lesson of beginners. We teach the throw and then go, right, off you go.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
And 90% of them will get it wrong because their partner's not reacting in the right way. So half of it is to get the person to react correctly. as they should. So if I was doing it with you, you and I, first thing I teach you to do is to react the way I want you to react. And then I'd react the way that you want me to react. All right.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
So then we'd have success with it rather than you leaning back in the wrong way or resisting or frightened you going over. So, you know, so actually that's why nine times out of 10 people get the technique wrong.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
I won them by throw, a couple of throws for Ippon, and then an armlock for Ippon. Semi-final was an armlock against the East German, Kruger. And, yeah, just I was flying through, you know.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Yeah, you have to develop between, you know, I always had training partners that I trained with up to each Olympic Games and we worked together, we did the skills together and then we worked together in order to make techniques work. And we got it moving as quickly as we could. And one of the worst things that I see is, and I see a lot of YouTube stuff with coaches. Here we go.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Don't even start me on that. Don't even start me on that. But, you know. You're laughing because you know what I'm talking about, right?
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Yeah. Well, you know, the coaches and their clipboard guys, you know, with the clipboards and the stopwatches and, you know, they got these kids running up and down the mat and then doing – of something that's technically incorrect, you know, 10 times and then running up and doing another 10 at the other side, you know, and actually mixing everything together and it's just a mess.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Just a technical mess.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Probably ran too much. You know, when I was a kid, if I could go back now, I wouldn't run as much. And I ran hard and I ran strong. And I remember doing London Marathon one time and... I said, I'm never going to do it again. I said, never. But I ran, you know, and I was trying to – the problem was when I did the London Marathon is I was trying to beat three hours.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
It's totally insane, you know. It was insane. And I went out through half marathon in what I thought was a good time. Anyway, I got to 16, 17 miles and totally blew. So you went out too fast. Yeah, I went out too fast.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
I died. Absolutely. Just. I died. I got in. I crossed the line. I remember seeing this bridge over there, right? And the bridge, it was the finishing line over the bridge. And I had to get there. It was the longest bridge I've ever, ever walked over. It was like walk, run. So I got over the bridge and I took one step over the line like that.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Taitoshi Uchimata, my favorite kind of takuwaza, my favorite throws. And then Jujikatami as well, which was a Jujikatami roll against an East German who I'd beaten before, but always had a really tough match, but managed to beat him well.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
And there was a guy over there and he was trying to rush everybody through, you know, and he was going, come on, come on, come on. There was people behind you. Get your hands off me. I said, get your hands off me now. Because we're going to fall out. And I couldn't move. I couldn't move. I was white.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
I did. I got over there. And Donald Duck passing me was a telltale.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Donald Duck, yeah. But the thing was, I still crossed over 3.38. I crossed over 3.38, but I lost 38 minutes in the last four miles.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
So anyway, I would do the running a little bit differently, but we ran hard. We did the weight training. We did good weight training. It was all conditioned. So, I mean, it was never the same training all the time. So it was always we'd have certain phases building up. It was scientifically done. It wasn't just out there, run, weight training, judo, same judo all the time.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
It was always pretty scientific. Good variety. It was a good variety, and it had buildup, and it had a speed phase, and it had a power phase, and it had, you know, like a base condition.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
A lot. So the most important thing for me, I mean, I see now that there's a lot of people out there that are not getting enough Randori. They're not rendering enough. And there's a lot of sports science people, and they're running, and they're weight training, and they're doing it all to death. And there's not enough judo.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
And the only ones, you know, like you have a look at some of the Eastern Bloc countries that are getting together. They're having these mass camps. And... The Japanese, they have, you know, just massive people that they can do. They're doing probably 50, 60 randerers a week. Wait, what? 50 or 60 a week. Wow. The average person is getting together.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
I mean, when I was doing randerers, when I went to Japan, it was just purely for 60 randerers a week.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
So they were five minutes then. They're four minutes now.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Well, you can do it in Japan because it's fairly light. If they throw you, they throw you. You throw them.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Different in Korea. Korea was harder. It was more physical. So you couldn't do 50 randerers in Korea. You'd die. Yeah. So you'd do 30. Wow. But you need the randerer. And so I chased the randerers. So I chased them into training camps. I traced them all over my country. So I was getting 40 to 50 a week in my club. And then I would go to training camps and add more.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
And I honestly don't think that they do enough now. A lot of countries.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Yeah, sparring.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Goldtooth is pretty horrific.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
I got him in the end. And yeah.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Great training partners. I remember with Nishida and Nishida was, I mentioned him earlier. said he was one of the best. I mean, he was just such a great technician. So I would go there to his dojo and he'd ask me to practice. And he'd always, he'd finish the practice and you know that he would always say another one, we'll do another one, right?
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
So you'd go, yeah, because you had to make out that you weren't that bothered that you had to do another one. So you do another one back to back and then he goes sometimes, let's do another one. So you'd end up doing 15 minutes with the same guy who could possibly throw you at any time, you know, and that was hard, you know. But I remember those particular guys and there were plenty of those.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
And I think that that was the great thing about having certain... European training camps were more physical. So I remember that we would have... European training camps where you'd fight Germans and then the Dutch and then the French and then the Russian. You'd have all sorts of different styles and people there to fight.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
And that was something then you'd have to dig in at a different place, come out of there.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Competition, it's happened. You know, so sometimes you go past where your forearms are absolutely blown. I remember the final of Czech Games. tournament that we had and fought a Frenchman in the final. And my forearms were so blown I couldn't shake his hand, you know. And then I remember they were solid, absolutely solid, and they had lactic acid in them.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Like I say, taking nothing away from him as a great athlete and a brilliant judo man. And left, which wasn't good for me. That was definite no, because I hated fighting lefties. Still do. But I'll tell you why in a minute.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
And I remember I stood on the rostrum and they were giving me things and I couldn't grip them properly. So I was saying, put it under my armpit or, you know, chin, like that, like that. Trying to hold this. I couldn't hold anything, you know. And so there are times when I really had to go really deep.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
I remember fighting two East Germans the same day, one of the competitions and the number one and the number two East Germans. And that was another day where I had to really dig deeper.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Yeah. And we have golden score now, you know, so we, we see a lot of guys, you know, that going into golden score and they've done one contest of four minutes and then they go another four minutes. And then, you know, we've had some go into a third, four minutes. This is all back to back. It might be in the first round.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
It might be in the final, you know, and we've got some now that are coming out and you can see the stats and the, the ones that winning golden score. So we got a Japanese Hashimoto. He's the Japanese representative. And now, uh, instead of Ono, because Ono's finished. So Hashimoto's coming out. He was in a tournament last week.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Yeah, just have a look at him. So Hashimoto's in white here, all right? And there's a great example there. Well, I'm glad we got onto that, you know? So, I mean, he has got great technique, Hashimoto.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
There's the tai toshi, all right? So you can see exactly what we're talking about there. Great timing there. And again, you know, sometimes he backs them up to the edge and then he'll wait for them to come back in towards they don't want to step out to get a penalty.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Yeah, cross grip, different grips. Oh, great examples there. Just what we were talking about.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
So he's going to be their representative at 73 kilograms. Look at him, back him up again. And again, just catching him as he pushes back.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Yeah, action-reaction at his best there. And a slight change of direction. He sometimes goes down onto his knee there, which is siatoshi. It turns from taiatoshi, which is springing up, to siatoshi that's going down.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
It's one of those. But I think... As I went through the contest, we had an eight-hour break from the semifinal to the final. They took us back to the Olympic Village. Then we had to come back in, and then we had to start a warm-up again. So I kind of lost my momentum. I had to start again, and I didn't. I had a job to get going.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Yeah, this is him at his best, showing him doing what he does best. But he had to go three times into golden score last week. And dig deep. and lost one of them, I think.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Yeah, you know what? I realize that if I'm a miserable git, then she'll get me into the gym. And the thing is that I'm better if I get in there for an hour and I just do something. At least 30, 35 to 40 minutes cardio, and then I do some weights and more high repetitions. It's not so much heavy weights now, but more functional stuff.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Well, you know, during COVID, they closed all the gyms, but we were still going out. We were one of the first ones out. The judo was some of the first out. The competitions were behind closed doors. So we were in the hotel. The gym was closed, so we couldn't use the gyms. So we had to look for other ways that we could work out. So most of the hotels that we were in were high-rise hotels.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
So we were in the steps. We were doing the steps right the way up, you know. So I started it, and so I started off with me going up, and then one or two of the others and the referees started to go up with me. Yeah. So in the end, we'd have this trail of people going up the steps and down, and every place we went to, we had the steps. So, yeah, that was an interesting situation.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
So we were sick of steps in the end.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
If you put 10 people in a room and said, right, get on with it, you'd have mayhem, right? And I think that Whatever sport you're doing, you need good instruction, good teaching, and a good club atmosphere. You know, somewhere that's not so intense that winning is the only thing. And I think that if you look at 90% of the people that practice martial arts are doing it for pleasure.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
So they want to get pleasure. So you need a club that's got a bit of a mixture. You know, they've got a direction to go into competition if they want. And then the rest, it's for fun and to enjoy it, but with really good instruction. Because with really good instruction and a good foundation and a good base, you get more enjoyment because you have more success.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
And let's be honest, the more success we have with something, the more we like it.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Great teaching is so important.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
I think that with most, I mean, you do hear, don't you, you know, if somebody's been doing judo for eight years and then they're in, and I think it happened, one of the French, Chameo, she went to the Olympic Games in 2012 and she'd been doing judo for eight years. But then she started to lose, you know, so she had a relative success early on. The Olympics was one of them. She got a silver medal.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
I got halfway through, started to rescue a dying match, and I was kind of one step, half a step behind all the way through. So I never really got into it.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
But then she went off the boil and then she came back and now she's been there for, she's still competing. And she's been there for well over 13 years at the very top. So I think that any foundation, it's like anything, if you lay a really solid foundation, generally it lasts longer.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
I think technique, you get away with murder. With technique, you can get away with having bad condition. I mean, you get found out in the end. But you can go out and you can win certain things by doing really nice technique. But I think if you've got the mixture, if you've got the whole package, then you can go the whole way.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
I think some of the Paris tournaments. are amazing because the crowd, they're there. You know, they're on the mat. They're all judoka. They're well-educated to the sport. Every time somebody twitches, you know, they're very biased towards their own, which is kind of what you expect. But, you know, sometimes I haven't been able to hear myself speak. And that's very unusual.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
You know, you've got headphones on and you're blocked out, you know, like sometimes Teddy Renner has been walking out there and the crowd are going crazy and they're on their feet, you know, when somebody twitches and, you know, and then you get the crowd silences. We had one of those last week. Everybody's cheering their man, and then bang, their man goes over.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
And of course, we were commentating. We were going, that was a bit of a crowd silencer. But yeah, that happens.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
And there's always surprises. Paris is great. In Japan, for the Olympic Games, the biggest surprise was Ono getting beaten in the team event. Now, Ono's the greatest judo man, pound for pound, probably one of the best. And he won the Olympic title. And then they went into the team event against France.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
And Ono lost to a, he's not run-of-the-mill German, but the German, you know, it wasn't certainly Olympic title-esque. And beat Ono.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Yeah, it's fascinating.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
And they'll be the team to beat, French team, because they have the best balance of the weight categories. They have the best balance with their people that are world and Olympic champions and qualified men and women. So three men, three women. They have the best balance out of anybody.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Well, you know, the thing is about a lefty is a lefty will have more opportunity to fight righties, you know, right-handers. Because, I mean, 70% of the population are right-handers, 30% left. So they get to fight more right-handers. And it's just a fact, you know, that happens. So the thing that they hate is fighting left against left. They don't like it left against left.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Educated audience, home ground.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
It's going to be mad. It's going to be super fun. It will be super fun.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Yeah.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
I get nervous. I get nervous.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Played over and over.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
And I find that, you know, with mine, I'm now a little bit more careful, you know, so I'll celebrate a massive throw and then have empathy to the one that's been thrown, you know, because it's not the best feeling in the world. Yeah. Especially in Olympic finals. Yeah. Can you imagine that? Yeah. Must be terrible.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Just reflecting. So, no, I have a bit of empathy there. And I just, I try and say the right things because they always do come up to me and say, you commentated my fights.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
No pressure.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Thank you for having me. And it's just been an honor to be here with you.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
Whereas a right-hander will go right against right. But the opposite is awkward for me because just simply I like to go onto the sleeve and then I like to dominate the grips. But the actual angle of the opponent wasn't what I wanted. So I had to work really hard against it.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#427 – Neil Adams: Judo, Olympics, Winning, Losing, and the Champion Mindset
It was a split decision in the end. And so to lose an Olympic final on a split decision is pretty, you know, it's something that's still on my mind. And, you know, I think that it's a strange one because I can still wake up that one and four years later at the Olympics because I was silver medalist at the Olympics four years later as well. And yeah, it still haunts me.