At first glance, it’d be hard to tell, but 96-year-old Yosh Uchida has more than 70 years of coaching judo champions under his belt with many of his protégés hailing from San Jose State University.
Two of his students are especially well-known: judo Olympic qualifiers, Marti Malloy and Colton Brown, whom the elderly coach is watching from courtside seats in Rio for the 2016 games.
Malloy, who has trained with Uchida since 2005, lost to Lien Chen-ling of Chinese Tapaei on Monday causing her to be eliminated from the competition. Although this was an unexpected loss for Malloy, this moment only underscores Uchida’s philosophy – “It’s not about winning; it’s about being a good person.”
After Malloy lost, San Jose State released a statement saying, “SJSU is proud of Marti. She exemplifies what we would like for all of our students, the opportunity to compete at the highest levels and to do so with grace and humility.”
Uchida is not only a judoka – a judo expert – but he is a master of humility, a trait he tried to impart to students like Malloy over his years of coaching.
Many will find the wrinkled and calm judoka taking strolls around the university campus often with a smile on his face. Uchida is a soft-spoken man, who despite his numerous titles and awards as a judoka, remains focused on passing on his knowledge of the sport to others.
During judo practice, Uchida is anything but an overbearing coach, in fact, he doesn’t yell or even say much – he just observes his students.
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“You have to understand that they have dedicated themselves, they’ve worked hard and they’ve learned from their mistakes. I don’t like to interfere a lot, “ Uchida said. “My method of judo is a little bit different from somebody else.”
That difference is about not necessarily nailing the technique and winning the match. For the Japanese-American, it’s about gaining an understanding of his ancestors’ culture.
For his students, that plays out in simple but important lessons.
In an interview with Team USA, Brown, who Uchida has been coaching for six years, said his coach is constantly reminding him to be patient and the value of getting an education. Uchida pushed him to work on being a full-time athlete and student at San Jose State while training for the Olympics.
Malloy, on the other hand, told Team USA in August the biggest lesson she learned from Uchida was humility, among judo techniques of course.
Despite having experienced racism during WWII and even after earning a degree in biological science, Uchida never stopped trying to succeed. He built San Jose State judo program in the 1960s and had several other side businesses.
He also contributed to the division of judo into seven weight classes for men and women, he is responsible for organizing the first National Collegiate Judo Championship, and he was the first person to coach the U.S. judo team at the 1964 Tokyo Games.
When asked about all his great accomplishments, Uchida doesn’t boast. Even while training inside the building that bears his name.
“Everybody just says, ‘Wow, are you Yoshihiro Uchida?” he recounted. “The one the buildings named after?’ and I just smile and say, ‘Yeah!’”
