Judo and Life

Yoko-Shiho-Gatame Escapes As Used in The Katame-No-Kata

Here we see Yoko-Shiho-Gatame escapes as used in the Katame-No-Kata except they are fully executed. If ever you have seen or done Katame-No-Kata you know that Uke is supposed to attempt three escapes before they tap to indicate that the hold is genuinely on. But most, if not all books on that kata are vague at the very least, as to what escapes you should attempt.

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If you compare the video of the Kata and the video of the escape, you can see clearly that the escapes used in the video are the same ones attempted in the Kata video. This is of course very helpful if you are doing the Kata but what about competition?

Well well, all three are actually very effective and honestly apart from just pushing Tori (in this case the one on top) away, every other escape is a variation of these three. So effectively these are the only three escapes from Yoko-Shiho-Gatame.

The first escape has some points of note:

I am not sure that once you had the person on top in the head lock that the hold would be considered broken.

It may depend on the referee. So it is worth not sitting on your lorals and doing something else once you are in the headlock posisiton.

You can extend the first hold escape into an armlock

There are several avalible from this position or if in the trows of the struggle you other leg becomes free you can put it over the person on top's back and add to the leverage.

You can try and turn the headlock into a strangle using your legs

This may sound easier than it is becasue your leg is resonabley large and there is a good chance that you will be encircleing your opponents chin and not their neck.
This may result in a penalty.