Judo Throw: When Evasion Is More Beautiful

When Evasion Is More Beautiful Than The Judo Throw

In Judo you cannot score against someone that lands on their front. So to that end, one of the things that I get my Judoka to practice is a spin around Mae Ukemi (forward Breakfall). This is where Tori holds onto Uke's hands and leans back until they can no more and they let go and spin around into a Mae Ukemi. Tori is in complete control as Uke is entrusted not to let go until Tori does.

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I always start my students out using a crash mat as there is a lot of potential to land on shoulders until it is masted.

Incredibly Useful To Any Competitive Judoka

This is incredibly useful to any competitive Judoka as you will see from the video below

There is another exercise that involves doing cartwheels on your elbows and spinning out but I was never able to master it myself and could not get any of my students to be able to do it either. But I am told it is also useful.

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My son when he was competing did an amazing flip of the back of his opponent who was trying Ippon Seio Nage on him the result of the flip was a reversal of the throw and my son won. I was always under the impression that this was spontaneous, as I discussed in my posts Why Shouldn't Judo Be More Gymnastic?. But in recent months I was discussing this move of his and he informed me that he had spent weeks perfecting it with one of my fellow black belts.

Any question about the value of this kind of practice is flatly dispelled when you look at the video below.

The lesson here is that if you are a Judo competitor you should be finding ways to practice landing on your front.

Enjoy
Sensai
Richard