Kodokan Judo Throwing Techniques – Tai Otoshi

Saturday, the 20th of February 2010, I taught my first clinic.

We started at 9:15 a.m. or so, waiting in hopes of more attendees, but alas it was not to happen. Two students, Eddy and Rolando, decided to sacrifice their Saturday to learn how to do my favorite throw a little better. And learn they did!

A little digression is necessary before we really begin this post. The United States Judo Association and the United States Judo Federation are working together to develop grassroots judo in the United States. One of the programs they are developing is the Modern Kodokan Throwing Techniques Certification Program. Basically the nut of this program is to increase a judo student’s understanding of how to apply the techniques they have learned in a dynamic, rather than static, environment. In order to best accomplish this mission, they have adopted Daigo-sensei’s book Kodokan Judo Throwing Techniques as the manual. Daigo-sensei’s book is an excellent resource and explicitly details how to perform the throws.

The digression is over, on to the meat of this post!

We started the day with the usual ukemi, back, right- and left-side, zempo kaiten, just to get the blood moving a bit in a judo exercise. The usual ukemi was followed by the ukemi that uke should perform when Tai otoshi is performed properly. That was a bit confusing for Eddy and Rolando, though they picked up on it rapidly enough.

Eventually we began the building blocks of Tai otoshi, beginning with the proper foot placement and hand movements. I’m not going to reveal my secrets to teaching this throw online, but if you have questions, feel free to e-mail (sensei at roswell-judo dot org). Starting with the Tai otoshi stretch we began to understand how our feet were to be placed and the feeling it develops in our lower bodies. Once in the stretch, we began to work our hands in the appropriate motions for the kake action of our throw.

Finally, we were ready to practice Tai otoshi the way we knew how and work to improve it so we could really learn the dynamic applications of Daigo. Initially all of the throws thrown were standard but not good. After working on them for half an hour, we moved to randori. The randori was light one-for-one randori, but the attacks for the throws were not good enough to be of real use in shiai. When randori ended it was time for lunch. I admonished Eddy and Rolando to read the handouts provided so they could see what was to come.

The afternoon session consisted of the three variants discussed by Daigo-sensei in his book. First up was Sono Ichi, which is a standard variation of Tai otoshi, consists of withdrawing from uke and encouraging him to voluntarily withdraw setting him up for the throw. After forty-five minutes of practicing this, Eddy and Rolando’s Tai otoshi was light years ahead of where it was when we began the clinic.

Sono Ni, a cross-grip variation of Tai otoshi, took less time to practice to understanding, though there was some confusion about the placement of tori’s cross-gripped arm. Once the placement issue had been settled, the waza became very simple for the two to understand and perform.

Sono San, a variation where uke’s arms are crossed up, was a bit more difficult but much more devastating in application. The greatest bit of confusion in this technique is the proper gripping and encouragement of uke to attempt to remove the grip of tori which lets tori perform this variation. Once the proper gripping was understood, this variation came together so smoothly it quickly became the favored variant of Tai otoshi.

The last bit of teaching during this clinic was grip fighting. I’m not a big proponent of grip fighting, but it is necessary to perform these throws, especially considering the preference toward the last variation. To start the grip fighting we began with the basic “Climb the Rope” style of attaining the lapel. Once both were achieving the lapel consistently we moved to achieving a cross grip. Again this was similar in style to the “Climb the Rope” but with the opposite lapel as the goal. Finally, the goal was to achieve a single side, almost kenka yotsu, grip in preparation for Sono San.

By the end of the clinic both Eddy and Rolando were well on their way to being able to do this technique at will. Both are looking forward to the Southwest Championships in March to see how well they will do with this throw.

I didn’t forget the remainder of the Las Vegas clinic…I just can’t find the notebook right now!