The Support Foot

        Your throw's success or failure depends upon the position of your support foot.        

 Fix the foot! 

    The support foot is the foundation of all throws. If I watch you do a throw that isn't working, the first thing I look at is your support foot placement. That is the primary problem the vast majority of the time. It might be only one of more, but unless it's fixed, nothing else is going to matter; and if it is fixed, it can often go a long way toward fixing the other concerns. 

     A misplaced support foot destroys kuzushi. Kuzushi works in concert with the placement of your support foot. If they are not in harmony, the kuzushi vanishes. 

     The support foot is the place from which power is driven as the throw goes from tsukuri to kake. It is also the place where tori's body is initially correctly positioned to maintain balance throughout all parts of the throw's progression. 

     Try this. Do a right hand o-goshi just up to the point of beginning the kake, the lift and rotate. Lift up your left foot. You will discover that bringing uke over is close to impossible. Lift up your right foot, however, and your left leg will drive the throw successfully. All throws have a dominant power leg, even those that seem to have both feet evenly on the ground. 

     Every throw has a place where that power foot should be. You probably know the spot. Then along comes randori and the foot just doesn't get there. 

• The first step into a throw is the last step of walking. That sets up the ability to put the support foot where you want it.
• In uchikomi and nage komi, focus on that spot for every repetition.
• In randori, try to make this be the main thing you do. Forget about the rest of the throw (assuming you know it to some degree of familiarity).

     This becomes both the simplest and the most challenging of fixes. It's your foot! Unless uke has a prehensile tail reaching down and controlling it, you can put it anyplace you want. However, you must do more than simply "want" to. There are reasons you are putting it in the wrong place. We don't need to examine them. They are gremlins, and you cannot kill them with wishful thinking. We have to know they exist powerfully and they always try to return.

    Gremlin killer: Single-Minded Uchikomi and Single-minded Moving Uchikomi

    Gremlins don't just go away. They have to be intentionally and totally destroyed. Knowing a needed fix and saying, "Oh, okay. I'll fix that" won't. I've seen gremlins seem to be conquered, be gone for months, then return with a vengeance. I've also seen someone fix a problem on the spot, and then half an hour later it returns. You sometimes hear a judoka, often a sensei, say, "In judo, your toughest opponent is yourself." It's almost a shrug-it-off cliché. Support foot gremlins are among those personal opponents. 

     Practice makes permanent. Be careful, because this also means that while doing uchikomi to correct your foot placement, any mistakes you are making elsewhere in the practice will become more concrete. All too often, uchikomi becomes a mindless repetition of what we think the throw should be, and we make bad technique more permanent. 

        This is why single-mindedness is important. Perhaps the most challenging part of learning any physical skill is focus. There are separate methods out there to supposedly help you concentrate better. Here's one you might like. In uchi komi, have uke say "Foot!" to you before each entry. Also, if uke knows where you are trying to put your foot, uke can tell you if you are getting off target. If you don't have an uke doing it, do it yourself.

    Often, when watching a high level Japanese training session, the uchikomi features a strongly stomping first foot step by all the trainees. I recommend doing the stomp. 

     More Than Just a Spot

    Support foot placement is more than just a place on the mat. Correct placement also means the direction in which the toes point. Uchi mata and sasae tusurikomi ashi are special examples of toe misdirection, along with position error. FYI - Study how they are done in Nage no Kata. Look at the support foot, where it is and the angle its big toe points relative to the central action of the throw. If you don't do kata, then watch a world class demonstration and see it that way. Actual experience is a highly preferred way to appreciate this.

    In right uchi mata, at kake, the support toes should point to what would be tori's front, not to tori's right. In practice, an even larger turn of the support foot to the left is recommended, because that will compensate for when the foot tries to point to the right.  

    In sasae, the support foot should be outside of uke's non-propped foot line and the toes pointed inward, not on a line parallel to what would be the "railroad tracks". 

    In both cases, the Nage no Kata foot placements are excellent examples.  

        Uchi Mata             

                 

                                                        Sasae Tsurikomi Ashi

(The purpose of these illustrations is to show placement angles. As to specific, exact, spot on placements, let's please not quibble.)

    Another common foot flaw

        Flat footed endeavors cause the knees to be vertically back (behind) the toes, and they should be on a dropline position ahead of them. Flat footedness also takes away final lifting and rotation action, which in turn eliminates a couple of dynamic inches of vertically forward thrust. Almost all, if not all throws should put tori in a position at tsukuri to kake where the knees are in front of the toes, the chest in front of the knees, and the nose in front of the chest. Any other position creates physical counter leverage. 

    Watch it Done Right

          Watch the successful judoka in your own dojo, or look on the Internet. 

Sadly, there will not likely be any discussion of foot placement. The best throws are those that require no hopping and no head diving. If a hop works it is too often because of an eventual and unintentional correct support foot placement during the hopping. Or, it succeeds because it wins by attrition. Head dives are a compensation for a lack of many bio-physical throwing essentials, and chief among them is support foot placement. Many judoka practice doing head diving throws, and this is a subject for another blog. My personal opinion is that the online high level competition judo coverage glorifies it. For now, suffice it to say that this sensei considers this dangerous and bad judo. Rolling over on uke when the throw is so dynamic that the momentum forces this, that is okay. Using head diving to make the kake work is not. 

In Randori

    A major objective of randori should be to work on things that need improvement. Here's an idea. Get someone to video your next few randori sessions from your knees on down and watch to see where you put your support foot for each attack. Look for nothing else. Isolate. For best results, be sure your sessions have several attacks. 

    Also, try this. Rather than have a specific throw in mind, just have a specific foot placement in mind, and let the throw follow. 

        It's Your Foot - Train it

    Sometimes, it seems our feet have little contrarian brains of their own. They just do what they want to do, no matter that you know better. You are unlikely to achieve total foot control quickly, because this is a gremlin that keeps wanting to come back tenaciously. Be master of your own feet. 

    We should never have to say, "I can't do this throw!"

    "Why not"

     "My foot won't let me."

      If ever your throw is admired by another judoka and you are asked your secret, you can smile slyly and say, "It's simple. I trained my foot." (Do not add "Grasshopper" to your reply.)