True Tipping Point

            So, you'd like to throw like legendary Kyuzo Mifune.            

            Don’t mistake the following for theory. It is something that you need to apply to your randori, and that you perpetually practice.

If you want to throw somebody with a really great throw, the best option is a judo throw. Because, to just do a “throw” you could simply pick somebody up and throw them across the room. Or, you could heft the victim onto your side, then fall on them, dragging them down under you. Those aren’t judo throws. They are just throwing. 

A judo throw requires a tipping point, plus a fulcrum, over which the uke’s body rotates and causes uke to land on the back.  Shiai points can be gained by throws that aren’t technically judo throws, and far too often are. In fact, many pictures are taken of these as examples of “dynamic” judo. These are not the goals of a true judoka.

Watching judoka practice a throw and not have success often shows the major issue involving tipping points. A successful judo throw is an uninterrupted single action that contains three essential elements. What we see instead is tori stopping at the moment between what should be the tsukuri and the kake. Then, often, without any kuzushi in the action, some lifting power is brought into play, and in spite of the results, we no longer technically have a judo throw.

This tells us the throw attempt’s failure is due to either missing kuzushi or improper fulcrum point placement, often both.

If at this point you might be thinking, “Duh! Everybody knows this.” If so, then let’s ask why these things are a perpetual cause of throw attempt failures.

     Let’s digress. Take a glass and set it on a table. Nudge it closer and closer to the edge, until it is almost ready to fall off the table. There is a position at which the glass is on the table. If nothing changes, it will stay there forever. There is an almost immeasurable point where if the base of the glass is moved farther off the edge, or if the top of the glass is leaned over the abyss, the glass will fall. It won’t stay suspended in space. This is when the throw should happen, as irrevocably and instantly as the glass tumbling off the table. It should take place at the tipping point.

The continuous and contiguous action of the three elements has stopped at the moment when the third element should have begun. Often, at this point, the tori will make an extra physical effort to complete the throw. It could be bending forward at a ninety degree angle. It could be trying to lift the uke up off the mat. In randori or shiai, it could be head diving. It is no longer a judo throw, but just a throw done during a judo activity.

            When kuzushi meets tsukuri, the tipping point has happened and kake is in progress. There should be no discernable time between that moment of connection and the accomplished throw. It should be like stepping off a cliff.

All too often, this is where we see physical strength and / or added body bending happen.  Once into the actual kake, it can have its own problems, chief among them the discontinuation of the pulling hand. This all for later.

When doesn’t a tipping point tip? When the fulcrum point is not harmoniously conjoined with the movement of the off balanced object.

When watching a throw, we see the big action, the kake. When learning a throw, we get involved with the new architecture of it, the form. Kuzushi is mostly just pointed out and then demonstrated as a pull or a push in a certain direction. What we don’t see is that when kuzushi and tsukuri have a rendezvous, the throw is happening at that instant. The amount of time involved is zero. It is like stepping off that cliff. The tipping point has arrived and the result is kake. There are no pauses, no action breaks, no grunts, bends, butt thumps or face plantings. Uke is airborne. 

Kyuzo Mifune is considered the epitome of judo technique. There used to be a quip that if you blinked one eye while doing randori with him, you were off balance to that side. It is important to be familiar with the Mifune videos of his randori action and with his instructional videos.

At the risk of blasphemy, I am going to say that some of Mifune's throwing examples show bad form. If you try to copy his techniques and do the throw forms and the kake as he does them, you won't in these cases get good results. In spite of this, his throws are still amazing.

That is because his  judo throws are based upon his super mastery of kuzushi. He owns the tipping point.  The tipping point isn't wimpy. What is the ultimate tipping point? It is when the aforementioned glass on the table's edge is at the critical moment of tipping over, is going to go, unless something intercedes. In a judo throw, it does go, because a fulcrum point is what shows up to create the rotation.

If you will stand on the very top of your tippy-toes of your right foot, I will throw you with any front right throw I want, and you won't be able to stop me. If you can step forward, I haven't shown up in time. If you can plant your foot back down, I didn't perpetuate the pull. Here is Mifune showing the kuzushi for ashi guruma. He isn't exaggerating. This is what he actually does.

    Uke is one straight line, from big toe to top of the head. Look at uke's left foot and leg. They no longer can play any part in uke's defense. Uke is like a pencil balanced on its point.

    Here, Kosei Inoue is teaching his famous uchi mata. This is his idea of how the kuzushi should look, and what he does to make his work. You can watch it all at  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lu9hhbuOb-U

 

    This throw is over. Your kuzushi must be this blatant. You will have to be able to show up with the speed and timing such that uke cannot recover. However, if you only show up with speed and power, it is likely you will not get a throw.

To Practice:

• Select your throw and know what direction is its off-balancing goal.

• Create a major tipping point and maintain it.

• Step in and do the throw, without losing the tipping point.

• Walk around and try to figure out how to create that tipping point.

    If you watch Mifune, Inoue or other great throwers in action, you'll see that they use a pre-established pattern of set-up steps prior to application of kuzushi.

If you don't establish kuzushi, don't do the rest of it. Not to be too blunt, but if you don't establish kuzushi, there isn't any "the rest of it". 

Here is a bonus tip. The battle for gaining and maintaining kuzushi is what nage no kata is very much about. If you can find a sensei who teaches it that way, it could be a worthwhile endeavor.

Add the endeavor for better and better kuzushi and it will make your judo work.