The Great Spiral 1/22

The Great Spiral

Judo throws are round, not flat. They begin round and end round. They begin open and end tightly wrapped. At their centers are fulcrum points. 

Ippon seoinage is an excellent example. It presents a physical dynamic that almost all  throws clearly do. Many judoka do it square instead of round, because that is what they think it should be. Here is legendary Koga with his famous seoinage. He might end up rolling through this, due to the overall dynamic, but this throw for ippon is already complete. (Of note, his powerful pulling pocket grip with his left hand and how relaxed his right grip is.)

Look at the spiral. Notice how his left leg drives up and into the outer rotation of the carrying across the back. This is in no way a driving or diving throw. 

      

               

You get to be in a contest where the big money winner is the first to pull the above uke onto his back. Which uke do you want to use?

You say you don’t think you can do this. Can you do a front roll fall? Tori’s back is a bit too flat here, but it is going to go round as he continues. Note the knees in front drop line of the toes, chest in front of that and the head going in front of the chest. This has to happen. This throw can now end with tori standing and in a kime that has zanshin (final position with full composure).

Here’s the same thing. The upward pointing arrow from the left foot shows where the dynamic of the power happens. Note that the head looks up and over, in line with the spiral, and not across and around. 

As much as this can be a study in seoinages (both styles), it is really using a throw to understand and improve your judo. You can take any throw you want and put in the spiral. If every throw contains the elemental aspects of the “judo logic”, then each throw can inform us about making our judo work.

An aside: This is where a well taught study of the inner workings of nage no kata can be very useful, although difficult to find. These "inner workings" are about "Thinking Inside the Box". If you don't know how a clock works, you can't build one.