How To Not Get Thrown In Judo

Nobody likes getting thrown on their back, but at the same time, nobody likes a sparring partner that is overly defensive.

As any experienced judoka knows, the key feature behind every judo match is kuzushi. In any kind of throw, trip, sweep or even submission, kuzushi is going to be the deciding factor behind winning or losing.

Defensive maneuvers, postures and tactics are all things that are heavily emphasized in professional judo. You will find professional matches ending because of accumulated shido, not something which typically happens at the amateur level as often. Part of this is because when you go to a judo class, you do not really want to learn the dark arts and stalling tactics seen by the pros. However, it is far more common to be taught a series and sequence of closely related throws than how to defend them. Even if your dojo is a particularly defensive school, you will still be taught a lot more attacking than defending.

Focusing Too Much On Your Own Throws

A common mistake is being far too focused on attack that you forget about defense and leave yourself vulnerable. This is a particularly common error if you are fairly new to judo with only one or two throws in your game. If you are regularly sparring against the same people, they will see your set-ups coming from a mile away and already prepare a counter.

You may have a particularly fantastic uchi-mata, but if your opponent knows this is what’s coming next, you shouldn’t expect it to work. In fact, you will likely leave yourself very vulnerable to a reversal or counter.

To summarise, you must have a very balanced judo game that is focused on attacking but also has a very stable defense. You simply cannot have one without the other.

Being Overly Defensive

Strangely enough, being overly defensive in judo can cause you to become more susceptible to being thrown. There is some irony in the fact that the more you resist being thrown, the more likely you are to be thrown.

The key reasoning for this is that if your opponent sets up a throw such as an Osoto Gari by driving all of their weight forwards, you can resist this throw by throwing all of your own bodyweight forwards. This defense will work against Olympic judokas since although they are the best in the world, they cannot defeat physics. However, by throwing your own bodyweight forward, you will open yourself up to another throw such as a Tomoe Nage. Due to your resistance, the execution of this throw will be relatively effortless.

In short, by becoming overly resistant to a singular throw, you are opening yourself up to a variety of other throws. You must look to defend and instantly counter attack or get to a more neutral position.

Weight Distribution & Posture

This is slightly different from kuzushi. If we think of kuzushi as something your opponent will manipulate and exploit, when you enter a match and/or are not being gripped yet, you have 100% control over your own weight distribution and posture.

If your mistakes are not being regularly exploited in training, you will likely never learn from your mistakes, which is why it is always good to have several strong randori partners. Small mistakes such as having your feet too far back or forwards or leaning too far back are going to be game changers when it comes to competition.

If it is possible, you should video your stance when entering each spar. This way you will be able to quickly realize any fundamental errors you are making and correct them before it’s too late.

Framing, Grips & Hand Positioning

Perhaps the most overlooked method of not being thrown is your own grips and hand positioning. This is once again a theory that is mostly taught in an attacking sense – dominate the grip battle and then enter a throw of your own. Whilst this is true, you must also try and neutralize the grip battle to stop being thrown.

The difference between a strong and weak grip placement is massive in terms of stopping a throw. If you have no grip on your opponent at all, they are free to do whatever they want with your bodyweight. If you have a firm collar and sleeve grip pushing back against what your rival is trying to accomplish, you have a much better chance of stopping them.

Once again, this is not something that can be taught all that much. There are 67 throws in kodokan judo, so you’re not going to be able to memorize 67 perfect defenses in your head very quickly. You can however learn a broad overview of how to grip fight efficiently and put yourself in a better position even when your opponent gets dominant grips on you.

Kuzushi

Although kuzushi is the most fundamental and important concept of judo, it is actually very difficult to be taught. Akin to riding a bike in many ways, kuzushi is just something which you will have to learn through feel over time. There are some people who come to judo class on their first day and already have a very solid base to stabilize themselves with, whereas others may look like a deer on ice.

Kuzushi is simply something that takes a lot of time to learn and understand. There are no shortcuts and this is likely something you are going to figure out after being thrown on your back thousands of times.

How To Stop Being Thrown In Judo – Mindset

The main part of stopping yourself from being thrown in judo is your mindset. In the gym, most people will pick themselves up after ippon and continue the randori. This makes sense as this is what you have come to class for. Everyone wants to train and enjoy themselves whilst on the mat.

However, the best judokas will run through what just happened in their mind. This simple thought exercise will help your brain figure out what went wrong a lot faster than simply gliding through the session on autopilot. You will gradually improve even with your brain disengaged, but it will be a lot slower.

To keep your brain engaged is mentally exhausting but something you need to do whilst sparring. As soon as you get past being a beginner, you can start to formulate ideas and thoughts about exactly what happened and why you got thrown so easily. Once you start eliminating these mistakes, judo will become a lot easier.