What You Need To Know About Kuzushi In Judo

The concept of Kuzushi is absolutely crucial to our understanding of judo. Without kuzushi we would not have any techniques at all and everybody would remain standing at all times.

Kuzushi translates as “to level” as in leveling a building. This means that we must first set up our opponent to be pulled down, before actually getting them to the floor. Kuzushi is the entire process of unbalancing your opponent, setting up a throw, and then completing it. These steps in judo are named kuzushi, tsukuri, and kake which roughly mean unbalancing, entering, and executing.

Against inexperienced opponents, kuzushi may really not be too necessary since they don’t know what is coming next. However, everyone is born with a sense of balance and as they practice more judo you will find they become harder to throw. Kuzushi is everywhere around us in judo. Even an old cartoon where someone slips on a banana peel is an example of kuzushi in a real world setting.

Kuzushi is easy to manipulate but is regained very fast. An example would be pulling the body of your opponent forwards. As soon as you pull them they are off balance and ready to be thrown. However, the moment they take a step forwards to defend, they have fully regained their balance and the throw opportunity is gone.

How Do Judo Throws Work?

The simple answer is kuzushi. Of course, it is a lot more complicated than that, but fundamentally this is what it comes down to. Like many other sports, judo is a game of incomplete information. If we are to take an Olympic event such as javelin, it is really quite simple. When it is their turn, athletes must try and throw the javelin as far as they can. Judo is a dynamic sport where you must throw your opponent to the mat, whilst they are trying to do the same thing to you. There is also the added element of never knowing what the opponent is thinking or feinting.

Direct Kuzushi

Direct kuzushi is the simplest form of all and although it is practiced at the highest level, it’s highly unlikely you will see many throws from it. This is because everyone is doing direct force 100% of the time. There will not be a moment during a judo match where one judoka is not pushing or pulling the other.

With that being said, you do not want to ignore direct kuzushi. Even if a beginner pushes you backward, you cannot simply let them do this and hope you’ll be ok. Almost automatically your body will make adjustments to make sure you don’t get thrown.

The more off-balance your opponent is during a match, the more likely they are to get thrown. The same also goes for yourself.

Inducing The Opponent Into A Mistake

This is the most complex and high-level form of kuzushi. Inducing the opponent into making a mistake is a high-stakes game of chess playing in the minds of two competent judoka. Unbalancing the opponent can be done in a couple of ways (not including basic pushing and pulling).

The most common way is to simply chain attacks together until something works. If you’ve already unbalanced the opponent, they may try to regain their balance and stop your attack. This can be done, however if you chain together 3 or 4 attacks the opponent’s chances of defending every single one significantly diminishes.

The second way is to feint an attack and go for something completely different. Whilst this is quite basic at the low levels of judo. High-level judoka will make several feint attacks mixed with chain attacks. If they completely throw off their opponent and don’t let them know what they’re doing, then this becomes impossible to defend against.

Counter Kuzushi

Countering kuzushi is another crucial part of judo. You don’t always have to force your opponent to the mat or induce a mistake. You can sometimes find a good opening for a counter throw off a throw attempt of their own. An obvious example of this would be to counter a hane goshi with an ura nage.

As the opponent has already committed their own weight distribution to perform a hip throw, there is no need for you to push and pull them elsewhere. A simple redistribution of your own weight can set up a counter throw from their own kuzushi. In effect, they have pretty much performed kuzushi on themself without even realizing it. This is a common mistake that even judokas at the highest level will make.

A sacrifice throw gone wrong is also another example of counter kuzushi. In this example, the opponent would not even need to counter you since you’ve pulled all of their weight on top of yourself and failed to throw them elsewhere.

Hand Positioning

A lot of kuzushi is dependent upon your hand positioning. If you are reliant on your opponent’s body to support your own weight, then you are not off balance for a moment. However, as soon as the opponent moves out of the way, you are now off balance.

By relying on your opponent to support your own body weight, you are not balanced efficiently. Whilst you cannot fully support yourself by never putting any weight or pressure on your opponent, you will learn over time when it’s safe and unsafe to do so.

Kuzushi is not an art or a science, but more of a feeling. Of course, it could be calculated, but when you are in the moment, trying to defend throws from your opponent. You will either learn to adapt or keep getting thrown. There is no real way to teach kuzushi from a textbook, it can only be improved through practice and perseverance.

Kuzushi In Self Defense

A lot of self-defense scenarios do not really involve judo and are more about fist fighting or dodging weapons. Whilst judo can be used to defend yourself, you should already know the basics of how this is done.

Kuzushi is still relevant to punching, stabbing or even shooting a gun. If you are off-balance for any of the aforementioned attacks, you will not hit the target and are risking falling over. If you have a baseball bat and swing wildly, bringing yourself off balance, the weapon is now actually useless until you regain balance.

Compare hitting a baseball from a MLB pitcher, your chance of hitting it might be 1 in 1000. However, if you were to stand on one leg and be pulled backward, perhaps this chance would now be 1 in 5000.

Overall as a concept, kuzushi is invisible but is everywhere. It is relevant to any martial art or physical activity that you do.