Judo - Throws for taller, skinnier guys

**Rancid Pantaloons** · Posted On: 3/09/2009 10:27am

I didn't mean to troll. I am fairly new to judo and I am pretty clueless.

**Coach Josh** · Posted On: 3/09/2009 10:57am

Developing "your" Judo is the best part of learning Judo. Experimenting with throws and working on them to suit your style of play is where all the fun is in Judo.

Becoming a cookie cutter of your coach is not the best way to approach Judo. Emulating others fine in the beginning but constant correction and development should be your ultimate goal.

Just don't get into the trap that you are making stuff up and developing "new" stuff. Many people have played Judo before you and have utilized some trick or variant of a throw that made them successful. This alteration was just not accepted because of its application was for a small group of people ie left handed long legged guys with a slight limp and green hair. The variation worked extremely well for him and others that were the same but not for others. The techniques that have lasted or have been accepted as proper Judo are the ones that work for the majority a majority of the time.

Now all the throws stated in thread are great throws for the taller players. The other thing that should be stressed is your grip. As a taller player you will have the advantage of reach as well as the disadvantage of closing the gap to throw. Reaching over for the high collar or back grip is the norm for taller players. The tendency to stiff arm is high with y'all also. Learn to keep the power arm bent and the elbow down and into uke's chest. Your arm should be like a shock absorber and have some movement or suppleness in the arm. After that you footwork needs to be so you are making full entries and not staying on the outside when doing turning throws

**musicalmike235** · Posted On: 3/09/2009 11:26am

Originally Posted by Coach Josh

. . . The tendency to stiff arm is high with y'all also. Learn to keep the power arm bent and the elbow down and into uke's chest. Your arm should be like a shock absorber and have some movement or suppleness in the arm . . .

In my experience, its shorter guys that try to stiff arm me. I will try and get my grips, and my opponent will grab both my lapels and WON'T LET GO. They will just sit there, arms fully extended and just stall. I hate it when guys do that.

Then there is the whole thing where people don't know the difference between Randori and Shia. I am trying to work a technique, and my sparring partner is treating it like a death match where he is defending his family's honor.

But I digress. My point is, the ones who end up stiff-arming me, are generally the shorter guys.

**Ryno** · Posted On: 3/09/2009 11:49am

Yep, for tall guys, you've just got to use those long legs. Reaping throws such as Osoto, Uchimata, etc. just make too much sense. Ditto for ashiwaza. Long leg reach and big feet help make for good sweeping.

**Coach Josh** · Posted On: 3/09/2009 1:10pm

Originally Posted by musicalmike235

In my experience, its shorter guys that try to stiff arm me. I will try and get my grips, and my opponent will grab both my lapels and WON'T LET GO. They will just sit there, arms fully extended and just stall. I hate it when guys do that.

Sasae Tsurikomi Ashi

**theotherserge** · Posted On: 3/09/2009 1:16pm

Originally Posted by Coach Josh

Developing "your" Judo is the best part of learning Judo. Experimenting with throws and working on them to suit your style of play is where all the fun is in Judo.

Becoming a cookie cutter of your coach is not the best way to approach Judo. Emulating others fine in the beginning but constant correction and development should be your ultimate goal.

^absolutely true. I've been working O-Guruma then into Ashi-waza if the O-Guruma failz. We've also trained it off a roundhouse-kick&into O-guruma switch. Totally fun!

I'll just try to throw as many variants at my students/myself as I can, while trying to figure out what works for me or my guys.

Just don't get into the trap that you are making stuff up and developing "new" stuff. Many people have played Judo before you and have utilized some trick or variant of a throw that made them successful.

*JAMES EARL JONES VOICE*
"What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is noting new under the sun."

**Judobum** · Posted On: 3/09/2009 10:52pm

Originally Posted by Rancid Pantaloons

First of all: thx for this thread

I am about 6 ft tall and definitely skinny. Should I chose similar techniques as above?

As Coach Josh said you have to develop your own style. The techniques I threw out are ones I've seen that have been effective for bigger guys. You will over time figure out what will work for you but certain things should be better for your body type than others.

I'm the last one for a "cookie cutter" approach. My coach tonight was laughing when he said he used me as an example in one of his coaching courses. He said "I had no idea what he was going to do, I would just encourage what worked and try to discourage him from what wasn't working".

---------- Post added at 12:52 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:50 AM ----------

Originally Posted by musicalmike235

In my experience, its shorter guys that try to stiff arm me. I will try and get my grips, and my opponent will grab both my lapels and WON'T LET GO. They will just sit there, arms fully extended and just stall. I hate it when guys do that.

Then there is the whole thing where people don't know the difference between Randori and Shia. I am trying to work a technique, and my sparring partner is treating it like a death match where he is defending his family's honor.

But I digress. My point is, the ones who end up stiff-arming me, are generally the shorter guys.

Short stocky beginners are often a nightmare to do randori with. They hold you out for dear life. It must be ten times worse being a tall guy since it makes it that much harder to get under them. I always tell them that if you stiff arm, once I break that you have absolutely no defense, plus you won't have any idea what happened to get you onto your back. Try and get them to loosen up and "feel" the judo whether they get thrown or not.

**100xobm** · Posted On: 3/10/2009 2:08am

I figure it's good to make this as comprehensive a thread as possible for tall people, some of my gems from a russian dvd I obtained.

the first is with the high grip, rest your weight on your opponent, bit by bit, Tire them out, make them bend over, drag them down with weight alone. They'll be inclined to stiff arm or watch your feet as they tire (as I notice at least, I have a small pool of fellow judoka to fight though). This is perfect for that brutal Russian over the shoulder grip, which intimidates many judoka.

The second, and this is gold for me. Assuming your opponent is somewhat bent over, with your sleeve grip arm, straightening your opponent's arm out and down will generally cause them to react by pulling up and back, against your motion. As they do this, you pull the arm up, this causes them to rock onto their heels and gives a perfect entry for a tall man's Seoi nage, also can pull off Harai goshi, O goshi, Uchi Mata, with much higher success rates.

As a tall guy with less muscle and technique than I should, these two give me far more ippons than I deserve. I hope these descriptions suffice. All I can suggest is looking around for Yakimov's Russian Judo

**Rancid Pantaloons** · Posted On: 3/18/2009 4:39pm

judo throw animations for beginners like me: http://www.judoinfo.com/animate.htm

Incase somebody forget what the japanese names mean.

**holdyergroud** · Posted On: 3/30/2009 11:48pm

Don't ever let your height and weight dictate what throws you can or cannot do. Of course certain throws are more common among taller players, such as uchi-mata, but that doesn't mean a smaller player cannot have great success with such a throw as his tokui-waza. For instance, my favorite and most successful throw right now is a sit out variation of kata-guruma despite my height of 6'3".

Also, physiologically speaking, I would think taller players would be more vulnerable to ashi-waza such as footsweeps. This is because the legs form a longer (and thus more powerful) lever in relation to your hips. Throws like de-ashi-barai, sasae-tsurikomi-ashi, hiza-guruma, and kosoto-gari (by way of spinning and bringing uke's stepping leg forward so that it does not touch the ground) should be more effective.

But then again, I have only been doing Judo for less than a year (despite training BJJ well before that).