Judo Techniques

Martial arts have never failed to fascinate me. They are just awesome to attain a complete integrity of the mind, body and spirit. Being a student of taekwondo myself for some time, I can say that learning any martial art is a great personality improvement tool. Stay fit, develop inner strength and be unruffled on the outside. What more could you ask for? You can protect yourself too by hitting back if you are in danger. Talking of other martial arts, judo is another style which we are going to deal within this article. Judo has a set of techniques, which are often used by the practitioners of judo.

Basic Judo Techniques

Throwing Techniques
These techniques involve moves related to throwing an opponent off when attacking. There are different categories in these throwing techniques - hand throwing, foot throwing and hip throwing techniques. These throws are either standing or sometimes sacrifice throws. Some of these throws are -

One arm shoulder throw - Ippon Seoinage
This throw involves, as the name suggests, a person lifting a person (who is at his back) with one arm, then taking the weight on the shoulder and then throwing the opponent down. The other hand is not used much in such one handed judo moves. Read more on martial art techniques.

Corner Drop - Sumi Otoshi
Here, a practitioner lifts the opponent using both hands facing him at a slight angle and then throws the opponent on the ground. This throw is a part of 67 current throws in Kodokan judo.

Advanced Foot Sweep - Deashi harai
One of the foot throwing tactics, deashi harai is one of the advanced judo techniques. It is a kind of foot sweep. The person doing this starts off with having a firm grip over the opponent, facing him. Then the attacker moves his foot to the opposite side of the opponent, and sweeps the opponent's opposite leg out from beneath him. This makes him lose balance. During this, the upper body has to support the push-pull motion with requisite powe,r created as a result of rotation of hips. This is essential for proper execution of this sweep. Read more on martial arts types.

Grappling Techniques
Grappling basically entails immobilizing the opponent by pinning him down on the floor and it does not involve lifting the other person. These can be done either standing or on the ground. These as said earlier are meant to disable the opponent. One such grappling judo technique is called Kani Basami or flying scissors. A person in this move balances his weight on one hand while his feet are in a scissor like position, holding the opponent in between his legs. Once that person holds the other person in between his legs, the opponent is then brought down to the ground using the force of the legs. One of the legs is almost at the end of the torso and the other is on the opposite side, under the opponent's thighs.

Sacrifice Techniques
These judo techniques and tactics involve an individual throwing himself on the ground after lifting the opponent for throwing. This is called a sacrifice throw as along with the opponent the individual also goes down on the ground to avoid injury and then immediately overpowers the opponent. They are mostly done standing.

Pins or Matholds
The objective of these moves are almost again the same as grappling; to disable the opponent. Here either the opponent is pinned down on the ground and in one of these moves one arm goes around the neck of the opponent and the other holds the opponent's arm.

Chokes or Strangles
As the name suggests, this entails choking or strangling the opponent by exerting pressure on the carotid artery. This is similar to grappling judo techniques, but a bit more dangerous. These are very carefully used, when used in a competition and requires supervision and expertise.

Joint Locks
The opponent's joints are locked by the other person again to prevent an attack. Knees, elbows and other joints are targeted in this techniques. Again, this is fundamentally a type of grappling.

Body-Striking Techniques
These techniques involve not just blocking or defense, these involve attacking moves. These include striking eyes of the opponent's with fingertips, punches, upper cut, side and rear blow and variations of body strikes.

In addition to all these, there are techniques as to how to receive blows and how to fall purposefully to avoid blows. The list is quite big, actually, so I thought this would be really enough for this treatise!

Ultimately, all this reminds me of something said by Deng Ming-Da, a famous martial artist and philosopher - "Some Warriors look fierce, but are mild. Some seem timid, but are vicious. Look beyond appearances; position yourself for the advantage".