Ok. Im really struggling with Hiza guruma. I get the foot work, but the problem im facing is with the hands/arms. I also may be misunderstanding what im supposed to be doing with them. Am I supposed to lift my arms, like in sasae tsurikomi or what? I know my coach was trying to explain it but at that moment over 1.5 hours in to practice my newb brain was overloading. Is it a lifting action like stk or a kind of pulling action? I keep wanting to pull them close and off center(if that makes sense) and im told that is wrong.. I was so overwhelmed by that time but I was trying to understand. I have been watching videos on youtube but they don't seam to be helping, no detailed explanation of what my arms are doing. Thanks guys!
This isn't coming from a pure judoka, so this is probably not the "official" execution of the technique. Hiza guruma and any other front trip variant work much better if you set them up by causing the uke to sprawl the foot you're attacking back first. I've had a lot of success by threatening with an outside knee pick on the leg I want to attack, then hitting a front trip or knee block as soon as the receiver stomps his foot back out of the knee pick. IIRC you can't begin combinations with hand attacks to the legs in Olympic style Judo, so you may need to come up with another way of producing that footwork. As for the arms (let's assume you're attacking the receiver's right knee with your left foot) if you set it up this way, you should see good results by drawing the receiver's right side (your left side) in toward your left hip to force him to come over the blocked leg, while pushing the receiver's left side (your right)up and over the blocking foot. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDsiBURKj-s"]HIZA GURUMA - YouTube[/ame] Here you see it without a setup. The lifting of the arm on the side of the leg that is being tripped is only important because the receiver is static. Normally the same effect would be accomplished by your setup or combination.
I see, that video looks like how my coach was trying to get me to do it. So I assume the forward movement of the uke, contributes to his downfall?
Here are few principles that may be helpful. - Move yourself to be out of your opponent's "future" moving path. - Let him fall at your old position. You take over his old position. - Lift up one of his arm and pull down his other arm.
Moving forward or back isn't so important on its own. It's his structure that is the issue. If his knee is behind his hips, hiza guruma works well. You can get him moving forward and then block his knee, so that his hips move forward past it, but that is such a common method for any forwards trip that it doesn't work very often. Normally people will lower their hips and get their legs in front of them at the first sign of being pulled into a forward trip. You can follow up with ankle picks and hooking trips then, but that doesn't do anything to improve your hiza guruma as an attack. Using a threat that causes him to voluntarily move his leg back and out from under his hips works better for me.
Not a judoka, but I'd say the forward movement is the downfall. Uke wants to take a step forward to catch his balance; you block his foot to prevent that step; he falls down. If you freeze the video at 0:27, this is the point where tori's foot has just made contact with uke's ankle. Uke's feet have not moved at all -- but it should be clear that he is already in the midst of falling and his right foot needs to move to prevent that. (Kurtka Jerker beat me somewhat here, and he's right that the "need to move" stage comes when hips pass knee.) Not being a judoka, I don't know what defines hiza guruma, but from a mechanical perspective, what needs to happen with tori's arms/upper body is anything that sets up a kuzushi that forces uke to step in with his right foot.
re: your arms. hiki-te: down to YOUR side. nearly the same as a karate hiki-te tsuri-te: his gi must hike UP to his armpit. when its a snug fit, it should now go SIDEWAYS to hiki-te's shoulder. you then perform the hiza guruma on the hikite side. if you make uke move in a extreme version of this posture: then your primary kuzushi is effected. remember, your fulcrum is way much higher (the knee) compared to sasae tsurikomi, the plane of uke's shoulders must break parallel with the plane of his hips first and foremost. at the same time, the limb being BLOCKED(not swept) must be in weight transition as christianson said.
Good question, and good answers. Im working in a lot of these style throws my self, ive found it important to remember there heavily timing based throws, so combining pushing throws with these pulling throws as well as just getting them moving in a predictable manor helps loads.
This video is a bit long at the top but once she gets to it, I'm a big fan of both the footwork and the way she uses her hips along with her hands- thanks to the cross step setup- to complete the throw. [ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbN8giQ1g4E"]Hiza Guruma Combinations - YouTube[/ame] It's really the cross step that sets up everything: - moves your body out of your opponent's way... - sets up the hips so that you can use them to add power to the hands... - gives you some momentum t move your opponent with... It's helped my own success rate quite a bit. Hope you find it useful.
More hiza garuma shenanigans. Was doing it today and didn't have my foot in proper position at the end of the throw and my uke came down and across my foot. Now I have a small fracture in my 4th toe. LOL my first real training injury, and its one I expected from karate. Im not upset or angry, as it is a valuable lesson in foot work.
LOL Yep! When I complete some throws my feet have a tendency to get to wide. (throws that require a full 180 turn) so this is a good reminder not to screw that up.
I'd recommend practicing footwork into a mirror when you have free time outside of class. Can walk through the steps, hip position, bending the knees, arm positions... all that, slowly with attention to mechanics. Especially throws like Seoi Nage or O Goshi where you need to turn, drop your hips, and keep proper foot position. Its common for Judoka to practice with resistance bands, but if you're a beginner it might be detrimental to your form. Better to focus on proper mechanics at first.
