I just attended my first judo lesson today. I was previously studying jujutsu, but I moved and found a pretty cheap judo school. Anyway, my question is, the sensei taught us o soto gari, but the off-balance *(kazush? don't know how to spell it), was very different from what I learned. Effective, but I preferred the other method. I tried both of them on my partner, just to see which I liked better. My partner said he preferred the way I originally learned it, but I felt awkward teaching him the way I learned since I wasn't really the one teaching.
how did you break the balance? i tend to teach two directions for breaking the balance for o soto gari; the first (a bit more gentle, good for learning, maybe not for fighting) takes uke's head (and therefore balance) over the leg you are NOT sweeping - the theory behind this is that if their weight is on the leg you want to sweep, you won't get an effective sweep. This is good for demonstrating the technique. A more effective way of executing the throw is actually to break the weight over the leg you will sweep, so when they go... they REALLY go! Makes for a much better throw, but you really do need to pay attention to the throw and SWEEP (you should pivot on the propping leg, your head should aim for you sweeping knee, this should help you sweep higher), otherwise it won't work. Hop this was of some help. Good luck! Hope this was of some help
The way the jujutsu class taught me to off-balance was, from a standard grip (one hand on sleeve around elbow, one hand on collar), was to pull the elbow towards the inner thigh of my outer leg, not the inside sweeping leg. The spot would probably be where someone might give you(or as a way of remebering my teacher gave) a horsebite. Ideally, you will have his weight at angle, making the leg easier to sweep. The judo teacher, at least this one teacher, suggested that I pull my forearm that is holding my partner's collar towards my chest while meeting my partner's shoulder. I think the idea is to control his upper body, thereby controlling the direction of his weight. That way when I go for the sweep, his body controlled by my hips, his weight will go in the opposite direction that my legs. This was also done from the standard grip. Also, the judo teacher taught the setup differently. First my feet should be parallel to my opponenet's, and the distance between my not-sweeping leg and my opponent's should be a little wider than the width of my sweeping leg. My jujutsu teacher suggested a closer setup, just enough room for my sweeping leg, and a little deeper step, somewhere a little behind my opponent.
Just a little tip I've learned from ju-jitsu: Look at your opponent's stance and determine where he/she would be off balance. If you take the eight general directions the person can go in, six of these directions with applied force would cause him/her to go off balance. So let's take the typical stance- based out and over extending; trying not to let you sweep them or whatever. Foward and backward this person will be able to apply full resistance and they will not go off balance. The other six (left, right, four diagonals) will set them off balance. You may be a bit skeptical about this idea, because you're thinking 'hey...I've done this before...I still end up on the ground...' Well, in reality if you do this, obviously this person is going to re-adjust and turn to face you. So the next principle would associate with the judo principle 'every push is a pull, every pull is a push...' This meaning you need to apply force in one direction, only to switch directions and go to a diagonal or the opposite side. Granted, whoever you're fighting isn't going to fall down on they're butt and sit there helpless, but as the topic states: off balancing. Hopefully this makes sense, and possibly it will help some of you, my mind is full of ideas and principles to share, unfortunately it dosen't have the same amount of will it takes to type it out here! But if it seems unclear just pm me.
