juji-gatame: The return of the one-handed sode Techniques come and go – and sometimes they com
juji-gatame:The return of the one-handed sodeTechniques come and go – and sometimes they come around again. Judo fans around the world got their first glimpse of a breath-taking sode-tsurikomi-goshi done off just one hand when the great Japanese champion Toshihiko Koga used it in the 1989 Belgrade World Championships. It was a technique he would go on to use with great success in two World Championships.Around 1989 is when a young Israeli named Oren Smadga started taking part in international competitions and his specialty was sode-tsurikomi-goshi done off one hand. While Koga’s one-handed sode tended to be done in one continuous motion, Smadga’s version typically involved a two-step motion and ended up looking almost like a standing kata-guruma. He would first load up his opponent onto his back using a sode movement and take hold of uke’s trouser leg with his free hand so as to get better control of uke and then dump uke flat on his back with a somersault-like move. It was very different from Koga’s but it was arguably even more impactful.The technique spread far and wide and was utilized by players in the Americas, Europe and Asia. One of the best proponents of it was Yordanis Arencibia of Cuba whose version was very similar to Smadga’s. He used it to great effect throughout his career which spanned slightly more than a decade from early 1998 to early 2009.In 2010, the IJF began introducing new rules that banned leg grabs. At first it was a partial ban that permitted leg grabs when done as a combination attack. But one-handed sode, even when done as a two-step movement the way Smadga and Arencibia did it was not considered a combination. By that time almost all exponents of the one-handed sode resorted to grabbing uke’s trouser leg with their free hand. Such a move would have resulted in hansoku-make. And so with that, the new IJF rules effectively killed the one-handed sode.While judo players are extremely innovative when it comes to circumventing the rules – the leg-grab ban did not stop players from learning how to do kata-guruma without having to grab the legs – the one-handed sode seemed impossible to do without a leg grab. Some players tried clever workarounds like dropping onto the mat and doing a forward roll instead of doing the throw as a standing technique. When done this way, it didn’t have to involve grabbing the trouser leg but it was not very effective and did not catch on.As time went by the ban on leg grabs become stricter and stricter, to the point where it was completely banned in all circumstances, and the one-handed sode all but disappeared from the judo scene.However, recently we have seen a clear revival of the one-handed sode as a competition technique. The chief exponent of this is Japan’s Soichi Hashimoto, who used it to win his triple Grand Slams in Tokyo, Paris and Ekaterinburg. As with the case of Smadga, the one-handed sode seems to be Hashimoto’s main technique, although he also does morote-seoi-nage and ippon-seoi-nage.Recently, in the 2017 Warsaw European Championships we saw two spectacular final wins involving one-handed sode. The first was by Russia’s Alan Khubetsov in the -81kg division (above). Khubetsov had gotten a penalty before, in another competition earlier, for grabbing the pants when doing his one-handed sode. By the time the European’s came along he seemed to have perfected the throw.The other spectacular final win with one-handed sode was by Elkhan Mammadov at -100kg (above). Mammadov is no newcomer to sode although his favourite version, for many years, was a cross-grip sode variation that the great Toshihiko Koga of Japan would sometimes do. Hashimoto, Khubetsov and Mammadov all do the one-handed sode as a standing version and is closer to a one-step continuous motion than a two-step version, the reason being that without the leg grab uke would have too much wiggle room to escape if it was done in two steps.Perhaps they are able to pull of this unexpected technique because a whole generation of players have emerged who didn’t have to defend against anything like it. And maybe this could be the start of a revival for the one-handed sode.Source: http://www.judocrazy.comAt first, I was simply curious with the technique, but now that I knew its basics and complexity, I can’t help but getting intrigued. -- source link