IPPON SEOI NAGE – Right vs. Right - Opponent reaches over top (Split Step entry)

Since it’s birth Judo has changed with the times. Even so, the essential nature of judo has remained the same. Judo is judo. Born out of innovation, the sport of Judo lends itself to specialization. Toshiko Koga perfected a variation of seio nage that required little in the way of gripping and got him consistently under his opponent’s hips. Koga’s powerhouse technique was the ippon-seoi-nage and he had an impressive range of seoi-nage variations. 

There were four distinct variations of seoi-nage that Koga did. One type of morote-seoi-nage he had used since the early days of his competition career was the cross-grip morote-seoi-nage. The morote-seoi-nage he is most known for is the legendary one-handed morote-seoi-nage that he did on Chang Su Li of North Korea in the semifinal of the 1989 world championships. 

In the 1989 World Championships, he did yet another unusual form of seoi-nage. It happened in the final, against a left hander, Mike Swain of the USA. Instead of inserting his lead leg like he usually does, against Swain, he did an extremely wide split seoi-nage. At the 1996 Atlanta Olympics Koga would use a two on one lapel grip, grabbing his opponent’s right lapel with both hands. 

Firstly, Koga’s entry was ballistic. It was so quick and so powerful that even if he didn’t hit it cleanly, he could often get the score anyway. Koga’s seio nage wasn’t the traditional seoi nage. There were two things he did that made it more effective; 1.) His split step entry, and 2.) his use of the lapel grip rather than the more conventional sleeve grip. There was absolutely no question what Koga was going to do in 99% of his matches. He was going to secure his left-hand lapel grip, break your posture, and launch you skyward with his seoi nage. His opposition knew what Koga was going to do and couldn’t do a damn thing to stop it.

1.) Step your right foot forward at the top of the triangle. Your knees should be bent and your center of gravity low. Twist your upper body clockwise bring your left hand and shoulder to the front closer to your opponent. In a right vs. right situation your right shoulder should be more toward your rear and not out front and easily accessible for your opponent to grip and attack. You left hand is your attacking hand and your right hand is the defensive hand. 2.) From a right foot forward posture, punch in your grip with the left hand gripping at the area of the opponent’s armpit. 3.) The opponent attempts to reach over the top of your left arm with his right hand to get a grip on your lapel. Roll your elbow upward and block his arm to keep his hand from grasping your lapel. As you block with the elbow bend the knees to drop your hips lower (this creates a space for you to move into to execute a throw).

4.) Pull your opponent toward his front with the left hand keeping your elbow high. Simultaneously, step your left foot up to your right foot about a half of a step forward. As you step keep your knees bent. Your belt line should be lower than your opponent’s belt line. 5.) Step your left foot to the top of the triangle. 6.) Your right foot steps back all the way through the triangle between the opponent’s feet pivot on your left foot. As your right foot touches the mat, you should be on the ball of your right foot and the toes of both feet should be pointing in the direction of the apex of the triangle. Pinch the opponent’s right arm at his arm pit between your right forearm and bicep. Rotate the palm of the right hand toward your head (this creates a tighter clamp on the opponent’s arm). 

 7.)  Step back with your left foot thru the triangle between your opponent’s feet and next to your right foot (as you step back with the left foot  your opponent’s feet should start to raise up off the mat). 8.) Straighten your legs quickly and pop your hips upward into the opponent. 9.) Continue to pull and twist your torso to the left, taking your right elbow toward your left knee and drive the opponent to the ground.