Wednesday 12/8/2015 (Kouchi Masterclass)

On Wednesday, I conducted the first ever Technique Masterclass where I devoted the entire session to covering every aspect of just one technique. The first technique to be given this treatment was Kouchi-Gari. I taught different types of kouchi (for different gripping situations), common combinations and typical counters. You could say it was the A to Z of Kouchi. To bolster their learning, I got the players to do lots of drills including static uchikomi, moving uchikomi, moving nagekomi and lastly, a Kouchi-only randori.

Kenka-Yotsu

It is very important for tori to be very cognizant of the stance their uke prefers. If uke is left-handed and tori is right handed, they end up in a typical Kenka-Yotsu situation as depicted above (left vs right). In such a situation, certain versions of Kouchi can be applied.

Ai-Yotsu

However, if uke is a strong right hander and insists on adopting a right hand stance against an equally strong right-handed tori, you will end up with a classic Ai-Yotsu situation (right vs right). In such a case, a different type of Kouchi has to be used. (What works in a Kenka-Yotsu situation might not necessarily work in an Ai-Yotsu situation).

Skipping Kouchi (Kenka-Yotsu); Kouchi-Gake (Ai-Yotsu), Kouchi-Makikomi (Kenka-Yotsu)

It's important to know what kind of Kouchi works best for what kind of stance situation. I highlighted three effective variations (2 for Kenka-Yotsu and 1 for Ai-Yotsu).

The first version I demonstrated is for a Left vs Right situation. The technique is called Skipping Kouchi-Gari. It's called Skipping Kouchi because to effect the technique, you have to do a little skip towards your opponent's far leg. British World Champion Neil Adams used this to great effect. Among today's top competitors, the best proponent of the Skipping Kouchi is Japan's World Champion Naohisa Takato.

Here, we have a classic Kenka-Yotsu situation. Uke's far leg too far away for me to reach without making a skipping movement.

So, I take a step with my right leg, so that my right foot lands somewhere in front and in between Uke's two feet.

I follow that up by advancing my left leg. Notice how my right leg is ready to spring into action.

With Uke's right leg now within reach, I move in with a reaping action to catch Uke's right heel with my right foot.

One common mistake players make is to reap too high up. Here, Tori places his foot too high up, behind Uke's calf.

Ideally, the side of Tori's foot should be place on the heel of Uke's foot. This allows for an effective reaping action.

To get the players to understand the technique, I had them do moving uchikomi and nagekomi. Static uchikomi is not enough.

Here, you can see Suan Wah catching his partner's right foot, cupping it nicely with the side of his right foot and reaping it away.

With his right foot reaped away, Uke goes down, landing on his butt.

Suan Wah continues with the pushing action, causing his partner to fall on his back (which would have gotten a score).

The next version I taught was Kouchi-Gake, which is a rather unusual technique. It is seldom seen because Ai-Yotsu situations are a lot rarer than Kenka-Yotsu situations and so you don't have a lot of players doing this. Japan's double World Champion Hirotaka Okada famously used this technique to win his second world title. Among today's top players, France's David Larose is known to use this technique frequently.

In an extreme Right vs Right situation, there's not much room for skipping in with momentum. It's hard to execute a classic kouchi-gari.

Instead, this unusual looking Kouchi-Gake is used. It looks awkward but it's very effective when done right.

The awkwardness of the movement required me to literally help Tori get his leg in the right position.

Here, you can see the positioning from the other side.

Here, you can see Tori starting the technique by hooking in with his right leg. This is not a reaping action but a hooking action.

Once hooked in, Tori has to effect an almost Uchimata-type of movement.

The strong right arm action by Tori complements his Uchimata-like movement to cause Uke to bend over and lose balance.

If you just look at this single frame, you'd be forgiven for thinking Tori has just done an Uchimata. Neil Adams has referred to this technique as "Reverse Uchimata" in some of his video highlights commentaries because of how similar it is to Uchimata.

Earlier I had shown how a Skipping Kouchi can be used in a Kenka-Yotsu situation for Tori to attack Uke's right leg. Now, I show another Kouchi variation that can also be used to good effect in a Kenka-Yotsu situation. But this time, it is to attack Uke's left leg (not right leg).

Here, you see me in a classic Kenka-Yotsu situation. I could attack the right leg with Skipping Kouchi.

But as an alternative, I can also attack Uke's left leg with a wrapping "Makikomi" action that is more of a sacrifice throw than a Gari (reaping) or Gake (hooking) action. It requires me to thrown all my weight into attack and cling onto Uke's left leg.

Next up, Combinations. It's often quite difficult to throw your opponent with a direct attack. That's where combinations come in handy. You attack them with one technique and as they try to escape that one, you attack them immediately with a follow-up technique.

The first combination I showed them starts off as Kouchi but ends up with Deashi-Barai. This is quite a classic move that requires quick movement and good timing for it to work. You must practice this over and over again to get the timing right.

I start off by doing a typical Kouchi-Gari on Uke.

I initiate a reaping action to lift Uke's right foot slightly off the mat and towards me.

As Uke withdraws his right foot to place it back onto the mat, I quickly sweep away that foot before it is placed back on the mat.

The other combination I showed them was a movement that starts with Uchimata and ends with Kouchi-Gari. Also quite a classic movement but does not require as much timing and finesse as the Kouchi-Gari into Deashi-Barai combination I described earlier.

Tori enters into a typical Uchimata situation.

He lifts up Uke's left leg, causing all of Uke's weight to be balanced on his right leg.

Instead of continuing to lift Uke's left leg, Tori suddenly switches the attack into a Kouchi-Gari on Uke's right leg.

Any teaching of Kouchi would not be complete without Counters. The first one, Kouchi-Gaeshi, is useful for Skipping Kouchi-Gari type of attacks. It requires a good sense of timing though, so it's not commonly seen.

Here, Uke attacks Tori with a standard Kouchi-Gari against Tori's left leg.

Tori anticipates this and immediately withdraws his left leg to avoid it being reaped.

Now, the technique becomes a hand movement (Te-Waza) with Tori wheeling Uke over just like turning a steering wheel.

When done correctly, it lands Uke flat on his back. This technique is not commonly seen but it does happen in international competitions.

Next, a counter against Kouchi-Makikomi.

Kouchi-Makikomi usually involves a slight Seoi-Nage feint, to get Uke to pull backwards.

One of the most common mistakes players make is to enter into this technique from too high a position.

Entering too high makes you susceptible to counters such as Ura-Nage and Tani-Otoshi.

One simple and effective way to avoid counters is to enter low. That way even if your attack fails, you are already on the ground and your opponent will have a difficult time countering you.

Kouchi-Gake is not commonly used and so the counter to it is even rarer. But a counter does exist. One of the most dramatic examples of this happened in a match between Japan's Takato and South Korea's Jang.

Takato and Jang in a classic Left vs Left (Kenka-Yotsu) situation.

Jang, who had thrown Takato with Kouchi-Gake before enters into the attack but Takato anticipates this and begins the counter-attack.

The counter is a Te-Waza. It's all hands, no legs involved at all. It's purely a hand throw. Very rare.

But it works like a charm and lands Jang flat on his back.

The kind of players we want

KL Judo Club is a private initiative to build up strong competitors in the sport of judo. Most of our members are serious about competition. A handful are not into competition for a variety of reasons and that's ok as long as they have the right attitude and spirit.

I've trained at various judo clubs around the world and I know what I like and don't like in a club. I told myself if I'm ever in a position to coach a judo club, I would shape it in my vision and make no compromises.

My collaborator in this endeavour, who is also the team manager, shares that vision and we see eye to eye on how we want the club to be. Basically, KL Judo is the place for players who want to excel in competition-style judo.

It is not the place for players who want to excel in kata. There are plenty of other places that can provide for that. It is also not the place for those who are looking for easy grading opportunities to get belt promotions. Our belt gradings will be the toughest in the country. If a player's intention is to get colored belts fast, they'd be better off going somewhere else.

We like players who are committed to excellence. A big part of that involves regular training and doing lots of randori.

Players who like to parachute in once in a while and disappear for some time only to parachute in again some time later are not the kind of players we want at KL Judo. They will not be able to master any proper skills. As such, they are of no value to other players in the club as they don't make for good training partners. There are many clubs who welcome parachute players. We don't.

In many of the good clubs I've been to around the world, players rush to grab a partner during randori session. They want to get in as many randoris as possible. In contrast, I've also been to clubs where players like to give excuses not to do randori. You'll hear everything from "I've got to rush off to a dinner soon" to "I'm too tired" to "No more randori for me tonight".

If anybody utters such words at KL Judo, I will ask them to leave the club immediately. If you are on the mat at KL Judo, you are there to train. Otherwise go home.

Taking such a strict approach means that we will turn off many players, especially who just want to take it easy. But we are not an easy judo club. We are a hard judo club. I'll take quality over quantity anytime. There is no point having 30 soft players who can't take hard training. I'd rather have 3 serious players who will push themselves to the the max.

We are not in this for the money so we won't hesitate to turn away players who are not serious. We are here to produce champions.

Anyone who has trained at KL Judo will know that our training is different from what you'll find in other clubs in Malaysia. We don't do traditional judo. We don't emphasize uchikomi. Rather, we do lots of nagekomi but on crash pads. We believe in drills. We believe in conditioning. We believe in grip fighting. We believe in strategy. We emphasize newaza and lots and lots and lots of randori.

Whether our approach is effective is something that will be seen a year from now. The proof of the pudding is in the tasting so let's see how our players perform in 12 months, which is just the right amount of time we need to get our players to a level where they can do well in competitions.

Some clubs welcome everyone, including parachute players and those who try to avoid randori. At KL Judo, no wimps need apply. Seriously, if you are not prepared to train hard, don't come to KL Judo. We are a competition-oriented club and we make no apologies for that.

Monday 10/8/2015 (Kouchi Practice)

Monday nite was kouchi nite. We spent the whole session practicing kouchi-gari. 

We had a new player named Ruburn who was trying out judo for the first time. I paired him with Yau (yellow belt), who has some basic knowledge of judo. Here I am showing them how to do kouchi-gari from a kenka-yotsu situation.

I explain the intricacies of kouchi-gari -- a throw that requires finesse -- to Suan Wah, while Yau tries out the technique on Ruburn.

Derrick, who has a fractured collar bone, threw off his sling and got onto the mat. He couldn't resist and had to give kouchi a try!

He eventually even put on a judogi -- crazy fella -- but I restricted him to doing a one-handed drill only.

Much of the session was taken up working on the skipping kouchi-gari which is done from a kenka-yotsu situation. Towards the end, I got them to do kouchi-gake which is done from an extreme ai-yotsu situation.

Suan Wah, exhausted from all the kouchi-gari drills had decided that the crash pad would make for a nice bed.

The kouchi-gari gang, which includes two brand new players Ian and Ruburn, and one injured player, Derrick, who insisted on training despite nursing a fractured collar bone.

The Gecko gang have a farewell dinner for Derrick who will be going on a diet of pizza, burgers and hotdogs starting mid-August.