Firstly, it requires a switch of direction. In its traditional form, right-handed players would throw to the left while left-handed players would throw to the right. That's not easy for most players to do. Secondly, the lifting (tsuri) action required in the traditional version of the technique is very difficult to achieve, especially when uke has a tight grip on tori's sleeve or (worse still), lapel. These two factors -- the switch to the other side and the difficult "tsuri" -- is why it is not such a common technique like more straightforward techniques like seoi-nage or osoto-gari.
I've been breaking down the sode in order to teach my competitors this technique. This is what I found to be helpful in breaking the sode code.
Eliminate the change of stance
As mentioned earlier, traditionally, the way sode is done is that tori will throw to the opposite side of the stance that he adopts. So, a right-handed player, who would normally have a right-handed stance, would throw to the left. Certain sode experts like Naohisa Takato (leftie who throws to the right) and Kaori Matsumoto (rightie who throws to the left) follow this convention. Hifumi Abe though has defied convention and although he's a right hander, he does his sode to the right.
The gripping is all wrong for that of course because as a right hander, his left hand would be on the sleeve (sode) and right hand on the lapel. From there, he normally does his morote-seoi-nage. Typically, if someone like him were to do sode, it would be his left hand that does the lifting as he turns left into the technique. Abe doesn't do that though. Instead, he changes grips so that he has a double sleeve grip. When he throws, it's his right hand that does the lifting as he turns in right sided.
I believe this is a better way than the conventional one because tori always throws better when throwing to the side that he is more used to. Righties are used to throwing to the right. They are also naturally stronger when throwing to their right. To do sode to the right makes a lot of sense, even if it defies convention.
Eliminate the lifting sleeve action
Lifting the sleeve as per the illustration above is incredibly difficult to achieve in a randori or contest situation as uke would be resisting such a movement. Even if uke's target arm is loose (not holding onto tori's sleeve or lapel), it won't be easy lifting up that sleeve hand when uke is resisting. What's worse is when uke has a good grip on tori's sleeve or lapel. Then it's close to impossible to lift uke's target arm. There are two ways to deal with this so that you don't have to lift that target arm. The first is the way Takato does it. The second is the way Abe does it.
Takato often folds his throwing arm ala morote-seoi-nage so that when he comes across uke, his throwing arm (left arm) looks almost like he is doing morote-seoi-nage. Abe also folds his arm as he enters into the technique but he does more of a rotation with his sode grip and leads strongly with his right elbow. Usually it shoots slightly upward and forward as compared to Takato's version which folds under like a morote-seoi-nage. If Abe's version resembles a morote-seoi, it would be the "elbow over" version.
Pulling entry
In seoi-nage, you typically step in towards uke but in sode, you can do it by pulling uke onto you. That's the way Abe does it. He doesn't come in close when doing sode, instead, he pulls uke strongly with both his arms to load uke onto his back. In other words, his entry is not a "step-in" movement but a "pull-onto" movement.
Foot placement
It's interesting watching where Abe puts his driving leg. Typically, he would insert his driving (right) leg in between uke's legs, the way Koga does it during his ippon-seoi-nage. Occasionally though, Abe would step wide with his right leg and do a kind of tai-otoshi movement. Then, instead of hoisting uke up and throwing him, he takes him down tai-otoshi style.
Drop version
If rotating the sode or folding it under like in morote-seoi-nage is too difficult to achieve, not all is lost. You can still try drop sode, which is very similar to look and feel as drop seoi-nage. The rotation on the sode is still needed for this but it's much easier to do when you do it while dropping under uke. There is no lifting involved anymore but more of a pulling (komi) action, forcing uke onto tori's back.
So, there you have it, a complete breakdown of the way I teach sode-tsurikomi-goshi to my players.
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