The student involved in judo training must be on the alert for the unguarded moment: the moment that enables you to attack your opponent successfully. The unguarded moment is set up by two steps: first, by taking advantage of your opponent's long reaction time and, second, by breaking his posture before he can react. Once his posture is broken, he is certain to give you enough time to attack him successfully. In broken posture he cannot change his position and his direction of motion conveniently, and he takes a longer time to react to your attack.
If your opponent stands still, it would be best for you to break his posture backwards or forwards in a direction perpendicular to the straight line passing through both his big toes. On the other hand, if you try to break his posture toward the left or the right, the force and time needed will be increased because the base is larger.
But what happens when your opponent is in motion? In this case it is best to push or pull him in the direction of his movement. We know that a certain force works on him when he moves, together with the force that you apply. If you apply force to him in the direction in which he moves, two forces-yours and his-will work on him and cause him to lose his balance.
When he steps forward, he thinks he knows the placement of his next step. This is his mistake - his unguarded moment. Therefore, if you pull more than he pushes or push more than he pulls, his posture will be broken by the combination of forces. You must realize that if you pull or push only as much as he pushes or pulls, you cannot apply force to him.
To explain more clearly the breaking of the opponent's posture, we can classify the directions of unbalancing into types called happo-no-kuzushi.
Coordinate all parts of your body:
Suppose you and your opponent stand naturally facing each other during judo training. If you pull your opponent with the power of your hands, intending to make him collapse, he will lean forward. At the same time, however, you also will lean forward. Therefore, to force him off balance without losing your own balance, you must pull him by availing yourself of the force with which you pull your own body backward and vice versa.
From the above explanation you will see that you must pull or push your opponent with your body and not with your hands only. You may then use your arm as a chain connecting your body with your opponent's, but this must be done with dexterity to apply the force of your body to him. To be exact, the thrower of tomoe-nage (circle throw) breaks the opponent's posture by lifting him forward with the force with which the thrower bends his body backward.
In uki-waza (floating throw) the thrower unbalances his opponent to the right front corner by taking advantage of the force (momentum) that fells the thrower backward and the force with which he twists his body from the right to the left. In o-soto-gari too, the thrower breaks his opponent's posture backward with the force that makes his body move quickly to the opponent's right side.
It is important that you try to break your opponent's posture with your body and not with your hands only. The lower extremities must be used dexterously so that the body can move freely. For instance in the happo-no-kuzushi you place your foot forward because you must push your body forward to break your opponent's posture backward.
If you wish to break his posture forward, you must draw your foot backward. If you do not use this principle, you will pull or push with your hands only. Still, there are some cases when it is unnecessary to draw your foot backward; for example, the tomoe-nage and uki-waza, techniques.
In these cases, instead of drawing backward, you kick the floor with your foot to make good use of the force that is created when your body falls backward.
Look always for the unguarded moment while you are engaged in judo training.
By Desmond McKay
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/2700139
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