The Little Black Book of Violence

Nami Juji Jime 3

Another viable option at very close range, however, is a throw. If executed correctly, it can come out of your natural reflex response. When someone closes distance fast and aggressively, your natural tendency will be to lift up your hands in a warding-off motion. This reflex action can be turned into the opening you need to make a throw, using your closing attacker’s force against him.

To throw a person effectively, you need to not only be able to touch him but rather to seize him, grab hard, and control him with both of your hands. Some very skilled practitioners can throw with one hand, but in all likelihood, you can’t. The bottom line about throwing is that is takes practice, lots of it, to become good. If you throw a person and you use poor technique, you will either be counter-thrown or dragged to the ground. Not exactly your goal and most definitely a bad place to be.

The goal of your throw is to knock him down hard so that you can run away fast. Becoming entangled with your attacker is not a good thing. In close quarters combat, a throw can help you gain a superior position yet it should not be your primary technique useless you have years, and we mean yeeeaaaarrs of experience in the throwing arts like judo, jujitsu, Hapkido, Samozashchita Baez Oruzhiya (Sambo), western wresting, or shuai-jan (Chinese wrestling), to name a few. When you have years of experience, then the art becomes your primary form and you go with what you know.

If you have opportunity to train in a throwing art, it is suggested that you take advantage of it. You need not look for the best or the most expensive to gain an introduction to the throwing arts, just get on the mat, and go at it. You will soon learn just how overmatched you are when you come up to a skilled and experienced thrower because he will throw when and where he chooses to and you will be unable to stop him. Even when you think you are good enough to counter or block his chosen technique, you will discover he has more technique and more skill than you do. He will be slick, deceptive, tricky, and powerful when he wants to be and you will feel nothing but the mat as you hit it.

It works on the mat and it works in real life too. For example, 20-year-old Tyrone Jermain Hogan tried to carjack the wrong people when he went after the Florida International University judo club’s van. The judoka were in Los Angeles to teach a self-defense class when they had an opportunity to put their skills to the test on the street. They quickly threw him to the ground and held him there until police could arrive and make an arrest. Hogan pled guilty on February 7, 2003 and was sentenced to 11 years in prison for kidnapping, robbery, and carjacking.

Here are five throws that you can practice that don’t require a high level of skill to pull off. Further, only one requires you to turn your back on your adversary in order to throw him, a somewhat dangerous movement unless you have excellent timing. They are all judo throws, hence named in Japanese, yet you can find similar, if not identical, throws in other arts. If you choose to get some formal training as we recommend you will not necessarily learn these throws, nor learn them in this order, yet they are a good place to start. While we may show any given movement to one side (for example, right), it can just as easily be reversed to the other side (for example, left).

Osoto gari — Major Outer Reaping Throw

Basic throw:

Pull the attacker’s right arm with your left to make the attacker plant his right foot as he is pulled forward or stiffen his leg to maintain his balance. Either way this motion temporarily immobilizes the adversary.

Step forward with your left leg so that it is next to the attacker’s right foot. At the same time, you must swiftly place your right leg behind his right leg. Note: you are touching your attacker with your entire body from the leg up to your head. There must be virtually no space between you and your attacker to make this move successful.

Sweep your right leg backward in a cutting motion while driving your right shoulder downward to the ground. Pull with your left arm and push with your right simultaneously. If he resists strongly you can rotate your hips to the left a bit to facilitate the throw.

Osoto gari — Step 1

Osoto gari — Step 2

Osoto gari — Step 3

Street application:

During Step #1: Use the right fingers to the eyes.

During Step #2: Punch the attacker in the neck or jaw.

During Step #3: Stomp on the knee instead of sweeping with your leg.

Sasae tsurikomi ashi — Lifting/Pulling Ankle Block Throw

Sasae tsurikomi ashi requires precise timing to be effective. You must execute Steps 2 and 3 in precise sequence to bring your adversary up onto his toes at the same time you sweep his leg.

Basic throw:

Close distance and grab the adversary.

Lift upward to shift his center of balance upward and bring him onto his toes.

Twist your hands, as if turning the steering wheel of the car, left hand down and right hand up, while simultaneously sweeping the attacker’s right leg.

When Sasae tsurikomi ashi is done traditionally and well by a skilled practitioner, it is beautiful and appears effortless. In the hands of an unskilled practitioner, it appears ugly and sloppy, yet it is still an effective throw nevertheless. Street Application:

During #1: Grab flesh, not clothing.

Osoto gari — Fingers to Eyes

Osoto gari — Punch Throat

Osoto gari — Stomp Knee

Sasae tsurikomi ashi — Step 1

Sasae tsurikomi ashi — Step 2

Sasae tsurikomi ashi — Step 3

Sasae tsurikomi ashi — Step 4

Sasae tsurikomi ashi — Grab Flesh not Clothing