I got to thinking lately, trying to figure out which throws I've seen thrown successfully in shiai more than once in the last 15 years. It turned out to be a pretty small set. Just about the only competition throws I've seen successfully attempted are:
- seoinage
- osotogari
- morotegari
- uchimata
- taiotoshi
- tomoenage
And that's about it. That's pretty much the technical range of most of the competitors I've seen on any level. Every so often someone falls for some other action, but the throws in this list represent the vast majority.
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Then the IJF comes along and makes morotegari illegal, so the range is now reduced to a mere handful of techniques.
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Seems relatively easy to me if you only ever have to watch out for about five potential actions from the entire field of competition. Seems like some expert at some unexpected throw could relatively easily become the Grim Reaper of the judo world.
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What do y'all think? Am I way off from reality? If my perception is close to right then is this situation a good or a bad thing for judo as a whole?
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Patrick Parker
