I have, for a long time, based my judo classes on the idea that there are handful of throws that are foundational to the rest of the throws - the idea that all of the cool, weird throws are just fairly minimal variations of a bare handful of foundational throws. I have fluctuated on whether I think there are about nine foundational throws, or if perhaps it might be as few as six, but the general idea has remained pretty constant, and we've gotten a lot of mileage out of is teaching model.
With regard to teaching hipthrows, I have three basic entries that I teach that can be used for pretty much any hip throws -
- stepping through uke's hips as he steps back
- turning parallel with uke and fitting in as he steps forward
- shifting the front foot out of the way then turning backward with the rear leg to fit in
Problem is, I have always taught these three entries in a sort of haphazard manner, whenever I happen to think to or whenever a student has a hipthrow question that looks like a different entry would solve. Since any of the three entries can be used to throw any hipthrow, I have mostly defaulted to using the first one just because it is my personal favorite and the easiest to teach.
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Then I got to looking at the core throws that I listed above. There are two hipthrows there (ukigoshi and ogoshi), and the first thing that I teach after these foundation throws is koshiguruma - another hip technique. Hmmm... Three hipthrows before green belt and three entries for hipthrows... I bet you can read my mind...
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I think I will try explicitly pairing each of these hipthrows with one of these entries, so that beginners get some systematic exposure to all three koshinage entries. My first thoughts on this pairing are something like this...
- stepping through into ukigoshi
- turning parallel into ogoshi
- turning backward into koshiguruma
