I am constantly looking back over our teaching systems that the old dead Japanese guys gave us and asking myself, "Why is this thing organized this way?"
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Today I was looking back over the throwing techniques of judo and something struck me that I hadn't ever noticed before. I don't know if it's significant, but it sure is interesting (to me at least).
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First some background (as I understand it.) There are two major classifications of throws in judo - otoshi and guruma. Many throws are named either otoshi or guruma based on which action they represent. Most throws fall into one category or the other even if they are named something else (like nage or gaeshi).
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So, what I noticed was this...
- almost all throws named otoshi are tewaza
- almost all throws named guruma are ashiwaza
And that led to me to wonder...
- Why are there so few tewaza gurumas in judo? Is it something about the close-range (first thing that comes to mind)? This is weird to me, because in Tomiki aikido (hamare judo) there are numerous gurumas that are essentially tewaza.
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Patrick Parker
