Harai-goshi

In a right natural posture, Tori and Uke begin their engagement. Tori initiates by pushing Uke backward, working to break Uke’s balance. Reacting to this, Uke steps back with his right foot. In response, Tori advances by stepping his right foot between Uke’s feet and presses down on Uke’s upper body. Uke counters by stepping forward with his right foot, pushing back against Tori, attempting to regain his original stable posture.

During this exchange, Tori adapts by slightly bending his knees and supporting his weight on his right leg. He opens his body to the left and steps his left foot back and around, just outside the front of Uke’s left foot, entering a right han-mi stance. Simultaneously, Tori lessens the downward pressure with both hands and instead lifts and pulls with his right hand, while his left hand pulls upwards and outwards, lifting Uke towards the right front corner to further break his balance.

As Uke steps forward with his right foot to maintain stability, Tori pivots on his left foot, turning to face the opposite direction. He pulls Uke close so that the right side of his body presses tightly against the left side of Uke’s body. Tori then lifts and unbalances Uke again towards the right front corner.

Maintaining a strong posture, Tori supports his weight on his left leg and raises his right leg straight up, with tension in the toes. He then swings the right leg down forcefully in a large motion, sweeping up the front of Uke’s right leg with the back of his right thigh. This motion lifts Uke from under the knee with Tori’s right hip. While doing this, Tori straightens his left knee and twists his body to the left, executing the throw. Uke’s lower body is lifted and swept up in a large circle, culminating in Uke landing on the mat.

The first key point in this technique is to draw out uke’s right foot and break his balance sufficiently in the right front corner. Tori pulls uke’s chest tight against his back similarly to uki-goshi. Therefore, tori will be more stable if he supports his weight with his left foot stepped back slightly outside the front of uke’s left foot, enabling him to sweep uke’s body forward more effectively. On the other hand, if tori enters too deeply in front of uke’s body (supporting his weight with his left foot inside uke’s left foot), not only can uke push him over due to the imbalance toward the outside of his left foot, but also tori’s right leg will cut through empty space when he sweeps up.

Therefore, tori sweeps up firmly and sharply in a large motion with his right leg and the back of his right hip, while twisting his body to the left to throw uke. The various actions of tori’s right hand include grappling uke by pressing down uke’s left hand. At the moment uke starts to push up with his left hand, tori lessens the pressing action, pulls it up, then holds uke’s left arm under his right armpit, brings uke’s body tight against him, and sweeps up. In this technique, tori obtains good control of uke’s upper body with his right armpit tight against uke’s left armpit.

There are many variations of grappling in randori, and recently in national competitions, there has been an increase in harai-goshi techniques where tori lifts uke up by gripping his belt (on the front, side, or back); this is similar to techniques seen in Sambo Judo. In this scenario, if tori does not sweep up with the right foot, but keeps it placed on the mat and throws uke over the hip, it is a tsuri-goshi technique. Tori can also sweep uke up with his arm around uke’s neck, wrapping him around while holding the neck, which is classified as a harai-goshi technique and not harai-makikomi.