Intermediate Throwing Techniques for Juniors - Why I teach what I teach

To continue with the previous guest post 
by Jim Pedro, Sr.

Here is what I teach for intermediate students, approximately 13-16 years old, and why

Left vs. Right Basic Technique:

Tai otoshi Uchimata

Knee O soto Gari Ko soto gari

Ashi barai

Kata Garuma

Why I teach it as a basis: As the student masters the basics, it is time to move into less common situations. The most common of these ‘less common’ situations is fighting against a player who is the opposite side from you.

Left vs. Right Combination Techniques:

O uchi to tai otoshi

O uchi to uchimata

O uchi to knee o soto gari

Uchi mata to kosoto gari

Why I teach it as a basis: Once students can do the throws individually, it is time to start putting them together. Again, it is important to teach children early on to start thinking about combinations. If you watch the junior nationals, you will notice that very few students perform combinations. Not only do learning counters and combinations earlier than their peers give your students an advantage at the junior level, but this gives them a head start building as a basis for the senior level where they must be able to use more counters, combinations and complex attacks.

Left vs. Right Complex Combinations:

Cross grip ouchi gari

Cross grip sumigaeshi

Russian firemans

Reverse Firemans

Yoko tomonage

Why I teach it as a basis: You might say we are starting to move beyond the basics here. Still, we are building on the base a student learned in the previous steps in the curriculum. They know o uchi gari, presumably by this time they have learned a cross grip. They are now ready to learn to throw in less common situations, and to set up those situations more rather than in the case of, e.g., o uchi gari or seoi which often take advantage of situations that commonly occur in a match.

Beyond the basics  

As you move to the techniques below, you are really aiding your student in moving from the junior to senior level. Attacking off the grip, one-handed attacks and cross grip techniques are seldom seen at the junior level. Does this mean that I think you should teach your eight-year-olds these techniques so they will beat all of the other eight-year-olds? No, I do not! Start with the basics. Build a foundation. Build from there.

Same sided opponents (Left vs. Left or Right vs. Right) Techniques:

One-handed tai otoshi

Off the grips to:

Sode

Sode to osoto gari

There were a number of other attacks that I did teach from here, e.g. sode to a double leg, but with the new rules, these are no longer legal so we are modifying our teaching in certain ways.

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I want to say that I am extremely grateful to Jimmy for giving me permission to use a lot of his writing before he left for Japan since I have barely had a moment to copy and paste it here, much less write much myself. Some how, I ended up teaching a judo class at Gompers today because I told the kids I would be there, then being part of the Masters of Submission clinic at the West Coast Judo Training Center tomorrow from 1:30 - 5:30, then, right after that going to give a judo demonstration in Santa Monica on Arizona Street for the very kind karate school that has loaned us the mats to use at Gompers Middle School and has not once mentioned the fact that they have been on loan for a year now and what the hell. 

On top of all of that, there is work which I am actually required to do for money, a couple of papers I need to finish writing for a presentation to the SAS Users Group in Hawaii next month and the major time black hole of all, my daughter and two-year-old granddaughter are visiting. Anyone who is curious as to why I do not have more written lately need only look below for the explanation.