Judo Techniques

Now, before you learn any throws, any holds or anything like that, you need to learn about breaking the balance of your opponent. That's going to allow you to shift their way to get them in a compromising position where you can then execute a throw. On the flip side of that, you also need to learn how to fall properly.

These are called break falls. We're going to show you how to do breaking the balance and break falls now. First, we're looking at the hand position here.

Your right hand grabs the lapel and your left hand, the sleeve. Your opponent would do the same. From there, we're going to show you how to do breaking balance to the side.

Pull your opponent and step your foot out, tensing your abs and bracing as you shift their body weight to the side. Here's the other side. Now, check out the hand position.

Use the muscles in the arms and the shoulders, stepping to move your weight into the side and dragging them across to break their balance. This is how to break your opponent's balance by moving backwards, pulling with the arm and stepping with the leg as you rotate your hips around a transverse plane. Here's how to do it forwards, slight lift with the arms, stepping again and thrusting forwards with your arms to push your opponent off balance.

You can also use these diagonally. If you're thrown backwards, you need to learn how to land safely. This is a backwards break fall and how to learn, how to do it in its full range.

Start small with your knees tucked in, in a mushroom position. Roll back and then roll forwards. And what we're going to do is we're going to make it bigger each time and eventually, we're going to spread the hands down onto the mat to spread the weight of impact.

Here it is in its full swing, lying back and the hands at the same time. Quite often, you won't be thrown straight and you'll be thrown to the side. Here's how to learn how to break fall in a side position.

Start small again, rubbing the shoulder onto the floor. The first thing that is thrown is the hips and it rolls into the hand. We're going to practice until everything lands at the same time, downward force on the floor, using the hand and the arm.

The next break fall is called the to-carry roll and if you're thrown with momentum, you could use this to cushion your blow. Place one hand on the floor for phase 1. Make sure it's the opposite leg forwards, tuck in your chin, and place the other hand underneath the back of the hand on he floor.

What we're going to do is roll forwards on the shoulder of the left arm, tucking the head in and pushing the legs using the hips. Now, phase 2 is going from a crouch position. The hands are braced ready to roll and it's the same technique.

The left shoulder comes down to the mat, pushing through the legs to release the roll. Now, only once you've mastered phase 2, could you go on to phase 3 from standing. Now, we're leading again with your left arm and pushing from the opposite hip, generating momentum and rolling smoothly out, like that.

So, that was your basic introduction of how to learn judo techniques. Safety first, always. Remember, break falls and breaking the balance would be the first thing you learn.

Just giving you a bit of a heads up, now what you need to do is to go find your local judo club and then you can get started for real. Good luck.