Foot sweep drill, part 6

The next step in this whole experiment was to think about a second follow-up throw, building this into more than a series of foot sweep drills, per se, but combination drills. I got a chance to play around with some ideas this morning, and came across some interesting ideas.

Foot Sweep Series 1:

Uke retreating

As a brief reminder, this is the section where we sweep and catch uke's foot, hold it for a brief moment, until he pulls his own foot free and pulls it into a backward step. These, then, were the throws we did after this first step:

First Follow Up Throw

The main 3:

1) (foot pointed forward) O soto gari/guruma

2) (foot pointed at uke) Sasae tsurikomi ashi

3) (foot pointed away) O goshi

Additional possibilities:

4) (taking a shortened step, elbow up) Harai tsurikomi ashi

5) (foot in between uke's, turned in) Ko uchi gari

6) (from a right footed sweep, step in between uke's, kick feet out) Uchi mata

7) (from a right footed sweep, step in between uke's, let him cycle a little more) Harai goshi

Now we move on to trying yet another throw if that doesn't work:

Second Follow Up Throw

The main 3:

1) O soto gari/guruma fails, put R foot down, keep going back, use L for Ko soto gari

2) Sasae tsurikomi ashi fails, place R foot pre-turned, prop uke with L for Sasae tsurikomi ashi on the other side (This may sound banal, but as I've learned from Greg Ables sensei, both this and hiza guruma can be just devastating when thrown one right after the other on opposite sides!)

3) O goshi fails, use the R foot to slip between uke's legs and throw him backward with Ko uchi gari

Additional possibilities:

4) Harai tsurikomi ashi fails, let uke come back forward (towards me), put my R foot down turned inward, slip my R arm under his for Ippon Seoi Nage, almost right back where he came from. This whole scenario creates a lovely "wave" motion that becomes one heckuva ride.

5) Ko uchi gari fails, use L foot for O uchi gari (pretty common combination there).

6) Uchi mata fails, use the R foot to catch Ko uchi gari on uke's support leg.

7) Harai goshi fails, put the R foot down and use it to push yourself directly sideways. It's almost like you disappear right out from under him. You get a Tai otoshi that tends to surprise uke, because the fulcrum you tried first was at his hip level (he braced against it) and then suddenly that fulcrum drops to around his lower thigh or knee level. I'm not convinced this is the best option, but so far it's worked.

. . . . . . . . . . .

As I've mentioned before, none of this is carved in stone, or guaranteed 100%. But so far, it seems to work pretty nicely.

Also, I don't know that I've mentioned it, but by doing all of this, I'm trying to explore a handful of idea here:

1) Flow from one throw to the next, without getting fixed one one throw.

2) If a throw fails, learn to place my foot in the most advantageous place possible for the next throw (pre-turning it, etc.) rather than going back to stable before trying the next throw.

3) Explore the idea of moving from one line of off balance to another. For example, I try to throw uke to his right front corner with a hip throw; that doesn't work, I'll try a ko uchi gari to his back corner, tick-tocking back and forth until he falls down.

More follow up throws from the second set to come!