Fake It Till You Make It!
Don’t Worry...
We aren’t going to get real long winded and tell you that today is the day to get your life in order. If anything it’s time to get your Judo tactics in order! What we will be discussing is how setting up throws with fakes will increase the success rate of any technique. What’s nice about fakes is that they can cause a reaction from your opponent.
Let’s say you are just starting out on your Judo Journey, or maybe your child has just started training. Judo is a lot of action vs reaction. Push vs pull would be a simple example of this. By getting an opponent to react you can start to set traps for them. Encouraging offensive movements is important for everyone, especially beginners, because it can help in understanding how the techniques are supposed to work.
Many athletes can become discouraged if they are attempting a forward throw with no set up only to feel like they are hitting a wall. This is where the “fake it ‘til you make it” concept applies. While you are practicing you will have a willing/compliant partner. During this time it is important to get a good feel over the mechanics of a technique, however during competitive sparring there are more variables at play.
If you can be offensive and attempt the forward throw you learned during class, you can start to limit those variables. Obviously, just winging techniques out left and right is a quick way to get countered, but there is a balance to creating offensive tempo. A great way to start to make use of Fakes can be to fake a forward throw, and as they base out transition into Kouchi Gari.
Here is a great example of using fakes, from JudoFanatics YouTube page!
Causing a natural reaction is essential when chaining together techniques. The first technique in the chain must count, otherwise they will not react in a way that we anticipated. This is what Matt D’Aquino demonstrates here, with some slick movement by the way! Matt just released a brand new instructional with JudoFanatics! Killer Inside Trips is packed full of techniques that will keep your opponent guessing while you are already on to Kouchi Gari.
Check out Matt's New Release, Click Learn More!
The Austrailian Olympian makes a couple of clear points about how to correctly pull off the fake forward throw into the inside trip. First is the fake. Once they start to get heavy into their base their feet will be easier to sweep. Next is the job of his arms. Kouchi Gari is performed best when the opponent’s weight is disrupted.
In this case, their weight should be going backwards over their planted foot. This makes sweeping their foot out from under them possible. D’Aquino shows what happens if they are heavy on their foot at the 1:55 mark of the video. Don’t end up like this!
Drilling is always a crucial aspect to adding usable techniques to your toolkit. Thankfully for us Matt demonstrates just that at the 2:46 mark. By drilling a technique over and over you will start to develop the rhythm needed to pull of this Kouchi Gari.
Killer Inside Trips By Matt D’Aquino is dedicated to the inside trip. Develop strong fakes set up HIGH PERCENTAGE trips with Matt D’Aquino!