Hip Defense With Satoshi Ishii
Satoshi Ishii is an Olympic Gold medal heavyweight, All-Japan Judo champion and has fought such luminaries as Mirko Cro Cop and Fedor Emelianenko in his ongoing MMA career (and is also a BJJ black belt).
Satoshi is the youngest Olympic champion in the heavyweight division while at the same time being the lightest in the heavyweight division. Satoshi was also the youngest All Japan Champion, a competition which the Japanese hold in higher esteem than the Olympics and is watched by the Emperor of Japan as well! Not only this but the All Japan is an open weight competition, which Satoshi won while weighing under 100kgs himself!
To hear more about Satoshi’s story in Judo, MMA and a really funny practical joke that Mirko Cro Cop played on Satoshi check out the BJJ Fanatics podcast with him here:
Satoshi says that regardless of weight it’s the technical skill of Japanese Judoka that sets them apart. Who better to learn game changing technical details from than Satoshi Ishii?
The following training drill from Satoshi Ishii is something he says is very important and a practice that he did 3-5 rounds of 30 reps daily to improve his ability to defend against takedowns. This drill starts from both players having grips and one player repeatedly making throwing attempts, which the other player stuffs by punching his hip into the other player so as to nullify the power of the opponents throw.
To throw in Judo it really helps to have a positive impact on or control of your opponents hips. The drill Satoshi is showing here trains a reflex to punch your hips in in order to maintain your own posture and shunt into your opponents hips. We consistently see throughout the drill the opponent goes very quickly from initiating positive throwing actions to being either stalled from throwing or even beginning to have their own balance broken by Satoshi’s hip defense, leaving them open to be countered and thrown themselves.
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Some details for this drill are that we can see Satoshi’s hip coming underneath his opponents center of balance when he is countering with his hips. Sometimes we can see Satoshi countering by using his arm to block the opponents hip in conjunction with his own hip power. Another detail is a strong grip breaking motion by Satoshi, pulling his arm away and blading his body to the side to intercept his opponents hips.
This hip defense is a readily available and fast counter that Satoshi notes should be trained to the point of being a reflex. Satoshi notes that doing it daily for 30 reps of 3-5 rounds is a good way to train, and this will likely need to be trained for 1-2 years before it becomes a reliable technique in your defense arsenal, but when you get this right it is clear to see the pay-offs for your standing game! An important detail Satoshi notes is that your training partner must be committed and serious about throwing you for you to get the results you need for making this a successful defense technique. Don’t coast on this one!
For more game changing details like this from Olympic Gold medal winner and All Japan champion Satoshi Ishii check it out here: