KUZUSHI - BEGINNING AND ADVANCED CONCEPTS (Part II)

Kuzushi - Beginning and Advanced Concepts. 

Part II

From Best Judo Submitted by Khadaji blog on Mon, 06/19/2006

So how can we induce a state where our opponent cannot defend? Off-
balancing uke certainly does exactly this. When you attack at the moment uke is
not in good balance, he cannot make the appropriate defense. And before I
move on, I’d like to cover some of the ways you can induce your uke to be off-
balance.

1. A simple push or pull with the hands will force many Judoka to a momentary
loss of balance. This is the very first method that is taught (or perhaps more
accurately, the first method that is perceived by the student), and it would be
difficult indeed to find a Judoka who doesn’t know this simple way to perform
kuzushi on uke. The major problem with this method is that people have been
learning since they first began to walk just how to regain lost balance. It’s
difficult indeed to counter decades of balance conservation with a few months or
few years of learning how to pull uke off-balance.

2. A slightly more advanced method is to have uke help you with off-balancing
him. As Mifune puts it, “In most cases, the opponent will oppose your energy
when you begin to attack him, in order to maintain his stability.” So the trick is to
force uke to begin a movement that you will help him with. For example, you
really want to throw uke with a left-side Osotogari, so you pull to uke’s right front
corner, as if you intend to try Tai Otoshi - as uke will resist by pulling back, you
then ‘help’ him with your strength. This method is more powerful than the first
method, as you are now inviting uke to help you off-balance him.

3. Next, you arrive at the point in which your arms do nothing more than
maintain the distance between you (while being quite relaxed), and you off-
balance your opponent with your body movement. This is an advanced form of
off balancing your opponent, and particularly, when combined with random
changes of tempo, can be extremely effective.

4. Finally, the epitome of off balancing is when you blend with uke’s movement,
and add your force to his to extend his movement beyond where he’d intended
to go. Rather than initiating any movement - you take what uke gives you, and
work with it. This is the rarest form of off balancing - and the most difficult. It
simply takes a great deal of experience and randori to achieve.
Now, what happens when you are facing a black belt, perhaps at the national or
international level, and only have five minutes to force him to lose his balance?