Kuzushi - Beginning and Advanced Concepts

Kuzushi - Beginning and Advanced Concepts.

Part I

Submitted by Khadaji on Mon, 06/19/2006

Kuzushi is integral to Judo, and is taught right from the very beginning, but as I’ll discuss here, there are different forms of Kuzushi, and different ways to apply it.  Let’s begin by learning what is meant by the term.  There are three different ‘sets’ of kuzushi that are taught in Judo:

• Roppo no Kuzushi – the six directions of breaking balance, referring to the right, left, right front corner, left front corner, right back corner, and left back corner.
 
• 
Happo no Kuzushi – Same as above, but the directions directly forward and back are added, for a total of eight directions of off balance.
 

• The third set is not commonly taught as far as I’m aware, but comes from Kazuzo Kudo’s observations in his book, “Dynamic Judo”.  He teaches 14 directions of off balance, taking the normal eight directions, and separating the front corner directions into three, and the back corner directions into two.  So instead of right front corner, Kudo has “outside right front”, “mid right front”, and “inside right front.  Instead of the right rear corner, Kudo has “right rear”, and “right rear side”.
 


Of course, the real number of directions is, in theory, infinite… but it’s good to have a starting basis for being able to transmit the basic ideas of a given throw.  Throws often have a preferred direction of off balance, and often can work in a number of directions, as well as directions in which the throw simply won’t work.  Off balancing your opponent to the left front corner, then attempting a right-sided Osotogari is a recipe for disaster.


What, though, does the term “Kuzushi” actually mean?  We often use it to mean off balancing uke in a given direction, but does “Kuzushi” mean this?  Or is this only one of the meanings that can be used?  Kuzushi comes from the verb, kuzureru, which has the meaning of ‘to break or crumble’.  The problem, as you can easily see, is that this does not necessarily refer to balance. 
 
If Kuzushi doesn’t actually refer to balance, let’s look at what else might be available.  Koshikudake – this term has the meaning of losing one’s balance (such as in the middle of a match), or a weakening of one’s attitude.  You might begin to wonder why Kano didn’t chose to speak of Koshikudake, Tsukuri & Kake.
 
Unfortunately, we can’t ask Kano at this time why he chose kuzushi, when there was a much more appropriate Japanese word to use, so let’s examine the issue and see if we can come to any conclusions.  The goal of kuzushi is simple, to prevent uke from being able to mount a defense against the technique being used.