Posture

Key points

• Natural posture is the default; anything else is a decision you should be able to explain
• A defensive posture is stable and slow, which is why holding it draws a penalty in contest
• Right or left is named for the leading foot, not the leading hand

Step by step

Left-handed: these steps use the standard right-handed form. Swap every left and right.

1. Stand in shizen-hon-tai, the natural posture: feet about shoulder width, weight even between them and over the middle of each foot, knees soft rather than locked, back straight, shoulders down, arms hanging easily.
2. Slide the right foot forward about half a pace to make migi-shizen-tai, the right natural posture. Your weight stays even; only the feet have changed.
3. Bring it back and slide the left foot forward instead for hidari-shizen-tai. Notice that the hips turn slightly with the foot, and that this is the posture almost every throw is described from.
4. From natural posture, bend the knees, widen the feet a little and lower the hips to reach jigo-hon-tai, the basic defensive posture. Keep the back straight rather than folding forward at the waist.
5. Lead with the right foot for migi-jigo-tai and the left for hidari-jigo-tai.
6. Move between the two postures a few times without a partner. Feel that the defensive posture is harder to move out of than into, which is exactly why it is a penalty in contest to sit in it and do nothing.

From the other side

With a partner, take a grip and let them change posture while you keep yours. A partner who drops into a defensive posture becomes heavy and hard to turn, and also stops being able to attack you. Feel both halves of that trade, because it is the whole reason the rules penalise it.

VI judo notes

Posture is one of the few things in judo that is easier to learn without sight, because it is felt rather than watched. Work it from contact: hold a partner's sleeve and lapel and let them move you between the two postures so you feel the difference in their weight and height. A coach can also set your feet by touch. Nothing here needs to be seen to be checked.

How it is taught elsewhere

Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology has published guidance on this. Choose whose to show under Organisations' own guidance on My progress.

Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology · Japan

This guidance was written for compulsory school physical education in Japan, not club instruction, and is taught to a whole class, including everyone who did not choose judo. Its teaching stage does not indicate how difficult the technique is.

2 Basic movements for throwing techniques

Here the relationship between the basic movements and the throwing techniques is shown using tai-otoshi (body drop) as an example. The basic movements and the throwing techniques form a single continuous, integrated whole, and it is important to acquire each of the skills in relation to the others.

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Posture (shizentai (natural posture), jigotai (defensive posture))

The basic posture best suited to the attack and defence of judo throwing techniques is the shizentai (natural posture). It means standing naturally without putting in unnecessary force. The shizentai is the fundamental posture in judo; it is a stable posture from which it is easy to change. There are three natural postures: shizen-hontai, migi-shizentai and hidari-shizentai. There is also another posture, the jigotai (defensive posture), which is suited to defence. There are three defensive postures: jigo-hontai, migi-jigotai and hidari-jigotai.

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Step 3

③ Break balance on the spot → break balance while moving → break balance using tai-sabaki - In pairs, break the partner's balance in various ways.

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Step 2

② Grip up and move - In pairs, take a correct grip and move.

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Step 1

① Make the postures - In pairs, make the shizen-hontai and jigotai postures. By practising the basic movements in pairs from the introductory stage onwards, students acquire the relationship between tori and uke while developing from the basic movements towards the throwing techniques.

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Step 1

① Make the postures

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Practice example

Decide who is tori and who is uke and face each other. Tori changes posture freely from shizen-hontai into the right or left natural posture, or into a defensive posture, and so on. Uke quickly copies tori's posture as if reflected in a mirror.

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The pages this is taken from

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Printed page 93Close ✕

From School Physical Education Practical Instruction Materials No. 2 (Third Revised Edition): Guide to Teaching Judo, published by Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), Japan. Page images are reproduced from that document.