Kumi-kata · gripping
Standard grip
組み方 · くみかたKumi-kata
The basic right-handed grip that almost every technique in this reference assumes: left hand on their right sleeve, right hand on their left lapel. Taking it, keeping it and knowing what it lets you feel is the foundation of everything standing.
Demonstrations
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Key points
- Sleeve hand low on the outside of their elbow, lapel hand at collarbone height
- Elbows stay down and close to your body, never lifted or locked
- Grip firmly with the last three fingers, not the whole fist clenched
Step by step
Left-handed: these steps use the standard right-handed form. Swap every left and right.
- Face your partner in a natural stance, feet about shoulder width apart, knees soft.
- Take their right sleeve with your left hand, gripping the outside of the cloth just below their elbow.
- Take their left lapel with your right hand, at about collarbone height, thumb outside the cloth.
- Drop both elbows so they hang close to your ribs rather than sticking out.
- Keep your arms slightly bent and relaxed: a straight arm gives away your intention and tires quickly.
- Feel their movement through the sleeve hand and their posture through the lapel hand. The grip is for listening as much as for pulling.
From the other side
Taking a grip on you is not neutral: a strong lapel grip can control your posture before anything else happens, and a deep sleeve grip takes away the arm you need for a breakfall. Keep your own elbows in, break a grip early rather than late, and never let someone hold your sleeve with your arm straight and behind you.
VI judo notes
Every VI judo contest starts from this grip already taken, so it is the one part of standing judo where a visually impaired judoka begins on completely level terms. Because it is the starting point rather than something to win, the reading of a partner's balance and intention through the hands is the skill that matters most.
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.
How to grip
The basic way of gripping is for both partners to be in shizentai (natural posture), one hand taking the opponent's sleeve and the other hand taking the opponent's lapel. In migi-gumi (right-hand grip), both are in migi-shizentai (right natural posture); the left hand takes the outside middle of the opponent's right sleeve, and the right hand takes the opponent's left front lapel. In hidari-gumi (left-hand grip), the right hand takes the outside middle of the opponent's left sleeve, and the left hand takes the opponent's right front lapel. In class, skill instruction is carried out with migi-gumi as the basic grip. Point: When gripping the judogi, grip with force in the little finger and the ring finger.
Printed page 94
Practice 1
Grip up in shizen-hontai and move forwards (and backwards). Do it with ayumi-ashi (or tsugi-ashi).
Printed page 95
Practice 2
Grip up in shizen-hontai and move to the left (or right). Do it with tsugi-ashi.
Printed page 95
Practice example
Decide who is tori and who is uke. From shizen-hontai, tori moves one step forwards, backwards, left or right with tsugi-ashi and then returns to shizen-hontai. Uke moves in time with tori's movement and quickly maintains the shizen-hontai posture. Point: When moving, rather than looking at the opponent's feet, look at about the level of the opponent's chest; then you can both keep your posture and see the movement of the whole body. Point: Have students take care to keep "shizentai" and "suri-ashi", so that the feet are not spread too wide or brought too close together, the feet do not cross, and the feet do not come too far off the tatami.
Printed page 95
The pages this is taken from
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.
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