Turnovers · turning a defending partner
Turnover into Kesa-gatame
Your partner is on all fours and defending. Turning them onto their back and arriving in the scarf hold is the first turnover every junior syllabus teaches, and the model for the rest: break the base, roll them, arrive in the hold.
Demonstrations
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Key points
- Take an arm or the far side before you try to roll anything
- Roll them over their own shoulder, not over their hips
- Follow them over and land in the hold, not beside it
Step by step
Left-handed: these steps are written right-handed, as the syllabuses write them. Read every left as a right and every right as a left, and the throw is yours.
- Your partner is on all fours, elbows and knees on the mat. Kneel at their right side, facing them.
- Press your chest down onto their back so their base is loaded and they cannot move away.
- Reach your left arm under their near armpit and across to grip their far lapel, and your right hand to their far hip or belt.
- Pull the far side towards you and drive with your chest, rolling them over their own near shoulder.
- Keep rolling with them rather than letting go, so you travel to their right side as they land on their back.
- Arrive with your right arm around their neck, their right arm trapped under your left armpit and your legs spread wide.
From the other side
You will feel weight arrive on your back and a hand reach through to your far side. Widen your knees, drop one hip and turn your head away from the pull; a base that is wide and low is much harder to roll.
VI judo notes
The whole turnover runs on touch: their armpit found with your hand, their far lapel or belt gripped, your chest pressed on their back. None of it needs sight, and the finishing hold is the one you already know by feel.