Easy Defense to Ouchigari...

The most common mistake made in Ouchigari is Tori’s persistence in swinging his whole body in the direction of the throw.  If doing a right-sided Ouchigari, for example, it’s all too common for Tori to insert his right leg to hook, and then arch his body to uke’s left rear.  This is always a mistake.

Uke can take advantage of this by pulling with his left hand, and pushing out and to the left with his right hand… ’steering’ his opponent’s shoulders in the direction that he’s already moving.

The best way to perform Ouchigari (to avoid this counter) is to insure that your head is placed on the opposite side of uke’s body from the Ouchigari.  So if you’re attacking with a right-sided Ouchi, your head must stay to the left of the vertical line bisecting uke.  If you do so, then your Ouchigari attack cannot be countered this way.

Although I loved Ouchigari as a young white belt - I actually gave up on it for years because of the quite frequently successful counters… I didn’t learn to properly perform tsukuri for this throw.  It wasn’t until I’d gotten my black belt that I finally learned just what I’d been doing wrong all those years.

Next time you’re practicing Ouchigari uchikomi, ask your partner to defend each time by pulling with the hand on the same side as the attacked leg, and pushing with the other arm.  See if your Ouchi is strong enough to resist this powerful counter.  If you keep your head solidly on the other side of your attack - you should be able to resist this counter.  Try it!