Ashi Waza: High ROI for your Stand-up

Foot Sweep Mini-instructional

One of the most important things jiu-jitsu has taught me is “efficiency”. And not just in jiu-jitsu but in all walks of life.

Being efficient is an incredible skill to develop. You get to reap the rewards while also putting in less work. Putting in less work allows you more time and energy to do more important things. And if you can be efficient in those things, the rewards become even greater.

Back to efficiency on the mats. I started training Judo when I was a blue belt. I’ve been doing judo off and on for years now and I’ve loved to incorporate it into my training.

To be honest, I probably love judo more than jiu-jitsu but that’s another story for another day.

One of the areas of jiu-jitsu that Judo has helped me with immensely is my stand-up game (for obvious reasons)… and it’s not even about the takedown aspect, it’s about everything.

Judo taught me how to stand with more confidence, how to move with more efficiency but also, if you can believe it, how to pull guard more effectively.

Now, I’ve never been a fan of the big throws. For whatever reason, I never developed proficiency with them but I did excel pretty quickly with foot sweeps. Foot sweeps became a big part of my game and I used them ALL THE TIME in practice and competition.

Why?

Because foot sweeps are high ROI (Return on investment). They take little effort and if successful, get you a nice 2 points for the takedown. And if you fail? No big deal… They’re so simple and low energy that you don’t run the risk of getting caught out of position.

Now, the downside to foot sweeps is that they’re hard for beginners. They require timing and understanding rhythm in order to get them. They’ll require that you’re not tense and that you’re able to feel when your opponent moves weight from one leg to the next. This takes a lot of time to develop.

Despite the amount of time and effort it takes to learn, they’re still incredible options for your takedown game precisely because they’re so low risk/high reward. Further, when you fail, you’re still in a good position to capitalize.

So this week (and next), I’m going to create a little foot sweep instructional. The goal is to:

1. Teach you basic mechanics of ambulation (Walking)

2. How to time ambulation patterns as weight shifts from one foot to the next

3. How to use the De Ashi Barai with these walking patterns

4. [Next week] How to use the Kouchi Gari (right v. right) and Kosoto Gari (right v. left) as a primary attack

5. [Future] How to set up secondary attacks off of failed foot sweeps [Morote Seoi Nage, Foot sweep, etc]

[In case you missed it, the last substack will be really helpful with regard to understanding engagement and making grips. Find it here]

Ready to dive in? LETS GO!