Hifumi Abe's Sode-Osoto-Gari

Hifumi Abe is a sode-tsurikomi-goshi specialist. And it is precisely because his sode is so feared that he is able to do a variety of combinations to this technique. When he senses there is too much resistance to his sode, a forward throw, he would switch to doing a kouchi-gari or osoto-gari from that same double-sleeve sode grip.

The beauty of his strategy is that it puts uke in a Catch-22 situation. When Abe adopts his familiar double-sleeve grip, his opponent knows he’s about to do an attack but he doesn’t know which direction Abe is going to take him.

If uke doesn’t resist, Abe is likely to throw him to the front with sode-tsurikomi-goshi. But if he does resist, he might get thrown with sode-osoto.

Quite often the sode threat from his double-sleeve grip is so realistic that Abe doesn’t even have to turn into a sode. He just attacks with osoto-gari directly without doing a sode first.