Harai-goshi

• ›Get them on your hip first. The sweep comes second.
• ›Sweep with a straight leg and pointed toes, the back of your thigh against theirs.
• ›Keep your left foot just outside the front of their left foot so you have room to sweep.
• ›Chest tight to theirs, their arm under your armpit, head and shoulders turning left.

• ✕Sweeping before their balance is broken forward. Fix: pull them onto your hip first.
• ✕Entering too deep, with the left foot inside theirs. Fix: keep it just outside the front of their left foot, or they can push you over and your sweep cuts through empty space.
• ✕Bending the sweeping leg. Fix: sweep with a straight leg. If the right foot stays planted and you only lift them over your hip with a belt grip, the Kodokan calls it tsuri-goshi instead.
• ✕Leaving space between your hip and theirs. Fix: pull them tight before you sweep.
• ✕Letting go of the sleeve. Fix: keep it so they land on their back.

• •When they push forward against you and their right foot is stepping in.
• •After an o-soto-gari threat makes them resist backward: sweep forward as they push back.
• •When a belt grip lets you lift and control their upper body.

• •Threaten o-soto-gari, then sweep forward when they resist.
• •Press them down with your lapel hand, then ease off and lift as they push back up. This is the Kodokan's own sequence.
• •Take a belt grip and use it to lift them onto your hip before you sweep.

• •A hold-down such as kesa-gatame. After a real attack that doesn't score, the IJF rules let you go straight to the ground.
• •Uchi-mata or hane-goshi: they start from the same forward break of balance, with the leg going between theirs or springing up from underneath.

• •Harai-goshi-gaeshi: block the sweep and throw them as they lift. The Kodokan and the IJF both list it as a counter-throw.
• •Push them over if they enter too deep. The Kodokan notes that a thrower whose left foot goes inside yours can be pushed off balance over that foot.
• •Ura-nage, lifting them as they turn in. The Kodokan teaches it as an answer to a hip throw.

• •Keep your hips back and your chest upright so they can't get their hip against yours.
• •Pull your left arm out of the armpit clamp before they turn in fully.
• •Step your right foot back or away so the sweep catches air.

The form in the steps: sleeve and lapel, a turn in with their arm under your armpit, and a straight-leg sweep.

The Kodokan notes a recent increase in harai-goshi where you lift them by gripping the belt at the front, side or back, similar to sambo judo. If the sweeping foot stays on the mat and you just throw them over your hip, it counts as tsuri-goshi instead.

You sweep them up with your arm wrapped round their neck. The Kodokan classes this as harai-goshi, not harai-makikomi.

The counter: you block their sweeping leg and throw them as they lift. It is listed separately in the Kodokan and IJF technique lists.

It still scores on the biggest stages: Teddy Riner finished the 2024 Olympic heavyweight final with it. Current IJF rules let you attack with collar-and-lapel, one-side, cross, belt or pocket grips, as long as you really attack with them and don't use them only to force your opponent into a bent, defensive posture.

Hold a wall or post with your left hand, stand on a slightly bent left leg and swing your straight right leg up and back, toes pointed. Ten slow swings, then ten sharp ones, each side.

Fit in to the turned position with their arm under your armpit and the sweep leg raised, without throwing. Ten reps each side, holding the top position for a count of two.

Throw at half speed with a trained partner, five reps each side, keeping the sleeve through the landing.

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