払釣込足Harai-tsurikomi-ashi · say “hah-RYE tsoo-ree-KOH-mee AH-shee” · “sweeping lift-pull foot throw”
Sambo: передняя подсечка Perednyaya podsechka (“front sweep”)
Also called Lift-pull foot sweep, Sweeping lift-pull ankle throw, Harai-tsuri-komi-ashi
Harai-tsurikomi-ashi is the 'lift-pull foot sweep'. You lift and pull your partner forward onto their toes, then sweep their front ankle backward from the front while their body keeps travelling. It is the sweeping cousin of sasae-tsurikomi-ashi, and the IJF called a 2023 world-championship ippon with it 'rarely seen'.
Satori's coaches are filming every technique, full speed and slow motion from two angles. Until it's up, the diagram shows the movement step by step.
How to do it
Start: Stand in a sleeve-and-lapel grip. Your partner is walking forward or pressing into you with a leg stretched out in front. In the IJF's description you pull them to their left front corner and sweep their left ankle with your right foot (left-handers mirror everything).
- 1Grip: sleeve hand near the elbow, lapel hand at the collar. Stay tall with soft elbows.
- 2Kuzushi (off-balance): step back so your partner steps forward, then lift with the lapel hand and pull with the sleeve hand in a circle. Take their weight up onto the toes and toward the front corner on the side of the leg you will sweep.
- 3Tsukuri (fit-in): turn your hips and chest with the pull. Bend your supporting leg a little, keep your chest upright and close to theirs, and stay balanced.
- 4Kake (finish), part one: as their weight rises onto the toes, place the sole or instep of your free foot against the front of their ankle.
- 5Kake, part two: sweep the ankle backward in a quick snap while you keep lifting and pulling in the circle, so their body rolls forward over the swept leg.
- 6Keep the sleeve in your hand as they turn and fall on their back or side.
- 7Step after them and finish in control.
- Lift, pull, then sweep.
- Sweep it back; don't just block it.
- Keep the circle going.
- Turn your whole body.
- Quick snap, then stay balanced.
- Blocking instead of sweeping. A block is sasae-tsurikomi-ashi; here the foot snaps the ankle backward.
- Pulling flat instead of lifting and circling. The pull must raise the weight onto the toes first.
- Sweeping a foot that is flat and heavy. Sweep as the heel is about to leave the mat.
- Stepping in too far away. Stay close so your hips turn with the pull.
- Leaning back as you sweep. Keep your chest over your supporting foot.
Safety: Harai-tsurikomi-ashi rolls your partner forward over the swept leg, so they can land hard on their back or shoulder and need a solid break-fall. Sweep with control in practice and never stamp on the ankle bone. Hold the sleeve through the fall, practise on mats, and start at half speed.
When to use it
- When your partner leans forward onto their toes with a leg stretched out in front.
- When a high collar grip is pressing you and a hip throw is blocked.
- When they expect a hand throw or a hip throw and have stiffened their upper body.
- Step back to draw them forward, then lift and pull so the weight climbs onto the toes.
- Use the same circular pull as sasae-tsurikomi-ashi, then decide between the block and the sweep from how they react.
- Follow a failed forward throw, since your partner's weight is often already moving forward.
- Work it at close quarters. Nils Stump threw Soichi Hashimoto with it at the 2023 Worlds at close range, the IJF reported.
- Uchi-mata-sukashi or another throw if they hop free. Rafaela Silva followed a harai-tsurikomi-ashi waza-ari with an uchi-mata-sukashi ippon at the 2019 Worlds, per JudoBase.
- A hold-down as they land.
- Lift the targeted foot as the sweep arrives and step past it, then throw forward.
- Sit your hips back and keep your knees bent so you do not rise onto your toes.
- Tsubame-gaeshi: fend off the sweep and counter-sweep with the same foot (the Kodokan lists this counter to foot sweeps).
- Do not let the lifting pull raise you onto your toes. Keep your hips back and your knees soft.
- Keep your chest tall and do not step forward with a straight leg under a pull.
- If you start to go over, tuck your chin and slap the mat.
The physics
Harai-tsurikomi-ashi is a couple applied by arm and leg. Your hands lift and pull your partner's upper body forward while the sole of your foot sweeps the front of their ankle backward, and these opposite forces rotate them forward around their centre of mass.
The lift-pull brings their weight onto the balls of their feet and their centre of mass forward, and the sweep removes the foot they need to step onto. As in every foot sweep, the foot moves easily only while it carries little weight, because friction grows with load. Plant the same foot as a fixed prop instead and the throw becomes a lever, sasae-tsurikomi-ashi, which shows that the physics, not just the foot position, defines the technique.
Masters and famous moments
Stump threw the former world champion for ippon with a rarely seen harai-tsurikomi-ashi at close quarters, which stunned the crowd. He went on to win the world title.
Around the three-minute mark, Tasoev, competing as an Individual Neutral Athlete, hit a perfectly timed harai-tsurikomi-ashi for waza-ari against the defending champion from Cuba and held the lead. He reached the final, where Teddy Riner beat him in golden score.
The Rio 2016 Olympic champion scored a waza-ari with harai-tsurikomi-ashi, then finished the match 16 seconds later with an uchi-mata-sukashi for ippon.
Across the arts
The IJF reported Nils Stump scoring ippon with a rarely seen close-quarters version at the 2023 Worlds, and Inal Tasoev landing a perfectly timed one for waza-ari at the same event.
The block version. Where sasae blocks the foot so it cannot step forward, harai-tsurikomi-ashi sweeps it away backward.
The difference: de-ashi-barai sweeps the foot sideways as it lands, while this throw pushes the foot backward after a lift and pull.
Russian-language sources call both this throw and sasae-tsurikomi-ashi a front sweep (perednyaya podsechka).
Wrestlers sweep the front foot of a forward-leaning opponent. Leg trips are legal in freestyle and illegal in Greco-Roman wrestling.
In Brazilian jiu-jitsu it scores 2 points when you land on top and hold for three seconds (IBJJF). In MMA the ABC foul list does not ban foot sweeps, and judges count takedowns as effective grappling.
History
Harai-tsurikomi-ashi appeared in the fifth group of the Kodokan's first Gokyo list of 1895. The 1920 revision to forty throws moved it to the third group, beside kosoto-gake and tomoe-nage. The Kodokan describes it as sweeping up the opponent's ankle from the front while lifting him forward. It is uncommon in competition: the IJF called Nils Stump's ippon with it at the 2023 Worlds rarely seen, and its reporters singled out Inal Tasoev's perfectly timed version at the same event.
In the rules
Drills
Hold a wall. Practise the circular lift and pull with your hands, then the snap of the free foot across an imaginary ankle. Ten slow reps each side.
With a partner walking forward, do twenty fit-ins: lift-pull, turn, touch the sole to the front of their ankle, then reset. No throw.
Partner walks forward. Use the same pull and alternate a sasae block and a harai sweep every repetition, slowly, to feel the difference. Five minutes, both sides.
Legends known for it
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