巴投Tomoe-nage · say “toh-MOH-eh NAH-geh” · “circle throw”
Also called Circle throw, Circular throw
Tomoe-nage is the circle throw. You drop onto your back right in front of your partner, put a foot on their lower belly, and push them up and over your head as you pull them round in a circle. It is a rear sacrifice throw, and because you fall as you throw, it works best when they are leaning into you. At the Paris Olympics it won the women's -48 kg gold medal, and it gave Mexico's Prisca Awiti Alcaraz an early lead in the -63 kg final.
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: Take a sleeve-and-lapel grip, or a higher grip on the jacket. Stand a step apart in a natural stance. Your partner should be pushing against you or standing up after you pressed them down, leaning slightly forward.
- 1Grip. Hold the sleeve with one hand and a high lapel or collar grip with the other.
- 2Kuzushi. Press them down lightly to provoke a reaction. When they stand up, help the movement with a lifting pull. Their weight comes forward onto their toes, straight ahead or toward their right front corner.
- 3Tsukuri, feet. Step your left foot deep between their feet and lower your hips. Bend the left knee completely so your backside comes close to your left heel.
- 4Tsukuri, foot. Curve the sole of your right foot and place it on their lower belly, not the groin, before your back reaches the mat.
- 5Kake, drop. Fall onto your back in time with their body leaning forward over you.
- 6Kake, throw. Straighten your right knee to push them up, and pull them round in a circle with both hands so they go over your head.
- 7Finish. They are thrown forward in a large rotating movement and land on their back. Keep hold of the sleeve and come up to a hold or to standing.
- Foot on the belly before your back hits the mat.
- Sit down close to your left heel, between their feet.
- Push with the leg and pull round in a circle.
- Keep your grips until they have landed.
- Dropping before the foot is in place. Fix: get your foot on their belly as you fall, not after.
- Putting the foot too low. Fix: aim for the lower belly, well above the groin.
- Falling behind you instead of between their feet. Fix: step deep and sit close to your heel.
- Letting go of the grips. Fix: hold them until they have landed, so you control the fall.
- Kicking instead of pushing. Fix: straighten the knee smoothly and pull round.
Safety: Learn your breakfalls first and throw only onto mats with a trained partner. Put your foot on the lower belly, never the groin, and keep your chin tucked as you fall. Judo Canada's manual forbids sacrifice throws for its U12 group.
When to use it
- When they stand up after you press them down. This is the Kodokan's own timing.
- When they lean or push forward into you, because the push up and over needs that forward weight.
- Press them down to provoke a reaction, then help them up with a lifting pull.
- Take a high grip first, so you can keep hold and complete the backward roll.
- A hold-down. Variations that keep the high grip and complete the backward roll let you finish mounted on them.
- Maki-tomoe-nage: roll through into tate-shiho-gatame.
- Crouch or step aside so the rising foot finds nothing. Both are recognised counters.
- Stay tall with your weight back so there's no forward lean to push up.
- Follow them to the ground quickly and take the top position.
- Keep your weight over your heels and your hips back as they drop.
- Step your feet wide so you can't be pulled over a foot on your belly.
- If you start to go over, tuck your chin and roll.
The physics
Tomoe-nage is a sacrifice throw, and Sacripanti classes it as a maximum-arm lever whose fulcrum is the friction between your partner's feet and the mat.
You drop onto your back close to their feet while pulling them forward, so their feet stay stuck while the upper body keeps travelling and they pivot over them. Your falling body weight is the engine, but it points almost straight down, more than 45° away from the direction they must go, so your foot in their belly has to redirect it up and over. Their body then follows a circular path over you, which Sacripanti describes as the least-effort route for this group. If their feet can step forward, the fulcrum moves with them and the throw stalls.
- Myth: your foot kicks your partner over. Your falling body weight is the engine; the foot mainly redirects that downward force up and over them (Sacripanti 1987, 2012).
Masters and famous moments
Tsunoda had leaned on tomoe-nage all day, and Bavuudorj knew it. It worked anyway: Tsunoda guided her over with both feet and she landed on her side. That waza-ari was enough for the gold medal.
Awiti Alcaraz opened the final with a very fast tomoe-nage that scored a waza-ari. Leski levelled with a throw of her own, then held Awiti Alcaraz down to reach ippon, and took the gold.
Urozboev, 22, won the bronze-medal match on a single score: a yuko from a neat tomoe-nage.
Across the arts
The form in the steps: a high grip, a foot on the lower belly and a circular pull over your head.
A side version. The IJF reported Joshiro Maruyama scoring a waza-ari with a stylish yoko-tomoe-nage in a world final.
A roll-through version ends in tate-shiho-gatame, a vertical pin.
The IJF reported that Natsumi Tsunoda's tomoe-nage was central to her strategy in Paris, and that she steered her opponent with both feet in the final.
History
Tomoe-nage is one of the original forty throws of Jigoro Kano's Gokyo, in the third group, and the first of the three rear sacrifice throws in the Nage-no-kata. It also appears in the Danzan-ryu list of 20 throws. At the 2024 Olympics, Natsumi Tsunoda won the women's -48 kg gold medal with a tomoe-nage waza-ari.
In the rules
Drills
Alone on a mat, practise stepping in, sitting down close to your heel, rolling onto your back and raising the right foot as if onto a belly. Ten slow reps each side, chin tucked.
Your partner stands tall. Step in, sit down and place your foot on their belly without pushing. Hold for a count of two. Ten reps each side.
With a trained partner who can breakfall, throw at half speed, five reps each side, holding the sleeve through the landing.
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