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Creating Koshi
written by Dan Penrod - May 23rd, 2005

Sensei throws Alex in koshiI really love koshi nage, the hip throw.  I throw koshi nage into as many classes as possible regardless of the theme for the night.  A student wrote me an email asking how I seem to know so many variations of koshi nage and how she could ever be expected to learn that many variations.  Not just learn them, but remember them and be able to reproduce them on demand.

I wrote back and discussed the method I'd stumbled on to years ago.  The day this method dawned on me it was like a flash of satori... the earth shook, bathed in golden light, I was suddenly enlightened.  Okay... so I wasn't really enlightened... but koshis were a little easier.  What follows is basically the email I replied to her with.

horizontal rule

Essentially there's a core set of koshi that you find by virtue of well known techniques.  This is by no means an exhaustive list of koshi techniques, but these koshi are easily found through common techniques such as ikkyo, nikyo, sankyo, etc...  It's important to note, I've associated the koshi variations with techniques, not attacks.  The premise is that you can do basic techniques, like ikkyo for example, from any attack; shomen uchi, yokomen uchi, tsuki, katate dori, kosa dori, kata dori, ryote mochi, ushiro ryote dori, ushiro kubi shime, etc, etc... because this is kihon waza you're regularly tested on.  Therefore, if you can do an ikkyo from any of these attacks... and you learn the ikkyo style koshi... then it follows that you can do an ikkyo style koshi from any attack.  This theory extends on to the rest of my core koshi; nikyo koshi, sankyo koshi, kotegaeshi koshi, irimi nage koshi... and is ultimately limited only by your own imagination. 

The mistake that most people make (and the genius of this system) is that people usually puzzle over how to do the koshi based on the attack.  How do I, for example, perform koshi nage from ryote dori (two handed grab)?  Then they proceed to try to memorize one koshi for every attack.  When they try to recover these memorized techniques during a test they invariably stumble as they try to recall the specific koshi for the particularly obscure attack called out.  By thinking, instead, in terms of the technique (ikkyo, nikyo, sankyo, kotegaeshi, irimi nage, etc...) you can easily discover, not just 1, but 2, 3, 4, 5, or more koshi responses to every attack.

Borrowed from our Aikido in Motion section of the Budo Dojo web site are the following mpeg video clips showing visual examples of using these movements against various attacks. Each clip may take a minute or 2 to download, so you'll need to be patient.  It's also a good idea to save them locally once they're downloaded so you can review them repeatedly without the repeated download time.

chudan tsuki koshi variations
shomen uchi koshi variations
yokomen uchi koshi variations
katate dori koshi variations

Let's begin by looking at some fundamental aikido movement and the associated koshi nage.

bullet Straight koshi - OGoshi (Big Hip)Straight Koshi:  This is the simplest koshi to visualize as well as execute.  The movement involves stepping inside, blocking, and rotating the hips into position.  It's often referred to as O Goshi or big hip, in judo and refers to simply reaching your hand back around your partners waist (on the belt), loading your partner onto your hip and throwing.  This is easily received from a shomen or yokomen strike using the standard inside forearm block allowing the other hand to slip around the back of your partners obi..  It's easy to imagine how this would similarly be received from a katate dori wrist grab or kata dori / mune dori (collar or sleeve) grab.  This hip throw in in the category of mae koshi or front koshi.
bullet Ikkyo setting up koshi nageIkkyo Koshi:  To visualize this koshi, imagine receiving a shomen attack and performing ikkyo (irimi omote) tipping uke at the waist.  Allow  uke to regain posture and slip your hip under uke's abdomen... your feet between uke's feet... free hand slips around uke's back on the belt line.  Load on inside (near) hip and throw.  In other words, you use the inherent off-balancing of ikkyo to create the opportunity to slip into the same basic ogoshi described above.  A really nice variation on this is to do the same thing, but as uke recovers, encourage their natural recovery movement to come up and over compensate, bending now in the other direction, switch your hips 180 degrees and throw on the opposite hip.  Once you begin to understand how easy these 2 koshis are from ikkyo you can start to discover how to use ikkyo from every other attack to set up the exact same 2 koshi.
bulletNikyo Koshi:  This one is best received from a shomen or chudan or jodan tsuki.  Receive the attack with a kosa dori (cross hand) reaching over the top of the attacking hand, cutting down.  As you place your right hand over the back of your partners punching right hand and begin to bend your partners wrist you've secured an irimi nikyo.  Lead uke's elbow up and over, bending their waist.  This is very similar to ikkyo movement except you have the back of their hand rather than pressing from the front of their hand as in ikkyo.  It's a simple matter to now execute the same two koshi as described in ikkyo koshi, enter and fit for the throw as uke raises to correct his posture.  Again, free hand goes to the belt line.
bullet Iwona throws Anna with sankyo koshi uraSankyo Koshi:  This technique can be entered into in a number of different ways.  From a shomen you can take it from ikkyo, then into sankyo.  Alternatively you can step to the outside and connect with kosa dori (cross hand) into sankyo, ducking under your partner's arm.  From a tsuki thrust you might go to nikyo described above and then into the sankyo.  From katate dori wrist grab you might go into katate dori ikkyo, then into sankyo.  Finding the sankyo from any attack is left as an exercise to the reader, but basically falls under kihon waza (basic technique).  In each of these cases, leverage the sankyo to lead uke behind you for this ura style koshi variation.  The goal is to lead uke over your lower back  hips, behind you, positioning uke's spine to be perpendicular to your own spine.  Your arms stretch out at right angles to yourself, parallel to your partner, stretching your partner over your back into the fit.
bullet Yonkyo Koshi:  Yonkyo style koshi is easily found from ryotedori, katatedori, and kosadori.  Essentially, as uke grabs your wrist you should turn your wrist to receive the grab palm up so you can catch your partner in the yonkyo grip.  Next, you turn your back to uke while at the same time waving yonkyo past your forehead, effectively slipping under their arm and stretching them over your back.  This is an ura or ushiro style of koshi nage.
bullet Shihonage Koshi:  The shihonage koshi is nothing more than fitting for a shihonage and then rather than throwing as usual, the objective is to fit your hips into place, catching the front of uke's hip... not the back of their hip.  This koshi can make for very difficult ukemi and a lot of people don't like this throw for that very reason.  The throw is safe if you're throwing a confident uke... so long as you throw them correctly.  Be very careful not to throw them over their backs by accidentally fitting to the back side of their hips.
bulletKotegaeshi Koshi:  Taken commonly from a tsuki thrust attack, the fit is setup with a one-handed kotegaeshi nage movement.  The free hand circles around uke's waist just like we did in the ikkyo koshi.  The kotegaeshi opens your partner up, exposing his waist to your koshi as you take his balance.  As with all the previous techniques, the attack shouldn't matter.  Your objective is to find the kotegaeshi from whatever attack is provided, then slip into this koshi.
bullet Irimi nage into koshi nageIrimi Nage Koshi:  Classic irimi nage (tenkan), found from any attack, is used here.  At the point before the throw in a classic irimi nage you encourage uke to turn in toward you, presenting his front hip for you to attack with your koshi.  Again, one hand slips behind the waist.  This koshi is really a form of henka waza (recovering a technique) when your partner foils your irimi nage by turning to face you or you fail to stay behind your partner.  Imagine uke's surprise when they think they've blocked your irimi, only to fall into a koshi.

Here are a couple of important things to consider...

bullet Ura (behind) Style KoshiAll of the koshi throws we discuss here are done by fitting with an omote (across the front) movement with the exception of the sankyo koshi which can be thought of as ura (behind) relative to yourself.  There are basically front koshi's (mae) and rear koshi's (ura).  A rule of thumb: if your partner's face flies past your face as you're throwing him in koshi... it is most likely a mae koshi.  In contrast, if your partner's face flies behind your head as your throwing him... it's likely an ura koshi.  Sankyo almost always sets up an ura koshi, but any technique where you're ducking under an arm will generally result in an ura koshi.
bullet Mae (front) Style KoshiAll of the mae (front) style koshi's outlined here use the O Goshi (Large Hip Throw) technique, where we wrap the free hand around our partners belt line.  There are variations where we move through our partners shoulder (under the armpit) rather the around the waist.  There's also a variation that goes over the shoulder, through the head or neck.  These variations can be very compelling (if not downright scary) when moving quickly, but I usually prefer the basic mechanics and leverage of using the waist.
bullet Because we often focus on about 4 primary generic attacks; shomen uchi, yokomen uchi, tsuki, and katate dori, it's useful to familiarize yourself with the kihon waza allowing you to perform the standard techniques (shomen uchi ikkyo, nikyo, sankyo, etc...) from these attacks.  By sufficiently generalizing these attacks we then discover the similarity and relationships of more secondary attacks, such as kosa dori (cross hand grab), ryote dori (2 on 2 hands), ryote mochi (2 on 1 hand), ushiro ryote dori and kubishime.  For example...
bulletThe movement of kosa dori is closely related to shomen uchi. 
Imagine a kosa dori ikkyo and a shomen uchi ikkyo to see this relationship.
bulletRyote dori is clearly a variation of katate dori, but with both hands. 
This effectively doubles your opportunity for katate dori techniques.
bulletRyote mochi is a variation of katate dori and kosa dori at the
same time, providing opportunity to respond to either type of attack,
both on one hand.
bulletMost ushiro techniques are variations of kosa dori and can be treated as such.

Understanding these relationships should provide the backward connection to finding  the koshi from all attacks.

Michael Selin throws Neil RugglesThere are many more possible koshi nage throws available to explore.  This doesn't begin to explore the variations of koshi nage found, for example,  in judo.  Hiroshi Ikeda's DVD, entitled simply Koshi, is an excellent reference of koshi techniques and principles. 

This article does, however, make a good starting point... a subset to focus on to understand the foundation of discovering koshi.  Good luck with your own exploration, discovering the hidden opportunities of koshi nage.