Recently I have been playing with throwing left handed. A couple of them seem to make more sense on the left side but I am right handed. I was always told you should have a left handed throw ln your arsenal. I am older now and wondering if it's worth retraining myself as my competition days are very limited at this point?
Makes sense to me. Most us at are not at a level were our strong side is dominant over most opponents. So we have to develop a throw to the opposite side. For example I fought lefty (left foot forward for those unaware what this means). Always came out in my lefty stance 100%. But always practiced seionage to the side of my collar grip, tai otoshi using the collar grip, Osoto gari using the collar grip and Sode to the collar grip side. Much of this depends if the opponent is a righty or lefty also, their stance. I also just think it is fun to practice different throws from both sides. But in compeition time my best throw was uchimata or tai otoshi to my sleeve grip side.
That's cool. I will have to experiment more. So far sieo and o-soto are OK. Stuff like Koshi is a little harder.
Tai othshi is a good one also, natural. Just grab the collar with both hands. If you watch Travis Stevens he is righty but takes a collar grip with his left hand almost 100% and tries to throw from with this grip usually with standing seionage. A little unusual but many of the world players have unique throws of their own.
Jimmy Pedro is right handed but throws left I think.
Pedro is a lefty and favorite throw is tai othishi to the sleeve (normal) side. He was at our dojo in 1998 and showed us his patented move. From a left stance he steps in with his left foot and touches ukes right foot on the inside to get uke to step back with his right foot and then explodeds with his tai othishi. Japanese use this setup as well. Jimmy told us in competition always fight with your strong side and develope your best throw from that side. Today the compeition is much stiffer and higher level of competitors so you need more in your game.
Same here, I am a righty, but often find myself fighting with left sided stance & grip. I just suck at grip fighting :-)
Gotta have some leftsided attacks, or at least right side side attacks from left grip, like Sode
Grip fighting for me is not bad, we focus on it. I have been to a lot of schools that don't focus on it enough.
My perspective is grip fightinig is one aspect of the game but you better be able to throw from your grip is more important to me.
That's true also.