Sunday, January 18, 2009

Katsuhiko Kashiwazaki at the 1982 Kano Cup



Here's one of the all-time greats very much in his prime, Katsuhiko Kashiwazaki at the 82 Kano Cup, only a year removed from his World Championship (in 1981! in Maastricht!).

In this first clip we see Kashiwazaki secure a strong belt grip, and from there Ponomarev is pretty much boned: as the analyst suggests, this strong grip forces Ponomarev into attacking very weakly with seoi nage (oh man, I've been there). Once Kashiwazaki has that grip, he works relentlessly for his signature obi tori gaeshi, his belt-grab reversal.



Against Cheuk Wing Mok, Kashiwazaki attacks with kosoto gari, and then shows a variation of the same obi tori gaeshi technique as seen above, this time turning his opponent to the side this time rather than rolling him over the top. Kashiwazaki illustrates both techniques in Attacking Judo, co-authored with Hidetoshi Nakanishi, a volume that owns like you would not believe.



In the finals, we see Kiyosuke Sahara unable to resist Kashiwazki's obi tori gaeshi (even though he knows it's coming), but he is able to escape the tate shiho gatame well before an ippon. Worth noting that Kashiwazki prefers to perform tate shiho across the body at a forty-five degree angle, trapping the far shoulder/extended arm? And that he thinks of this as the basic tate shiho, with the version seen way more often, and taught as one of the most basic of basics, as a variation? Anyway, he mentions that in Osaekomi, his rad book on pinning, and it intrigues me.

Moving on: Sahara clearly knows what is up when they are back on their feet, and attacks with something like yoko gake when Kashiwazaki goes for his belt grip. Nice. Later, Sahara gets a strong over hand grip, so you would think he was in business, as you never really had to worry about Kashiwazaki, say, flying under neath for a low seoi nage or anything. But Kashiwazaki ducks under and comes up with the ashi tori ouchi gari, the major inner reap with the leg pick. And we love it.




Kashiwazaki, man. Seriously.

No comments: