Jiujitsu terminology Lesson 2

In continuance with my last post, I will continue to introduce some basic Jiujitsu terminology in both English and Japanese. If we all remember, in the last post I mentioned Tachi-waza and Ne-waza. In this post we shall look at Tachi-waza. Tachi-waza uses two types of distinct terminology, terms described by body part or by direction. If we recall the previous post, the term Nage-waza, throwing techniques, was mentioned. This is the largest and probably most important part of Tachi-waza pertaining to our system. with this in mind, I will focus on Nage-waza.

Nage-waza is divided into 5 basic sections:
Koshi-waza=Hip techniques
Ashi-waza=Foot/Leg Techniques
Te-waza=Hand techniques
Ma Sutemi-waza= Back sacrifice techniques
Yoko Sutemi-waza= Side sacrifice techniques

This being said, any and all of your favorite throws/sweeps/take downs can be defined in one of these categories. The easy way to figure out how to categorize your technique is to listen to the name of the technique. In example, Morote Gari, the double leg take down. The Japanese word Te is found in the name of this take down therefore logically it is a hand technique. Or for instance, Okuri Ashi Barai, sliding foot sweep contains the word Ashi, therefore is an Ashi-waza.

As you learn new techniques, you can use this system to not only help categorize the multitude of techniques found in Jiujitsu, but also through this form of active learning, help to remember your Japanese terms.

In the next segment we shall start to define the meat and potatoes of Jiujitsu: Ne-waza