How to Learn the Judo Throwing System Without Drowning in It
The Kodokan officially recognizes 67 Throws Of Kodokan Judo, organized into a system called the Nage-no-Kata. It's not a random list — it's grouped by biomechanical principle, which actually makes it easier to study if you approach it that way instead of treating it like a vocabulary drill. The five main groups cover the major throwing mechanics: hand throws, hip throws, throwing techniques using both arms, leg sacrifice throws, and body sacrifice throws. I spent years trying to memorize all 67 in order before I realized most of my jiu-jitsu students would never use more than a dozen of them in actual randori. That realization changed how I teach the material. You learn the categories first, then the individual techniques within them, and only after that do you start drilling combinations.
Understanding the 67 Throws Of Kodokan Judo
The first group, te-waza, contains ten major hand throws like ippon seoi nage, tomoe nage, and kata guruma. These rely on breaking your opponent's balance forward or to the side, then using your hands to lift and redirect their weight through your shoulders or hips. The second group, koshi-waza, has nine hip throws — o goshi, uki goshi, harai goshi, and others. The mechanics here are fundamentally different from hand throws because you're pivoting on your hip as the fulcrum rather than wrapping your arms around the opponent's upper body. The mimi-komi-gata throws are the ones most people skip during casual practice. There are eight of them, and they involve a two-handed grip where one hand controls the wrist while the other grips the sleeve or lapel. Techniques like morote gari and okuriashi garl fall in this category. They look straightforward but require precise timing — if your grip isn't locked before you step in, the throw collapses completely. Sutemi-waza, the sacrifice throws, split into two subcategories. Ashi-waza has six techniques where you drop to one or both legs to sweep the opponent's supporting leg. These include sumi gaeshi and various sutemi variants. The body sacrifice section has eight more, where you roll backward or sideways onto your back to throw the opponent over you. These are the most technically demanding throws in the system and the ones most likely to cause injury if attempted without proper ukemi practice.
Below all that sits the groundwork section — katame-waza — with eighteen techniques covering pins, chokes, and joint locks. The original Kodokan curriculum included these as part of the complete throws kata, even though modern competition judo separates ne-waza from standing throws entirely. If you're studying this for self-defense or traditional practice, skipping the groundwork gives you an incomplete picture of how the system was designed to function. Most competition judoka will tell you that twenty to thirty of these throws see regular use at the elite level. The rest exist mostly in kata and randori experimentation. Osoto gari, osi garami, ko uchi garami, dan me nage, tai otoshi, uchi mata, seoi nage, and tsuri komi goshi tend to be the most reliable in randori because they work across a wider range of body types and grip situations. When I compete, I drill maybe ten throws repeatedly and keep the rest as backup options for specific situations. The biggest mistake I see people make is treating these as isolated techniques rather than expressions of the same underlying principle — kuzushi, or balance breaking. Every throw in the system starts with disrupting your opponent's center of gravity. If you can't break their balance before entering the throw, none of the footwork or hand positioning matters. I spent roughly six months just drilling grip fighting and balance breaking with a single partner before I started throwing effectively. That foundation compressed what would have been a year of failed attempts into something manageable.
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Another thing nobody emphasizes enough is the role of tsukuri, the entry position. This is where you place your body relative to your opponent before executing the throw. A millimeter of difference in foot placement can mean the difference between a clean ippon and landing flat on your back. With o soto gari for example, stepping too wide or too deep changes the entire mechanics of the sweep. I learned this the hard way when I kept failing the throw against a particular training partner who was significantly heavier. The issue wasn't strength — it was that I was entering at the wrong angle for my height relative to his. Once I adjusted my stance by about six inches and committed earlier to the entry, the throw started working consistently. The categories aren't perfectly clean either. Several techniques appear in multiple groups depending on the textbook or style you're following. Some sources list sixty-six throws instead of sixty-seven. This isn't a conspiracy — it's just that the Kodokan has refined and reorganized the count over decades, and different branches maintain slightly different classifications. If you're studying from a specific instructor's curriculum, stick with their numbering to avoid confusion during testing or kata practice. For practical application, I recommend learning the ten basic throws from the first category thoroughly before moving on. Mastering ippon seoi nage, uchi mata, tai otoshi, ko uchi garami, and o soto gari gives you a functional repertoire that covers most randori situations. The remaining techniques become useful as you develop better timing, higher level of belt ranking, or specific competitive needs. Trying to learn all 67 at once usually results in mediocre competence across the board rather than reliable execution of a core set.
One practical consideration that doesn't get discussed much: the 67 throws framework was designed for a different era of judo. Modern sport judo has some techniques banned or heavily restricted due to injury risk, and the competition ruleset favors certain body types and grip styles over others. The system itself is sound, but if your goal is purely competitive, you'll spend more time drilling the IJF-sanctioned throws and less time on the older catalog entries that don't score well under current rules.
