Multiple European Medallist Colin Oates is best known for his Sumi gaeshi - it was the technique he scored with most, and he had a total of four variations.

Throughout his entire competitive career, Oates was tweaking, improving and adding different elements to his Sumi gaeshi. There were three ...

Colin Oates, a left-handed fighter, uses Sumi gaeshi against right-handed opposition. For Oates’s Sumi gaeshi to be most effective both judoka need to be fully gripped up. So, he is quite happy to allow his partner to take the first grip on his jacket.

He then feeds his partner’s lapel into his ...

Colin Oates regards his foot movement pattern as the single most important element to his Sumi gaeshi. He learnt this pattern from his Japanese coach, Go Tsunoda, which is traditionally used to set up the big forward or rear throws. Oates, however, managed to successfully incorporate it into Sumi...

Colin Oates’s underhook variation of Sumi gaeshi comes from when neither judoka has a sleeve grip. This technique evolved when Oates was chasing his opponent for the sleeve, but they were fighting hard not to give it up. As a result, momentum comes into play even more so than his standard variati...

Colin Oates has an unusual reverse Sumi gaeshi, which perfectly compliments his standard variation of the technique. He learnt the reverse Sumi gaeshi from French World Champion Stephane Traineau early on in his career. However, he only incorporated into his judo several years later, but now cons...

As with all of Colin Oates’s Sumi gaeshis, momentum is absolutely critical and it’s no different when it comes to his Uchi mata – Sumi gaeshi combination. Oates pre-plans this combination against opponents who are defensively strong against his Uchi mata.

The Uchi mata, however, must come with ...

In this clip we look at how Colin Oates used his Sumi gaeshi at the world’s biggest competitions.

At the 2011 Qingdao Grand Prix Oates uses a belt grip to score Yuko and win in Golden Score.

On his way to winning the bronze medal at the 2014 Samsun Grand Prix Oates grips deep over his opponent’...