Dragin starts by bringing pressure down on Uke’s sleeve.
He pulls it down and into his body, and then brings his chest over it.
Like with a traditional Sasae, you must step around onto your left leg, next to Uke’s foot.
It’s important for Dragin to keep distance from uke when he steps around. Otherwise he can’t bring his thigh through in the way that allows him to execute the attack.
With the left foot to the side and in position, the right leg goes into uke’s thigh.
Dragin says to make sure you get good thigh to thigh contact. Placing the top of your thigh right into the side of your partners.
When making the contact on the thigh, Dragin wants to keep his leg planted.
If you lift your heel, you will start to lift uke’s leg and they will be able to step off.
What Dragin wants is rotation, and not lift.
You want to drive your leg as far through as you can off the initial contact.
Doing so crumples uke’s posture, leaving them extremely out of balance. From there it’s a classic Sasae finish.
Dragin uses his arms like holding a steering wheel. he simply lifts on the sleeve, and pulls down on the lapel, simultaneously
Dragin then just pivots around until uke makes contact with the mat.
When combining all the stages it looks like this.
Step to the side. Drive the thigh through. Rotate the upper body and pivot around
As with all techniques, when done at full speed against a competitive opponent it will not always be a textbook example, but the principles remain the same.
Up Next in Front Leg Sasae
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Against A Cross Gripped Opponent | Fr...
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Due to how often Dimitri Dragin drilled the Front Leg variation of his Sasae, it became second nature to him. Now let’s see how he put it to work on the IJF World Judo Tour.
Dragin used his foot variation to great effect in the 3rd round of the 2009 Paris Grand Slam against Britain’s Miller.
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