Dimitri Dragin’s De Ashi Barai was designed for competition, as it was based around capital-izing on reactions. Let’s see how it worked in practise against some of the best in the World.

At the 2011 Paris World Team Championships, Dragin executed this bit of magic against Russia’s Khan-Magomedov.

Completely stunning the Russian and bringing the Parisian crowd to their feet.

He starts by catching the sleeve and taking a grip of the lapel. As soon as he has his grips he starts to drop his weight. Khan-Magomedov reacts by shifting his weight backwards, snapping the lapel grip off. He then consistently tries to free his sleeve grip

He circles away stepping to his left. This is the perfect direction for Dragin’s De Ashi Barai.

Dragin steps and sweeps, taking the russian’s legs right out from underneath him.

As he executes the sweep, he makes contact on the shoulder with his free hand, Guiding the Russian down to the mat, finishing the throw.

An incredible example of Dragin bringing pressure down through Uke, getting a reaction and using it to execute his throw.

Fighting Italy’s Faraldo at the 2011 Qingdao Grand Prix, Dragin builds the tension, making his op-ponent react - moving out to the side. Dragin allows him to go, and then sweeps.

You can see how he builds and maintains the pressure, but then allows Faraldo just enough slack to move away.

Faraldo tries to use his own side step to execute a Kouchi. But as he goes to do it, Dragin has al-ready started his De Ashi, stepping out to the side with the right leg. This causes Faraldo to miss and Dragin is able to connect.

Sending him over for the score.

At the 2012 Dusseldorf Grand Prix against Liu of China, Dragin executes two well timed De Ashi Barai;s .

Both examples have less movement than normal but the principle remains the same.: Dragin builds up the tension, Liu starts to pull away in the opposite direction and Dragin attacks.

In the next round, Dragin attacks with De Ashi Barai as a response to his opponent’s failed attack.

Sanjuassuren drops and misses, Dragin switches his grip onto the sleeve. He allows the Mongolian up, who instantly skips to the side. Dragin feels this movement and attacks.

The final example comes from the 2013 Rio World Championships where Dragin was up against against Malaysia’s Wei Fu.

Dragin lowers his posture and builds the tension, Wei Fu feels this and tries to break the lapel grip off. He brings his left arm over to push Dragin’s arm away, and pulls with his left hand on his own lapel.

With Wei Fu’s bodyweight moving in the opposite direction to try and break the grip, Dragin is set up perfectly to attack the leg.