Being in a right vs left scenario, Dragin wants to take a lapel grip with his right hand.

To get the control he needs, Dragin wants his lapel grip to be on the inside of his opponents.

With this grip he can create distance from Uke by pushing his hand into their chest.

Even if they try to push back, Dragin has the control to keep the distance.

With the tension being built up, Dragin will all of a sudden release it. This is done by moving the lapel up and down.

Notice that when he moves the lapel up and down he makes contact on Uke’s arm, thus also moving theirs up and down.

This brings Uke’s focus to the moving arm, which creates the perfect distraction for Dragin to move into what he calls his ‘playground area’.

In his own words he ‘sneaks into position’

The way he steps into the playground position for this technique is a little different to normal. Normally he steps around to create a triangle with Uke’s legs and his right leg. But in this instance Dragin wants to end up in a square position to his opponent.

It starts with him taking a small step with his right foot and then stepping across with his left. The end goal is to have both of his feet on the same line in front of Uke.

Because Dragin is always repositioning according to how Uke reacts, sometimes he may take more than one step to get to the desired end position.

In these cases he will keep stepping with the left leg and following with the right until he ends up in the square position, where he can now enter for the throw.

The square position is important, because it allows Dragin to turn fully, building a lot of momentum and enabling him to use all his power.