Dragin’s De ashi Barai is executed off a sleeve and lapel grip.

He starts by bunching up the sleeve, making it tight on Uke’s arm. With this strong grip, Dragin pulls their arm across the front of his body, making contact with his chest.

He then leans forward a fraction, applying tension down onto his opponent’s arm.

His right hand is on the lapel.

Due to the extreme right versus right position, Dragin’s right arm is out straight.

It stays like this until Dragin repositions in front of Uke. He steps across to create a triangle with Uke’s feet.

First it’s a small step with his left foot, behind his right.

Then he swiftly positions his right foot to the head of the triangle. The perfect place from which to attack with De Ashi.

At all times Dragin has to keep his centre of gravity low and his back strong.

This gives the tension needed to snap Uke’s lapel grip off, at the same time as re-adjusting his own lapel grip.

The direction to snap the grip off is diagonally down.

While doing all this, he whips on their lapel.

The movement is up and then down,

This increases the tension, and allows Dragin to put pressure down onto Uke.

With the initial set up complete and the triangle position achieved, Dragin can move onto, breaking Uke’s balance, ready for the attack.