Counter-Throw Chains Playbook

Mat Manual companion guide to "They Turned In. Good.." Print it. The article explains kaeshi-waza (counter technique) as chains with one rule: a counter must end the argument, by score, by osaekomi (pinning), or by a clean exit with grips. This book drills the two counters in full: against uchi mata (inner thigh throw), uchi mata sukashi (inner thigh void technique) into te guruma (hand wheel); and against o-soto gari (major outer reap), o-soto gaeshi (major outer reap counter). Both start from reading the attack in the grips, a half-beat before the legs move.

Name: ______________________________ Dojo: ______________________________ Grade: ______________ Start date: ______________ Lead side (circle): Left / Right Current week (Part 11): ______________

How this book is used: work the parts in order in the first cycle. The cards build on each other, the reaction cards assume the mechanics cards are passed, and the free-practice formats in Part 13 assume every reaction card has been passed singly. Bring the book to the mat, fill the logs in pencil during the session rather than from memory afterward, and let the pass standards, not the calendar, decide when you move on. In a second cycle you may enter at the part your review in Part 27 names, but the safety block and the read check are re-run at the start of every cycle without exception.

BEFORE ANYTHING: PARTNER SAFETY AND AGREEMENTS ☐ Ukemi (breakfalling) is checked before any throw progression in this book, for both partners, at the landings the chain actually produces. A pair that has not passed the check trains the cards at entry speed only, with no completed throws. This gate is pass/fail and is never waived for seniority. ☐ All throwing runs at agreed speed and agreed intensity, stated out loud before each drill. Either partner can lower the speed or stop the drill with one word, and the drill obeys instantly. ☐ Stop on any pain, dizziness, or loss of control, from either partner, with no argument and no finishing the set first. Log what happened in the session log. ☐ No technique in this book is finished by force against a partner who is defending correctly at drill speed. A rep that needs force to land is a failed rep, and it is logged as one. ☐ Ukemi (breakfalling) is checked before any counter progression in this book, for both partners, at the landings the counters produce: te guruma's rolling landing and the gaeshi fall. A pair that has not passed the check drills step-outs and sinks with no completed counters. This gate is pass/fail. ☐ No counter in this book is thrown against an attack that was not fully committed. Counters drilled against lazy entries teach theft, not timing, and they injure the partner whose weight arrives after the counter has started. The attacking partner's commitment is a safety rule, not a courtesy. ☐ Te guruma lifts are run with a partner who can be set down safely at every stage of the drill. A lift that cannot be controlled is lowered, never dropped and never muscled through. If the gather feels wrong, the rep ends standing. ☐ Counters are never thrown with uncontrolled force to prove a point, and never as retaliation for a hard attack. A counter that arrives angry is a failed rep and a safety conversation, in that order. ☐ TANI OTOSHI WARNING: the valley drop is named in this book only as a danger, never as a drilled answer. Tani otoshi (valley drop) thrown as a counter falls across the attacking partner's planted, weighted leg, and it can destroy that knee. It is never drilled, demonstrated, or used in these rounds. In schools that train it at all, the safe-version rule is the whole technique: only against an unweighted leg, with the fall directed away from the leg, under direct instructor control. The counters in this book are sukashi into te guruma and o-soto gaeshi. A partner who reaches for tani otoshi stops the round for the safety conversation.

Part 1: The Chain at a Glance

Two counters, each a chain: read, first move, collect, ending. A rep that stops after the first move was a defense, and defenses are logged as defenses, not counters.

Chain law: end the argument. Score, pin, or grips and daylight. A counter that ends in a scramble is logged as a failed counter even when the throw itself looked good.