Te-Wazalyzed: Michael Korrel’s Sleeve Seoi Overshoot

Crucially, he holds onto uke’s left sleeve with both hands as he overshoots, and the torque caused by this action forces uke to roll over. This doesn’t score ippon but it’s certainly enough for a waza-ari.

Actually, if uke doesn’t roll over, his arm would get all mangled and so he really has no choice but to do the roll (or get injured). There was one instance when Korrel tried to do this a second time within the same match, and uke, having been scored upon earlier with this very technique, decided to flatten out instead of rolling over. Not surprisingly, uke ended up hurting his shoulder.

Some might decry this as a dangerous technique but unlike a waki-gatame where uke has no option of saving his arm, in this case, there is an option for uke to avoid injury (which is to take the roll). As such, I doubt it would ever be declared illegal.

But beyond that, the whole thing actually looks like it happens by accident. Once you analyze it in detail you will see that the overshoot is designed to create that torque to force uke to roll over. It’s inelegant and looks sloppy as hell but hey, it works!

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