get to know Shohei Ono's techniques

Shohei Ono is an uchimata machine. He has done massive uchimatas over the years, from 2011 to 2021. That's a decade's worth of some of the most dynamic and exciting uchimatas. Ono can seemingly throw his opponents at will with a wide range of uchimata variations.

However, there is one type of uchimata he does which would by today's standards be considered illegal because it involves a head-dive. He did this as recently as in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics (he did it twice actually).

It will be interesting to see if he will cut out this kind of uchimata from his repertoire going forward or whether he will continue to do this, and if he does, whether the IJF referees will give him hansoku-make for it. Many players on the IJF circuit have been disqualified for precisely this kind of action.

Although  Ono is primarily known for his dynamic uchimata but his favorite technique seems to be osoto-gari. In fact, his Master's thesis at the university was on osoto-gari. Sometimes his opponents are able to twist out of the throw. If they try to do so, he usually follows up with a kosoto attack. This is a common and well-established combination/follow-up for osoto but Ono does it really well.

Another technique is yoko-tomoe-nage, a very important part of Shohei Ono's arsenal of techniques.

Not many people realize this but Shohei Ono does sode-tsurikomi-goshi as well. He doesn't do it that often but here are eight instances where he did, and some of them were pretty good!

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