Orange belt

You have probably been training for a year or more. You already have some solid technique and some understanding of striking, clinching and grappling. You should definitely be feeling more confident about your ability to defend yourself. But the expression ‘a little knowledge is a dangerous thing’ is no truer than in the martial arts, and you have probably started to realise how much there is to learn. 

White and yellow belt are about understanding the ‘problems’ that you might encounter. During the course of your path to orange belt, hopefully you will have developed a good understanding of the ways that someone might try to hurt you, and you will turn your attention to solving these problems.

Standing	Clinch	Ground	Self defence	Partner drills	Solo forms
Combinations	Judo set 2	Positional escapes	Cover & distance management	Kick drill Punch drill
Counters	Counters to Judo set 1	The 5 Ss	Wrist grab defences	Defence drill 2	Heian nidan
Feints	Taking the back	Guard positions	Clothing grab defences	Complex tegumi drills

Stripe 1

Combinations

Good standing combinations usually use variations in levels, angles, ranges, and may include feints. Combinations usually start standing but may finish in any range. Ensure that the combinations you chose are appropriate for your body type, psyche and your priorities. Start with two or three combinations. Keep them short and practice them regularly! Some examples are:

• Jab, jab, leg kick
• Jab, cross, inside leg kick, takedown
• Cross, body punch, osotogari
• Jab, feint takedown, flying knee
• Jab, body rip, hook, leg kick.

Judo set 2

For yellow belt you learned throws from the first set of the Judo go-kyo. Now add at least two throws from the second set. There is a mountain of content available online or in print to help you learn. Make sure you have at least one forward, one back and one side throw.

• Minor outside reap (kosotogari)
• Minor inside reap (kouchigari)
• Hip wheel (koshiguruma)
• Lifting high hip (tsurikomigoshi)
• Sending leg sweep (okuriashibarai)
• Body drop (taiotoshi)
• Sweeping hip (haraigoshi)
• Inside groin (uchimata).

Escapes from ground positions, examples below:

• Back control – hip escape to underhook side
• Top mount – upa escape
• Side control – hip escape to takedown
• Knee ride – knee bump and turn to back
• Scarf hold – rolling escape
• North-south – guard recovery.

Cover and distance management

Learn how to manage the distance and minimise damage. Understand the risks and opportunities at any distance. This skill is essential for both sport and self-defence.

Kick drill (Tachi keri waza futari geiko)

This two-person drill teaches balance, precision and power generation. Remember to keep your guard high and your knee up between kicks. Your partner will block head kicks, but absorb body kicks. Don’t kick your partner hard, place the kick and apply pressure for mutual conditioning.

1. Hold right hands for balance (you can release later) and use your front (right leg) to front kick (maegeri) your partner’s solar plexus 
2. Round kick (mawashigeri) to head
3. Side kick (yokogeri) to ribs
4. Hook kick (ushiromawashigeri) to head
5. Stomp kick (fumikomi) to knee (seniors) or osotogari (juniors).

Punch drill

1. Jab
2. Cross
3. Hook
4. Weave under right hook
5. Four uppercuts starting with the right hand
6. Parry finger strike to throat with gedanbarai
7. Uppercut elbow
8. Horizontal elbow
9. Diagonal elbow
10. Clear arms
11. Clinch, left knee, right knee while off-balancing
12. Left bicep bump
13. Right elbow 
14. Roll left hand inside to trap hands
15. Push away using entire body and without extending arms.

Stripe 2

Counters

At least one effective counter against each basic strike, examples follow:

• Jab punch – parry with rear hand and jab punch to body
• Cross punch – parry with front hand and cross punch to body
• Hook punch – duck and weave and uppercut to body or chin
• Uppercut punch – catch and trap and knee to body
• Elbows – catch and knee
• Knees – lower block and throw
• Front kick – lower block with footwork and kick leg
• Side kick – lower block with footwork and osotogari throw
• Back kick – catch kick, off-balance and rear naked choke
• Round kick – catch kick and sweep leg
• Hook kick – catch kick and throw
• Axe kick – upper block and groin or leg kick.

Counters to Judo set 1

It’s important to know how to counter throws too. Strikes, – particularly knees – can be used to counter throws, but this section focuses on countering throws with other throws to develop a better understanding of the clinch.

1. Deashibarai – counter with tsubamegaeshi
2. Osotogari – counter with osotogaeshi or osotoguruma
3. Ouchigari – counter with kosotogake
4. Hizaguruma – counter with heel pick and ouchigari
5. Sasaetsurikomiashi – counter with hizaguruma
6. Ogoshi – counter with utsurigoshi
7. Ukigoshi – counter with taniotoshi
8. Seoinage – counter with ukiwaza.

The 5 Ss

The ground can be a great place to control an unruly individual because of the way the ground minimises escape options. However, the ground is a double-edged sword, and is a very dangerous place to be caught with a stronger or armed opponent or with multiple opponents. When caught on the ground, go to the 5Ss, in the following order:

1. Scramble – get to your knees and elbows, then hands and feet before the attacker to take top position or stand – every change of position is an opportunity
2. Stand – create space and get back to your feet 
3. Sweep – if you can’t stand, sweep the attacker
4. Submit – if you can’t stand or sweep, use chokes or joint locks to neutralise an attack
5. Strike – use strikes to create openings to stand, sweep or submit.

Wrist grab defences

Grabbing attacks are used to weaken your position in order to attack with a more devastating technique. Watch out for punches, head-butts and throws. Any type of grabbing attack can be countered with the follow strategies:

• Strip (remove) the grip, using the weakest points of the grip (often the thumb)
• Use the grip – attack the grip with small joint locks (wrist or fingers)
• Disregard the grip and counter-attack with throws or strikes.

Defence drill 2 (advanced blocks)

1. Jab
2. Cross
3. Left hook
4. Right hammer-fist
5. Overhand left
6. Right hook
7. Left back-fist
8. Right diagonal elbow
9. Left body rip
10. Right uppercut
11. Sweep hands away
12. Clinch behind head
13. Left knee
14. Right knee
15. Shoulder-butt
16. Right leg kick
17. Left leg kick
18. Right body kick
19. Right leg kick
20. Spin and check incoming leg kick
21. 3 x front kick to groin
22. 5 x vertical fist punch to face (start with left)
23. 3 x vertical fist punch to body (start with right).

Heian nidan

Many of these techniques deal with attempted grabs of the upper body. Refer to the video for instruction.

Stripe 3

Feints

Feints are an important element of creating effective combinations. Surprise is the most effective element in fighting. If you can distract or deceive an opponent from your true intentions, your ability to land effective strikes or submissions will significantly improve. Feints are limited only by your imagination, but the crux is this: make them react to a false attack, creating an opportunity for your true attack to be successful.

Taking the back

The safest place in a conflict is well out of range. The next safest place is behind the attacker. Your attacker knows this, and in close fighting range, they will use movement and their limbs to keep you in front of them. Taking the back of an attacker requires you to control the movement and clear the limbs of your opponent. Examples follow:

• Push and pull the shoulders
• Arm drag
• Duck-under.

Guard positions

A guard position is a ground position in which you use your legs to control the movement and distance between yourself and the opponent. If you cannot escape from underneath an attacker on the ground, aim for a guard position. While the guard position is known as a neutral position, it is not a symmetrical position. The person on top (higher head position) generally benefits from a striking advantage and the person in the guard has a grappling advantage due to the use of all four limbs. During this segment, you will learn about variations and tactics in the following types of guard:

• Closed guard
• Open guard
• Half guard.

Clothing grab defences

Don’t neglect simple ‘hit and run’ type escapes, they can be faster and simpler than fancy wristlocks. If someone has hold of your clothes, they are in throwing range. Attackers use grips on clothes to off-balance their victim, while trying to hit or throw them, so remember that the grab may not be the main threat. Always remain vigilant for weapons too. If you have practiced them sufficiently, jujutsu locks can use the attacker’s grips against them.

Complex tegumi flow drills

These drills introduce some advanced trapping combinations to learn to flow from striking to arresting or controlling grappling techniques.

• Uppercut (with grappling)
• Hammerfist (with grappling)
• Haymaker (spear)
• Haymaker (aiki).

Orange belt test

Take some time to reflect on your journey and get ready for the next level of learning!