Nomura’s dangerous Morote-Seoi-Nage

Tadahiro Nomura probably has the most famous drop morote-seoi-nage in the world. If you think morote-seoi-nage, you think Nomura. That’s how associated he is with this throw. There are two things that he does to make drop morote-seoi work for him:
Firstly, the arms.

The traditional way has tori’s forearm tucked underneath uke’s armpit. Nomura does NOT do it this way.

instead, he aims for the crook of uke’s elbow. It’s much easier to aim for that and there’s less likelihood of being countered.

Next, we look at the legs.

Nomura likes to crouch low and step a bit far away from uke.

To start the throw, he takes a step forward with his right leg. He does not go very deep but somewhere at the top of the imaginary triangle in front of uke.

He swings his left leg behind his right leg (which is at the top of the imaginary triangle in front of uke’s legs).

He drops fully on two knees right underneath uke.

Then, he springs up to throw uke over and flat on his back.

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