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Toqui Waza and Dr. Seuss

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In Judo, there is a concept of Toqui Waza - one's best or favorite technique. On the surface, it might seem that a person's Toqui Waza (TW, because I am lazy) is the technique that they practice the most or use the most in Randori. Maybe it is an arbitrary favorite just like one's favorite color or ice cream flavor. But this is definitely not the case. The truth is, for most people, your TW, finds you and not the other way around. At the end of the day, your TW will be the throw(s) that you are able to best enter and execute properly under the widest variety of conditions.

To look at this in depth, we need to first think of how silly of a notion it seems to reveal your Toqui Waza to others - especially those that might compete against you. If I know that Uchiamata is your TW then, in theory, I should always be looking for your Uchimata and work on my counters to it - like Uchimata Sukashi, Te Guruma, Tani Otoshi, etc. Even if you don't formally announce this throw, if I see you practicing it, and using it a lot of the time, I know to expect it. Yet, at the same time, a lot of good Judoka have continuously used their TW to garner ippons for years, and although not every ippon was won by their TW, they still managed a significant number of wins from them, why?


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