Harai Goshi

I recently came across a beautiful 'Sweeping Hip Throw executed by MMA fighter Cory Devela to win a match against Joe Riggs. You can watch the whole fight on the YouTube video below, but the winning throw is executed from 4:30 - 4:37. The fighters enter the clinch that finally resulted in the throw from 3:55. On first viewing the video you will be inclined to think that the fight doesn't end directly from the throw but rather from Cory Devela being in a position to pound Joe Riggs in the face following the throw. Watching from 6:10 though reveals that Joe Riggs was already clearly tapping to submit as soon as he hit the floor and felt the full impact. At 6:06, once the fight is over and Joe is released, you can also see him reaching for the area around his left hip, indicating that this is the area that took the main impact and where he was hurt the most.

The technique is clean and technically excellent, but the force generated is also augmented by the fact that Cory goes into the air while executing the throw and comes down hard on top of Joe, who unfortunately has to deal with the double impact from the ground and a middleweight fighter landing on him more or less simultaneously. Although the actual harai goshi technique is notderived from classic military Ju Jutsu (see below) the closing execution of it in the video is reminiscent of how throws were sometimes performed in the on the battlefields of Japan. As the opponent landed a fully armored (and therefore much heavier than usual) samurai would body slam his enemy, winding him, possibly even crippling him and effectively taking his opponent out of the fight before ending his life with a tanto.

For a technically perfect Sweeping Hip Throw performed by a judoka check out this video.

Jigoro Kano, Saigo Shiro and the Development of Harai Goshi

Jigoro Kano, the founder of judo, was able to spar successfully against one of his top students, Saigo Shiro, using uki goshi (see video below). After some time Shiro became adept at countering this technique by stepping forward into the throw as Kano began to execute it. To counter this counter Kano added the second part of the harai goshi - the sweep - to take out Shiro's advancing leg. Thus a new technique was born.

According to Wikipedia, former Russian President Vladimir Putin is noted for his skill in executing Sweeping Hip Throw.