One of my Karate-Jujitsu students related a story recently where he used O-Goshi to defend himself from an attacker on the playground at his school.
This student is in 6th grade. He has only been a student for several months and has just started nage waza having done two or three classes learning O-Goshi.
At school during recess, he was out on the playground with a friend when five older boys approached him and took his hat. He chased them down and retrieved the hat but in so doing, angered the older boys. They came back over to him and one of the boys started throwing jabs at him which my student blocked. This further incited the older boy who then started to swing harder and from the hips while moving into my student making himself a fully committed attacker. This older boy attacking only got off one punch because my student blocked, grabbed his arm and threw him using O-Goshi, dropping him right at his feet. The throw knocked the wind out of the boy and scared him so much that he ran off crying. His friends followed him. My student said that even his friend was stunned and didn’t know what to think because it happened so fast and was so effective.
What stood out to me was how effective someone can be with a real attacker with just a little practice. My student was able to use the right amount of force to STOP his attacker without needing to really hurt him but could have applied a plethora of finishing techniques had he needed to due to where the attacker landed and that the throw was made effective by the energy supplied during the attack; properly managed by technique. Even an attack by someone a foot taller, in this case.
Sensei Eric Good