How is it possible for a smaller girl to throw a bigger guy?

Question

I was with my soccer team at a high school sports event. At the event me and a couple of my team mates met two girls who did some kind of jujitsu. They invited us to show some selfdefense moves. The girls were smaller than all of us and they were actually pretty, especially one of them. I was the first to volunteer for the self defense demonstration and one of the girls said I should try to wrestle her. I said okay and went at it. It even felt a bit strange to try to wrestle a girl, but she threw me like nothing! I got to try again, and this time I tried harder - but she just threw me again like I weighed 20 lbs or something! Then my friends also got to try their strength and wrestling capacity against the girls and they all got thrown around like rag dolls. We just couldn't believe it! I got to try once more, with the other girl, and that time I really tried hard, but she just threw me down again!!! So, my question is: how is this possible? Hope someone here can explain it!

Answer 1

I'm pretty small and the only girl in my ju-jitsu class, so I have to throw around bigger guys all the time. It's nothing to do with strength really, it's about using your opponents weight and balance against them. It's actually easier for a smaller person to throw a bigger person, because they are already below their opponent's centre of gravity. Once you control their balance, you have created a basic lever with your hip as the pivot point. After that, they're pretty much destined to hit the mat lol.

Also, if an attacker is coming at speed, you can use this to your advantage when throwing, as their momentum will carry them over.

Any throw that I do has 3 steps-  Kuzushi- off balance, Tsukuri- entry and Kake- execution. To use all 3 effectively takes a lot of skill, training and technique, but it can be done, as you found out! :)

Answer 2

Stop playing soccer and step into a physics lab.

Leverage, it's all a matter of leverage.

Answer 3

throwing arts such as judo, jujitsu and aikido are excellent arts for smaller lighter people, be it male or female. these arts utilize your attackers own energy to gain control of them and throw them. they are a perfect art for smaller individuals because having a lower center of gravity gives you the advantage of having a better base.. think of two lamps, one is a table lamp and the other is a standing lamp, if you were to knock them over, which one is going to be damaged greater? the bigger they are the harder they fall...

throwing techniques concentrate more on leverage and body mechanics than strength (if you are using strength in your throwing techniques you're doing something wrong) which make them great for smaller people. women particularly.

we women have lived our lives learning how to manipulate bigger objects using gravity, leverage and body mechanics, because for most of us the strength factor doesn't compare to that of a man, and never will.. not my rule god's rule.

take moving a refrigerator for instance, most men try to muscle it around, using strength to pick it up and walk it wherever.. women in general, just don't have that kinda strength, and we're not going to hurt our backs by trying. no, what do most women do to move the frige? we tilt it until we find it's center of gravity and then slide it out with ease... this is the same for throwing arts, when you can find a person's center of gravity you can use that to find where it's weak, and that becomes your folcrum for throwing them off balance.

it sounds complex, but if you learn to feel it, you understand it instantly.. try it.. stand face to face w/a buddy and push on his shoulders, don't push hard, but if you notice, when you push on one shoulder he tries to push back with that shoulder, so if you were to step to the side and at the same time push the other shoulder, you'd cause him to loose his balance and stumble.

here are a few sites on throwing arts:

http://www.judoinfo.com/

http://www.jujitsuamerica.org/

http://www.aikido.com/

i'm glad you found the girls demo fascinating, and i hope this information helps!

Answer 4

it's all in the technique man. They practiced the technique, and you flew.

Answer 5

It's mostly mind over matter and leverage. It does take a lot of practice though. Martial Arts like Aikido teaches you how to do these things. If you know the right hand placements and weight adjustment to the person you are throwing you can easily throw them. Like if someone is running at you full speed all you do it use leverage to throw them by using both hands to flip them. One reason it's so easy is because they are running so fast they can't stop so easily and have a lot of momentum behind them making them lightweights to throw. An example would be how they do the body slams in the WWF while someone is running at them. They practice it all the time.

Answer 6

throwing in judo and jiu jitsu is all about leverage and timing, they have obviously been trained to perfect both of these skills.  Go onto youtube and look up arm throws since I cant show you it now.  Notice how its not how strong or how much force they put on you.

Answer 7

looks like you ran into someone who knew how to use your strength,balance and size against you( that is what jj ,judo, akido etc... teach).

it's almost like you threw yourself because as soon as your balance was off, they used your own momentum to take you and you were at their mercy lol.

the harder you tried, the easier it was to throw you and i bet on your third try the girl didn't use as much of her own strength as the first one did. as soon as you overextended yourself, you were done lol.

let that be a lesson( power, size and strength is nothing without balance and technique).

Answer 8

With all due respect, I believe this fellow's story might not be legit. A well trained girl can throw someone larger than her, but it not easy for her to throw even an untrained individual who is significantly more powerful than her and who is truly resisting.

When I first enter Judo, most of the females had a difficult time throwing me due to my power advantage when practicing randori - this also includes women who were black belts. I frustrated some of these women because they couldn't throw me cleanly. My weight ranged between 50 to 80 pounds heavier than most of the ladies. To date, I have been thrown cleanly only a hand full of times by females - most of those times was because I got lazy.

The breaking of balance, attacking the uke's center of gravity at it weakest point and creating a fulculm are all paramount in order to complete/execute a throwing technique. However, on many occasions, when smaller individuals (often times girls) "throw someone a lot larger than themselves" it's because they are receiving total cooperation from their partner (uke). In a real confrontation your attacker is not going to take a fall for you - so you skill level has to be pretty good in order to throw a stronger opponent in a real fight. Normally, if you can throw someone larger than you in real competition (truly resisting), there is a chance you can throw them in a real confrontation.

My point is as follows:

1. There is a difference between practicing throwing techniques in the classroom environment where your parnter is cooperating with you versus trying to throw someone larger than you who is truly resisting. It has and can be done, but it requires more skill and great technique.

2. In grappling, power is also very important.  A lot  times, even the more skilled grappler is over powered by their opponent.

Answer 9

Martial arts like Japanese Jujistu, and Judo use the opponents weight as a tool to win the fight, they can even bend ligaments no matter how much muscle u try to add or resist, theres just some places no matter how much weights u lift that u cant make them stronger (like pressure points or ligaments)

MA was never about size to begin w/.. it will give u power.. but theres MA's out there that were developed to use the opponents in the weight against them, its normal in the MA world at least

Answer 10

ur a weak motherfuck**

Answer 11

do you have any wrestling experience at all? if not, that' s why.

Answer 12

While you were out kicking your soccer ball day-in and day-out, she has been developing her ability to off-balance and send you flying.  If you spend many hours perfecting a given activity it is inevitable that you will achieve some sort of mastery.  Try wrestling for a season this winter (your soccer cardio will come in handy) and then see if she can still throw you next year.  If so, perhaps you should sign up for her lessons.

Additionally those of you claiming that technique and not strength is needed are a bit off.  You need both.  Show me a successful competitive judoka, ju-jitsuist, and or wrestler that isn't ridiculously strong.  I don't think you are going to find one.  

All-Japan Judo Champions Isao Inokuma and Nobuyuki Sato are quoted as saying:

'For judo, you must work to develop your muscles, stamina, flexibility, power, and speed and strive to develop all-around body strength.  Power and stamina particularly are essential in contests; the competitor who has trained harder to develop them will in the end emerge the victor.'

Answer 13

They had good technique and skill. You can't learn from a website. You need an instructor and you need to work hard to be at such skill level.

Answer 14

Martial arts isn't about size and strength, it's about skill. Therefore a girl who is very good at it, can easily throw a much bigger and stronger guy around. If you want a more specific answer, you can email me... :)

Answer 15

yes, you need to use lots of power and know how