De Ashi Harai
De ashi harai — lateral foot sweep at the moment of weight transfer. Too early or too late and the sweep fails.
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De ashi harai — advancing foot sweep — sweeps the opponent’s near foot in a lateral arc at the moment the opponent’s weight is transferring onto it. The sweep direction is across and slightly forward — in the direction of the foot’s travel as the opponent steps. The timing is the defining element: the sweep catches the foot mid-transfer, when the weight is committing but not yet fully planted.
The de ashi harai differs from the kouchi gari in direction: kouchi hooks the inside of the ankle and reaps backward; de ashi sweeps the outside of the foot in a lateral arc in the direction of the step. The mechanical principle is the same — weight transfer timing — but the direction of the sweep and the foot position are different.
De ashi harai is considered an advanced foot sweep in the judo and no-gi context because the timing window is extremely narrow. The foot must be swept at the precise moment of weight transfer — not before the step, not after the step is complete. A fraction of a second in either direction and the sweep fails completely.
INV-ST01Invariant "Destabilising the opponent requires controlling the secondary leg — the leg that is not the primary base. Moving the secondary leg removes the opponent's ability to rebalance."
Why it works hereAt the moment of weight transfer, the stepping foot is the secondary leg becoming the new primary base — for that 0.1–0.2 second window the opponent cannot rebalance because the previous support leg has already unloaded. De ashi harai catches this leg specifically during that transition, deflecting it further along its committed travel direction so the opponent's centre of mass passes outside any usable base. Sweep too late and the new primary is established; sweep too early and there is no committed leg to remove.
See full invariant page → De ashi harai removes the active foot — the foot that is in the process of becoming the primary support. At the moment of weight transfer, this foot is the secondary leg transitioning to primary. Sweeping it at this moment removes the rebalancing option precisely because the weight has committed to it but the full base has not yet been established. The sweep catches the foot at the exact point where it is both weight-bearing and vulnerable.
INV-06Invariant "Base is a function of weight distribution over a support point. Disrupting the support point disrupts the base regardless of the size of what sits on it."