Uki Goshi
Uki goshi — the floating hip throw. A half-hip entry that turns the opponent over a partially loaded hip rather than lifting them across it.
Adapted from InGrappling, Uki Goshi. System Games did not invent this curriculum.
Manage injuries →Position map Connects to 3 positions across 2 relationshipsOpen in the map →123←Enters from
Uki goshi is the floating hip throw — the half-hip. The attacker turns in only partially, so the hip arrives against the side of the opponent’s abdomen rather than fully across and below their centre of mass. The opponent is never loaded onto the hip; they are turned over it. The throw comes from the rotation and the pull, with the hip acting as a pivot the opponent travels around rather than a shelf they are carried on.
The Kodokan classification puts it precisely: o goshi is the two-halves-of-hip throw and uki goshi the one-half. Both sit in the first taught group, and the pairing is deliberate — they are the same turn executed to two different depths, and learning where one stops being available and the other starts is the point of learning both.
In no-gi the half-hip earns its place as the answer to a defended entry. An opponent who has felt a deep hip throw learns to keep their hips back and away, which denies o goshi its depth. Uki goshi does not need that depth, because it was never going to lift them.
INV-04Invariant "The angle of applied force relative to a joint — not the size or strength of the applicant — determines leverage. Changing the angle changes the leverage equation."
Why it works hereThe half-hip replaces vertical leverage with rotational leverage. Because the opponent is not carried, the attacker cannot rely on the hip height that o goshi depends on; what produces the throw instead is the angle of the pull across the pivot. A pull directed downward turns the half-hip into a failed full hip. A pull directed around the pivot — across the attacker's own front, continuing past their far hip — rotates an opponent whose weight the attacker never took.
See full invariant page → This is why uki goshi rewards timing where o goshi rewards depth. The attacker is not creating the fall; they are redirecting an opponent who is already moving, and the angle of the redirection is the whole technique.
INV-ST05Invariant "Kuzushi is the sustained loading of weight onto the leg the attacker intends to remove. It is not a single moment but a maintained condition."