The SAW Founder Shihan Hidetaka Aso always says, “Don’t forget the importance of throws and takedowns”.
Learning practical takedown techniques is essential if you think about street self-defence situations.
SAW places a great emphasis on takedowns.
The advantages of having strong throws and takedowns are:
1. You can damage your opponent with a big throw, and if he flinches for even a moment, you can finish him off with a ground technique.
If this were on concrete instead of a soft mat in a street situation, one throw would destroy his fighting ability, and you wouldn’t have to resort to ground techniques.
2. If you throw well, you can get into a good position for ground techniques, which gives you an advantage in the ground fight that follows.
3. If you don’t want to inflict damage on your opponent with a strike or a big throw in a street situation, you can control him and take him down softly and dominate him on the ground.
4, It’s safer to Intercept a strike and take down your opponent than to exchange strikes with them. Lucky punches happen often, but lucky takedowns don’t.
