01 / AT A GLANCE
A hip sweep that keeps going after the hand lets go
Harai-makikomi (払巻込, “sweeping wraparound”) is a side sacrifice throw in yoko-sutemi-waza. The IJF definition gives a precise order: break uke’s balance to the front or right-front corner; from harai-goshi, release your right grip and twist to the left, wrapping uke’s right arm in your armpit so that uke’s body wraps around yours; then fall forward and take uke with you.
Two features set it apart. It inherits the harai-goshi sweep: the back of tori’s right thigh sweeps uke’s right thigh while uke is drawn onto tori’s hip. And it changes the upper-body connection mid-throw: the right hand leaves the lapel and the right arm closes uke’s right arm into the armpit. In plain harai-goshi tori stays upright on the left leg; here tori gives up that base, so tori’s body weight becomes part of the throw.
Names: “harai makikomi” and “harai-makikomi” are the same official technique. It is easy to confuse with soto-makikomi, which uses a similar armpit wrap without a defined sweeping leg, and with uchi-makikomi, which keeps the arm under uke’s armpit from a shoulder-throw entry. Uchi-mata-makikomi is a further, separately named technique in the Kodokan list; a wrapping finish from an inner-thigh attack belongs there, not here.
Who this is for: judoka who can already perform and receive a controlled harai-goshi and have been taught to fall and receive when two bodies land together. The parts that most need a coach watching are the twist on one support leg and the forward fall with the head close to the mat. Rule scope is in section 14.
02 / WATCH THE TECHNIQUE
Watch the hand change, then the leg, then the landing
Open this video on YouTube if the player is unavailable.
Open this video on YouTube if the player is unavailable.
The Kodokan clip is the official reference, the Efficient Judo clip an independent second demonstration. Only identity, publisher, length and description were checked; the prompts are things to look for, not descriptions of the frames.
- The release. Find the moment tori’s right hand leaves the lapel. Is uke already on tori’s hip at that point, with the right leg being swept, or does the release come first?
- The sweeping leg. Follow tori’s right leg from the start of the sweep to the mat. Does it stay in contact with uke’s right thigh while tori twists and falls, or does it come down before the fall?
- The landing. Which part of tori reaches the mat first? Where does uke land relative to tori, and is tori’s right armpit still closed on uke’s arm at that moment?
If the two demonstrations differ in when the hand changes or how the leg finishes, ask your coach which one you are practising rather than merging them.
03 / WHEN TO USE IT
The opening is a loaded hip with a resisting upper body
Harai-makikomi is not a cure for a harai-goshi that never reached the hip. It starts from one that is partly working: uke is on tori’s hip with balance to the front or right-front, but the upper body is not following the rotation for a standing finish.
Usable: the sweep is on, but uke’s chest stays upright
Uke is on your hip and the right leg is being swept, but uke keeps the chest upright or pushes against you with the left arm, so the lapel hand cannot bring uke round. Releasing the lapel and trapping the arm replaces the losing hand with your body weight and twist. Section 07 starts from this situation.
Usable: uke advances into the hip-sweep entry
An uke who steps forward into your turn may arrive heavily on the hip. If the sweep starts while that weight is still forward, the wrap and fall continue uke’s own direction; a good situation for rehearsing timing.
Not an opening: uke’s hips are behind yours and the right foot is planted
If uke has dropped the hips back and has weight on a planted right foot, the sweep meets a fixed leg and there is no forward travel to wrap. Falling forward from here sends tori down ahead of an uke who can stay standing, follow on top or counter. The recovery is the third sequence in section 07.
Not an opening: you cannot reach uke’s right arm
The wrap needs uke’s right arm close enough to be clamped against your side. If uke has pulled it back or holds it straight out of range, your right arm closes on nothing. Keep the lapel and rebuild the harai-goshi.
Opposite-lead grips
Against a left-handed uke, both the harai-goshi entry and the arm you can wrap change. Resolve access to the hip and to uke’s right sleeve before adding the makikomi finish; see the grip-fighting drills guide.
04 / HOW IT WORKS
Six roles that have to overlap in time
Learn the roles slowly, but the throw depends on their overlap.
Left hand: the sleeve carries the throw through the hand change
Tori’s left hand draws uke’s right sleeve forward towards the front or right-front corner, as in harai-goshi, and continues pulling while the right hand lets go. During the release it is tori’s only grip. Check: on video, the left hand keeps travelling at the instant the lapel opens; if it stops, uke’s right arm drifts away from the armpit.
Right hand and arm: release the lapel and close the armpit
The right hand leaves uke’s left lapel and the right arm wraps around the outside of uke’s right arm, trapping it between tori’s upper arm and side. The armpit clamps the upper arm close to uke’s shoulder; it does not crank the elbow. Check: after the wrap, uke’s right shoulder has been drawn in close to tori’s right side, rather than the arm being held at full stretch with the shoulder still away.
Hips: keep uke loaded on the hip
The harai-goshi hip contact must already exist and must survive the hand change. The wrap does not create hip contact; it secures it. Check: from the side, at the frame where the right hand opens, uke’s hips are against or past tori’s right hip rather than behind tori’s back line, and uke’s right foot is light or off the mat.
Right leg: the sweep keeps contact on uke’s right thigh
In the reference form the back of tori’s right thigh sweeps uke’s right thigh. Here the sweep continues while the upper body twists; sweep height and duration are details to confirm against the Kodokan demonstration. Check: a leg that drops to the mat at the hand change means the two actions are happening in sequence rather than together.
Left support leg: one base under a twisting body
Until the fall, tori stands on the left leg while the trunk twists left and the right leg sweeps. The support foot and knee should turn with the trunk rather than stay fixed under it. Check: in a slow walk-through without falling, tori can twist into the wrap and return to stance with no strain felt at the left knee.
Trunk and head: twist left, then fall forward with uke attached
Tori twists to the left and falls forward, taking uke along so that uke’s body wraps around tori’s. The head stays tucked and turned; it is not the first thing to meet the mat. Check: the observer names tori’s first point of contact with the mat and confirms uke is still wrapped (shoulder against tori) at that moment.
Why the order matters
The IJF order is balance, harai-goshi, release and twist, fall. If tori releases the lapel before uke is on the hip, the wrap closes on a partner who is still balanced. If tori falls before the wrap closes, uke separates and tori lands alone. If the sweep stops before the twist, uke’s right leg returns to the mat as a support. This guide does not fix a support-foot angle, sweep height or distance; test instead whether each role is still present when the next begins.
05 / KEY POINTS
Four cues with something to check
Hip first, wrap second
Check: ask uke after each repetition, “Were you on my hip before my right hand let go?” Two or more “no” answers in a set send you back to harai-goshi entries.
The sleeve hand never pauses
Check: film the hand change from the front. The left hand should be moving at the frame where the right hand opens.
The leg stays on the thigh through the twist
Check: the observer calls “down” if the sweeping leg lands before tori’s body starts to fall. Count the calls.
Fall with uke, never ahead of uke
Check: uke’s right shoulder stays in contact with tori’s back until both are on the mat. Any repetition where tori’s head reaches the mat first stops the set for a coach review.
Each failed cue points to one diagnosis in section 06: cue one to the stall at the lapel release, cue two to the same stall’s sleeve cause, cue three to uke landing crosswise, cue four to the head-first problem.
06 / PROBLEMS & ADJUSTMENTS
Five failures, each with a test
Use a side camera for the leg and a front camera for the hands: several of these failures look identical from the landing alone.
Everything stalls the moment the lapel hand lets go
Possible causes: the release is a separate step with a pause, so uke recovers during it; the left sleeve hand stops while the right hand opens; or uke was never loaded on the hip, so there was nothing to keep moving.
Tell them apart: ask uke about hip contact first. If uke was on the hip, compare the two hands on the front-view clip: a stopped left hand points to the second cause; both hands moving but a visible pause in the twist points to the first.
One adjustment: for a pause, practise the release-and-wrap standing still from a held harai-goshi position, aiming for one continuous left twist. For a stopped sleeve, agree one target for the left hand with your coach and keep it travelling through the release. Assess: same partner, same entry; count how many of five repetitions show no visible pause between release and wrap.
Your right arm closes on air, cloth or a straight arm
Possible causes: uke’s right arm was not drawn in by the sleeve before the wrap; tori’s right arm swings wide in a large arc instead of closing along uke’s arm; or uke has withdrawn the arm in anticipation.
Tell them apart: look at uke’s right elbow at the moment of release. Far from tori’s side suggests the sleeve; close but missed suggests the arm path; retreating suggests anticipation, which also means the setup is readable.
One adjustment: for an arm-path cause, try a compact route (an editorial proposal to check against the Kodokan clip): from the lapel, let the right forearm drop over the top of uke’s right upper arm and close the elbow down towards your own ribs, instead of opening the arm outwards first. Assess: uke confirms the upper arm near the shoulder, not the forearm or sleeve, is clamped on most repetitions of a set.
Uke lands crosswise on top of you instead of around you
Possible causes: the left twist is too small, so uke is not wrapped around your body; or you fall straight down before uke’s legs leave the mat, so uke drops onto you.
Tell them apart: on the side view, check whether uke’s feet are off the mat when your body starts to descend. If they are still down, it is a timing cause. If they are up but uke lands across rather than along you, the twist is the cause.
One adjustment: for timing, use the stop-before-falling checkpoint in stage one of section 10 until uke is clearly carried. For the twist, practise the wrap until your chest faces further round to the left before the fall. Assess: uke describes each landing as “around” or “on top”; compare counts across two comparable sets.
Your head is heading for the mat first
Possible causes: you dive straight down to finish a sweep that has stalled; the left support leg buckles, dropping the trunk; or the chin is not tucked and the head leads the twist.
Tell them apart: on video, was the sweep still moving when you started down (if not, the first cause), did the left knee collapse before the trunk turned (second), or did the head turn before the shoulders (third)?
One adjustment: stop full throws. With the coach, practise only the last part from a low start (an editorial drill: tori on the knees, arm already wrapped), completing the left twist so the first contact is the shoulder-and-side region your coach specifies, with the head turned away and off the mat. Never chase a stalled sweep by diving. Assess: the observer names the first point of contact on every low-start repetition; the coach, not the count, decides when full throws resume.
Your left knee feels twisted as you turn
Possible causes: the support foot stays fixed while the trunk twists left above it; the support foot is placed too far from uke so the knee must reach and rotate; or fatigue.
Tell them apart: slow the twist and watch the left foot. No pivot while the trunk turns: the first cause. Visibly reaching for uke: distance. Only late in a session: load.
One adjustment: stop the set and ask your coach to review the support foot during the twist. Rehearse the wrap from a stationary harai-goshi position with no fall, letting the left foot and knee turn with the trunk. Assess: no strain at the knee across a full set of slow twists. Persistent pain is a medical matter.
07 / SETUPS & COMBINATIONS
When harai-goshi becomes harai-makikomi, and when it should not
Editorial proposals for supervised practice.
FROM HARAI-GOSHI
Harai-goshi → harai-makikomi when uke’s chest resists
Start: left hand on uke’s right sleeve, right hand on the left lapel. First action: a genuine harai-goshi with uke loaded on the hip and the right leg sweeping. Response: uke’s legs are being lifted, but uke keeps the chest upright or pushes against you with the left arm, so the rotation stalls. Next action: keep sweeping and pulling the sleeve, release the lapel, wrap uke’s right arm into your armpit, twist left and fall forward with uke. Stop: if uke’s right foot is back on the mat and the hips are behind yours, do not release; use the third sequence below.
INTO THE HIP SWEEP
O-uchi-gari draws uke forward onto the hip
Start: sleeve-and-lapel grip. First action: a genuine o-uchi-gari on uke’s left leg. Response: uke recovers by pushing forward and bringing the weight back over the front foot. Next action: turn into harai-goshi while that forward weight lasts. If uke arrives on the hip and goes over, finish the standing throw. Only if uke is on the hip but the upper body resists, continue into the makikomi as above. Stop: if the o-uchi recovery takes uke away from you rather than forward, rebuild the grip. If uke is still going backward from the o-uchi, finish that attack instead of turning.
AFTER HARAI-MAKIKOMI IS DENIED
Uke steps round the sweeping leg before you fall
Start: harai-goshi with the lapel already released and the wrap closing. Response: uke steps the right leg round the outside of your sweeping leg and lands it in front of you, or drops the hips behind you. Next action: do not fall. Open the armpit, put the right leg down, keep the sleeve and turn back to face. Re-establish the lapel grip before any new attack; whether a rearward follow-up suits that recovered posture is something to build with your coach, not improvise. Stop: if you are already falling, finish the fall as practised and switch to the ground task in section 09; do not try to re-sweep from the mat.
Record the reaction that preceded each makikomi in the waza-map worksheet, and count correct abandons alongside completed throws.
08 / DEFENCES & COUNTERS
Deny the hip, protect the arm, receive the fall
Prevention (before the hip load): the technique depends on the harai-goshi reaching the hip. As uke, keep the hips under the shoulders, move the feet so tori cannot turn in front of you, and keep the right elbow close to your side. In a drill, give one agreed defence at a time.
Escape (during the hand change): the release of the lapel is the moment tori holds you with only the sleeve. If uke drops the hips back and steps round the sweeping leg at that instant, the wrap has little to carry. Because the arm is clamped from above, ripping it upwards out of a closing armpit against a twisting partner can injure the shoulder; escape with the feet and hips.
Once you are wrapped and falling: receive. Here uke’s right leg has been swept and the right arm is clamped from above against tori’s side, so uke cannot step to catch the fall and tori’s body comes down along uke’s trapped right side. The left arm is uke’s only breakfall arm; agree its use with the coach and never post it straight. Tori opens the armpit as the bodies land, before settling any weight.
Counter exposure for tori: a standing harai-goshi already exposes tori to counters on the support leg, such as harai-goshi-gaeshi, (learn it separately with a coach). A failed harai-makikomi adds a different risk: tori is on the mat having given up the base, possibly face-down. Treat that landing as a defensive position (section 09), not an unfinished throw.
09 / GROUND TRANSITIONS
Read the landing before you move
Agree before each repetition whether the exchange continues on the ground and for how long.
You land on or beside uke’s chest with the arm still wrapped
Your back or side may be against uke, with uke’s right arm in your right armpit. That is not a hold-down, and lying with your back to uke gives uke time to recover. Turn your chest towards uke while keeping weight off the wrapped elbow, establish a base with your legs and only then transfer to a hold your coach has taught, such as kesa-gatame or yoko-shiho-gatame. Because the near arm is already trapped against your side, ushiro-kesa-gatame is also worth comparing with your coach if you land facing uke’s legs; it is a coach-check, not a standard transition claimed here. Open the armpit immediately on a tap.
Uke turns away onto the front during the landing
Let the arm go rather than dragging it across uke’s back. Move to a stable position over uke’s back and choose the turnover your coach teaches for a partner lying face-down. Record this ending separately; if it happens often, the twist may not be wrapping uke far enough round.
You land first and uke comes down on top
Having fallen forward from one leg, you may land face-down; check whether the left support leg has folded under you. Open the armpit, free that leg and get both knees under you before uke settles; staying flat with a leg trapped gives uke your back. Rehearse that recovery from a static start, as in the ne-waza drills guide, instead of creating it through failed falls.
10 / PRACTICE PROGRESSION
Build the sacrifice on top of a working hip sweep
Stage one: release and wrap without a fall
From a slow, cooperative harai-goshi with uke on the hip and the right leg sweeping, release the lapel, wrap the arm and twist left, then return to stance. Progress when: uke confirms hip contact before the release, the sleeve hand keeps moving through the hand change and tori returns to stance without strain at the left knee.
Stage two: supervised falls onto a crash mat
Add the forward fall at walking pace with a coach watching, a thick mat and an uke whose breakfall is reliable. Keep the number of falls small. Progress when: the observer sees the leg still sweeping at the start of the fall, tori’s head clear of the mat and uke landing wrapped around tori.
Stage three: the decision
Uke chooses, on each repetition, between keeping the chest upright on the hip (tori continues into harai-makikomi) and dropping the hips back behind tori (tori lowers the leg and recovers). Start with entries that stop after the wrap. Progress when: tori’s decisions match uke’s responses across a set and no fall is attempted from the hips-back response.
Stage four: constrained exchanges
Short rounds in which harai-goshi is the only entry and the makikomi finish is allowed only after the observer has seen the leg sweeping; uke may drop the hips back or step round the sweeping leg but not counter. The observer marks each attempt “standing finish”, “makikomi”, or “leg down and recover”. Progress when: no makikomi follows a hips-back response, and no attempt ends with tori landing face-down with the support leg trapped. The coach decides whether and at what intensity the sacrifice enters free randori.
If stage four breaks down before the hip, the work belongs to harai-goshi entries and grips: see uchikomi drills and randori goals.
11 / COMPETITION EXAMPLES
Two official replay selections to study
Verified: on October 10, 2026, each IJF athlete page below was a harai-makikomi technique page and listed the named contest in its technique-tagged replay selection; each page credits the tagged action to the athlete it names. Not verified: the contests were not watched for this guide, so any score, the moment in the contest and the exchange before it remain open.
Selection 1 — Lesiuk vs Naji, Hungary Grand Slam 2026
Artem LESIUK (UKR) vs David NAJI (HUN), Hungary Grand Slam 2026, listed on Artem Lesiuk’s IJF harai-makikomi page.
Selection 2 — Pogacnik vs Carvalho, Antalya Grand Slam 2022
Anka POGACNIK (SLO) vs Luana CARVALHO (BRA), Antalya Grand Slam 2022, listed on Anka Pogacnik’s IJF harai-makikomi page.
Viewing questions tied to this technique
- Hip load: is the receiving athlete visibly on the attacker’s hip before the attacker’s lapel hand (or the equivalent on a left-sided attack) lets go?
- Hand change: is there a standing harai-goshi attempt first, or does the attacker go straight into the wrap?
- Sweeping leg: is the leg still in contact when the attacker starts to fall?
- Head and landing: what touches the mat first, and who controls the position afterwards?
- Grip context: same-side or opposite-side grips? If it is not visible, write “not visible”.
Note separately what the listing states, what you saw and what you will test. Historical footage reflects the rules applied at that event, not current permission for your category.
12 / VARIATIONS & COMPARISONS
Harai-makikomi beside harai-goshi and the other wraparounds
| Technique | Leg action | Upper-body connection at the finish | Tori’s base |
|---|---|---|---|
| Harai-goshi | Back of right thigh sweeps uke’s right thigh | Sleeve and lapel | Stays on the left leg |
| Harai-makikomi | The same sweep, continued into the wrap | Lapel released; uke’s right arm wrapped into tori’s armpit | Falls forward with uke |
| Soto-makikomi | No sweeping leg in the definition | Right grip released; arm wrapped around uke’s right arm into the armpit | Continues forward into the sacrifice |
| Uchi-makikomi | None defined; large hip movement outside the throwing line | Arm under uke’s armpit; upper arm in the elbow crook | Sacrifices from the ippon-seoi-nage position |
Against harai-goshi: the decision point is whether tori keeps the base. A harai-goshi that collapses into a wrap by accident is not a harai-makikomi practice repetition; agree with your coach which one you are drilling.
Against soto-makikomi: the wrap is shared; the start is not. Harai-makikomi carries a sweep from a hip throw; soto-makikomi floats uke to the right-front corner with no defined leg action. That changes what fails: in harai-makikomi the leg can drop during the hand change and the support knee is loaded by a sweep, while in soto-makikomi there is no sweep to maintain.
Against uchi-makikomi: the arm route is the opposite. Uchi-makikomi holds uke’s arm from underneath in the elbow crook and never releases a lapel; harai-makikomi lets go and wraps from the outside. Against uchi-mata-makikomi and hane-goshi: a wrap from an inner-thigh attack is uchi-mata-makikomi, a separate Kodokan technique; and a bent-leg spring from the hip is hane-goshi. Identify the leg action before naming the wrap.
13 / YOUR NEXT PRACTICE
Test the hand change before you test the fall
Task: six cooperative harai-goshi entries: once uke is on the hip, release the lapel, wrap the right arm, twist left, then stop and stand up. The observer watches only the left hand and the sweeping leg.
- Situation
- Right-sided harai-goshi, cooperative uke, no falls.
- My focus
- Keep the sleeve moving and the leg on uke’s thigh while the right hand lets go.
- What I noticed
- Did uke confirm hip contact before the release? Did the leg drop? Any strain at the left knee?
- Coach question
- “Is my release happening at the right moment for the form you teach, and is my support foot turning enough?”
- Next decision
- Add crash-mat falls, keep the standing task, or return to harai-goshi entries.
Illustrative example — not measured user data: “Six repetitions. Uke was on my hip every time. On four, my sweeping leg dropped as I let go of the lapel; on the two where it stayed up, the sleeve hand was still pulling. Next session: same partner, same entry, focus only on keeping the sleeve pulling through the release.”
The example links one visible problem (the leg drops) to one likely cause (the sleeve stops) and changes only that. Use the practice record template or the tools described in Judo AI to keep it with your next focus, and compare at the next session under the same conditions.
14 / SOURCES & REVIEW
Sources, authorship and review
- IJF: Harai-makikomi definition and technique library (definition text checked October 10, 2026)
- Kodokan: Names of Judo Techniques (official name and yoko-sutemi-waza classification; also lists uchi-mata-makikomi separately)
- IJF: Soto-makikomi and IJF: Uchi-makikomi (used only for the comparison table)
- Videos: KODOKAN, “払巻込 / Harai-makikomi” (2020); Efficient Judo, “Harai-makikomi - Demo” (2018). Identity, publisher, length and description verified; full playback not analysed.
- IJF athlete technique pages for the two replay selections in section 11 (listing checked October 10, 2026).
By Judo AI · Editorial review: October 10, 2026. The ordering checks, diagnostic branches, combinations and drills are editorial proposals for supervised practice. They are not validated protocols and are not attributed to the video publishers. The harai-goshi details (thigh-to-thigh sweep, sleeve-and-lapel start) follow this site’s harai-goshi guide and its IJF reference. Named technical-coach review has not taken place.
Rules and safety scope: this guide is not a refereeing manual. Makikomi throws and head-first or diving actions are governed by competition rules that differ by event and age group; check the current IJF and event rules with your coach or referee. In practice, stop when uke taps, says stop or reports joint pain, and open the armpit immediately.
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