01 / AT A GLANCE
A scarf hold turned to face the legs
Ushiro-kesa-gatame (後袈裟固, “reverse” or “rear” scarf hold) is an osaekomi-waza, one of the hold-downs in katame-waza. The IJF definition is short: a hold similar to kesa-gatame, “but performed facing towards your opponent’s legs instead of towards his head.” That change of orientation decides which side of your body touches uke, which of uke’s parts are free, and where the escape usually comes from.
Our convention: uke lies on the back. You, tori, sit at uke’s right side and face uke’s feet, so your left hip and ribs are against uke’s right side and chest. Uke’s right arm is the near arm; uke’s left arm is the far arm; uke’s head is behind your back. Throughout this page, “right” and “left” name the limb of the person mentioned. Working from uke’s left side mirrors every instruction.
Compared with kesa-gatame, the big difference is that no arm wraps uke’s head. In kesa-gatame from the same side, the IJF text has tori’s left hand gripping the judogi under uke’s right armpit and tori’s right arm around behind the neck. In ushiro-kesa-gatame your arms work across uke’s chest and arms instead, and uke’s head and shoulders are behind you. That spares the neck, but it means sitting up, turning in behind your back and pushing on your hip are the escapes to plan for from the first repetition.
Who this is for: judoka who already practise supervised ne-waza, can tap and release reliably, and know kesa-gatame; beginners should learn it from a coach first. Kodokan lists ushiro-kesa-gatame as its own technique; it is not another spelling of kesa-gatame or kuzure-kesa-gatame.
02 / WATCH THE HOLD & ESCAPES
Watch the facing direction first, then the escapes
Open this video on YouTube if the player is unavailable.
Open this video on YouTube if the player is unavailable.
Both clips come from the Kodokan. The first is the hold in the KODOKAN × IJF ACADEMY 100-technique series; the second is the Kodokan’s own demonstration of escapes from this hold. We verified identity, publisher, length and date only; the passes below are questions to answer while watching, not a summary of the demonstration.
Pass 1: orientation. Before looking at the hands, confirm the direction tori faces and which side of tori’s trunk touches uke. Note whether the demonstration is performed from uke’s right or left side; if it is the left, mirror our convention before comparing.
Pass 2: the two arms. Find where uke’s near arm ends up relative to tori’s body, and where tori’s other hand goes across uke’s body. The IJF text does not fix these grips, so write down what you see and confirm it with your coach.
Pass 3: the base. Look at tori’s legs: how wide they are, which leg is nearer uke’s legs, and whether tori’s hips stay on the mat or rise.
Escape video. Pause each escape just before it succeeds and name the first control that changed; section 8 gives the three escape paths to sort it into, and section 6 the diagnosis for each.
03 / WHEN TO APPLY IT
Where ushiro-kesa-gatame fits in a ground exchange
You already hold kesa-gatame and uke attacks your legs
In kesa-gatame your legs are near uke’s feet. If uke keeps hooking toward your back leg, turning your hips to face uke’s legs is one coached option, provided you keep the near arm while you turn. If uke is hooking your leg already, the turn may simply hand over the leg; free or protect it first.
You pass the legs, or uke turns in from side control
Two arrivals leave you on uke’s right side with your back toward the head: a pass that lands you facing the hips, and a turn-in from yoko-shiho-gatame where uke pulls the near elbow toward you. The recognition cue is the same in both: uke’s knees are clear of your hip and the right elbow is still outside your hip line, close enough to trap. If either is false, the hold is not there yet (the steps are in section 7).
When this hold is the wrong choice
Do not use it when uke’s head and shoulders are already up off the mat behind you, when the near arm is free and framing on your hip, or when you can stay on top only by lying back on uke’s face or neck. In those cases recover side control or reset the round.
04 / HOW THE CONTROL WORKS
Five parts that keep uke on the back
The IJF definition fixes only two things: a kesa-type hold, with tori facing the legs. The grips below follow the commonly taught form from uke’s right side; compare each part with the Kodokan clip and confirm it with your coach.
Near arm: your right arm traps uke’s right arm
Uke’s right arm is closest to your body. In the commonly taught form you hold that arm against your right side, typically controlling the upper arm close to the elbow rather than only the wrist or cuff. The job is to stop the elbow from getting between your bodies as a frame, or from reaching your far hip. Check: ask uke to try to bring the right elbow down toward their own hip. If it slides out without your trunk moving, the control is too far down the arm or too loose against your side. Do not straighten the arm across your body (see the last problem in section 6).
Far side: your left arm reaches across the chest
Your left arm goes across uke’s chest toward the far side (uke’s left). It may pass under uke’s left arm to the belt or the side of the jacket, or control that arm another way; check which version the Kodokan clip and your coach use. Either way, the left arm stops uke turning away from you and stops the far arm coming over your back. Check: can uke lift the left shoulder off the mat while your arm stays on? If so, your forearm is resting on uke rather than connecting the far side to your trunk.
Trunk: your left ribs and back settle on uke’s chest
Because you face the legs, the contact is the left side and back of your ribcage against uke’s right chest and side, not your chest against theirs. Lean back slightly into uke, so the weight is shared between that contact and your hips on the mat. Check: if you sit fully upright, uke can breathe, lift and turn easily. If uke feels your weight on the face or throat, you have leaned too far and stopped pinning the trunk.
Hips and legs: a wide base that can pivot
Sit with your hips close to uke’s side and your legs spread wide enough to stop a roll in either direction, toward your back or over your front. One leg will be nearer uke’s legs; keep that knee bent and watch it. Check: have uke give a slow, agreed bridge. If you rock and post a hand on the mat, your base is narrow or your hips are too far from uke. If uke’s feet reach your nearer leg without much effort, that leg is too close.
Head and eyes: watch the legs, feel the head
You face uke’s hips and legs, so you can see a leg attack coming but not the sit-up behind you. Keep your head up enough to read uke’s hips, and use the contact against your back to feel the shoulders rise. Check: during a cooperative round, have uke begin a sit-up. Did you feel it through your back before the shoulders cleared the mat?
05 / KEY POINTS
Four timing cues, each with a check
Section 4 describes where each part goes. These cues are about order and response: what to do first, and what each of uke’s movements should trigger.
- Trap the near elbow before your hip lands. The right arm takes uke’s right upper arm while you are still turning; the left hip sits in afterwards. Check: over a set of cooperative entries, ask uke whether the elbow was ever free at the moment your hip touched their side.
- Answer the bridge by moving the base, never by posting the trapping hand. Widen and shift toward the bridge while the right arm stays on the near arm. Check: an observer watches only your right hand during an agreed bridge; if it touches the mat, the arm was released.
- Treat uke’s hips turning toward you as the leg signal. Pivot your nearer knee away as the hips turn, before the feet arrive. Check: film from the feet end and compare the frame where the hips start turning with the frame where your leg moves.
- When two controls have gone, change hold instead of repairing. One lost control can be rebuilt in place; two (for example the near arm and the trunk contact) means the section 7 branch for that reaction. Check: the coach calls out the round where you kept squeezing after the second loss.
The checks are deliberately feedback from uke or an observer: in this hold the top player faces away from the head, so tori often feels secure while uke is already lifting a shoulder behind them.
06 / PROBLEMS & ADJUSTMENTS
Why ushiro-kesa-gatame breaks
Name the first control that changed, not the last thing that happened, and test each adjustment with the same partner, single escape and agreed resistance.
“Uke sits up behind my back.”
Possible causes: your trunk contact is too low, near uke’s stomach, so the shoulders are free; you are sitting upright with no lean back; or the far-side arm is not holding the left shoulder down. Tell them apart: watch from the head end. If uke’s head and shoulders lift together while your back is on uke’s stomach, the contact is too low. If one shoulder (usually the far one) comes up first, look at your left arm.
Adjustment: slide your hips and the contact on your back up toward uke’s armpit line, then lean back again. Assess: fix a block of rounds in advance in which uke tries only the sit-up at agreed effort; record whether the shoulders cleared the mat, then repeat the same block from your old position and compare.
“The near arm comes out from under my control.”
Possible causes: you hold the cuff or wrist, so uke bends the elbow and draws it out; your right arm is clamping, but your hip is away from uke’s side, so there is a gap to pull through; or you let go to post a hand when uke bridges. Tell them apart: ask uke what moved first, the elbow or the whole arm. Also check whether your right hand left the arm during a bridge.
Adjustment: for the cuff grip, move the hold to the upper arm; for the gap, slide your hip in until it touches uke’s side; for posting, see the bridge cue in section 5. Change only the one that matches the cause. Assess: uke tries only the arm recovery. Count the rounds where the elbow passes your hip line before and after the change.
“Uke bridges and I tip over backwards.”
Possible causes: the leg on the side you fall toward is too narrow; you lean so far back that your weight is on top of uke rather than beside; or you meet the bridge with stiff arms. Tell them apart: note the direction. Tipping toward your back (uke’s head) usually means too much lean; tipping over your front means the front leg cannot catch you.
Adjustment: either widen the base on the side you tipped toward, or reduce the lean slightly; not both at once. Assess: a fixed number of agreed slow bridges, then the same number at a slightly higher effort, recording whether you posted a hand.
“Uke’s legs catch my front leg.”
Possible causes: your nearer leg is extended toward uke’s feet; your hips drifted down toward uke’s waist as you sat; or you watched the upper body and missed uke’s hips turning toward you. Tell them apart: filming from the feet end shows whether the leg was reachable before uke moved or became reachable because you slid.
Adjustment: if the leg was reachable from the start, draw the nearer foot back behind your hips so the knee stays bent; if you slid, re-seat your hips at uke’s ribs rather than the waist. If the leg is already trapped, use the release your coach has taught; never twist a trapped knee out while weight is on it. Assess: uke tries only to reach your leg with the feet, from a fixed start, and you count first contacts.
“Uke says the trapped elbow or shoulder hurts.”
Possible causes: the near arm is straightened across your body or bent against the joint; or your lean is driving into the shoulder rather than the chest. Response: release immediately when uke taps or speaks, then rebuild the hold with the coach watching. A tap from joint pain means the pin turned into an arm lock nobody agreed to practise, not that the hold worked.
07 / ENTRIES & HOLD CHANGES
Getting in, and changing hold when uke reacts
Each branch starts cooperatively: uke produces the named reaction when asked, and only later picks the reaction freely.
INTO USHIRO-KESA-GATAME
Kesa-gatame → ushiro-kesa-gatame when uke reaches for your legs
Start: kesa-gatame from uke’s right side as the IJF describes it: your left hand gripping the judogi under uke’s right armpit, your right arm behind the neck. Reaction: uke turns the hips toward you and the feet start to reach for your back leg. Next action: keep the near arm against your body while you pivot on your hips toward uke’s legs. Your right arm comes out from behind the neck and takes uke’s right upper arm before your left hand lets go under the armpit; your left arm then reaches across the chest. Never have both hands off the near arm at once, and move your legs away from uke’s feet as you turn. (This hand exchange is our reading of the two orientations, not a sourced sequence; check it with your coach.) Stop: if uke’s foot has already hooked your leg, or if the near arm comes free during the pivot, stop and reset.
INTO USHIRO-KESA-GATAME
Pass on the right side → sit through facing the legs
Start: you have passed uke’s legs on uke’s right side with chest contact. Reaction: uke turns toward you and draws the right elbow in to block your hip. Next action: if the elbow is still outside your hip, trap it with your right arm and sit your left hip in against uke’s side, facing the legs. Then reach your left arm across. Stop: if the elbow or a knee is already between you, keep side control and work on the frame.
OUT OF USHIRO-KESA-GATAME
Ushiro-kesa-gatame → kesa-gatame when uke works on your back
Start: the hold as described. Reaction: uke is pushing on your back with the far hand or trying to sit up behind you, and uke’s legs are not threatening. Next action: pivot the other way so that you face uke’s head. Your right arm goes round behind the neck to the judogi behind the shoulder, and your left hand takes the judogi under uke’s right armpit, as in the IJF kesa-gatame description. Stop: if uke is already sitting up past your shoulder, the turn may give uke your back; recover a top position instead.
OUT OF USHIRO-KESA-GATAME
Ushiro-kesa-gatame → the head end when uke sits up
Start: the hold, with your left arm across uke’s chest. Reaction: uke lifts the shoulders and turns in toward your back. Next action: you already face the feet, as in the head-end holds. Slide your hips around uke’s head while keeping your back against the chest, and use your left arm under the far shoulder for a belt grip, aiming for kami-shiho-gatame, or trap the near arm from above for kuzure-kami-shiho-gatame. Stop: if your back lifts off uke during the slide, uke will usually sit up into the gap. In early rounds, stop there and repeat the slide.
OUT OF USHIRO-KESA-GATAME
Ushiro-kesa-gatame → side control when uke’s hips turn in
Start: the hold. Reaction: uke turns the hips toward you and brings a knee up toward your back or hip. Next action: turn your chest down onto uke’s chest, taking your legs back, toward yoko-shiho-gatame. The near-arm control usually has to be given up as you turn; establish the new controls before releasing it. Stop: a knee all the way across your stomach means uke is back to guard; reset.
08 / ESCAPES & COUNTERS
Escaping a hold that leaves the head free
Prevention: keep the near elbow and stop the sit-through
For uke, the best moment is before tori settles: keep the right elbow tight to your own ribs as tori comes round, and turn toward tori before tori’s hip arrives.
Escape: use the free head and shoulders
Ushiro-kesa-gatame does not control your head, so the escape paths follow from what tori can and cannot reach. Each path attacks one control and is opened by a specific tori error:
- Shoulders up behind tori. Attacks the trunk contact. It is opened when tori’s back sits on your stomach rather than your chest, or when tori sits upright. You need your far (left) shoulder free of tori’s left arm first.
- Near-arm recovery, then turn in. Attacks the trap on your right arm. It is opened when tori holds the wrist or cuff, or when tori’s hip is away from your side. Once the elbow is between the bodies, turning toward tori becomes possible.
- Legs to tori’s nearer leg. Attacks the base. It is opened when tori’s nearer leg is extended toward your feet or tori’s hips have drifted down toward your waist.
When you watch the Kodokan escape clip, sort each escape you see into one of these paths, or note that it fits none, and ask your coach which to learn first. A bridge that does not open one of these paths usually only tires you.
Counter: tori’s back is exposed
Because tori faces away from your head, a successful sit-up can leave you behind tori’s back rather than merely free. Turning that into a reversal or a back position is a separate skill that needs its own instruction; it should never be finished by pulling tori’s head or neck back.
Safe abandonment
For tori: once uke’s shoulders are clear and turning in, your back is the target; change hold (section 7) rather than leaning back harder. For uke: wrenching a trapped knee or forcing a trapped arm free against the joint are not escapes to drill.
09 / TRANSITIONS BETWEEN HOLDS
What to do when the position changes
Uke frees the near arm but stays flat
Uke’s recovered right arm now sits beside your left hip and can push it away or reach over your back toward your far shoulder. Either re-trap the upper arm with your right arm while keeping your lean, or turn your chest down to side control before the push straightens. Sitting on with the arm free leaves uke the turn-in.
Uke turns away onto the left side
Your left arm across the chest is the only thing stopping this turn. If uke turns anyway, follow with your chest onto the back of uke’s shoulders and use a coached turnover; never pull uke back by the head.
Uke sits up behind you
If contact remains, the head-end branch in section 7 applies. If uke is already sitting past your shoulder, there is no hold to save: turn to face uke so your back is no longer exposed, and treat the exchange as a new grip fight or a reset, as agreed for the round.
Uke captures a leg
Keep upper-body control, free the leg with a coached action and rebuild. Whether a referee would still count the hold is a rules question for your coach.
Arm locks and strangles are outside this page’s scope. The near arm is held against your body, but turning that into a lock such as ude-garami is a separate technique whose rules (including any age-group limits) must be checked separately, and it is studied in its own guide.
10 / POSITIONAL ROUNDS
Progress from a static hold to a choice
Build and describe the hold
Cooperative. Tori builds the hold from uke’s right side; uke reports where the weight is felt. Move on when both partners can name the near-arm control, the far-side control and the trunk contact, and the coach has checked that the neck is free.
One escape, low resistance
Uke uses one escape from the Kodokan reference that the coach has chosen. Tori responds with base and lean only, without changing hold. Move on when tori can say which control the escape attacked first in most rounds.
Two escapes, uke chooses
Uke chooses between the sit-up behind tori and one leg-side escape. Move on when tori’s first response matches the threat more often than not, as judged by the coach.
Hold-to-hold rounds
Tori may change to kesa-gatame, a head-end hold or side control (section 7). Uke scores by getting the shoulders up, the arm free or the leg caught. Tori scores a change only if the near arm or the trunk contact survived it. Move on when tori picks kesa-gatame against back pressure and the head end against the sit-up without being told.
Entries against a defending uke
Start from the pass or from kesa-gatame, not from a set hold. Uke defends the near elbow before tori sits through. If tori holds well in stage 3 but rarely traps the elbow here, the next block should train the entry, not the hold.
Round rules to agree first: starting position, which escapes are allowed, what ends the round (escape, change of hold, tap, or time set by the coach), and stop conditions: a tap or spoken stop (release at once), pain, or a trapped knee or arm. The round length is a training constraint, not an official osaekomi duration; check current competition timing with your coach. See also the ne-waza drills guide and ne-waza training plan.
11 / COMPETITION REPLAYS
Two IJF replay selections to study
We checked two IJF athlete technique pages carrying the ushiro-kesa-gatame tag on 10 October 2026. Verified: each page exists, has the heading shown, which credits the tagged action to the athlete it names, and lists the contest named. Not verified: what the replay shows, score, time and tactics. We have not watched the replays, so this section offers viewing questions, not analysis.
Ceric vs Kim, Düsseldorf Grand Slam 2020
The IJF page headed “Ushiro-kesa-gatame by CERIC Larisa” lists the Düsseldorf Grand Slam 2020 contest between Larisa Ceric (BIH) and Hayun Kim (KOR) under this technique tag.
Korrel vs Sapargaliyev, Baku Grand Slam 2024
The IJF page headed “Ushiro-kesa-gatame by KORREL Michael” lists the Baku Grand Slam 2024 contest between Michael Korrel (NED) and Adilet Sapargaliyev (KAZ) under this technique tag.
Questions to take to the replays
- Arrival: did the holder arrive already facing the legs, or turn from a head-facing position? If they turned, did the near arm stay trapped during the turn?
- Near arm: where is the bottom player’s near elbow once the hold is called, and does it move during the hold?
- The free head: does the bottom player try to sit up or turn in behind the holder, and how does the holder’s lean or hip position change in response?
- Legs: does either player’s leg position change during the hold, and does the holder move a leg away from the bottom player’s feet?
- Limits: write “unclear” for anything the camera hides.
Use the match video review checklist to keep observation separate from interpretation. Historical contests were governed by the rules at the time.
12 / VARIATIONS & COMPARISONS
Three kesa holds that are not interchangeable
| Hold | Tori faces | What is controlled | Main threat to plan for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kesa-gatame | Uke’s head | Tori’s left hand grips the judogi under uke’s right armpit; right arm behind the neck to the judogi behind the shoulder (IJF) | Leg capture and a bridge toward tori’s head side |
| Kuzure-kesa-gatame | Uke’s head | Form selected in its guide: near arm held by tori’s left arm; tori’s right arm through uke’s left armpit (far underhook) instead of round the neck | Near elbow returning as a frame, then the turn in toward tori |
| Ushiro-kesa-gatame | Uke’s legs | Near arm against tori’s side; far side by tori’s left arm across the chest; trunk lean on the chest | Sit-up and turn-in behind tori’s back; arm recovery |
Why the direction matters: facing the legs shows you uke’s hips and keeps your legs away from uke’s feet, but leaves the head free behind you; kesa-gatame makes the opposite trade, which is why the two work as a pair.
Not the same as kuzure-kesa-gatame: both send an arm toward uke’s far side instead of round the neck. In kuzure-kesa-gatame it is tori’s right arm, facing the head; here it is tori’s left arm across the chest, facing the legs, with the near arm held by the right. If your notes say only “far underhook”, also record which way you faced.
Grip variations: the left hand may go to the belt, the jacket or uke’s far arm. Record which, because each changes how uke can turn away.
Informal names: “reverse scarf hold” and “reverse kesa” are common English names. The grappling term “reverse side control” names neither the grips nor a recognised hold-down.
13 / YOUR NEXT PRACTICE
Find out where the escape starts
Task: six short positional rounds from the hold, from uke’s right side. Uke uses one escape chosen by the coach, at agreed effort. Tori may adjust the base and lean but does not change hold.
- Record
- For each round: first control lost (near arm / far side / shoulders up behind / base tipped / leg reached) and the result (held / escaped / stopped).
- Coach question
- “Is my contact on uke’s chest in the right place, or am I losing the near arm first?”
- Next decision
- If one cause dominates, fix that one in the next block. If the hold now survives the first escape, add the second (stage 3).
Illustrative example, not real training data: “Six rounds against the sit-up. In four, uke’s shoulders came up behind me while my back was on uke’s stomach. In two I held. Next block: same escape, I slide my hips up to the armpit line before leaning back, and the coach watches from the head end.”
Keep the record with your other training notes using the practice record template or Judo AI: record the first control lost, not the time held.
14 / SOURCES & REVIEW
Sources, authorship and review
- Kodokan: Names of Judo Techniques (name and classification)
- IJF: Ushiro-kesa-gatame definition; IJF: Kesa-gatame definition (comparison)
- Kodokan videos SBapox2M2dE and 4QuzAAucQsA (identity, length and date verified; action not reviewed frame by frame)
- IJF athlete technique pages 721/217 and 9286/217 (contest listing only)
By Judo AI · Editorial review: October 10, 2026. The orientation comes from the IJF definition. The arm and grip details in section 4 follow the commonly taught form and are flagged for checking against the Kodokan demonstration and your coach. Diagnoses, hold-change branches and rounds are editorial proposals for supervised practice, not a validated protocol. No named technical coach has reviewed this page yet.
Rules and scope: this is a study guide, not a refereeing manual. Hold-down timing, what counts as a valid osaekomi and age-group restrictions are not stated here; check current IJF and event rules with your coach.