Glossary /// Alias
major hip throw
Also known as O Goshi — the canonical term used on this site.
English for o goshi — 大 (major), the full hip load
Major hip throw is the English name for o goshi — the hip throw in which the opponent is loaded fully across the attacker’s hips before the rotation begins.
Etymology. O (大) means “major” or “large”; goshi (腰) is “hip”. The qualifier is not decoration: the Kodokan classifies o goshi as the two-halves-of-hip throw against uki goshi’s one half, so “major” names a measurable difference in how much of the opponent’s weight the fulcrum carries. English-speaking wrestling and no-gi rooms tend to say “hip throw” for the whole family and reserve the major/minor distinction for teaching contexts.
Mechanics. The attacker breaks the opponent’s posture forward and down, steps across so their hips arrive in front of and below the opponent’s, passes the lifting arm around the opponent’s back, and straightens the legs so the opponent’s feet leave the mat. The rotation follows from the load. Hips that meet the opponent’s rather than passing them produce no fulcrum, which is the difference between a throw and a shoving match.
Cross-reference. The half-hip version is uki goshi; the version levered by a head wrap instead of a back grip is koshi guruma. Full mechanical coverage on O Goshi.