Aleksey, your response about reaching uke's face is very interesting. I never thought about it that way. I completely agree that one should try to break the intent of attack and ride around his resistance. However, I think I read somewhere else that the initial movement in irimi nage was based on striking your opponent's neck with a side chop as he moves to attack you. I have noticed that some people tend to bend the arm that's closest to uke as they move forward, as if they also intend to do a side chop on uke's neck. I could be wrong on this of course
Boon, I might try your technique of jumping and slamming uke down... we have some big-sized people here too
