ilia rudnitskiy

Ah, this whole thread is very confusing so I'm going to respond to the original poster...

I've seen koshinage done two ways: with feet a bit more than shoulder width apart, and with feet about 8 inches apart... However, I've never seen it done with the feet together.

Part of the reason is, as some already stated, instability... if you have your feet slightly apart, you should have enough stability to perform a good koshinage.

Also, what i think is:
feet far apart = uke travels more of a horizontal distance
feet closee together = uke travels less horizontal distance

Personally, I perform koshinage with my feet fairly close together, and when I perform the throw, I move sideways so that uke falls straight below where I was standing... I find that this is a quicker and harder fall for uke (so obviously I do it slower on less-experienced people), and I also find it to be much easier for myself since i don't have to keep the weight of uke for as long.

But all in all, it can be done both ways... i.e. if you want to throw uke far, spread your feet farther; if you want to just drop them, keep your feet close; if you have amazing balance you can probably do it with your feet together but it won't make much of a difference if any.