After a little intro on JLR's life and times we comes to the history of harai-goshi. He explains how it is in the Nage-no-kata as the technique after uki-goshi (floating hip throw-a rather upright hip throw that doesn't involve a lot of hip contacts). Dr. Kano liked uki-goshi because it is very efficient if pulled off correctly. But at the same time it is relatively easy to escape because uke's hip is not blocked off very much and he can slip around the thrower. So Kano liked harai-goshi as a follow up technique because the sweeping leg blocks the opponent from going around. The fact that a top competitor like JLR started off at the theoretical base of the throw in the kata let me in on the fact that this was going to be a very thorough and informative presentation. Although harai-goshi is a hip throw, those that do hip throws know that they can be hard to do because it is often difficult to get inside on you opponent and get the hip to hip contact needed to bring off a hip throw. Harai-goshi is the exception because it can be done without a lot of hip contact as the sweeping leg can do a lot of work on its own (which is why Kano saw it as the complement to uki-goshi).
Consequently, JLR does not play the idealist and insist that there is only one right way to do the throw. He recognizes that there is a wide range in the amount of hip contact under which harai-goshi can be done. He shows the minimum contact level that is evident in the uki-goshi / harai-goshi section (in some situations the hip contact is so minimum that the technique is more like ashi-guruma than harai-goshi-JLR discusses that later). At the other extreme, one can actually get your hips in so far that you are actually blocking uke with your other hip as in koshi-guruma. Personally, I find that if I get this kind of turn-in the sweeping leg is almost superfluous as it is quite easy to throw with just hip action. The hip ranges are important to later understanding the grips and entries that JLR goes over. Again, JLR is showing you the kind of detail and theory you need to really understand this throw. JLR then goes over the various stepping patterns for entry, grips, and harai-makikomi (sweeping winding hip). All of this is presented in fantastic detail. There is no point in describing all of it but it is great. One of the things that he says about harai-goshi that I think sounds really good is that it is like salade mixte (I don't know French but I assume that it means something like salad mix or salad bar): you have your different grips, entries, and hip placements and you use them to construct your own harai-goshi. He finishes the section with two related techniques: ashi-guruma (foot wheel) and hane-goshi (springing hip).
Ashi-guruma as he said before often comes about when you try harai-goshi and get very little or no hip contact. It becomes a pure leg technique. Hane-goshi sometimes happens when the thrower doesn't get his sweeping leg clear of the opponent and ends up sweeping back against his leg from the front. This is a good example of JLR's pragmatism-he shows you how to retrieve an awkward situation as opposed to showing you one way.
The book then moves on to combinations. In general, in harai-goshi combinations the other technique comes first because you can't often move from a harai-goshi attempt to something-you are already turned around and committed. So most of the combinations are "x throw into harai-goshi" but a few are thrown the other way. He discusses the distinction between combinations where both techniques are committed attacks and one where the first attack is simply a deliberate feint to set up the second (in this situation sometimes the harai-goshi can be the feint if you don't commit too far). JLR shows sasae-tsuri-komi-ashi into hg, o-uchi-gari into hg, ko-uchi-gari into hg, o-soto-gari into hg, hg into classical sukui-nage, o-soto-gari into harai-makikomi, and hg into kani-basami (now illegal). One thing JLR doesn't show is groundwork follow-ups which could be nice, but you are basically going to land in kesa-gatame or maybe kami-shiho-gatame if you put the opponent into orbit (if you do makikomi-ushiro-kesa-gatame) so maybe there is not much need for this.
JLR then shows counters and defenses to harai-goshi. These are all good too but I am surprised that JLR doesn't show ura-nage and sukui-nage counters to harai-goshi as these are quite common at the top level. Perhaps he felt these were covered in Pick-ups by Robert Van der Walle (which came first?). Anyway, the important part of the book is where he teaches you the actual throw-counters and defenses are secondary. One thing that is interesting to me is using harai-goshi against a kneeling opponent-something to try out as I have never seen it done.
After this is a short section on training drills for harai-goshi and then a self-defense section. The self-defense section is found in some of the Ippon Masterclass books. Nothing here is really that detailed, just harai-goshi against a punch and a ippon-seoi-nage harai-goshi (why wasn't that in the techniques section?) Again, if you have any experience at all you could figure this out for yourself, but I like the fact that JLR puts it in there. It shows that he is not just some single-minded competitive judoka who scoffs at anything to do with judo in self-defense (like Neil Adams who I take from his Ippon books had to be dragged kicking and screaming to say anything about self-defense).
The book finishes, like the other Masterclass books, with some competition photos. JLR manages to insert some humorous comments in here that made me really like him. I think this is truly a great book.