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> Once I have thrown an opponent to the ground and if I push his elbow
> outward, he will automatically lie face down to counter his pain.
>
> 相手は投げられてから、外側に肘を押されると、痛くならないように自動にうつ伏す。

Is it OK to promote an object as the topic and change all relevant verbs to
passive forms?

## Edit

The reason I promote the object as the topic is to make it easier for me to
write this long sentence without having to repeat the pronoun "he/his". The
subject in this example is the writer who is implicitly specified.

Or is it possible to promote the object as the topic but keep the verbs in
active forms as follows? For me it is unclear who are the subject and object
in this case.

> 相手は投げてから、外側に肘を押すと、痛くならないように自動にうつ伏す。
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translation particle-は passive-voice
Is it OK to promote an object as the topic and change all relevant verbs to passive forms?
> Is it OK to promote an object as the topic and change all relevant verbs to
> passive forms?

Yes, it is OK as long as the new sentence using passive-voice verb forms
sounds natural.

With the sentence:

> "Once I have thrown an opponent to the ground and if I push his elbow
> outward, he will automatically lie face down to counter his pain."

it would be perfectly natural to make the above-mentioned changes and say:

>
> 「相手{あいて}は、投{な}げられてから、外側{そとがわ}に肘{ひじ}を押{お}されると、痛{いた}みを避{さ}けるために自動的{じどうてき}にうつ伏{ぶ}せになる。」

I will skip the explanations of the alterations I made as I do not think that
is the main purpose of your question.

> Or is it possible to promote the object as the topic but keep the verbs in
> active forms as follows? For me it is unclear who are the subject and object
> in this case.
>
> 「相手 **は** 投げてから、外側に肘を押すと、痛くならないように自動にうつ伏す。」

It is not too bad in this case if you are speaking to or writing for those who
are already somewhat familiar with martial arts in general.

If, however, you are speaking to or writing for those without any knowledge of
the sport/art, it might be fairly confusing and therefore, the writing
technique in question should be avoided.
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answer
It's fine to use passive forms, as you say, (though 自動に doesn't mean
"automatically" and うつ伏す is not an actual word, so I'd recommend 自然と/おのずから and
うつ伏せになる).

However, you can save pronouns with active voice too. It's fine with
相手を投げて外側に肘を押してやれば、痛くならないように自然とうつ伏せになる or so. This example is enough to judge
who throws and who rolls over. (The structure of "A やれば/やると B" expresses that
A is efficient for B.)

Your sentence: 相手は、投げてから…押すと…うつ伏せになる is fine too, though it could be confusing
depending on how you use comma.

Edit: Ninja-ed :D
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