Norm sempai mentioned an important point to remember when taking a forceful shihonage throw. Make sure you keep your head close (tilted) towards the shoulder taking the throw. This reduces the likelihood of dangerous arm/elbow angles developing and thus lessens the risk of injury.

今日はベン先生に、四方投げの受けのやり方のヒントをもらいました。

投げられるとき、曲げられた肘に頭を沿わせる様にすると、腕が痛くない！！

シニアと組んでる時は自然に出来てたけど、初心者と組む様になって一度手首を痛めたから（ちゅーか、未だ痛い）

これは、とても重要なポイントでした〜〜。

Tori offers his wrist (right) to Uke. If Uke is strong and resists then it is necessary to perform a small circular hand sweep (inside to outside) that is suppoted by the hara. Tori enters such that the grabbed wrist is brought to the hara. At this point movement of the hips in a figure-of-eight adds power to the circular hand sweep, that releases the grabbed wrist. Control of Uke’s grabbing hand is then assumed by Tori’s left hand and extended to an off-balance position. Tori then enters to perform the kokyu-ho throw.

The main point in this entry is to emphasize the part of the hara during the circular wrist motion.

In jujutsu we did some kotegaeshi. I found that those guys like to resist until it really hurts. Silly. But, it gave me unusual practice. It turns out that the support hand is very important against bigger guys, and pushing straight down is very powerful.

Uke needs to be off balance before the nagerukoto. Ben Sensei says that even through the uchimawari, Uke’s arm must be extended and have tension on it. He should then be off balance already for the throw.

For the throw, we experimented with two ways to get Uke moving:

1) Do a hip check on the throwing extension

2) Instead of extending straight out, do an extension with a curved movement.  The extension starts towards Uke’s front shikaku then curves back to being straight inline with Nage’s toes.

Tori offers his wrist (left) which is grabbed by Uke. Tori simultaneously “takes a drink” to weaken Uke’s grip, takes a step to the right and performs atemi to the face. The hand doing the atemi then reaches underneath Uke’s hand and grasps the fleshy part of the hand to control Uke in an off-balance position. At this point Tori’s grabbed hand is free to cut down and complete the kotegaeshi throw, moving backwards to avoid any counter from Uke in the process.

この技はルディ先輩と練習した。ルディ先輩は流れ技を私レベルに合わせて、練習させてくれるので

思わず、上手くなった様に錯覚させてくれる。（笑）手首を外に返して外す時に、上手く外れないと思っていたら

そもそも、手首を掴ませる時に手の甲を上に出しておかないとダメなんだよ、とヒントをくれた。

腕を入れる時は手のひらを天に向ける事、とエルボーじゃなくって二の腕を噛ます感じで行くと良いと教えてもらった。

まだまだ流れ技は自分では出来ないけど、ルディ先輩に掛けられてると、”きっと自分でやったらこんな感じ？”と

感覚が掴めるようで、楽しかった。

今日はなるべく、色んな人と組む様にしてみたのだけど、やっぱり（生意気だけど）初心者と組むと

私も初心者なので、訳が分からなくなっちゃう。両手取り、呼吸投げはエリックと組んだので、やっぱり楽しかった！！

でも、私が投げるたびにお尻をぶつけて来たり、背中にけりを入れられたりと、色々とカウンターアタックを仕掛けて来る…….

ハイハイ、どーせ私は型通りにしか出来ない、初心者ですよ……とブー垂れてたら、ベン先生がやって来て、”かなえさんに、アドバンステクニック

を教えてるんだね….”とニコニコしていた…..いいんですか〜（＾＾：

この技のポイントは腕のエクステンションの時、受けよりも前方に居る事。　なので、腕の下をくぐるとき、あまり踏み込まない方が良い。

今月に入ってから、初心者と組む様になって、自分がちょっと上達した事が分かって来たけど、ここまで来れたのは、ベン先生はもちろんだけど

エリックのお陰だな〜としみじみ思う。私の飲み込み具合に合わせて、色々と教え込んでくれたエリックのお陰で合気道は難しいけど、いつだって超楽しい〜

エリックに会わなかったら、合気道を始めるきっかけも無かったんだな〜と考えると、１月から今まで続けて来れた事が嬉しいし、これからもずっと一緒に稽古して行きたいな。（＾＾）v

って、こんな個人的コメント書いてたら怒られそうだけど………まいいか、日本語だから誰も読めないし〜（笑）

Ushiro shihonage vectors

Tonight in class Ben Sensei helped me with this. He said that Uke needs to be extended, and we tried various ways to do this with a non-compliant Uke (Andy and Sensei). First, from looking at this still I can see what I typically do with my feet. I tend to move my foot along the vector with the big red X on it instead of the other one. In other words, I try to pull Uke’s arm. I know I want to avoid pulling. However, we tried a few atemi tricks to deal with stiff Uke’s, but I still want to do this beautifully. I feel I need to get Uke off balance more by pressing on his forearm to lower him, then move his arm along with my core. I can finish with my inner-elbow pressing trick to complete a safe shiho-nage.