Shihans love to check the progress of Aikidoka by watching them perform this basic exercise.

As it turns out, all this time I have been working on it, I could have improved it. I reviewed my old posts and videos of Saito Sensei again and I gleaned something new. I vetted it last week, and a few more times this week. Here is what I found:

As with Saito Sensei, keep your grabbed hand not at your hara, but in front of your hara. We spend so much time with beginners that I have forgotten that holding your hand right at your hara is a crutch. Also, I like to mentally do kotegaeshi on Nage to see how often I meet someone who is not aware it is possible. If his hand is right at his hara, then he only has one degree of freedom to prevent the kotegaeashi. However, if there is some space between hara and his hand, Nage has at least four degrees of protection.

Next, sometimes I like to lift up Nage (those I am good friends with, of course) if his/her elbows are even slightly bent. So, not bending the elbows is a good idea. Keep them almost locked and do not raise the hands or lower then for the tai-no-henko. Through the entire rotation it is possible to keep Uke low and prevent him from lifting your arms.

tai-no-henkou straight arm

Here, Saito Sensei has his arms almost locked straight. It is very hard to lift straight, almost locked arms from a lower, prone position like the Uke is in in this photo.