An incoming arm is like a rod. If you can capture it at one point, it will pivot at that point. If it is captured at the elbow, then it can pivot there as in tembin-nage. If it is captured at the wrist, then it can only pivot at the wrist and can become udekime-nage or even shihonage.

Both in hidari aihanmi: When the tsuki comes in from Uke‘s back hand, slide in and off the line of attack as an irimi movement. Block the tsuki with your front tegatana at his elbow, and at the time capture his wrist with the elbow crease of your back arm. Once his arm is captured and locked at the wrist, be sure to put your locking arm’s hand to your own chest for a secure lock.

From here a slight shoulder shove (for the udekime-nage) will suffice. For a neater waza, using your tegatana from your first hand on Uke‘s elbow crease with a hip rotation toward his elbow will start a shihonage. Even if his arm becomes crunched, you still have leverage on his elbow to lift it up for you to pivot under for the throw.

Saito Sensei does this differently from what I have known so far, so this is intriguing.

Step 1

He blocks the incoming shomenuchi on the outside, and slides a bit outside. (I have never thought to go outside before; always inside).

Step 2

Step 3

After he is off the line of attack, his other hand comes over the first hand, catches Uke‘s hand using his tegatana, and swings Uke‘s arm outside. Notice that Saito Sensei is still outside and off the line of a snap kick.

Step 4

After making a big outside swing, Uke‘s wrist is now captured and held by Saito Sensei at his hara.

Extend

He then extends Uke (and uses the elbow of his arm as a brace as he enters) …

Finish

and finishes with the throw.

Uke attacks with tsuki. Nage steps to the side and simultaneously pushes to the elbow with the leading hand and with the other hand pushes to the outside of Uke‘s wrist. This has a collapsing affect on Uke‘s elbow allowing an entry point for shihonage (omote).

Shihonage can be done while Nage holds one hand or both hands. Both are good. If Uke lets go of the first hand he grabbed, then you can do shihonage with the second hand. If he is taller than you or wants to hang on to the first hand while you kaiten and pivot, just guide it into the elbow pit of the other arm. Think jujinage, expect you are facing the wrong direction(!). While holding both his wrists in this reversed jujinage, pivot your body on the balls of your feet. You can even use this arm-bar to help secure the final throw, especially if he wants to crunch up his arms to protect himself in vain.

Move big and throw softly.

Many beginners, and especially those from other arts who believe Aikido is all smoke and mirrors (read: magic), will want to master Aikido in the first few months by throwing hard, wrenching wrists, hip-checking on kokyu-nage and generally not blending in the slightest to prove to some unknown specter that they are superior. This is where the very real pressure point ‘hard love’ from senior students enters the scene. We don’t like doing this, of course.

Broken and unable to learn, some leave.

Those that stay realize that there is much more to learn. What there is to learn is this: move big and throw softly. If you can learn to keep an attacker off-balance through your particular waza without giving him any balance back, then a little shove or a twist of the hips or even touching one finger to his forehead will send him to the ground. If you can do this, then there is no need to throw hard or overuse muscles.

The beauty of Aikido is you learn to feel momentum and redirect it where you please. The longer you train this way the easier it becomes to feel this. Ultimately, when you can move big and throw softly, you can always move fast and throw hard for drama. The magic happens when you don’t even want to throw hard because throwing softly is more enjoyable and pleasant for the soul.

Due to recent training, it was advised to split up randori into its two major types and add those to the poise classifier.

Randori literally means ‘disorganized grabbing’ and can be one person attacking at a time or multiple people at a time. For shodan tests there is always a component of randori (also called taninzu-gake if there are multiple attackers). This usually follows the static taninzu-dori.

Taninzu-dori means ‘multiple-person hold’. For example, futari-dori is two people holding Nage, san-nin-dori is three people holding Nage, and so forth. These are both specific examples of the non-specific taninzu-dori.

Usually on tests it is written ‘randori jiyuwaza‘ which means that multiple attackers will charge Nage and Nage is free to choose his defense waza. Again, this is probably after a few taninzu-dori demonstrations.

I have just uploaded about 12 video clips taken on the third day of Igarasahi Sensei’s seminar (Feb. 14th, 2010). Enjoy!

Igarashi Sensei shows the method of kuzushi. This is a nagare version as he does not allow Uke to grab one of his hands before the atemi.1

1. Thanks to Derek Koter for this video [↩]

When lifting, think about the scapula and the pinky finger. When throwing, think about the thumb.1

1. Thanks to Derek Koter for this video [↩]