Ben Sensei showed us that for the jodan block with jo, we need to rest the back of the hand holding the end of the jo on our forehead. This is not the same as resting it on the top of our head. The difference is that we can control the jo better using our forehead, and we can absorb more of an impact (the head does not compress down, but can move forward and back).

Dojo layout

In Japan, the rule is that people of higher rank or honour sit farther from the entrance as the illustration above indicates. This is true of business meetings, dinners, driving and even in elevators! I had the good fortune to spend some time in an etiquette school in Japan where they showed high school students etiquette for business life (how to hand cards, how to bow, when to bow, etc). It is really nice to have so many rules because it does make life easier.

At hombu dojo in Tokyo, even if Doshu is teaching, people can sit in any order. Why? A superseding rule to the one above is to hurry and sit. Ask your dojo which they prefer.

However if you are really keen, sit in the middle (especially at seminars) so you can see what is going on better and you can be humble as well.

Three of us have been experimenting with this kokyuho; we just can’t let it go so we have been researching videos to see if we can see common factors to make this successful.

In a previous post I wrote that we need to keep the wrist and the part of the arm above the elbow energized, but the forearm relaxed. Precisely how to use the wrist and forearm has been a mystery. What I can see from Ben Sensei, Saito Sensei, and others is that the forearm needs to be vertically up almost right away and the wrist needs to be rotated like drinking a glass of water. This does look like it prevents the yonkyo kaeshiwaza.

If the wrist is limp with focus entirely on the elbow, even a small aite can perform yonkyo in response.

In practice this is a highly complex waza; it seems my focus has to change from wrist to elbow to wrist to legs to elbow to hips and back and forth like this quickly. Why do I care so much? I don’t want to muscle. I believe there is a way to do each technique without having to push or lean on the aite. I think kokyuho is the embodiment of this belief.

It always happens but it still comes as a surprise.  The test is over, you’ve passed, and ready to go again but things are not working. It is a struggle to stay focused and get motivated until it dawns on you: it’s natures way of telling you to take a break recover and rejuvenate so you can start working on it once more.  This is different from the plateau that occurs when you have been training for a while and you get to a pont where you just aren’t improving. This is the  ”why is this not working when it did two weeks ago”  and the year before that (with a few exceptions).

Wake up and smell the post-test let down.  So I’ll train a little less, do some things that I have put off while getting ready for the test and then wait for that little voice to tell me to get my butt to the dojo on a more regular basis and start on the next phase which is usually training hard to gain the test skills to make me feel that I deserve my new rank.

Just my thoughts.

Here is another kaeshi waza: after Uke puts you into kotegaeshi but before he has a solid lock to really press down hard on the back of you hand, you have an opportunity to reverse the kotegaeshi and make yours stronger.

Just before Uke presses on the back of your hand, grab his kotegaeshi-support hand with your free hand – not as a handshake grab, but the reverse of that, as in you want to do kotegaeshi. Next, send in the elbow of the would-have-been-kotegaeshi’ed arm toward his hara, alter your stance so it is directed at him, then break his grip and rest your forearm on his te-no-ko. Readjust if necessary.

The first movement…

1. Sensei explains that the initial block (if needed) is to just above Uke‘s elbow which effectively removes the forearm down from his arsenal. Do this with your closest ‘shield’ to Uke – your front arm. If Nage contacts Uke below the elbow, Uke may be able to bend his arm and strike with his elbow.
2. For the step right after the irimi, place your foot so it is about 5 cm behind where Uke‘s toes are. You need to provide an opening or window for Uke to fall to. If your feet and toes are exactly parallel as in tai-no-henko, then if you tenkan for the ura component you will find Uke going into your front leg instead of around it.
3. For the ura component, keep close to Uke. Try to keep your body-axes (mijiku) very close together so both of you turn smoothly for the pin.
4. Keep the arm that is holding Uke‘s elbow straight; do not have even a small bend in the elbow. The reason is that Nage can control Uke much better if his elbow is lower than his wrist through ikkyo. You can twist your hips a little bit to accentuate this effect. This is explained well in the video below.
5. Watch the video carefully as there is something subtle that Sensei does: he rolls Uke‘s elbow a very small amount and may even roll his hand too. This is because it is difficult and even dangerous for Uke to move him with a straight, locked arm. We don’t want to hyper-extend our aite‘s elbow and hurt him.
6. A single step back and pivot is sufficient to bring Uke to the ground. Try not to tenkan more than once or twice to bring him down. Also, it is not a matter of force; Uke should be led to the ground under his own body weight and off-balance state.

Update: 2010.07.27 – This entry was renamed to ikkyo ura and the moniker ‘kihon‘ was removed.

To do ikkyo, you need to remove one of the hands grabbing you. Don’t punch it; don’t chop it; but slice through it. See the first video below.

When you slice through, don’t pull back your arm. That is, don’t wind up. It is not necessary. See the video below. Martial artists can read your intentions so you want to limit the time they have to react.

After popping off the outside grabbing arm with a slice, don’t step yet; use the rotation of your hips to set up ikkyo. If you step toward Uke, she may be in range to deliver a kick. With rotation alone, there is enough energy to damage Uke‘s elbow outright. However, to practice we go into a kind ikkyo pin.

This is a fast kotegaeshi with powerful results. As a basic self-defense move, it is quick and effective. For this variation, we start in gyakuhanmi katatedori. Ben Sensei explains the mechanics of this waza in the video below. A leg switch is required if in gyakuhanmi, but not in aihanmi.

A key point is to grab the flesh of Uke‘s thumb with your opposite hand, but before that you need to turn your grabbed-hand so it is on top of Uke‘s hand to expose his hand. Keep your fingers straight and energized. That is, do not curl your fingers back toward yourself because that leaves you vulnerable to a reverse kotegaeshi. You need your shuto right away anyway so you might as well keep your hand ready. Place your shuto on the back of Uke‘s hand as in the video, but below the knuckles to get maximum leverage on the wrist. Cut toward Uke‘s shoulder. Don’t forget to move your body away from a potential snap-kick from Uke.

むすびから始める。投げに押さえられている腕の下をくぐりながら、すばやく後ろを取り入り身する。

At the Kawahara Sensei seminar we practiced katate-ryotedori kokyunage without a tenkan. Kawahara Sensei showed us a way Saito Sensei does this using rotation both his wrists, then a raising of one hand as if to drink a glass of water, and then the throw. This worked wonderfully against the two big guys I had as Uke at the seminar.

Ben Sensei has his way of doing this which always seems to work for him – even against me and some other students who try “monkey business” with him. Two of us practiced this for a while outside of the dojo with each other, and eventually we figured out how to prevent each other from doing the technique properly. Not wanting to do atemi, and not wanting to change the technique or start with nagare, we asked Ben Sensei for help tonight.

We practiced this technique for about 20 minutes tonight – that was his response to our request. What did we learn? We learned that the grabbed hand has to be activated, the arm from the elbow to the scapula needs to be activated and energized, but the forearm needs to be relaxed and almost not even there. Both Andell and I got close – so close we had our elbows almost at his throat – but Sensei could always reverse it and put us into yonkyo. This was at the time when I let me entire forearm and hand go limp in favor of my upper arm being energized. This was when I realized the hand must be energized too.

So, the waza is to provide nothing for Uke to hang on to (limp forearm), use the elbow to engage Uke‘s center, and use the energized wrist and hand to aid the elbow movement. This is hard to master. My hat goes off to Ben Sensei.