Assume Nage is standing in parallel stance with legs shoulder-width apart in a relaxed manor; Uke is behind him in hidari hanmi with his left hand gripping Nage’s collar and his right hand is holding a tanto pressed into Nage’s back.

We were told to stay relaxed and non-threatening because we have a knife at our back. Take a quick glance to either side to see which hand is holding your eri. We are in a time crunch as soon as we move so the first motion has to be effective. Twist the hips clockwise with your right arm by your side so that it contacts Uke‘s right knife arm, hopefully at the elbow or upper arm. If the timing is good then the knife arm is momentarily deflected leftward.

Next kaiten with your left leg beside Uke and contact his arm at the elbow (to remain sensitive to him if he pulls back), then slide your left hand down his arm to his wrist. You want to secure the knife hand and prevent Uke from dropping the knife or switching it to the other hand. Kaiten again and take your right hand and go to do a kotegaeshi but instead grip his fingers so he can’t drop the knife.

You can’t do an effective kotegaeshi now because your grip is not optimal for it. Instead, twist Uke‘s wrist and arm so the tip of the blade points toward Uke‘s face. This should cause Uke to lean back, and as you twist he will fall.

Do a standing kotegaeshi pin and continue to grip Uke‘s fingers around the tanto. When you press forward with your knee it sandwiches his fingers between the knife and your knee. This should cause a fair amount of discomfort so you can twist the blade out of his hand and retreat with the knife.

Thanks Andrew Sempai.

Clips with ushiro tekubitori sankyo with nagare. I don’t know who the teachers are, sorry.

In the clips below Nage extends Uke via the initial ikkyo movement (or via Saito Sensei’s and Kawahara Sesnei’s wrist rotation technique) to create a gap in Uke‘s grip on both hands. Nage can then exploit that by taking one of his hands into sankyo, lowering his head to duck under Uke‘s front arm, and doing a kaiten.

This is slightly different from how Igarashi Sensei does it in that he extends Uke to the side more and gains distance away from Uke on the kaiten. See below.

ippozenshin – 一歩前進・いっぽぜんしん (one step forward)
ippokoutai – 一歩後退・いっぽこうたい (one step backward)
kaitensoku – 回転足・かいてんそく (pivot on your feet)
tenkan – 転換・てんかん (pivot and step back)
kaiten – 回転・かいてん (step forward, pivot, step backward)

For example, tenkan (転換) has kaitensoku (回転足) followed by ippokoutai (一歩後退).
Kaiten (回転) has ippozenshin (一歩前進), kaitennsoku (回転足), and ippokoutai (一歩後退) movements.

例）合気道の回転するのはまず一歩進んで、反対側に見て、同時に回転足をして一歩下がったほうが基本。

Takashi-san made us physically do tenkan and kaiten with straight legs, then from kibadachi, then from between those extremes. The point was made that the lower we sink, the more we are forced to use the balls of our feet and the quicker we can pivot and turn. This was a nice demonstration. I know from experience that showing and explaining to pivot on the balls of the feet seldom does any good, but putting students in a position where they are forced to experience it is helpful.

This is the closest video I have found for this. It is actually ushiro ryokatadori but Uke grabs the around the biceps in haste. In this ki-no-nagare version, Tissier does a forward step with his opposite leg, then steps back and behind Uke to pick up his legs and throw.

From a static elbow grab, we’ve been working on being pulled back by Uke, taking a step forward with our rear leg, then putting our now-rear leg behind Uke to take his legs and toss him. We do start with an ikkyo undo movement to take away Uke‘s balance at first.

Ben Sensei showed us one way to perform tsuki yonkyo recently. This is not a test version (see the bottom of this post for this) but a variation.

We always have to be aware that Uke may lunge or pull back his punch making it very hard to consistently capture Uke‘s wrist; so we don’t even try.

Here, we still slide off the line of attack, but with our forward arm we cut down on top of Uke‘s elbow using our shuto and then our forearm using a slicing motion toward his hara. If he pulls back or not, this has the effect of jamming Uke‘s arm into his body and taking his balance a bit in the action.

Next, Ben Sensei recommends atemi to the face with the rear hand so as not to injure but to distract. Then cut down Uke‘s chest to his captured arm, down his arm to his wrist all the while keeping contact with him. While cutting down extend his captured arm outward and away from him and toward you, but not directly in a path to hit you. It should be easier to transition to a solid yonkyo hold. Tori can then raise Uke‘s arm and cut down as in proper yonkyo (ura or omote).

Just for a comparison, here is a video I found on YouTube of the similar technique.

The tori in this video slides outside but does not change his hanmi, cuts down on the incoming tsuki from the outside with his shuto, captures the wrist of Uke from below, then raises Uke‘s arm to the outside then back inside into the yonkyo position, then cuts down for omote.

His ura starts the same, but a tenkan to the back is performed for the final dosa.

However, throughout the entire clip it looks as if Uke can pull back and regroup for another attack. Ben Sensei focuses on immobilizing the striking arm at the elbow.

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The test version involves stepping back when the tsuki is coming and capturing it with the back hand, transitioning to ikkyo, then changing to yonkyo.

Update: 2010.07.28 – It has been three months since this post, and from practice my preferred tsuki yokyo is to do irimi parry with my closest shuto at Uke‘s elbow. If he pulls back then I can move with him. If he leaves his arm out this will work too. My back hand then takes hold of Uke‘s tsuki wrist with my palm against his inner wrist. Finally, I can take Uke‘s arm back and up and continue into yokyo omote or ura. This is halfway between Ben Sensei’s variation and the gentleman’s in the YouTube video just above.

日曜は合気会からひとり参加してくれた人がいて、いつもの３人メンバー＋で楽しい稽古だった。

割と自由な流れですすむ日曜日だけど、今日は特にゆっくりと丁寧に練習したので面白い発見があった。

何度もやってる入り身転換だけど、ノーム先輩が今日指摘した点は”入り身の際に手首と肘も曲げる”ってこと。

手首のまげは意識していたけど、肘にまで意識が行ってなかった。たしかに指摘通り、肘がのびていると受けにがっしりとつけこまれるというか、受けと正面ガチンコ勝負になってしまうのだけど、肘を柔らかく曲げると、受けの力の流れが変わる。何事も直線ではなく円なのですね。。。。

呼吸法もエリックにがっちりと押さえ込まれて、ビクともしなかった時も、何時もより意識して肘を送り込むとちゃんと動く。これは五十嵐先生がセミナーで教えて下さった点なのに，今までやってるようで十分できてなかったと実感。力一杯の練習だけじゃダメだろうけど、こうやって受けが抵抗して練習するといい加減にやっていた点が浮き彫りになる。その後の踏み込みも腕じゃない、肩を送り込む様な感じだ。その為にはちゃんと深く踏み込まなくちゃ行けない。安定してない人と組むとそこまできちんとしなくても既に倒れてくれちゃったりするけど、やっぱり重心の安定してる人相手だと、軽量級の私はそこを適当にしたら相手を倒せない。

ノーム先輩にだけじゃないけど、タテに長くて横に短い体系の私は腰をしっかり落として、重心を下げないと、本当に不安定だって事を指摘された。お相撲さんのようにチャンコ食べて体重増やして安定感をアップ！ってわけには行かない（行きたくない）ので、精々腰を落とせるように意識して練習しないとイケナイと痛感した。

土曜日は久しぶりにマチー先生のクラス。:)　と喜んでいたら、なんとも受け身＋膝行三昧のハード？なクラスだった。

座技の正面打ちの入り身投げを練習した後で、同じ攻撃で回転投げの表を練習。

実は、この二つのワザはマチー先生の説明によれば、途中まで一緒。というより、入り身投げを使用として受けをしっかりと床に引き寄せられなくって、受けが起き上がっちゃった時に、急遽回転なげに移行するってのが流れとも言えるので、回転投げをする時も最初の入り身をする膝の動きとかは同じ。かなり大きく、深く踏み込むのが難しいけどポイント。

受けの腕の下をくぐる時は内側の足を踏み込むだけど、間合いを取れる立ち技の時と違って、受けの腕を横に伸ばしてバランスを崩したりしにくいので、受けのカラダを開いたら即、腕の下をくぐり投げないと受けからパンチをくらいそうな感じ。

同じ回転投げでも立ち技と座りではかなり違う印象だった。

それにしても、ボウ先輩が相手だったので、かなりハイピッチでガンガン練習してたせいか、はたまた金曜の受け身特訓のお陰の起き上がりコボシな勢いのせいか？マチー先生に”えらい、真剣だな〜Have a fun!”って笑われました。。。。そんなに、力は入り過ぎだったでしょうか。。。。。このままでは、私のイメージする柔らかい合気道からずれて行きそうです。。。。マッスル全開。（泣）二の腕が別の意味で太くなりそうで怖いです。