We have been working more and more on how to switch between nikyo, kotegaeshi, sankyo, yonkyo, kaitenosae, and shiho-gatame at will and on demand. For example, Ben Sensei might say to do shomeuchi sankyo omote by way of nikyo. Tonight I asked him how we can include ikkyo and gokyo to make it a complete practice routine. He responded.

I won’t write the exact details because the movements are foreign and have not been described previously by me. Instead, I will write the key points – the principle, if you will – so hopefully I remember when I read this again in the future.

Imagine Tori being beside Uke in mirror stance just like at the end of the tai-no-henko (irimi tenkan) exercise we start most classes with. Tori is in migi handmi and Uke is in hidari hanmi. Uke should twist her left wrist clockwise so her palm is facing outward. Tori should then capture the thumb so both Uke and Tori‘s thumbs are pointing in roughly the same direction if Tori were to give a ‘thumbs up’ at this point. If Tori grabs Uke‘s thumb with the other orientation, this won’t work.

Assuming no one has moved and both stances are unchanged, Tori can then guide Uke‘s thumb under Uke‘s own arm. The way to do this if for Tori to twist his thumb-grabbing hand by 180 as well as draw an arc that guides Uke‘s thumb toward Uke. Tori should guide her hand under her arm so that his te-no-hira is resting on the back of Uke‘s te-no-ko and her wrist is bent like in gokyo. Tori should then rest Uke‘s elbow on his own solar-plexus or some anchor that makes sense. This will cause more pressure on her wrist and may even cause her hand to go numb!

Police have a similar control technique called a gooseneck. This is probably because the suspect’s hand looks like the neck of a goose when bent.