Not a waza in and of itself, but a good start to many techniques. On the tsuki, use the irimi parry and enter very deep. When practicing with a partner, ask your partner to jab or punch and pull it back as quickly as he can. If Tori does not enter deep enough, Uke can fire off a second punch to Tori’s ribs, for example. But, if Tori goes deep and uses the front tegatana to parry, then even if Uke pulls his arm back, Tori should still be ‘attached’ to him and safe.

Iriminage

Kotegaeshi

Both start in aihanmi. Tori in hidari hanmi. Uke steps in to tsuki with his right arm. Tori then does irimi parry slightly off the line of attack and blends with Uke’s elbow with his tegatana. Tori then does a tenkan to the right as if to mirror the position of Uke. Tori then does kaitensoku back toward the left and extends both arms and pivots with his hips. This looks like the kokyu movement of O-Sensei. Extend hips to take Uke’s center while pivoting hips and breathing out. Uke should be off-balance and fall.

One (brutal) way is to enter off the line of attack, push down on Uke’s striking arm, then extend your outside arm right away with an open palm into Uke’s face to shock him back and down. If it is insisted the arm be locked and the palm target right through Uke’s face, I would practice this as slowly as possible until time runs out.

Another (kind) way is with blending.

As the tsuki comes in, do an irimi parry with your front tegatana (but don’t chop or do some ridiculous hard block). Tenkan as if you intend to mirror the stance of Uke. With your inside tegatana, rest it on Uke’s elbow crease so you can feel his arm should he decide to raise it. Kaitensoku (pivot toward Uke). Stay right against Uke. Your outside arm glides over Uke’s tsuki arm and heads for Uke’s neck. You then want to ready yourself for a recognizable iriminage throw.

Why do I like this better? It is kinder on Uke; he doesn’t need to be prepared (otherwise injured). It incorporates tenkan, blending and peaceful resolution to the situation. I would rather be friends with a Tori that blends with me to throw me than one palm-fists me in the face unexpectedly.

Normally we do some kind of uchimawari parry to capture Uke’s tsuki wrist, bring it low, then do shihonage as if were yokomenuchi.

Tonight’s variation uses an irimi parry. Both in aihanmi, Tori in hidari hanmi. As Uke steps in and launches his tsuki, Tori slides slightly outside and parries with his front tegatana (left hand). This is just a passive motion. The real action comes from the rear, right hand.

Tori’s right hand snakes under his left wrist and around Uke’s forearm. Uke’s fist should then be captured in the right elbow crease on Tori. But, he is not done yet. Tori’s right hand still snakes around Uke’s forearm so when Tori straightens his right arm and cuts down, Uke’s arm will be bent outward with his elbow bent to the right, just begging to be taken into shihonage.

Tori then grabs Uke’s wrist with his left hand to secure it, and then with the right hand, and proceeds into shihonage omote or ura.

There are several techniques that start as tsuki irimi tenkan such as kaitennage, koshinage and kokyunage.

As the tsuki comes in, Tori should irimi and parry the tsuki with his back hand’s tegatana. Tori’s front hand can then come from under and hook onto Uke’s elbow or grab his wrist. The initial parry is important, however.

Thought this was a nice koyku-nage technique.

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.

Worked on this with Ben Sensei, Eric and Kanae yesterday.

Example: Using (Hidari hanmi to start)
Starting in Ai Hamni. Uke steps in with a chudan tsuki. Nage slides in and  blocks with left hand (block on elbow or higher) trapping uke’s striking hand (right hand) to uke’s body and an atemi with the right hand (simultaneously). The atemi hand then slides down uke’s striking hand (this is useful if uke decides to retract his/her hand).
By trapping the hand initially this makes it difficult for uke to retract his/her hand. In any event even if uke does retract, once nage slides down the hand after the atemi, it becomes easy to grab uke’s hand and perform the yonkyo.
Another key point is that nage should focus his/her energy on the inside knuckle of his/her index finger to apply pressure to uke’s hand.