Both in gyakuhanmi; Nage in hidari hanmi; Uke grips in katatedori.

Slide slightly to the left off the line of attack and take Uke’s grip into the initial nikyo position. His arm should be bent as you are about to do nikyo – his elbow will be pointing outward to your left at this instant.

Release your left grip on his wrist and slide your hand down to his elbow. Push his elbow in a large circular motion counter-clockwise by about 180 degrees (his elbow will be pointing right by the end). At the same time release your right-hand grip on his palm and re-grab his wrist. Your left hand should be on his elbow (not grabbing it), and your right hand should be holding his wrist like you would a baseball bat.

Your current position should now resemble a basic katatedori shihonage, except Uke’s arm is highly bent and well controlled.

Both in gyakuhanmi; Nage in hidarihanmi; Uke grabs in katatedori.

Slide outside left and put Uke’s wrist into a nikyo lock, but do not take him down to the ground. Instead, proceed to change the grip to kotegaeshi, but only for a brief moment so you can actually grab the back of Uke’s fingers with your right hand on your otherwise way to do a kotegaeshi throw.

With the back of his fingers gripped, twist your right hand 180 degrees so Uke’s palm is now facing outwards, then grab the back of his wrist with your left hand into a normal sankyo grip.

Analysis:

This is henka waza practice to get us used to being able to change grips and techniques several times in the course of one waza. Also, it is pretty neat to take Uke into sankyo without having to do the usual atemi, side step, ikkyo, push forward then go into the sankyo grip.

The video below is the exercise. The second video focuses on proper footwork.

Ben Sensei shows us how to go from nikyo to kotegaeshi, then to sankyo and eventually to shihonage and back. Again this is good practice for wrist strengthening and stretching, as well as for henkawaza. Notice this exercise focuses on wrist grabbing while changing techniques.

Here is another angle on a different day of the same exercises. This time, Ben Sensei is focusing on proper foot positioning.

Ben Sensei showed us more exercises to strengthen our wrists, as well as to practice quickly changing from one grip to another grip. This is a great practice for future work in henkawaza. This practice is in kibadachi (parallel stance) and is not meant to be a waza in itself. By being in kibadachi it makes us focus on sinking, hip rotation and wrist work.

Ben Sensei starts us with a simple exercise to prepare us for switching between nikyo and kotegaeshi and back to nikyo.

We start in hidari gyakuhanmi katatedori.

You need to extend Uke’s left arm outward so that you can move into uchikaiten (go under his arm). Of course the extension is designed to take Uke slightly off balance, but not so much so that he has to step or readjust. Also, a straight-right-armed atemi to his face helps. Since this is sankyo followed by ikkyo omote, you don’t want to go behind Uke. So, the extension is more sideways and not that much back. This is a sliding motion with his arm extended to about eye level. Twist the hips to protect your groin from a snap kick.

Because you are doing atemi to his face, you have one weapon at the ready for when you enter under his arm. Enter and kaiten but still be beside him. Do not go back behind him like you would for kaitennage or sankyo ura.

The neat thing comes next. If Uke has a tight grip (which is good), then the temporary sankyo will be dramatic. Hold on to his wrist with your right hand (like holding a sword), and extend your fingers and flatten your left palm so it is facing the ground, but slowly rotate it so the fingers want to point toward Uke’s head – you are using your tegatana against his pinky finger. This is effectively a fancy sankyo (normally, his fingers would be gripped).

Your left hand, if aiming toward Uke’s head, can dart out and go under his arm and grasp his elbow using the Y of your left hand. Notice how your right hand is grabbing his right wrist still? This is a good grip for the final ikkyo – there is no need to change the grip. Relax the grip though because we don’t grab the wrist in normal ikkyo anyway.

Extend Uke out sideways, not to his front or rear, but sideways. If you are doing proper ikkyo, you will end up in the same ikkyo omote as normal – with his elbow lower than his wrist, and his wrist on your thigh.

Tonight Sensei taught at the church, and because it was packed he showed some creative waza. This was one of them.

Using ki-no-nagare, as Uke comes in to grab your extended wrist (gyaku hanmi katatedori), you slide outside off the line of momentum and do sotomawari. How long you do this up to you, but a very quick one is sufficient. A more generous one is graceful and good partner practice.

When you feel comfortable, stop the mawari, readjust your trajectory and plant your back leg to do a surgical nikyo with aim at Uke’s hara.

However, do not take Uke all the way to prone as you would normally; take him to the point where he is just starting to go down, brush his nikyo‘d arm down and back as if to do kaitennage osae, but slice your closest arm under his bicep, past his armpit and almost gliding over his shoulder blade with an extension. Your armpits should almost be in contact.

Because you were in good nikyo stance and your groin is protected, at the same time as you are doing the above extension, slide in (not step) so that your bodies are in close contact and your mijiku become one. With a kokyu, slide forward and take his balance and send him tumbling.

This could be a kokyu finish, however you are using your hips for the throw. If you rotate your hips as you throw then it really emphasizes the koshinage nature of this waza.

As the uke, it is important to let yourself be extended instead of pulling your arm back and trying to scrunch it up to your chest.  Ben Sensei demonstrated if the resistant uke does this, then it is easy to reverse your direction of flow and even wrap the uke’s arm around his head and choke him. So, being a good uke is important for Uke’s safety.