Doshu clearly steps in before Uke is fully off balance to do the energy redirection. Look at his back leg in this still below.¹

Doshu redirecting Uke's energy

Note that Doshu does not enter with his outside leg, but slides it to the outside to make room for his inside leg to enter.

What if Tori instead shuffles in with his outside leg? See below.

Update: I now know that this is a signature step of the Yoshinkan ikkajo waza.

Outside leg first - sideways

Outside leg first - front view

K, A and I experimented and practiced with sutemi from this position. The result is that no matter how much you push on Uke’s elbow or how high you raise Uke’s wrist, unless Uke’s shoulder is flat against the ground he can do a sutemiwaza against Tori in this position.

One would think that by twisting one’s hips to force Uke’s elbow quite low as compared to his wrist, and by locking Uke’s wrist at the hip you would have solid control of Uke. It turns out that is not a safe bet.

In fact, A points out that the sutemi described below is similar to a BJJ move designed to get out of this hold.

Kaeshi Sutemi Waza

Uke should straighten his outside leg (it is the bent leg in the stills above). As soon as he straightens his outside leg, he is going to fall. To fall on his own terms, Uke should then try to strike Tori in the groin with his outside arm. If Uke is committed, his torso and whole body will rotate toward Tori so he will not crash down, rather he will roll across his shoulders. Also, Uke’s outside arm – now striking – will be in the way of Tori’s back leg and minimize the impact of a kick from Tori’s rear leg should it come.

Not only that, Uke will have pulled his grabbed-arm lower than Tori is holding because he will rotate his body for the sutemi. Both of his arms will then be free to continue his kaeshi waza.

1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGxgxRGDKbw [↩]

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.

There are various ways to escape a Sankyo grip;

1) Chop to the hand that is grabbing the fingers

2) Grab Uke’s pinky

3) Grab or compress Uke’s index finger

4) Use the free hand to counter the torque of the wrist

5) Raise the grabbed hand upwards above shoulder level into Ikkyo, Nikyo etc.

Imagine you are in hidari hanmi and your left wrist is in the prangs of nikyo. Nage has your arm bent into an ‘S’ shape, and he is careful to press your te-no-ko into his shoulder while maintaining a good grip on your forearm (with his thumb properly wrapped).

Simply hook onto your own forearm (not wrist, and not his arm!) with your right hand and slide your whole left arm down while keeping the left arm relaxed. The nikyo waza is destroyed and a kaeshiwaza can be performed here.

The one we practiced at the time of this writing was opening Nage’s arms out to do an iriminage or a tenchinage.

As Uke, I have a kaeshiwaza ready for every Nage who does ryotedori tenchinage. It involves waiting until the last moment, about to go down, then putting an armbar on the upper arm with my leg on the way down, using the full weight of my body.

This works, but it requires a risky gambit: letting go early.

After watching me take tenchinage several times in succession as the group Uke, Sensei noticed that I let go early consistently which I seem to do subconsciously now. He informed me of a henka waza Nage can do before I do my kaeshiwaza. Intriguing.

After we sat down in seiza together with practice going on all around us, we discussed the physics of what he had in mind.

He went to throw me. Of course I not dare put an armbar on Sensei, but I do posture to do so. As soon as I let go of the upper wrist he gongs my head. I try again. Gong. I try again. A ringing slap across my face. As soon as I let go at any point he can strike me.

The alternative is to jump higher and to wrench Nage’s shoulder while hanging on to his upper wrist, or to wait until he has thrown, but this is less effective. This becomes Aikijitsu but it is always good to have any kaeshiwaza in mind for everything.

Beware our ‘oyayubi sankyo‘.

Both Sensei and I train (when Uke) so that if we see a dangling thumb of Nage while he is holding our forearm, we will take it with our free hand and rotate through without mercy until former-Nage is high on his toes and tapping.

Don’t leave a dangling thumb, or provide a good reason why you are. :)

Uke has bent wrist (手首くの字) and bent elbow (肘くの字). His bent wrist must be pressed firmly against Nage’s shoulder. There can’t be a gap or a weakening. The reason is, as Sensei showed me, with even a small gap between his wrist and your shoulder Uke can do a kaeshiwaza by means of kotegaeshi.

I used to think it was good to extend away from Nage toward Uke with the bent wrist held between the two. I don’t think that anymore.

Also, if Uke throws a strike before nikyo is complete, nikyo can be used as a block, or a henakwaza by means of ikkyo or jujinage can be done, for example. In other words, there is not a need to worry about being punched.

When doing katatedori kokyunage tonight, Ben Sensei showed me some rapid atemi that can be done against Nage – yes, Nage: face, groin, floating ribs and heart stunner. He demonstrated on me and it was so quick. This is a henka waza, or it could be a kaeshiwaza stater. The purpose of this was to show that even though Nage is doing a kokyunage, it has to be done right each time or something like this multi-strike can happen.

This is a blending exercise where both partners alternately apply Ikkyo omote. On the third count Uke performs kaeshi waza from the Ikkyo pin to the Kotegaeshi throw.

As Uke is being maneuvered into the final Ikkyo pin he continues to draw a circle until he has Nage’s arm/hand in kotegaeshi control.