Osawa Sensei told me that it is important to be “yawarakai”, but also to have a strong grip as Uke.

Sugawara Sensei and Irie Sensei say to cut vertically, not sideways, for the cut down after the initial outside tenkan. Especially Irie Sensei cuts down and across his body to his opposite side after the initial outside tenkan so Uke‘s head lands squarely on Tori‘s throwing shoulder as if it were destiny. Many people leave a gap when they try to draw a horizontal circle with their arm. They can probably make the technique work, but it looks much sexier when Tori brings Uke‘s head to his shoulder from the initial movement without pulling or jerking him, or moving too much.

Again, this only works if tori is willing to cut down to his side and allows his own hands to fall out of his sight. If Tori cuts down and his hands are in front of his hara after the initial outside tenkan, then leaving a gap is inevitable.

I think I’m finally starting to get what Osawa Sensei keeps saying over and over again. In his beginner class he really goes slow and step by step. I mean very slow so brand-new beginners can see what is going on.

His unique point is to take Uke right to the mat on the initial movement. We all try to do that, but results vary. In his class I try to be exactly like him, even when he sometimes stands on one leg. For ikkyo, the arm to contacts the hiji or triceps is straight and takes Uke right down low. Tori can then nudge Uke‘s bent elbow forward for more kuzushi if needed. This is the same for Ura.

I noticed that if Tori takes Uke low from his elbow, like ridiculously low, it changes the feeling of the technique. It ends faster and cleaner.

This is similar to ushiro ryokatadori kokyuho, except Tori‘s arms are effectively halved because of where they are grabbed. This is okay though. With whichever leg is forward, Tori slides forward (ayumiashi) and at the same time raises both hands together as if to pray, but his hands are in front of his forehead. The forward slide is important to expose Uke into Tori‘s view, even if just a little.

Tori then does a kaiten (okuriashi tenkan), but either does two tenkans, or makes one big one. At the same time his arms are raised like described above. Tori threads his outside arm through Uke‘s grabbing arms during the tenkan and ends up in gyakuhanmi where he can complete the kokyuho.

A key point is to raise both elbows to head height.

It definitely needs a final tenkan before the kokyuho. Without a final tenkan, Uke is still facing Tori and can just let go. With the final tenkan Tori ends up doing kokyuho like katatedori kokyuho.

Endo Sensei showed the futility of a strong-armed atemi in aikido. To demonstrate, he delivered a strike to Uke‘s face where his atemi was met with a block by Uke. We are all used to this pattern in, say, katatedori kaitennage uchimawari. He then instructed Uke, who knew Endo Sensei’s atari lessons, to do ‘kuzushi’ on his atemi. Endo Sensei, as Tori, then fell promptly.

He did this a few times to illustrate that if force is met with force, then kuzushi is possible and not necessarily in Tori‘s favor.

Instead, Tori should use a calm, slow atemi with fingers out toward Uke‘s face. Sensei says that if his hand sneaks up to Uke7s face, then the rest of the technique doesn’t matter.

(Strong atemi to Uke‘s ribs or stomach is still okay)

Endo Sensei didn’t want us to do the nikyo “we all know”, but to instead try something different. It was more of a feeling nikyo, and it was okay if Uke had a straight arm as that amplifies the effect. He didn’t grasp Uke‘s forearm, and didn’t want us to either. Instead, he reached around to Uke‘s triceps and compressed the arm to really bend Uke‘s arm well beyond the S-shape we normally do. This is comfortable for Tori, and painful for Uke.

Yamada Sensei can be seen here breaking Uke‘s grip and then regrabbing to continue the nikyo formation.

Imagining a normal shihonage pin (taking Uke to the ground and pressing on his elbow to hold his arm down), Tori braces his shin against Uke‘s back while he is partially on his side. At the same time, Tori lightly levers Uke‘s arm backwards to the opposite side Uke is facing. Uke will tap.

At the end of class, open a high coin locker door or find a ledge or a pole about shoulder height. Slowly open your upper gi and let it slide partly down your back but keep both arms in the sleeves. Walk backwards to the open coin locker door or ledge. Raise your gi behind you with both arms and rest it on the coin locker door. Walk forward to enjoy a gentle stretch.

This is better than a partner stretch because the full length of both arms is supported by the sleeves of the gi. This is really a nice stretch.