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.

Seki Sensei tells us over and over how to do katatedori ikkyo/nikyo kuzushi. He uses akurei and tadashiirei to show us this. He walks around and shows us countless times, often point blank while we are practicing with our partners. He repeats this every Thursday in either the 5:30 PM class or the 7 PM class, yet it is still mysterious.

Aside: Nikyo for me is becoming something more than it was years ago. I even studied a research paper into the so-called nikyo pain mechanism. I wouldn’t recommend that paper to beginners anymore though. However, as my understanding of nikyo increases, I’m finding it easier to make sense of what Seki Sensei is trying to show us: both “blinding pain” nikyo1 and katatedori / katadori tenshin kuzushi have a common mechanism believe it or not.

With katatedori / katadori tenshin kuzushi, both partners are temporarily in aihanmi (even if they started in gyaku-hanmi). The secret is not to cut down on Uke‘s elbow, not cut outwards on it, not even to put Tori‘s body weight on his elbow; the secret is to absorb Uke‘s arm into Tori. It’s not an easy thing to do from the beginning. There is a mental block because it is against instinct to bring Uke closer Tori while being relaxed.

But, that’s the idea: bring Uke closer to Tori while being relaxed.

1. As K calls it [↩]

Updated Jan 21, 2012

Seki Sensei showed us raising his grabbed arm up, but up and out towards both partners’ mutual middle similar to how shihonage could start. This gave a little twist to Uke and primed him for a quicker iriminage as he becomes twisted before Tori even moves.

Update: On the shoshinsha floor this really causes aite to twist, priming them for a gentle but inevitable fall. Techniques should be vetted on the shoshinsha floor whenever possible.

I wanted to do the techniques just like Sakurai Sensei showed in class. He uses vertical extension that I am not (really) used to. I was practicing with my partner, then he came over and did the technique to me. Then he left and my partner and I resumed, but my partner’s technique seemed more “bimyo” than just previously.

The reason is because Sakurai Sensei draws a completely vertical circle for both omote and ura. By doing this, he gets Uke‘s arm out of the way (above both partners) and thus he can enter right into Uke. If Tori draws a little circle in front of himself, there are arms between Uke and Tori and the gap between the two cannot be closed properly. That is why Sensei’s techniques feel deeper and more efficient.

Seki Sensei seems to throw at a cross angle, not as simple as throwing to Uke‘s rear. I’ve always experienced a crippling kuzushi when he’s thrown me, even slowly.

After Tori brings Uke over his shoulders and cuts down to his thigh, Uke is probably still grabbing Tori‘s wrists, but Tori‘s palms are facing outwards (a little strange). Some people try to break the grip forcefully, or perhaps Uke let’s go naturally. Either way, Seki Sensei has shown to simply brace Uke‘s arm on Tori‘s raised leg (while his inner knee is on the mat and against Uke‘s ribs). From here it is easy to detach Uke‘s grip comfortably. In conclusion, it is okay to leave Uke‘s grip until just before the pin. It doesn’t need to be broken before the pin.

After Seki Sensei raises Uke‘s center while he is grabbing Tori‘s wrist from behind, Sensei cuts down in front of himself down to his own thigh. He steps back with his inner leg – the leg closest to Uke – for both omote and ura. On ura, ura continues with Sensei simply stepping back behind Uke with his outer leg – the leg farthest from Uke. Omote continues with Sensei’s inner stepping forward while Uke is already on the ground after the cut down.

In the beginning I learned to receive the strike with a sort-of hand cross sandwich and a pull on Uke‘s wrist to start the shihonage.

Sugawara Sensei shows from aihanmi shihonage to accept the strike but collapse the receiving arm in a bid to slide into but past Uke‘s center. Once here, Tori can twist his hips and cut down with kesagiri on Uke‘s opposite side while maintaining closeness. This cut down will cause Uke to fall into a elliptical orbit if Tori also captures Uke‘s striking arm and prevents it from falling away. Shihonage omote or ura can continue from here.

Updated Jan 18, 2012

Irie Sensei had us practice this ninindori technique tonight in his ippan class1. One uke does ushiro ryokatadori while the other does front ryotedori. Tori will do shihonage.

Irie Sensei explained that the technique comes from Tori‘s hips. First Tori twists one way to bring both uke together. He takes hold of one of the uke‘s arm like Kobayashi Sensei’s zagi katatedori shihonage ura (where he doesn’t move). Then Tori twists the other way and continues the shihonage he started.

Point: Twist in one direction, then back in the other direction. Trying to step and duck under arms doesn’t work here.

1. He was substituting for Yokota Sensei [↩]

Sometimes for some reason Uke isn’t low enough (or quite unbalanced enough) to the ground on the initial sabaki for the forward elbow thrust. In this case, Osawa Sensei says that it is okay for Tori to step in with his shoulder to brace Uke‘s arm while Tori regrabs Uke‘s wrist. This step forward with the shoulder into Uke‘s elbow pit or triceps has the same effect as if Tori were to thrust Uke‘s elbow forward had Uke been low enough in the first place. Both are okay, Sensei says.

Osawa Sensei emphasizes in both ippan and shoshinsa classes to take Uke low, then thrust his bent elbow forward before coming around for omote sankyo. Do not let Uke get back up, nor thrust on Uke‘s wrist without elbow control.