In shomenuchi sankyo, sometimes for whatever reason Uke‘s palm is facing down or inside which makes it slightly more complicated to do kihon sankyo.

Osawa Sensei says that in this case Tori can grab the finger tips of Uke and twist his wrist around with a small circle to expose his palm and continue the sankyo.

合蹠＝がっせき

One shihan grasped the blade edge of each foot instead of grasping both feet at the same time. This makes it easier to hold the feet, not hunch over, and use the elbows to press down on the inner legs for a better stretch all with a straight back.

Irie Sensei and Sugawara Sensei showed accepting an aihanmi shomenuchi strike, but Tori collapses the intercepting arm on contact, slides forward (ayumiashi), pivots (tenkaisoku), then Tori‘s previously rear arm comes up to Uke‘s neck and pushed Uke forward.

Note: Tori‘s aihanmi intercepting arm does not do the pushing on this technique. This arm actually drops. Tori‘s other arm comes up and cuts down or pushes on Uke‘s neck.

Sugawara Sensei shows an aihanmi shomenuchi kokyuho technique whereby Tori briefly intercepts Uke‘s forward strike with Tori‘s forward arm, but this is merely a hand off to Tori‘s rear arm which guides Uke‘s arm in the original direction of the strike. Tori‘s forward arm, and Tori himself, enter and he cuts down like kesagiri. This can be kokyuho or lead to shihonage.

Irie Sensei tends to keep his back straight, as well as his partner’s back straight throughout iriminage. In one of his beginner classes one Saturday morning, he emphasized that he wanted us to do this as well. That is, Tori should not force Uke down and back up, nor should he pull Uke back.

His iriminage is clean and controlled, and he achieves this by staying tight with Uke and keeping behind him at all times. This is positively influencing my techniques lately.

A key point is to stop the strike momentarily, then to grab Uke‘s wrist and continue the kotegaeshi technique. Doshu does not grab Uke‘s hand as he thrusts. This is the kihon, shinsa version.1

1. Uploaded by aikikaimedia [↩]

Osawa Sensei says to take Uke low via the movements of his ikkyo omote, but instead of taking Uke back up, Tori keeps Uke low with a bent arm. He then nudges Uke forward a bit by pushing on the inside of his elbow. Tori then captures Uke‘s tegatana due to Uke‘s arm sliding forward. A little twist is imparted on Uke‘s tegatana which locks his arm in place while Tori continues the technique. This little twist toward the ground on the tegatana from Tori‘s the outside hand locks his arm to that a regrab made be done to continue the sankyo.

Updated Jan 15, 2012

After the sokumen-irimi, one way to do ikkyo ura is to turn and keep eye contact and focus on Uke‘s elbow as Tori turns him and guides him to the floor.1

Another way is to enter with sokumen-irimi, but to look at Uke‘s obi (or center) as Tori turns him.2

The difference in effect is the size of the orbit Uke takes on his way down.

1. Osawa Sensei and others [↩]
2. Irie Sensei [↩]

Updated Jan 14, 2012

At the end of the technique, the final hold is not like a baseball batter holding a bat1. A batter holds his bat to the side of his body, and his outside arm’s elbow is raised and his side is exposed. Tori locks Uke‘s arm in front of himself, and applies pressure down (with a straight back and bent knees), not in a twisting motion.

1. This was a good attempt to visualize the technique, but is flawed [↩]

Updated Jan 14, 2012

Tissier Sensei:

Shomenuchi iriminage ura variation

In this instance, he entered directly into and against Uke and was able to come behind him easily and smoothly to continue the iriminage. This is from the following video at [2:09].

Updated Jan 15, 2012

I’ve noticed that Steven Seagal does iriminage in such a way so as to pass over Uke‘s center on the throw, not just throw while being in front of it.

It is okay to bend over sometimes in aikido. The important point is to keep balance while doing this.

Steven Seagal iriminage

I found a clip of Steven Seagal executing an exciting variation of yokomenuchi kotegaeshi where he parries the yokomenuchi with his forearm and glides around it. This would be an analog of shomenuchi kotegaeshi with an initial sokumen-irimi. See around [0:55] for the technique in question1.

Yokomenuchi sokumen-irimi parry

Continued

Continued

1. The music is not great so be forewarned [↩]

Updated Jan 19, 2012

Translated as “left and right exercise”, sayu undo is shown here in a Hombu dojo aikitaiso clip.

At the end of the clip there is also haishin undo (背伸運動) which is what we usually do at the end of each practice.

Osawa Sensei was quite clear about how to move Uke on shomenuchi nikyo:

He said that if Tori pushes on Uke‘s forward arm too much, then Uke twists too much and his forearm goes too far back to grab.

Instead, we were advised to intercept Uke‘s forward arm as usual, but to lower Uke right away so his wrist faces up (and can be grabbed by Tori), and his arm makes sort of an L-shape. One of Tori‘s hands is on Uke‘s triceps, the other is grasping his wrist. At this point, Uke‘s forearm (grabbed by Tori) is parallel to the floor. Tori can push toward Uke‘s head to cause him to fall forward.

Updated Dec 16, 2011

Nishio Sensei demonstrates katatedori kaiten-osae with a bokuto in this VHS video1

From my understanding, it looks as if Sensei keeps Uke‘s arm high as in nikyo ura, then turns about its axis. He appears to keep Uke‘s hand/wrist attached to his own shoulder throughout the osae.

Still image

Kaiten-osae

YouTube description:

“Nishio Sensei teaching Kaiten[osae] with a Nikyo takedown and pin at Takinoqawa Sports center. Submitted by Tom Huffman Aikido of Gainesville, Florida”

1. Kindly transcoded by Aikido of Gainesville, Florida [↩]

Toriumi Sensei demonstrates morotedori tenshin taisabaki below:

Toriumi Sensei: morotedori

Beginning tenshin

Enter with ayumiashi

Step back and out with rear leg

With momentum, there is a more pronounced ayumiashi tenkan. See below.

With momentum

Review:

Tori can start at a 0 degree angle…

0 degrees

and end up at 180 degree.

180 degrees

The video:

Endo Sensei demonstrates the shomenuchi shihonage omote initial movement. Special attention is given to his arm movements.

From my understanding, like shomenuchi ikkyo omote Tori‘s forward arm intercepts Uke‘s strike. That arm collapses and hands off the strike to Tori‘s other arm from below. The first arm is free to atemi or continue into the desired technique.

Ai-hanmi shomenuchi

Hand off and about to atemi

Continue with atemi

Here is the video these stills are from1:

1. Uploaded by waymastery [↩]

Endo Sensei on grabbing

“Because I am not grabbing, my arm has function.” – Endo Sensei

Sugawara Sensei would like Uke to attack for shomenuchi with a direct, jodan-tsuki-like chop that is not raised above Uke‘s head first. The reason is to maximally protect Uke‘s face from atemi.