Working the Grab (Katata Katate etc)

Worked a katatadori (one hand grab) to the lapel when your opposite hand blends their grab past you and you lock up a few of their fingers with your other hand and point them back over their forearm into their center.  I had a bit of trouble actually locking their hand because I was not grabbing at a few fingers, rather the whole group of fingers which doesn't give you much leverage.  The important thing to remember was to lock those fingers and bend them back over their arm and not to the side and away from their body where it has minimal effect.

Worked a katatadori to shirt with a following roundhouse punch.  As the roundhouse comes you put your arm out to catch their blow but not resist it, and work that folding motion we practiced to redirect it past your head and out across their body, tying them up in themselves.  As their punch is blended they are in a very unbalanced position and you can proceed to take their center.  I cannot remember the lock we finished with...

Next was a katatedori (double grab to shirt) where Nage reaches out with one arm to knock Uke's head up, and as the arm goes forward (ex. the right arm) the left leg slides back so that you are standing with your striking arm shoulder pointing at them while the other hand holds their arm on your shirt.  Then you slide your striking arm down their trapped arm and tenkan back allowing you to apply Nikyo to them.  It's important when you grab the hand with your hand that you keep it pressed to your body when you "bow" down with them to effectively keep the Nikyo.  The other hand goes to the elbow to make sure it bends and allows you to turn their wrist into their center.  I noticed that if you don't bend their arm down to their center it really has no effect and you end up having to use a lot of power to try and bring them down unnecessarily.  It helped me to remember to keep their trapped hand locked to your chest near the bend between your torso and shoulder.  This keeps their arm elevated and allows it to be higher than their body for more control and pressure.

One thing I noticed when working some of these techniques is that there's a lot of strength being exerted against me when being Uke.  What I've had emphasized to me at my past dojo's and here as well by Sensei is that your arms should not be tensed, straightened, and exerting a lot of strength.  They are merely, and I use this in the best way I can describe it, acting as points of connection between Nage and Uke.  Your arms give you two points of contact that you should try to establish when feeling Uke's energy being directed at you.  This allows you to place that "table" there for Uke to sense and then move it away as suddenly as you place it there.  I interpreted this, after seeing it over and over, as a way of preventing Uke from feeling your center and overtaking you by getting a "hold of your strength", and allows you to unbalance them and allow their energy to flow unimpeded to the ground.  Another thing I've been told in the past is that you should not immediately grab onto Uke, because that locks you into a battle and doesn't allow you time for counters, feeling Uke's energy and other things.  Once your GRAB onto Uke's arm, which you may not always be able to do in a real combat situation anyways, you have committed to whatever you are doing and leave little room for adjustment if you have not taken Uke's center correctly.  As Sensei Mike has said, merely placing your weight on their arm is enough to bring them down without all the torquing and "muscling" of Uke to the ground.  Not to say that you don't NEED to ever grab onto them, but more or less to feel things out rather than locking into one situation too early.

Worked three styles of Randori:

One with hands tucked into belt while the rest of the students attacked you, and you practice using your Tenkan's and Irimi's to get past them.  This was very interesting because you couldn't use your arms to deflect or redirect their attacks.  Rather, you had to move around the mat and move the others into a position that they all crash into one another and can't all get to you at once.  This allows you to deal with only one enemy at a time rather than all of them at once.  This was a great exercise for training Irimi and Tenkan application in randori.

Second part was keeping your eyes closed, Sensei would grab us with one or two hands, to the wrist, shirt, a double arm grab around the upper body etc. and we would react with feeling only to get them in a lock or throw.  This was something I've never done before and really worked your senses and feeling what Uke is giving you and how to accept the attack and react to it.  I ended up countering with Sankyo a few times, not purposely, but because that's what the attack and defense flowed into for me.  Basically, that was what felt the most natural to apply in that situation and for the most part, I felt pretty good about it afterwards.

Last part was our more traditional Randori with multiple attackers coming at you.  This is always fun and takes the breath out of you if you don't stay relaxed and remember to breath as you evade and execute your techniques against the attackers.

Overall a great class lots of fun!!!


Review of grab names:
Kata Dori        = Shoulder grab
Ryokata Dori   = Both Shoulders
Eri Dori           = Lapel(collar)
Katate Dori     = Single wrist same side (i.e. your left hand to their right wrist)
Ryote Dori      = both wrists grabbed
Morote Dori    = one wrist grabbed with both hands
Kosa Dori       = Single wrist grabbed cross hand (i.e. your left hand to their left wrist)