Lesson Focus Kotagaeshi

Worked on Kotagaeshi and fine tuning the technique in its details with Shihan.  A few key points, to remember the movement pattern, Tenkan, Irimi, Tenkan.  The first Tenkan is used to blend in with Uke and after the first Tenkan the two of your should be mirrored with your one hand sliding down their striking arm (from a ski) and capturing their hand.  As you Tenkan and slide your hand down to their hand to grip their thumb with your fingers and place your thumb across their fingers you give a leading tug forward to continue their energy forwards before giving a whip to them to turn around.  At this point their body is going to turn around towards you, preferably with one of their legs getting off the ground if you kept their arm low enough to the ground and didn't raise it back up.  At this point you Irimi to the side, continuing along the "Dynamic" Circle that is connecting the two of you, so you should have the same distance between you as you did before the Irimi to the right side.  As you Irimi your other arm should resemble the "Unbendable Arm" that we practice in Aikido and will come across to connect with and apply downward and over pressure to their gripped hand which you should now have locked up as far as it can go.  As you bring the other hand to their hand you perform another Tenkan, and the other arm will press over their pinky and ring finger downward at the same time you Tenkan and direct them down to the ground before their foot  (that's in the air unbalanced) can re-balance and thus drop them to the ground.

The biggest issue I had here at first was giving the guiding tug out and in the direction of their energy.  I have a tendency to pull their arm to me as I do the first TEnkan.  This is bad in that it opposes their energy and allows them to fight back.  Once you start fighting with them the techniques become harder to do, sometimes impossible for inexperienced Aikidoka (sp).  Another key point is keeping that arm in the same place once you whip them around.  Don't raise it up and give them back their balance!!  Make sure to keep their hand in the same point and pivot around it like it is the center of everything.  As you Irimi the hand should stay put and all you will do next is Tenkan AROUND that point and at the same time that you apply more downward pressure from both hands towards their center.  Pushing the hand over but not towards their forearm or center just torques them but won't necessarily bring them down and sets you up for a nasty whipping roundhouse from Uke.  It's VERY VERY VERY important to remember that I must not start trying to torque their hand before I start the Irimi and final Tenkan.  Also, I need to remember not to Irimi and Tenkan at the end until I have the Kotagaeshi grip fully in place.

On a side note, while working on this, if someone were to throw a jab and you can deflect it well, as they pull their arm back you just go into your final Tenkan on the technique and using their withdrawing energy you will put them down.

I still have a ways to go on solidifying this technique and saying that I can actually execute it when necessary. For now I will keep working on it and fix little things here and there until it works.

Kaitenage and Sumi-Otoshi (Corner Drop)

Kaitenage from a shomenuchi.  This is a launching technique, in a matter of words, and is achieved by taking Uke's center and twisting their spine with the rotation of one of their arms across their back.  In this form of it Uke comes in with a Shomenuchi which Nage deflects and captures with the initial deflecting hand.  After deflecting the blow Uke's energy will continue through, but instead of allowing them to go straight past you you now have their striking arm which can be taken back around them and used as a lever to rotate over their head and contort their spine.  This sends Uke into somewhat of a side Ukemi roll.  The twisting of their spine prevents them from regaining their center and catching themselves from falling by instead moving their center out and away from their body as you step through them whilst contorting the arm across their back and over their neck.  This gives the launch and sends Uke and his energy on his way.  This technique was difficult for me because it's very timing dependent, rather than technique involved.  You don't want to impede Uke's energy and give them something to resist, instead giving them that sense of opposition and then taking it away to allow them through.  These are always more difficult techniques in my opinion.

Sumi-otoshi (Tsumiyotosh) from a Menut-suki strike.  As the punch comes in you are blending in to their open side and slide one hand down along their arm past the elbow.  Your back arm continues their punch past you whilst the other slides down their arm up to below their shoulder.  At this point you redirect their energy by moving through them keeping your arms and energy extended through your point of contact at their upper arm.  This results in the creating of a hole of space for them to fall into.  They will have no balance and drawing them into this space will result in them going down.  The whipping motion that results from drawing in their attack and you Tenkan around with them will draw them into the throw.

Aikido Class in Tallahassee

Drove to pick up my brother from FSU today and stopped by my old dojo North Florida Aikido in Tallahassee for the Saturday class as well.

After a warmup we worked on the Tenkan exercise.  In pairs you take turns where Uke grabs Nage's wrist (left grip to right wrist and vice versa).  When Uke grabs on Nage performs a Tenkan.  The key to remember is that you should extend your energy in to Uke's center and be "under their center".  If done correctly Uke should feel that they are a bit lifted from the ground.  At this point Nage can perform the Tenkan correctly.  The contact point should be the pivot point of the Tenkan.  As they turn your elbow should come up a little bit to help keep the wrist at the pivot point and help keep Uke from regaining their center.  As Nage performs the Tenkan rotation Uke should move around the contact point to maintain their remaining balance.  I had to relax my arm a bit more and stop pushing in to the technique and using my arm.  By relaxing and not pressing so hard against Uke's grip I could get underneath Uke's center and Tenkan better than trying to muscle them around meas I pivoted.

Next we worked on Kokyo-ho with a same side grab to the wrist again.  As Uke grabs onto Nage's wrist you draw your hand down to your center keeping the wrist out but in line with your center as they begin grabbing on.  You should extend their arm all the way to the ground and scoop the ground as you bring your hand back up from dropping them to the ground.  I had to do this a few times before I could remember that you should draw the hand down and bring them back up as you extend their arm away from their body to the side that their arm is on.  This will stretch them out and your hand can then rotate out of their grip and grab their wrist.  and press it up over their arm and into their back.  The other arm should be wresting on their neck/head for control so they cant't stand back up.  At this point your lead foot should be pointing towards where you are going to step next and you go through Uke and send them into a roll.  It took me a few times to get this correct stance at the end.  Another point to remember is as you turn them into the side roll their arm you captured should rotate their spine and torque it over their other arm which will off balance them and set them off in the roll.  Stepping through with your center is important to remember as you turn their body.

Third was Shihonage where your gripped arm draws them down in to your center as they grab for it.  Once you have them lined on your center line you move your lead foot to the side and turn 90' to effectively switch hamni stances.  Then you connect their arm with yours as you connect to them.  Touching hips gives another point of contact to control their center as you walk them to their point of unbalance and rotate their arm into Shihonage.

Next was Shihonage omote (to the front) where we step around the circle to their open side keeping the grabbed arm moving around in the circle to draw them along with you and off balance.  As you feel them being drawn along with you then draw your arm into your center as if drawing a sword down in a swing.  This should whip them around and allow for setting up next to them where you will draw your wrist to your center.  IT'S IMPORTANT TO MAINTAIN GOOD POSTURE AND KEEP YOUR HEAD UP AND NOT LOOKING AT THE GROUND OR TOO FOCUSED ON THE POINT OF CONTACT.  Then you connect your arm to theirs and walk through their hip drawing them forward with you to stretch them out and apply Shihonage while they are off-balanced.

To demonstrate this principle behind the technique we did a simple shoulder grab where as Uke grabs the shoulder your movement along the circle should draw them along with you and whip them around to be standing almost identically next to you, it just naturally resolves that way when done correctly and in an actual situation.  Remember not to try and tug them with your shoulder, but rather move your entire body and center around the circle as they grab.

Some Aikido before the Holidays

Spent a bit more time training with the newer students today but learned just as much from helping them as doing it myself.  Of course nothing beats doing the technique yourself but it was a nice change of pace.

Worked on a straight punch Menutsuki to the face and blending it with the Nage's same hand as Uke's punching hand.  Once the attack is blended in the other arm comes around and wraps around their upper forearm and twists down and you bring your elbow up and over their arm and lock their elbow inside the armpit.  As you do this you apply a tenkan to "corkscrew" them do to the ground and you turn with their energy.

Next technique was a push.  As Uke goes to push Nage they blend the same as with the punch, same hand deflecting to turn Uke's back to Nage as the attack is blended.  This allows Nage to apply Kotagaeshi, first stepping backwards with one Tenkan to blend the strike and the second backwards Tenkan step to turn and apply the Kotagaeshi.  THe important thing I tried to stress to myself was to keep the hand that is captured at your belt line so that you do not give their energy back.

Randori went ok.  I got a little tied up from Sensei and froze and wasn't able to break the grip because I focused too much on the hold and not on affecting his center by throwing a distracting atemi or what not.  I need to be a bit more confident in randori and try to direct the flow of things better, rather than sittign back when the attacks come to me.  Even with the newer students if I do not pay attention I will get smacked in the face by them, haha!!