Some Aiki-Jujitsu

Today's class was a bit more Aiki-Jujitsu focused with some great applications.

First we worked a bit on rolls and strikes.  Did some line drills to work on proper atemi striking and posture.

First technique was from a Shomenuchi strike.  As Uke comes in for the strike Nage blends past it to their back side with the closer hand hooking on to their shoulder as Nage does a Tenkan and places the other hand on the other shoulder.  Nage should now be mirroring Uke in stance.  The first hand that made contact to hook onto their shoulder should be redirecting them into the hole behind them you have created and you perform another Tenkan to get out of the way of Uke as they fall into the hole behind them.  The motion for bringing them down is as if you where shaking out a shirt.  A whip/wave motion downwards as you Tenkan will continue the off-balanced Uke to the ground.

Next technique was from a Menutsuki strike to the abdomen.  As the strike comes in Nage deflects it past them and is now facing Uke's arm.  The free arm goes to Uke's back of their head and feeds their head down to your other arm and that arm turns their arm down to spin them.  This turns Uke's head into Nage's arm which locks around their neck for a drop.  As their head is drawn into the hold Nage kneels down into the knee closest to Uke and drops them into a front roll (or a hard drop to the ground in real life).  The whipping motion is key to this and sets it up for the most part when done right.

The randori exercise involved one person on one end of the mats and three attacks on the other end.  The three Uke's charge at Nage and he has to get past them to the other side of the mats.  This was a good exercise for a situation where you have several people grouping up to come and attack you all at once and you have to get past or deal with them.