And welcome to Bugeisha blog!!!
As promised in this post I'm going to be discussing about an Aikido technique,so that you can have a better understanding of what Aikido is all about.By no means one technique is a factor to judge the art overall,and that goes to any martial art,but it's the best way to show the mechanics and basic philosophy of the art.I can honestly tell you that I haven't practiced Aikido as much as Judo but I know the basic techniques required for 5th and 4th Kyu,thus I can analyze at least one technique that I have practiced numerous times.
So without further ado the technique is called Kote Gaeshi(counterattack from the wrist or forearm).
I'm sure many of you have seen this technique before,mainly from movies(Steven Seagal has performed this technique in many of his movies).
Before analyzing the technique let's start with the basic terminology,in order to make sense of what I'm talking about:
Ai hanmi katate dori: uke stands with left foot forward and tori with right foot forward(so they are exactly opposite in their stances,uke then steps forward and grabs the wrist from the inside of tori's hand.
Katate dori: both uke and tori are standing like mirror images,same foot forward.That means that when uke initiates a wrist grab,his palm will be at the outside surface of the wrist.
Irimi:enter
Tenkan:turn
Tai sabaki: circular step
Omote:inside
Ura:outside
Kote Gaeshi
Uke: from katate dori he steps forward and attacks to the wrist of tori.
Tori: does a small fraction of a step forward(Irimi) to actually countermeasure the distance of uke and turns(Tenkan) thus creating a tai sabaki outside the range of the attack,so tori is actually outside of uke,right at the moment that uke grabs the wrist of the front hand(which is actually used to bait the opponent in order to create an opening)tori uses the opposite hand to deflect the force created by uke in order to grab uke's wrist with his other hand(previously mentioned front hand.Since tori is outside the range of the attack of uke,naturally uke will follow trying to deliver a second attack(otherwise there is no point the technique finishes right there).It's common sense that when somebody attacks you and fail they'll go for a second attack(duh).
Using all senses(mainly the sense of touching and motion),tori takes advantage of the follow technique,grabbing the wrist of uke and twisting it in the direction of uke's balance and centrifugal forces take over to actually throw the opponent on his tracks.
In practice when this technique is performed uke actually does an ukemi(breakfall)in order to reduce the stress created in his joint.That explains the "fancy flips" you see in exhibitions,it's for self-protecting purposes,it's not to impress you with acrobatics.And for the doubters I challenge you to get under one such technique and I promise you,you'll be flying all over the place in order to avoid this painful joint lock.
Of course katate dori is not the only grab that you can use kote gaeshi for,there's a variety of attacks like chuudan tsuki(middle punch),ryote dori(grabbing both hands),ai hanmi katate dori,ushiro ryote dori(grabbing both wrists from the rear) shomen uchi(front sword hand strike)and so on so forth.So we see that one technique can be used for a variety of attacks which shows how versatile Aikido is.
So there you go,that's one of the many impressive and effective techniques of Aikido.I hope by now you have grasped the concept of harmonizing your energy with the energy of your opponent through motion.If you practice and grasp the true essence of Aikido you are one step closer to understanding the universal truths about energy and harmony.To my understanding that's the true essence of Aikido,creating something beautiful through motion.Although it sounds quite poetic don't misjudge the effectiveness of the art cause remember,samurai have used these techniques for centuries,so they're tested on the battlefield.If it worked for these warriors it'll definitely work for us modern age fighters ;)
In my next post I'm going to start a series for my favorite so far martial art which is Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu(or Bujinkan Ninjutsu) of Soke Hatsumi Masaaki(he's not the creator but the successor),the art of 9 ancient ryu(schools) of samurai and ninja(yes they are real and not some fiction hollywood pijama assassin killer freak).
Until next post
頑張ってください(do your best)
John
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