Another small Saturday morning. I love the focused training afforded by limited attendance. Fellow members, what did you miss?
Two keys that I have presented before. Irimi nage direct as concept and nikkyo as concept. And while I taught them as techniques, the true value resides in the movements that they represent as concepts.
First irimi-nage-direct, aka Hubud Lubud. As a concept, uke can deliver any upper-zone attack: roundhouse punch, straight punch, shomen, yokomen, angle 1/2, it really doesn’t matter. The flow pattern of hubud gives you the answer: intercept, redirect, trap, retaliate. Yes, it is a 4 to 1 action chain. So as Master Keating would say: “Time to hit the gas son!” The variable control that we develop in training is practiced slow to fast. Your ability to deploy your skills should have that full range and this morning we practiced going to the top level.
Starting from jo-dan tsuki (to push the emotional and psychological level), nage had to slip the punch while intercepting on the inside line, use the back hand to clear the attacking arm, then trap it to allow the clearing arm to strike irimi. Master the pattern, then increase the speed. While developing this ballistic phrasing, notice that you can truncate the movements, use the back hand only to intercept, redirect, smother and counter punch all in one move; or pak soa with the front hand rather than intercept; or flow farther up uke’s arm to do a palm strike or elbow strike. The point is to develop the concept.
Your goal is to move beyond the kihon as a means to preserve, prevent and protect and develop the top level and terminate opposition quickly. You need to have the calm presence of mind to move up and down the continuum with emotional equilibrium. Every level of skilled deployment deserves and needs the same level of decisive action. Smooth deployment is key to speed. Remember this is a 4 to 1 beat response: you must be quicker. No hesitation in body, mind or spirit. (For a visual reminder, watch the opening dojo scene in Above the Law. Segal wasn’t always a joke; as Mulligan sensei told me, he has never been thrown irimi-nage harder than by Steven Seagal.)
To expand of the concept: irmi-nage-direct is a bold entry move focused on a very slight angle change in relation to the attacker’s initial line. Therefore we linked the irimi-nage technique to ikkyo’s response. Look at ikkyo anew. Rather than always see ikkyo as a RvR/LvL encounter, recognize that it can be done LvR/RvL – follow hubud as your teacher. Uke attacks R to the upper line. Nage intercepts L on the inside line, then picks up uke’s attack R. Nage will use the low-to-high pressure of the RvR to fold uke’s attacking arm at the elbow where nage’s L hand struck, stuck, and remained as a fulcrum. As nage advances, nage’s L hand moves from the inside line to pick up the outside of uke’s humerus. To expand the concept further – note that nage’s initial intercept could be simplified to a counter-thrust on the inside line: uke attacks R, nage counters with a thrust to the face (angle 7) [the response is angle 6 if uke attacks L]. Look to see the movements as concept to move beyond the limitations of sclerotic techniques.
We moved from irimi to nikkyo. After a remedial reminder on the importance of hand position and joint alignment to cause maximal impingement (bone locking), we explored nikkyo for what it is: a knife disarm.
Nikkyo as a concept starts by picking up the uke’s distal part of the arm from the outside. From the contact, nage must slide his shyutto to the joint, then “roll” the knife hand over uke’s wrist to catch it from the interior side – a single snake disarm and counter cut. This one is kuden-level.
Protective Arts 