Protective Arts

SWORD TAKE-AWAY: Tachidori

Testing for shodan requires demonstrating weapon take-away techniques against tanto, jo, and bokken. Simplify the phrasing and the concept we are discussing is disarms.

Here is the secret: all empty hand techniques in Aikido are disarms. You have been doing nothing but disarms since your first ikkyo omote. Aikido is not an unarmed art.

I have discussed the limitations of techniques over concept, so we start at the level of concept. Moving from the universal to the specific.

In response to any attack at contact range we can only either move to (1) engage or (2) evade. Both responses require a decisive mindset and purposeful movement to achieve the Prime Directive: Don’t Get Hit.

Engage v. Evade

To engage your timing needs be superior to your opponent – you are inside their OODA loop. Evading is a response to inferior timing (or a deceptive stratagem) and you need to avoid to break your opponent’s OODA loop.

A digression on Evading.

Kisshomaru Ueshiba recounts in his book Aikido (1985)

In spring 1925 a navy officer, a teacher of kendo, visited the Founder and asked to become his student. Then during a conversation, they happened to disagree over a trifle matter. Tempers rose. They agreed to have a match.[1] The officer dashed forward to strike him, swinging his wooden sword. The Founder dodged his sword very easily each time. The officer finally sat down exhausted without having once touched him.
Ueshiba, 1985:153

Evasion and the avoidance of conflict is the highest evolution of combative skill. To constantly avoid contact with a determined and trained opponent would require a level of budo that I can only dream about. Imagine being able to constantly slip Evander Holyfield’s punches until he stops from frustration and exhaustion, or contending with Bas Rutten by continuously evading a clinch. To prevail by evading would necessitate being far better skilled and better conditioned than your opponent. The more pragmatically minded Ed Parker pointed out that if you do not stop your assailant in the first attack, then you are not fighting one opponent, but two. Fail to stop the attacker on the second engagement, then you are fighting three opponents. Simple math. Longer encounters are equivalent to multiple opponents. Time is your enemy, draining your resources. Even ‘effortless’ techniques take energy. In the Newtonian universe I inhabit, you cannot win by defending. Hence the need to engage.

The logic chain (order of operation) for every encounter is:

Prime Directive = Do Not Get Hit

Do Not Get Hit = Engage with superior time, Evade to gain superior time

Engage = use timing and footwork to get inside or outside the weapon’s arc

Engagement is shorthand for gaining superior position (shikaku) by use of footwork (irimi, entering, tenkan, blending), and timing (kimusubi and atemi). Engaging as a concept is the most difficult phase of every encounter. Most difficult because it is the most ephemeral and easiest to miss. Hence O’Sensei’s poetic phrases to describe it in his “Secret Teachings of Budo” (Budo Training in Aikido):

#27 Embody ‘Yang’ in your right hand / Turn the left into the passive ‘Yin’ / Then guide your foe

#12 Should an enemy come running and strike / Avoid him with a step to the side / Then attack in an instant

Thus the initial engagement determines the outcome of the encounter. The greater the skill gap between you and your opponent, the earlier the outcome is determined.

Determination of the encounter however requires technical skill such that you can first control your opponent’s actions, then counter their original intent. Notice that these last phases are what most ‘techniques’ will focus on because these are the physical skills to refine.

At the conceptual level[2] for every encounter we must:

Evade don’t get hit

Engage enter to a superior position

Control deploy a response that limits your opponent’s actions

Counter ensure that your opponent cannot continue hostile actions

We have aspirational goals but the outline is very straight forward and requires dedicated practice to achieve.

#8 Progress only comes with constant practice / Build up and kept to oneself / Do not hope for ‘secret teachings’ / They will lead you nowhere

Keep training!

Control and Counter – the techniques.

In the Aikido curriculum tachidori is the defense against a katana – a two handed sabre. Therefore, the assailant is always in a fixed relationship to his weapon – holding the sword right hand forward (by the tsuba) and left hand near the base (there are no left-handed samurai). Furthermore, because the proper use of a katana in combat was with a levering action, the swordsman’s hands are at least a span apart.

The attacker starts seigan no kamai and raises the sword to assume jodan no kamai to execute shomen.

Shomen, the overhead strike (Angle 12) bisects the body and provides a clear separation between the inside line and outside line. In tachidori – anything to nage’s right is the inside line and anything to nage’s left is the outside line when in context with the opponent’s sword.

The first response is the direct response:

IKKYO – direct. As soon as uke starts the upward raise of the sword enter boldly to execute ikkyo. Because of uke’s relationship to his sword, this can only be done RvR (assuming right hand dominant opponents). Timing here is the key. Catching uke on the rise with superior timing you execute ‘omote’ and if with inferior timing ‘ura.’ But with either engagement, your lower hand must catch the opponent’s upper arm to stop the strike while your upper hand contacts with the opponent’s right wrist area. Recognize how you must use your right hand to control the sword. The reason for ikkyo’s pin is fully realized when you see how your opponent’s sword further limits uke’s options.

gokyo with atemi — Ikkyo, Gokyo – whatever, control the upper arm!

IKKYO – can be done from the inside line with inferior timing (blending). Uke strikes and nage responds with ushiro tenkan. As nage moves ushiro tenkan, cut your right hand between uke’s hands and grab the handle between your opponent’s hands. As uke raises to escape, add energy and lift straight up and then arc over, just like in tsuki ikkyo. The difference will be that nage will manipulate the sword such that the extraction will be more similar to nikkyo omote. As you extract the sword, move the kissaki toward uke’s head whilst levering the pommel out and away (uke’s hands will act as a pivot).

sword disarm with atemi — Superior position for ikkyo, kokyu-nage, augmented decapitation…

AUGMENTED DECAPITATION – a variation on the ikkyo blend. Rather than lift and arc the sword after grabbing the hilt, nage shifts back, drawing uke in, then snappily punches the sword toward uke. As uke spins to avoid the atemi, the sword will be vertical (perpendicular to the ground) and uke’s back will be to you. Drop the kissaki and with your left hand, reach past uke‘s head to grasp the mune in a pinch grip and close the edge toward uke’s neck. Uke is now at the point of bargain.

Build your mental matrix. Write it out so that you can graphically represent the options available to you on each side and each level.

APPROACH	GATE	INSIDE	OUTSIDE
Direct	High	grab sword with left hand, palm strike to chin (irimi nage)	grab sword with right hand strike, palm strike with left (irimi nage)
	Mid	augmented decapitation	grab sword with right hand, grab neck with left, drive pommel into uke’s midline to throw
	Low	parting two apricots	parting two apricots
Blend	High		kokyuho
	Mid		hijikimi
	Low		udekiminage

One conceptual schema

The variations are numerous but finite. (Don’t understand the descriptive labels? Come to class!)

______________________

[1] As a biographical anecdote in Aikido written by his son, Morihei Ueshiba is revealed as being all too human here. Tempers rising over a trifle leading to a duel? (Chiba sensei reports O’Sensei telling the story in a different manner >here<)

[2] Acknowledgement to Pete Kautz, who was inspirational on the sequential framework. See his summary >here< and look for the universals that Master Keating admonishes us to find!

LOGIC CHAINS – Ikkyo to Kotegaeshi

The flow of any given technique can be broken into constituent elements that are linked in logic chain: an if-then series based on the openings and opportunities.

Another way to understand the logic of a technique is to ask – what if this doesn’t work? What is the backup plan?

As an example – here is one possible logic chain outline for shomen-uchi kotegaeshi “advanced” from the initial encounter of shomen-uchi ikkyo omote:

IF Superior time (nage is ahead of uke’s OODA loop) – THEN, ikkyo omote

IF Inferior time (nage is slow, behind uke’s OODA loop) or

IF Uke counters, THEN, Slip under to kokyu-nage

Uke retains balance ->

Quickly turn hips to execute:

{mid line -> shihonage

{high gate-> kokyuho

{low gate -> udekimi-nage

-> Uke moves to escape

-> Switch hands to kotegaeshi

Each step in the chain represents a point in time during which the relationship between nage and uke is subject to change. The roles of uke and nage are convenient fictions useful for training but can result in dangerous ossification in thinking. To move beyond a mechanical understanding of any encounter, you must understand that there is no such thing as a nage or an uke. Ultimately those are dangerous labels that can habituate you to playing a role. There are no roles in combat – there are only active agents!

Approach every encounter with the proper mindset and the hidden budo of Aikido manifests. Move beyond the monkey-see monkey-do manner of training and learn to see.

The narrative of the encounter.

Seeing your opponent before you, you quickly strike shomen to defeat him. Your opponent intercepts your strike and begins to take control using ikkyo. Knowing the trick, you drop your weight to come under and begin to counter your opponent – ikkyo for ikkyo. Your opponent feels your reversing energy and surprises you by clipping your chin with an elbow and turning under your arm to execute a throw. Feeling your opponent using your momentum against you, you accelerate and step beyond your opponent’s arc to catch your balance and turn to make a horizontal cut. Your opponent knows that this is your only plausible response and counters by keeping control of your cutting arm and turns his hips so as to move past and again accelerate your strike, taking you past. Your opponent is now behind you. Quickly, you adjust by stepping forward to cut from the opposite side, but again, your opponent is savvy. Your opponent steps beyond your arc again – moving down your arm, from the elbow to concentrate at your wrist and cuts over to disarm you, kotegaeshi.

Play that sequence and watch it in your mind’s eye. Can you follow the action? Then put yourself in the other role.

Your opponent raises to execute an overhead strike. As soon as he begins to raise for the strike, you move in to close the distance and trap the arm on the rise. You then move in to displace your opponent’s balance and cut his arm down with ikkyo. You opponent is strong and knows how to use his balance. He catches his balance and begins to reverse your control. Feeling that your opponent can over-power you, you see an opening created by his intent to counter. Keeping your hands in their original position to not telegraph your intent (your top hand in contact with the wrist, your bottom grasping your opponent’s elbow), you relax your bottom arm, fold the elbow to drive the point up and into your opponent’s chin. Your opponent was caught unaware, but rolls with the strike but your atemi broke his balance and momentarily raised his center. You caught the initiative and pivot quickly to carry the momentum of your opponent’s counter to execute a throw – pushing his arm arcing out and down (kokyunage). Your opponent is well conditioned and the blow was glancing only. Before you can perfect the throw, your opponent recovers and feels the change in acceleration so goes with it – using your energy to his advantage to get ahead of the throw. He plants and begins to counter you with a horizontal cut at your belly. As soon as you sense the throw will not work, you know your midline is exposed, so you prepare for the cut. When your opponent begins the move, you take the cutting arm (in fact you never left contact) and accelerate it and turn your hips to get on the outside line. From the outside line, you drive forward and, grasping your opponent’s wrist like a sword, you raise it with the intent to turn under and do a cutting throw (shihonage). Sensing your intent, as you move your hands up your opponent’s arm, your opponent steps forward and away to avoid your raising throw and begins a cut from the other side. Feeling the potential escape, you move forward quickly and change hands while isolating the wrist to finally disarm your opponent with kotegaeshi.

You should be able to watch the encounter from both perspectives – you are both agents in each of these encounters. At any given moment during any encounter the openings and opportunities will present themselves. Learn to anticipate counters, to see openings, to sense vulnerabilities and lapses in your opponent’s control. Learn to close your own gaps to maintain a constant level of control so as to not create openings where you are vulnerable to a counter. Learn that the control must be firm but relaxed to better feel changes in vectors of force. Too much tension creates a lever where your opponent can find a fulcrum and use your strength against you.

The narrative is the flow, but see every point where the story could have ended sooner. For example, the simplest encounter would be:

Your opponent lowers his guard to create an opening on the highline. Sensing the advantage, you quickly raise and execute shomen, striking your opponent down.

The first If-Then:

You lower your guard to create an opening your opponent must take. Your opponent strikes shomen, so you step in to catch the strike on the upswing in order to dominate the center and take your opponent with ikkyo.

The second If-Then:

If you are being taken ikkyo, then you must get ahead (move away or under) of the descending cut in order to rebound it with your own counter cut. (Ikkyo is makiotoshi after all so the back and forth at this step between similarly skilled combatants until one elects to change strategies.)

Extrapolate and find each step in the narrative, and the narrative for each step – and you should be able to create the logic-chain. If-this, then-that, so as to develop a parry-riposte mentality that can move to a constant connection so that your Aikido becomes more than vacant choreography. To have connected flow, you need to know why you remain connected (ki musubi).

The pragmatist stays connected to better sense and control the movements of his opponent. The flow is a result of the constant contact resulting from a continuity of intention. The intention of both players is to win the encounter. “The purpose of Aikido is to kill.” Hyperbole, but a cogent reminder of the seriousness of the game we play. But it is only with seriousness and intention from both participants that the beauty of the art emerges.

Be like Itto Ogami (Lone Wolf and Cub) – always have a plan!

KIHON – Hanmi Handachi Shiho Nage and Uchi Kaiten Nage

Kihon waza are the developmental base forms and they show the correct way to train in order to allow for proper developmental growth in the art.

Normative words demand definition: what is a “correct” way to train and what is “proper” development?

I recall hearing a shihan once quip, “Aikido works. Yours doesn’t.” A pithy summation of what defines “correct:” a proper focus on efficacy. Thus, correct training inculcates the ability to deploy each technique so that your partner is controlled in a manner that harms neither your partner nor yourself.

Let’s unpack that.

First and foremost, this shit has got to work. Even a quick perusal of these posts will serve to illustrate that maxim. We are training in a martial art. Martial, relating to war and fighting, so Mars has etymological precedence.[1] As a fighting art, we must train for (1) economy of motion (2) maximum damage and (3) minimize vulnerabilities.

The problem to solve then is – how do we train to learn those principles?

This morning I attempted to demonstrate those principles by focusing on shihonage and uchi kaiten nage done from hanmi handachi.

Hanmi Handachi

Nage is in seiza and uke attacks while standing. As a Japanese art, the cultural context of a kneeling combatant makes perfect sense. From a tanren development perspective, suwariwaza is incredibly beneficial by hampering our ‘normal’ use of the lower body. To move effectively and with fluidity, nage must separate the upper and lower halves of the body.

The metaphor of ‘integrated’ or ‘whole’ body movements at first seems to imply unified action – motion in a common direction. Nothing could be more misleading. The first key to integrated body movement is to distinguish the functions each half serves. Your upper body is your weapon platform, your lower body is the means of conveyance. Practice shikko at home, get used to squatting, then moving to your knees, then moving and returning to standing without use of your hands. These ways of using your lower body should free your upper carriage to move in different vectors at the same time (split coordination). The simple demonstration is to carry a sword in seigan no kamai while moving in shikko. The sword should not move from its center-line guard position despite moving in shikko which requires the hips to open side to side. A more robust demonstration (and one with a deep military tradition) is to watch Cossack [Turkic kazak “adventurer” or “free man”] dancers – or better still, try to emulate them! You must learn to keep the spine erect, the head balanced over your tanren, open the hip and move the legs without the familiar swinging action of the arms.[2]

I smile because I am free! And a Free Man is a Warrior.

It is precisely because suwariwaza is archaic that it is doubly beneficial – forcing we moderns to engage our lower half in an unfamiliar manner which leads to higher body awareness and develops lower body strength and flexibility.

For the pragmatist, hanmi handachi remains a valuable combative stance – it lowers your silhouette and adds stability. Just look at the estimable Jeff Cooper with his favored 1911.

jeff cooper.jpg — Ride, Shoot Straight, and Speak the Truth

Modern combatives label this the Weaver stance. The Weaver stance is instantly recognizable to the Aikidoist as hanmi – the half stance that minimizes the target area on the vertical plane. Hanmi-handachi minimizes the profile on horizontal plane as well.

This photo also shows proper structural alignment. Col. Cooper aligns the web of the hand with the frame of the weapon with the elbow tucked down and in to use the shoulder as the connection point to the body. The body is ready for the recoil of the weapon discharge. Proper body alignment uses both the skeletal and muscular strength of the body to absorb the energy. Receiving uke’s attack from hanmi-handachi is similar.

As I have discussed elsewhere, uke grabs nage’s wrist because nage has a weapon. Therefore, uke must approach from the flank (not directly) and grabs with a forward energy. From the static kihon encounter, nage extends the arm with the fingers leading, nage’s elbow is bent slightly as if ready to do a forward roll (the ‘unbendable arm’), the tip of the elbow pointed at the forward hip bone. With good skeletal alignment, nage can receive a dramatic amount of force. The tanren development starts with this dynamic tension – uke weight down and forward, nage extension low to high and outward. The setup is between diametrically opposing vectors.

With tension established, nage then releases it suddenly and flowing the hand to the mat directly in front of nage’s centerline. Nage can augment the ‘invitation’ by using the free hand to touch uke’s inner elbow and accelerate the descending line. Nage then uses the free hand to grasp uke’s wrist and roll uke’s radius/ulna toward nage’s center whilst simultaneously extending the fingers of the grabbed hand rokyu-kokyu so the nage’s shyuto extends out (thumb comes toward nage’s navel) which creates opposing lines of force and will bone lock uke’s elbow. This is a momentary control nage exerts over uke and allows the extra ‘beat’ in time for nage to execute the next move. If as nage you do not control uke at this point – figure out the mechanics! The grabbed hand is pressing forward against uke’s fingers, using the small bones to control the larger bones (bone locking!).

Control established, nage must drive forward with the lower body – the arms have done their job so leave them alone. The inside leg now dictates the line (transverse the tangent of the circle)

moves across uke’s front and because nage has control of uke’s arm, the act of moving forward necessitates that nage raise his arms just like raising a sword. In raising a sword, the kissaki moves first, thus all the lines of force originate at nage’s center (the bladder) and the primary muscles are those of the forward leg. The shoulder is a pivot point only – do not lift uke. Once successfully traversed – nage and uke are in a parallel relationship with nage’s hands directly above his head.

This is the next check point for nage. Do not disturb that relationship – your raised hands controlling uke’s arm is precisely what a raised sword in shomen no kamai should look like. Pivot swiftly under your sword. The inside knee drops to the ground, the hips snap 180-degrees, and the opposite knee rises. This entire action swivels under the raised hand (sword) which is in line with the spine.

The cut is now executed just like shomen uchi. Proper sequence here – weapon, hand, body, foot! Cut deliberately down toward your forward toe. Uke’s elbow is your kissaki – move that point first, then increase the strength of you hand grip, then as your arms break plane with your shoulders, slide your forward (raised) knee to uke’s arm pit.

The pin is now the priority. Nage’s toes are under uke’s armpit, nage’s knee leans in to compress uke’s ribs (patella toward uke’s chin). The old school pin would have nage keep both hands on uke’s wrist so that nage can press forward with the knee and pull back and up with the arm to destroy uke’s shoulder or elbow structure. The modern pin presses directly down on uke’s triceps so that uke’s humerus is parallel to uke’s head, the elbow is pressed toward the ground, and uke’s hips must raise (thereby rendering uke unable to weaponized the legs).

Nage must execute this sequence by the numbers – step by step – until the lines are precise and the hand- body work is precise. The vectors are scientific because dictated by human physiology – there is not an interpretive art here: it either works or it doesn’t. You either controlled your opponent or you didn’t. Aikido works. Learn to make it work, then find freedom of artistic expression within the form.

There is no ura – but if you lock uke’s elbow so tightly that uke begins to rotate behind you, then it makes no sense to move across uke’s front. Hence the only logical course of action is to rotate with and toward uke and cut down as described above.

What I hope to make clear is this: each step must be executed with mindful precision to make it effective. If you cannot execute each move so that an observer could snap a photograph that crystalizes the ideal form, then I suggest your Aikido does not work.

From Shiho Nage we moved to Uchi Kaiten Nage.

Uchi Kaiten is a beautiful double dagger technique. Uke grabs the first weapon hand that nage presents thumb up. Nage uses the grasped hand to cut uke’s lead leg (shin) which requires that nage flow from thumb up tension to the shyuto strike. Uke senses the attack and moves the leg which will pitch uke’s head down onto nage’s ascending second (back hand) weapon. In combat the encounter ended here – nage successfully made uke place his body on nage’s blade. Nage’s front hand strike is a C cut and the second (back hand) is an upward thrust through uke’s soft palate. Because the first strike removed uke’s leg, nage has created a low-gate opening. Advance through it! As you do, the grabbed hand raises on the vertical line (the C cut becomes more like a U), but leave the axis undisturbed. Pivot by snapping your hips and the knee-replacement sequence is the same as shiho nage. Once you have completed the 180-degree pivot, nage should hold the forward leg light (like nekko dachi).

The logic chain at this point should be for nage to execute shomen uchi with the goal to get uke to fall away (kokyu-nage), but because uke retains a grasp on nage’s cutting hand, nage must adapt and overcome. The lead leg snaps back (keep it available for a front kick) and the grabbed hand drops crisply to where nage’s toe just was. Uke by necessity pitches his head forward and low. With the free hand, nage cuts (or grabs) the nape of uke’s neck. From this control position, nage will now lock uke’s arm by barring it across the scapula and drive the knee into uke’s face.

muay thai.jpg — Can you do it from sitting?

If nage cannot execute a devastating knee strike (as in Muay Thai) then the form is wrong.

The line is dictated by the target. Nage must move the knee toward uke’s head – Aikido euphemistically calls this “controlling the center” but the pragmatist discerns what is required. Uke must move to avoid the strike. The alternative would be to compress uke’s neck and brace the arm across uke’s back – a shoulder dislocation. Either option needs be available to nage if uchi kaiten nage is to be deemed effective.

To be clear, nage must be in control of the encounter from the moment it begins. The outcome was dictated at the moment of first contact.

By executing the motions precisely, we learn economy of motion. Do nothing without purpose. Maximum damage is ensured by proper targeting: Know what you are hitting and why. If you are not executing a motion with the ability to strike a vulnerable area, then you are doing it wrong! Even a feint must be directed at a target.

With precise body and hand work, nage must close openings (tsuki) that uke could exploit. And here is the defining difference between Aikido and most other martial arts. Atemi (strikes) are used not to inflict maximum damage, but rather to close avenues.

The life-giving sword must be more skillful. We are training for the higher path where both nage and uke emerge with minimal physical damage. This requires great control. The strikes in Aikido must be as powerful and as effectively direct as any art, but Aikido uses the strike to direct uke’s attention and motion – to close openings in nage and create openings in uke.

Train in the proper use of (unarmed) strikes and learn weapon use. Train as if you have daggers in your hands and with ki-musubi (connected flow) and the path of least resistance will be made clear.

__________

[1] Mars (Roman) [Ares (Greek)] is the god of war and the ancients well knew the viciousness of battle. Ares personifies the raw violence and untamed aspects of war, and in great contrast with Athena whose wisdom provides strategy and tempers unbridled emotions. As brilliantly depicted in the Illiad, Ares is much maligned by the other gods, and even his father Zeus never spares him criticism. Ares was a formidable warrior, but the Greeks knew that mere bellicose skill was insufficient for the needs of the polis. At every instance, Athena bests Ares. The two gods quarrel during the Trojan War and in one scene Athena (by proxy through Diomedes) wounds him to remove him from the field of battle.

[2] The connection between dance and martial prowess is well established (review >Spotting<). However, as a postulate for others to prove/disprove, I would submit that those dances where the upper carriage is held isolated from the lower (Irish step dancing, Cossack, etc.) was originally a training method, similar in design to the Pyrrhic Dance (q.v. H. Michell Sparta) that mimicked battle moves – and involved springing up, crouching, thrusting, and spinning.