Protective Arts

GYAKU HANMI KATATE DORI KOTEGAESHI

Gyaku hanmi katate dori kotegaeshi can be broken down into its constituent movements.

I am trying to ‘teach to the test’ and therefore present the ‘how to’ step by step mechanics and this morning we built from the understanding of the axis of the encounter.

Gyaku hanmi katate dori eliminates many variables because the encounter starts at a fixed range and a specific amount of pressure. The initial point of contact – uke taking nage’s wrist defines the axis of the encounter. As a teaching exercise nage uses the finger tips of the back hand to press and fold the inside of uke’s elbow whilst closing irimi simultaneously with a half step forward. The exercise is designed to teach nage to leave the initial point of contact alone – suspended in space – and pass it on a straight line. Once the forward movement is complete, then (and only then) does nage take the back leg and pivot 180 degrees. This is a direct entry with a snappy hip movement to accomplish the tenkan. Do not sweep or otherwise create an arc with the back leg.

Now understand what the pressure on uke’s elbow accomplishes. Uke’s strength diminishes and their head lowers and comes forward. As nage enters the back hand that had controlled the elbow can now touch the nape of uke’s neck (a terminal move if desired). Once nage completes the motion, nage’s hips are behind uke’s and nage is cleanly in the shikaku (the dead angle / blind spot).

Once the step by step presentation can be replicated accurately, timing and flow need to be added: kimusubi. Now uke begins to advance and nage matches uke in time. For me the context is clear – nage is advancing with a thrust and uke is arresting the thrusting arm to control it. Keep that context as a subtext. For the exercise, however, as uke advances, now nage places his wrist into uke’s advancing grasp – breaking the OODA loop – which allows for a smooth transition. Uke’s attention should be focused on nage’s wrist, a bit of stage magic, that makes it easy for nage to perform tenkan.

Nage placing his wrist into uke’s hand reminds me of the pebble scene in the 1972 TV series Kung Fu (which is well parodied by Jim Carey): except in reverse. The focus on a single point is what then becomes the point of rotation for the remainder of the action.

There are other tricks to employ. At the moment of contact, nage should make sure to break plane, by lowering deeper into the knees (dropping on the vertical plane). It only need be an inch or two, but if the entire body drops in a unified manner, uke’s entire action is disrupted. This again breaks uke’s OODA loop and nage gains the initiative.

I am slipping in concepts to better illuminate the dire subtleties of irimi-tenkan. (And it is my further contention that there is no tenkan but only irimi-tenkan, but that is an argument for a later post.)

Thus far we have addressed only the lower body movements with an emphasis on allowing the arms to be relaxed from the shoulders and used primarily as reference points only. Now we will employ the arms in a more purposeful manner.

Nage presents the forward hand (remember contextually, this ‘presentation’ is a knife thrust) and uke grasps it. But we are employing more stage magic here – leading uke to the desired action. Nage’s forward hand was mere bait. As uke advances to arrest nage’s forward hand, nage flows it back toward his center whilst the back hand cuts over from a descending high arc to deflect uke’s hand. Now that point where nage’s descending arc touches uke’s horizontally advancing arm meet is the axis. Nage performs irimi-tenkan and at the conclusion uses the original ‘bait’ hand to control uke’s arm.

Arming both players with daggers makes this interaction combatively sensible. What appears to be empty choreography is a deadly dance: nage delivers a thrust as a probing feint that uke tries to grasp (or counter cut), but nage seeing this, counters with the back hand cut (or disarm) to pass uke’s blade and bypass it to deliver another controlling cut once safely in uke’s blind spot. Do not blithely assume ‘basic’ techniques are simple. A better understanding is that they are foundational because they are the most effective in the compendium. Even if the weaponized context isn’t visible at first, keep searching for the analogy because it will be invaluable to your progress.

Putting it all in motion – we get to the position where nage gets to uke’s shikaku in flow – and with nage’s hand over uke’s advanced hand (we remain in a R/L or L/R relationship). The throat of nage’s thumb-pointer finger captures uke’s thumb in order to lead it forward, descending, and on an outward arc. The line drawings from Aikido and the Dynamic Sphere capture the essential flow vectors nicely –

I quibble only with some of the contouring implied given the arcs where there should be lines, but the spirit is true to form.

And now we are to the technical specifics on the hand grab. There are far too many bad exemplars so please be cautious. First a poor example – and one frequently presented –

Here are the specifics to never do: (1) support uke’s wrist by bracing the pulse point, which is also where the wrist bends – the very point we want to collapse (2) forget to grasp the thumb, if you do not have uke’s thumb you cannot take the knife and ultimately that is what we are doing! (3) cover finger for finger on a 1:1 ratio, this will at best match uke’s strength where we want to always seek the advantage.

When it comes to kotegaeshi – the turning of the wrist – there are two fundamental approaches: (a) tendon/muscle control and (b) bone/skeletal control. The bone control is the more dramatic because it often concludes with uke taking an arcing high fall. For me, it is more useful because historically uke’s weapon is being used as a fulcrum force-multiplier. Examine and study O’Sensei’s photos from the pre-war era

bokken-kotegaishi — Kotegaeshi as disarm

Clearly this is a bokken disarm, but note how far out of alignment uke’s spine is. Because the bones of the hand are compressed and aligned, those of the wrist are being torqued as a unit, which then has a ratcheting effect that is transmitted through the remainder of the body. Uke is not exaggerating the effect in this photo. This is similar to Wally Jay’s lessons from small circle jujutsu – start with the small bones and small circles to create big impacts. There are details we need to explore in a later post to distinguish when a bone compression is enhanced by uke being forced to retain the weapon, and when nage wants to ensure a clean extraction, but for simplicity sake, the general rule is as follows: once nage takes control of uke’s thumb, starting with the lower three fingers, in order to twist and torque uke’s hand and wrist thusly – which allows nage to then use his free hand to fully cover uke’s tegatana (edge of hand) resulting in uke’s hand turning over their own wrist which structurally necessitates the remainder of uke’s body to follow. A detail from Saito sensei’s books shows the structure of the hand-wrist relationship along with a classical form of atemi.

The tendon control is very effective but far less dramatic. This variant is best applied on an empty (i.e., non-weaponized) hand because one needs to fully compress the tendon of uke’s index finger (and only the index finger). Understanding the muscular structure of the hand shows how the technique effects the body.

The long extensor tendon is controlled by a complex muscular arrangement, and we merely exploit the connection in reverse – which means we exploit long tendon by compressing it toward uke’s palm to create pain in uke, forcing them to collapse.

There is a danger in conflating and confusing both methods. One must clearly execute either a bone or a muscle control – to do half of each is ineffective at best and places nage in positional danger at worst.

GYAKU HANMI SHIHONAGE

This morning we covered gyaku hanmi katatedori shihonage. The focus is on kihon presentation in order to ensure precision.

Gyaku hanmi (R/L or L/R) starts with a fixed contact point – the wrist grab. Both players must have a forward energy toward each other’s center. Because the logic of the wrist grab is a knife immobilization the contact must have tension created by diametrically opposing forces: nage is thrusting forward and uke is arresting the forward thrust. Those opposing vectors create the axis of the encounter where the forces are neutralized.

From that point of tension – nage must move around the axis without moving it. Nage’s first move is to zone to the outside perpendicular. The footwork is: nage moves front foot to outside perpendicular and the back foot then comes to the fore at a 90-degree angle to the original encounter.

The hand release is a subtlety. Nage’s original presentation of the hand is palm up – knuckles to the ground. Immediately after the nage moves to the first position, nage rotates the grabbed hand to the perpendicular which creates a gap (releases uke’s grasp) affording nage the chance to shoot over and snatch uke’s pulse point. Nage then must firmly control uke’s arm and rotate the elbow into a locked position which will start to control uke’s body.

From the arm lock, nage should drive forward so that nage enters with the legs which (because nage holds no tension in the shoulders) causes the arms to drive upward. Nage can then lock his hands clasped around uke’s pulse to nage’s head.

The reason for this kihon presentation should be evident. Locking uke’s hand against the head creates a brace point and a new axis to rotate around. Nage has traversed the perpendicular in front of uke’s center. Once nage has completed that forward step, the clean 180-degree pivot starts with the balls of the feet which powers the hips. The arms must be held locked but in a neutral state – the hips, not the shoulders or arms, generate the force of the turn.

At the terminus of the pivot, nage increases the grasp, starting with the little fingers, specifically the bottom three, just like a sword. The strength of the throw is created by the hands – not the shoulders.

Ura is a simpler line. Starting with the same initial encounter, nage merely executes a tenkan and follows the same method to raise the hands, complete a pivot on the same line as the initial encounter – that is 180-degrees from the start.

In both instances nage’s challenge is to disturb as little as possible the initial grab until raising the arms. Minimize the amount of somatic information uke receives until the throw is in process.

KI/KOKYUHO – internal power and its cognates

For this post, I amplify Master Keating’s thoughts and imbed links to make more clear what he was imparting. Study these concepts, they pertain to your Aikido training as well:

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In Kung Fu to issue forth a blast of energy (force) from any place on your body is known as “Fa-jing“. It is what Bruce Lee employed in his now famous one inch punch demonstrations. It uses a quick-twitch muscle flex which in turn is based off of a “body-ripple” type action. The skeletal system delivers the force more so than the arm and hand. In this way the arm-hand merely act as struts, not pistons. Much like American football’s lethal (and banned) “stiff arm.”

In another example Maestro Peter Urban (USAGOJU) named his version of Fa jing the “shock-shove punch” (and aptly titled it was)! If you have not felt fa jing type energy blows it is difficult to believe or understand. When you do experience such energy it is shocking and impressive. Theory swiftly becomes reality!

In Tai Chi there is a concept taught as “severing the root” – it is comprised of two opposite energies, push and pull. To sever the root is to shut down the opponents ability to respond-react. They sort of stall out mid-attack, it is then that you strike back. To pull this off you need the “listening energy” as is taught in some styles of kung fu. It receives, it does not oppose. You accept first, then you repulse. They enemy gets sprung violently between the opposing forces. The effect is done in perfect timing with their actions and reactions. If you cannot sense and read the energy of the person before you, you cannot pull off something such as severing the root. This is energy work at a high level, to practice under a good sifu who is willing to teach this level of combat awareness is a priceless find for they are few. Time, patience and determination will help you on this quest. Relax, let go of the rocks you are clinging to and let the current take you, go with the flow my friend –

Energy can go beyond the physical barriers. It can become a catalyst for certain intuitive feelings. This type of energy can be passed between people through the eye to eye contact. It can also be shot outward through the plexus chakra in a blast of psychic energy. In the Book of Five Rings Musashi calls this force “vigor”. He advises to “instill the vigor” from your feet right up to the top of the head. In the art of Tai Chi Chuan one is taught to keep the head erect, like it is floating above the shoulders. This is for the purpose of achieving the higher energy flow throughout the body for healing or for personal defense. There are many names for this energetic effect.

Each culture recognizes this energy, each giving it a name that best describes it in that particular country or culture. Chi, Ki, Pneuma, Prana, Vigor, Inner Fortitude, the list is long and going through it is pointless. Whatever name this energy is labeled it remains the same. Most of the time this energy and the command over it are deeply connected to the breathing processes and will power over the inner self. So regardless of whether we speak of the physical manifestation of it or the more aetheric psychic forms of energy one of the big tricks in dealing with energy is to possess the ability to control it. To have it at one’s beck and call is the ultimate goal, but t’is easier said than done. Such skills or gifts must be earned through long years of study and self discipline.

Since most people assume such talk as we pursue here is naught but sham and scam. It is an overlooked and misunderstood element in the vast pantheon of modern fighting and defense methods. It helps a bunch if you actually know someone who has this ability. They can show you (in person) something relating to tactical energy. To experience it is faith building in itself. It becomes a more “real” goal to pursue in your training regimen once you experience it.

Those people who can sense the energies of the opponent correctly can actually “read” the intent of their adversary. They seem to have a mysterious fore knowledge of the aggressors actions. Through the awareness of “exchanged energies” one becomes a most difficult subject to victimize. Counter and riposte become natural after a few years of cultivating such abilities. Kali, Kung Fu, Aikido and other arts share this trait in common. Each recognizes the flowing energies of the fight and touch pressures therein. Other arts are in complete denial of them. People bound by those arts will call such sensitivity training as I am speaking of as false and worthless. Hence the eternal struggle of the “haves and the have nots” in its most obvious form. Some arts and practitioners are so ignorant they don’t even know that they are that ignorant. Darkness and cultism unfortunately comprise a great deal of many martial arts styles and their underlying philosophies. Often what they lack in ability and skill they adequately compensate for through anger and sheer toughness

For you and I “energy” (NRG) is a word which describes the effects of a force or pressure that is felt in the practice of certain martial arts. In kung fu it has been described as a feeling similar to a “spring under tension”. It can also be used to define the lack of presence or “no energy” during an physical encounter. These forces or pressures are part of the close quarter combat experience. To be unfamiliar with them is to court disaster. To know of their ways, in other words to know the meanings of specific pressures is to have a big advantage over others. Awareness and sensitivity figure in heavily in the correct interpretation of these myriad pressures felt during a physical exchange. Anger and callousness run counter to this idea. Those sort of emotion based effects work to block one’s sensitivity to physical situations. They are lower based skills and appeal to those caught in the common conundrum of “what should I do” syndrome that normally occurs when violence strikes.

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Please recognize the cognates here and learn to see kokyu as true power. Kokyu-ho as practiced is an intentional miss! Any application of kokyu is a powerful combat move, but as practiced in Aikido, it will seem to be more of a positional throw where the arm is used like a boom rather than a lance. Most Aikidoist are blind to the martial power in the art. Chiba sensei said the budo of Aikido is not at the surface.

Aikido’s essence as a budo is by no means close to the surface, but those with a degree of insight should be able to discern it. The aikido that we see on the surface, in other words, much of the aikido we see today, cannot necessarily be said to represent budo in the traditional sense of the word. Fortunately, in aikido there remains the potential for serious students to dig deep to discover its essence and through a long process of searching to make that essence their own. Aikido’s essence as a budo is by no means close to the surface, but those with a degree of insight should be able to discern it. The aikido that we see on the surface, in other words, much of the aikido we see today, cannot necessarily be said to represent budo in the traditional sense of the word. Fortunately, in aikido there remains the potential for serious students to dig deep to discover its essence and through a long process of searching to make that essence their own

So learn to look beyond the neutered presentation and perceive the application.