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Karen W. posted in her blog about troubles moving her uke during Mototedori Iriminage... and it reminded me of the same problem I had once upon a time.
At the begining of each class, we do a standard warm up, then we practice tenkan, then morotedori kokyunage omote and ura. One particular night, I was partnered up with Darren Hill. Darren is ALL MUSCLE! He's HUGE! Big dude! Ain't movin' for nothin' if he doesn't want to... or unless you do the technique right.
Anyways, he grabbed on with both hands onto my one and I couldn't budge this guy. Not even a little. I'd have broken my arm if I kept doing it that way. SO... I kept bringing my hand in closer to my center... first in front of my obi knot and then a little bit past it. And what do you know? Down goes Darren! It was amazing. He was holding on for dear life, and suddenly it didn't matter.
By bringing his attack out to the side and blending off in that direction, he was easy to move. VERY easy, considering all his power was now off in a direction where I was no longer fighting him. I wasn't even in a position to fight him because I was moving off to his side! Therre is no fight when you let the energy just pass on by.
We reveresed roles and I held on with a death grip. It wasn't that we were showing off or trying to stop the nage from practice. It was the fact that we had found a tool (Redirection) that we always "knew" about but suddenly figured out how to use well! And me? I'm 255 lbs. For anyone to move me when I'm trying not to move... is difficult. But with this new redirection tool we had found... it suddenly became clear.
Anyhow, not sure if I've ever posted on this subject. Hope Karen reads this and gets something out of it. It has helped me on numerous occassions and is a permenent fixture in my aikido arsonal of tools.
12-21-2005 09:15 AM 
