MaryKaye

My head instructor, demonstrating a point to another student, threw me tenchinage a couple of times. As near as I can work out, I managed to actually catch her hands once, and I just missed once, but the outcome was so similar that the student watching saw two instances of the same throw.

I had certainly expected to get her hands and was startled to find myself on the mat without having succeeded. I had thought of no-touch tenchinage in terms of ducking or flinching, but wasn't aware of doing so here--it was all leading.

In watching Mary Heiny sensei demonstrate I felt I was seeing the same thing--the boundary between touch and no-touch versions of the same technique was so fine that I really could not tell which was which, though presumably her uke knew.

Very cool experiences, both of them.

Mary Kaye