Thomas Donelson

Teaching about Pain/Injury of a wrist lock:

Sit at a table, on a chair. Put your right elbow on the table. Put your right forearm straight up, toward the sky.

turn teh palm of your right hand, facing left. Now bend your hand to make the head of a duck. Move your thumb, up and down, and say "Quack Quack." Imagine that your hand is being shown as a shadow on a screen, by a bright light.

Your wrist is bent 90 degrees, and this is sometimes called a Gooseneck, by Roy Dean.

With your right hand in a Gooseneck, and your elbow firmly on the table, move your left arm up, to place your left palm on top of the knuckles of your right hand. Press down gently with your left hand, and notice that you can feel pain, and that it hurts. This is to show you that you can injure your partner when you use a wrist lock.


TRAINING THE RELEASE, BREAK AND STEP APART

The object of any wrist-lock prectice exercise is is to create some minimal pain in your partner, but not severe pain, or injury. It is important that you look at your partner for signs of pain, or excessive pressure.

Once you feel that pain and position indicate yor paertner is in need of release, you can shout, "Break, Release, Break" and you and your partner should go apart, maybe even b ow to each other, to show respect for the BREAK.

Your partner should be trained to communicate that pain and position have been acheived, and that release of the wrtist hold is being requested. Some in Aikdo have been trained to slap the mat once. to signal a request for a release and break, Roy Dean DVD's. Some in Aikido suggest slapping the mat twice, is a more certain process to institute a release and break.

There is a natural tendency to retaliate if someone has caused you pain. It is important for both partners to resist a cycle of retaliation, and to understand that it is the partner's responsiblity to slap the mat, or the thigh of his leg, to make a Slapping Sound. The person in the Wrist Lock can also yell, "Hurts, Break! Hurts, Break!"

The first practice sessions with wrist-locks should be about breaking, and slapping to signal pain. Variations in applying the Gooseneck wrist lock can take second place, until the Break routine is established as a pattern.

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