This is a question on Shomenuchi Iriminage.
If one looks at Total Aikido (Shioda Sensei) for Shomenuchi Iriminage II, nage blocks the strike before entering. Also, in Doshu's book on Basic Techniques, Doshu Sensei does what appears to be a side block to uke's elbow as he enters… However, in my dojo, many senseis enter without blocking uke's striking arm.
I tried the ‘non-blocking' (direct entry) approach, but it seems to fail when uke is moving fast towards nage and raising his arm to strike. What I enter and try to cut uke's arm, uke's forward momentum is so strong that we both stumble forward together.
However, when I try to block uke, it automatically forces uke to stop moving forward. This makes the movement much easier. However, the overall movement is not as smooth as the non-blocking approach.
I would be grateful for other people's thoughts on the matter
