David Ringle

Thinking about sword work, particularly cutting strokes, has been very useful for many Aikido movements. I think you will miss the subtle figure eight wrist work that is unique to Aikido if you only focus on sword cutting. An example would be tenchi nage, where the sword stroke movement of the arms is preceded briefly by kokyu dosa like hand work that sucks uke in and allows his center to pop up when the sword movement is applied.

I have to thank you for the great topic. I've been thinking a lot about the sword movement in Aikido lately. Taking a more serious look at weapons work has really improved my Aikido.