Ron Tisdale

I think the idea of 'resistance' on this exercise may be overated. Just my low level opinion. When I am taught this, my instructor seems to stress a couple of things:

a) this is an exercise...so there are specific objectives and specific roles which shite and uke are playing

b) uke is holding...not pushing. Sometimes uke is pulling...depending on the nature of the exercise for that class. It should be pretty obvious uke is not pushing I think...if they were pushing you'd probably go in the opposite direction.

c) it is key that the end of the movement forward take uke's balance and power...try getting a straight line between your elbow and uke's elbow...you will probably find they are at least somewhat unbalanced, and unable to apply power any more.

It is probably best for you to ask your instructor...but if Michael Stumpel (sp) sees this, he can probably give a much better answer than I can (he's an instructor, trains in japan, etc).. You may want to drop him a PM so that he sees this thread. Steven Miranda is also a good person to check with online.

Also, since you train in Michigan, I assume you train with Kushida Sensei or one of his students. Since Kushida Sensei was pretty prominant in the development of the basic movements taught in the yoshinkan, I'm sure he would be your best resource. His perspective now might also be somewhat different than the standard yoshinkan perspective today...but I really don't know about that. Just something worth considering.

I should also say that I think this is a very good question...sorry I don't have better answers!
Ron