James Young

I think how the subject and practice of kaeshi-waza by various teachers and schools is interesting. My experience is that it usually is only practiced in more advanced classes and then only on very few occassions. However, I was at a dojo once that practiced it quite regularly and often in a free-style manner, i.e. do any kaeshi-waza you can from so and so attack, so you wouldn't know what technique the person would do from your attack let alone what kaeshi-waza you were going to do to counter that technique. That was sometimes a source of confusion and frustration but it did help teach how to really feel for the opening, to think quickly and improvise. When I went to a Morihiro Saito-sensei seminar they had a special class set aside for kaeshi-waza and he treated them as they were to be kept secret and he admonished us not to practice them openly and only with partners that were close and trusted. When I went to a Nishio-sensei seminar he made a point to the effect that it was not necessary to practice kaeshi-waza (and henka-waza) since if you did the intended technique right those techniques were moot. These are just some of my various experiences and exposure to the approach to kaeshi-waza. I'm curious as to what approaches do others out there take.