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Old 08-11-2006, 02:22 AM   #21
PeterR
 
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Dojo: Shodokan Honbu (Osaka)
Location: Himeji, Japan
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Re: Kokyu Nage techniques do they work?

Quote:
Raul Rodrigo wrote:
Kokyu nage is a loose term, true. And in judo, Uki otoshi, the floating drop, (not uki waza, which is a sacrifice throw) is the one that best exemplifies the aiki qualities in judo. The tenth dan Kyuzo Mifune had an absolutely beautiful uki otoshi that any aikido yudansha would be proud to be able to do.
Xuzen was referring to Shodokan Aikido terms not Judo although there are alot of similarity since Tomiki tended to use Judo terms to describe Aikido skills.

The uki waza are called the floating waza and in Shodokan dogma they are considered the highest expression of Aikido. Examples are found in the last three waza of the junanahon (basic 17): mai-otoshi, sumi-otoshi and hiki-otoshi and all three have their parallels in Judo.

I am sure that they could be considered kokyu-nage since they all require a strong sensitiviy to your opponents balance and good timing with relatively little joint manipulation but much of what is called kokyu-waza in other styles seems to be a catch-all for anything that can't be easily classified.

So I disagree with the evil Dr. S. aka the "Unpronouncable One". Like all kihon techniques they can be learnt early and later perfected. What is important is to feel the technique at the hands of an expert and then try and duplicate that feel on your partner. The relationship between feeling and knowing you've got it right or getting closer to that point is pretty strong.

Interestingly when you watch Shodokan Aikido shiai or randori you will more often see variations of the first five techniques (atemi waza) and variations of the last three techniques (uki waza) rather than the other nine. The reason is that once you start to understand the feeling required to effectively take down an opponent these floating waza are truely wonderfully effective.

Peter Rehse Shodokan Aikido
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