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Old 05-01-2011, 12:59 PM   #21
Alberto_Italiano
Join Date: Dec 2009
Posts: 296
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Re: Does Anybody Know Whether This Technique Has a Name?

Matthew, the strange fact with this technique is that once I was doing it, it seemed to call itself. If you do it, once set in the photo position, tenkan comes out as the most natural thing to do.

However, I want first to address once again Graham's point. he is right inasmuch as you don't dodge blows by lowering in Aikido - however:
1) it came out in a situation where the "hyper" controlled setting of a dojo was not there - one just reacts naturally and one of the most natural things to do when you see incoming stuff, is to dodge. Then, you have to arrange your Aikido accordingly to your natural reaction in a real situation, because real ukes don't accommodate you.
2) despite I first met this "technique" by dodging, thinking about it now, you can probably place this technique also in avariety of different situations - most of them fully "aikido-compliant".

To answer Matthew, once I realized I had his hand and bottle under my armpit and my right hand was placed like my left one in the photo, i sensed immediately there was an ongoing leverage. I applied pressure with my right hand on his elbow (in that real situation, also my left hand came to rescue adding its own pressure joining my right hand, as if I were "praying").

Tenkan seemed the most natural thing to do as I was placing that pressure (sort of an ikkyo done with one arm only, sort of).

So I:
1) placed pressure on uke's elbow, in the imaginary straight line going to my right 2) tenkan, and this yielded a CLOSE contact with uke's back 3) another thing that came spontaneously to do, was to bend down a bit, so to have a straight pressure matched with a downward pressure (we had downward a diagonal, basically) matched with a tenkan rotation.

the effect is that you find yourself on uke's side and uke is projected in front of you, groping with his free left arm sensing he is falling face down. Once you exert also the downward pressure (something that you will do naturally once your tenkan is completed), he falls on his knees (or at least this is what happened).

I have to practice it in a dojo again, but in that situation uke was not lifted (though you are right, matthew: you could also lift), he was projected while his right hand was secured under my armpit.

He fell without facing me. I was on top of him, he giving me his back, as when you are doing an ikkyo, only this seemed more effective than an ikkyo.

Keeping his hand locked under your armpit and keeping the pressure on his elbow, you can place your left hand on his shoulder to keep him down. He made some goofy attempt to stand back but apparently it was not possibile for him. I could feel I had a firm grasp and a still working leverage. I kept him there maybe less than 10 seconds then security staff took over.

Maybe it' s more of an Hapkido thing?
It surely exist in some martial art, it came out as something very natural once you feel your right arm clashing against uke's right arm: you SPIN your arm around it, and if you step forward to grab his hand under your armpit (in my situation it slapped there by itself, thence I realized I had an opportunity), you're set.

uke falls showing to you his back, his arm still secured, "wrapped" around yours.

Last edited by Alberto_Italiano : 05-01-2011 at 01:01 PM.
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