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Old 12-24-2001, 08:12 PM   #13
guest1234
Join Date: Jun 2000
Posts: 915
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I guess it is 'watered down' if you believe O Sensei only took out the version that dislocated the shoulder in order to preserve practice partners. OTOH, most 'street' opponents that everyone else here seems to run into don't know how to breakfall to this, either, so you could also see the 'gentler' version not as watered down, but as a way to achieve peace without destroying someone. I must admit, he didn't tell me what he had in mind

I think learning to breakfall to this technique is important, especially if you are, as I am, size challenged. The dojo I consider home is a university club, and it is amazing how beginners (we would get a lot of big 19 year old athletes) automatically stumble into the 'harsher' versions of this technique. Knowing how to take a breakfall from it has saved my scrawny shoulders more than once when someone twice my size with great enthusiasm and speed does it not quite right. But I don't think having partners who don't know how hinders my training in any way.
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