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Old 04-14-2009, 10:23 AM   #24
Basia Halliop
Join Date: Jun 2006
Posts: 711
Canada
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Re: Dance, Wrist Locks & Sub-Teens

Quote:
The goals I have in mind are to keep standing, and keep the opponent standing, while preventing injury. So Wrist Locks, together with positioning footwork, seems to fulfill those goals. Have I missed other options?
You seem to have a perception that wrist locks are a soft gentle way of gently restraining someone, and comparatively easy to learn? That's not been my own experience... they mostly seem to work by forcing joints in directions they were never designed to go. They basically work by putting stresses on various joints (the one directly being manipulated, but also, through leverage, other joints e.g. elbow, shoulder). Some more than others, maybe, but from what I understand they're not mostly designed to leave someone both standing and uninjured (sometimes only one or the other...). When I've been taught them, we practice them quite carefully as it's actually kind of easy to accidentally injure someone. Personally, my worst injury in aikido was from a wrist lock that was just a tad too hard and sudden and tore something in my forearm -- a tendon, if I remember right -- and it took 6 weeks to heal, (and ice and taping and ibuprofen and physiotherapy).

Additionally, getting control of someone's hand who is actually in the middle of hitting you is not at all trivial.
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