From AikiWiki - AikiWeb Aikido Information
Ikkyo (first teaching), also known as ikkajo, is a technique that sometimes uses control of the elbow to control the torso and body. It can also be used as a throw, by extending up into the elbow without then rolling it down.
- Correct positioning of the hand over the elbow joint is essential. This can be studied by practicing the pin. Pressure should be applied just a bit on the shoulder-side of the elbow joint, pressing in at an angle with the tegatana part of the hand. (Note: in most applications, nage grabs the elbow rather than "literally" forming a tegatana and pushing into the elbow. However, even when grabbing, this is where the pressure should come from.) Push the elbow "the way it doesn't bend."
- To correctly perform ikkyo, it is not enough to lock the elbow. A large, rolling-upwards motion (like a large-style sword cut) is important, to extend the control to the shoulder.
- When grabbing the wrist, grab the soft inward side of the forearm, rather than the outside.
- When grabbing the hand, secure the thumb tightly and hold it as though performing nikyo.
[edit] Other versions
Yamaguchi sensei would frequently show ikkyo with one arm which touched uke's wrist. When demonstrating this, he didn't touch the uke's elbow at all until the person was all the way down and was just about to try to bounce back up. The main thing he explained over and over was that the arms fall by their weight alone.
An attempt to explain one approach for letting your arms fall by their weight alone:
Shomenuchi Ikkyo Omote:
O-sensei said every technique begins with tsuki.
Orient your footwork as if you were hitting them with your stance - so to speak, and make the arm/body movements of a sword thrust (like munetsuki but lower) - below their center eventhough the attacker's arm is way in the air. If you can perceive the energy in uke's body rising up then proceed to let your arms follow that path up seemlessly as you continue to enter (make sure to bring your back foot in to make a better angle for yourself - as opposed to lunging). That angle is like 5 degrees to 45 degrees but no more (and closer to 5 is best). You need to keep it such that uke is not 100% in your center vision. (No need to look up, keep you posture nice and straight with your chin tucked in so that your head is straight.) When rising up, your arms should be attacking uke's face area as fast and hard as possible and stop just short of contact so that uke hits you (and you turn your hand around your pinky) and you can recieve that body energy properly (and disperse some of their force due to your newly formed angle from your back foot movement, and the way the twisting of your recieving arm sends a lot of their attacking energy out of their elbow).
In very short summary - so far - if they attack with right arm. You move your right leg forward as you thrust your right arm out below uke's center - (much like rowing exercise) or as if you thrusted with a sword. Then - do not retract your arm using any arm muscles. Lift it up from that 95% extended position in the ja bun no men fashion AS you correct your angle by moving your back foot.
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When you have this entrance better, you'll need to bend the knee of your lead leg such that as your body continues to move in:
1) your hand is going up as
2) your body is also moving down,
3) and turning to the omote side
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Then DO NOT push their elbow to their ear because there is no direct pushing in aikido. (This is okay if you are teaching to the masses and you just can't get to everyone - which is where I'm sure this problem started.) Instead, just make sure your angle is such that if the uke had punched straight out with their other arm you would be turned in a way that it would not hit you (so you are not standing there like deer caught up looking at headlights). Your primary arm (the one making contact near uke's wrist) can cut (slice not chop) straight down (put your intention between uke's head and the elbow of their attacking arm) and back toward yourself as your body rises up a bit) - Do not cut to the side (because you have already created the proper angle) - AS you shift your direction towards where many just push. In this way, your arm is coming straight down relative to you (the center line of your body) - but you are rotating (no stepping is required). Your secondary hand (the one near uke's elbow) just lightly starts almost underneath uke's arm and rotates around the contour of their elbow to being on top of it. Your shoulders remain in the structure of doing a sword cut, and your arms fall by their weight alone. There is no need to grab their wrist. Make sure that the uke's expansion (in attacking you) is not closed down in the middle of the technique - which is exactly what happens when you do the technique that looks a lot like pushing a shopping cart.
For Ura:
Once you do that one enough, and you have a feel for the timing, you can then start the technique the the same way by entering in with the lead leg, and thrusting below their center with your lead arm just as in the omote version I described, but you do it just a little earlier, and instead of the back leg creating that 5 degree angle, you bring it all the way forward going past the outside of your initial leg and pivot your hips almost 180% backwards. As you are doing that you raise your back hand (that goes near their elbow) up into position to catch that strike a bit. Your arms should have some of the continued momentum of the entrance driving them forward toward the uke as your hips are making that 180 degree pivot. The shomen should be like water hitting a solid rock - it should rise their energy up a bit to go around and over it. Just as you feel that you are starting to receieve the uke's weight, you take a full step backward (using your initial leg not the one that made the pivot) and you keep your elbows down and in near your body. The better your timing with recieving the force of that hit, the more the uke kind of wonders why they feel like they are stuck to you (and cannot resist).
