Kaze Uta Budo Kai Forum Archive

Would this be a recovery action from tori getting a bad inside (ukes arms) balance break as to avoid ukes free hand?

This little mechanism has been a favorite of mine for a long time. One thing to note, though, that I think is interesting, is that you'll notice that after Nick makes the hand pass, he keeps uke's hand at a relatively low level (roughly waist high). I have found in randori that if you let uke's hand float up any higher after the pass (rising to around uke's shoulder level) after the hand change, he gets a nice chance to do #5 release and he slips under your arm.