Kaze Uta Budo Kai Forum Archive

Something has been rattling around in my head for a bit, and I don't know if I've just been playing with an interesting variation, or if there's something more fundamental present.

Ju-nana #11 - Kote Henari, translated as both "wrist Twist" and as "Forearm Twist"

My basic understanding of this technique can be summed up in the sentence with which it was originally taught to me: "Kote Henari, or #11, is basically an Oshi-taioshi where the distal, or far, from uke, hand gets a little too far down the arm and is actually on the hand instead of the arm."

That's how I learned it, and how I've been doing it for a long time. Then, two data points dropped into my beer-soggy brainpan:

1) As Nick pointed out in the Summer Intensive, that Tomiki guy was scary smart and built a lot of stuff into his boiled-down kata, so that he could compress a lot of data into something that could be worked with and played without having to do all +2,500 of the Hambu curriculum; and

2) Sensei Yoji does this technique, even when teaching/explaining it, with only one hand, the far hand, which makes a "catch," so to speak, palm-to-palm.

Thinking about #2, and hearing about #1 from Nick in June, gave rise to the following stream of consciousness... Tomiki should have been a software engineer, he knows CODEC, there's tons of info in each kata if you can uncompress and access it all to comprehend, there's no wasted stuff or movement in there, everything means something, it all has a logical reason behind it, everything has reason, the techniques are structure and movement patterns that can be stuck together randomnly and techniques just fall out naturally, there are easily understood categories, Shomenate is atemi-waza, Oshi-taioshi is higi-waza, Kote henari is tekubi-waza, and Shihonage is uki-waza..... wait a minute. Did that just say that Kote henari was a wrist technique? But, I do it exactly like I do the elbow technique, Oshi-taioshi. WTF?

Then I remembered what Yoji said, and maybe more importantly, how he does #11, by a complete wrist manipulation, all the way to the finishing bit pin of uke on the ground. There's no actual elbow involvement in the application of the technique, other than what happens secondary to the twisting action on the wrist/forearm as it translates up the arm, through the elbow, then shoulder, then causes a postural breakdown of the torso via the shoulder girdle, and so on until the ukemi.

The way it's working out for me as I play with it is it sort of solves the thing that happens to us blind people doing 17 practice from time to time where my palm smacks directly into uke's attacking palm. There's other otpions of course, but this one is very elegant, which leads me down the primrose path, don't ye know.

From the Walk, the second part of Pet the Dragon, where the hand returns to the side from being out in front with the shoulder-rotation ... that motion drops uke, right after the palm contact right into our usual kazushi when the motion is combined with the simple step offline. Then, simply sliding forward, and if you don't wish to twist the wrist further (painful), all you need do is simply put the slightest pressure (like that used when performing a kote mawashi submission, oddly) to the elbow area.

I know I just said elbow, but this is weird, you don't need to actually be ON the elbow to get the effect, just in the neighborhood. It's worked mid-forearm to mid-humerus, fingertips a/k/a Wind, or basic palm pressure a/k/a Earth.

Am I merely disturbed and bringing up something that everyone else knows already because it's so obvious only a blind guy couldn't see it?

But, I mean, Tomiki put this technique IN the wrist technique portion of the Basic 17 kata he developed, and he named the sections, didn't he? I doubt that he just "did it to do it," if you catch my meaning.

How do you guys do this one? The kata form you use for instruction, not the neat-O variations we find, but what you'd be wanting to see at a potential shodan's demo.

No Fred, I'm not talking about yours, which, by the way y'all, is set up for Nick's visit to Wasabi on Sept. 1.

Also ... Just for your edification, I found some other stuff on the above before dropping it in here. It didn't answer my question, merely caused me a bit more thought.

Here's an interesting variation, but not what I'm trying vainly to describe:

http://www.martialartstube.net/kote-hineri/
The Central London Shodokan group describe it here:

http://www.tomikiaikido.com/11.html


Think on the above if it's not a waste of your time, and play with the palm-to-palm initial ontact thing, drop the arm in Step 2 of Pet the Dragon, and step offline and rotate forward the usual way and find out what happens when you do it, and let me know.

Laters...

That's how I was originally taught to do it...

We would catch the wrist and almost tsugi-ashi sweeping back, so we held the wristlock with one hand and the same foot forward. About late 80's or so we started cycling the feet, so the wristlock hand was back and the forward hand was on the elbow, kind of as insurance. It was explained that it worked just like oshi-taoshi, but there is a constraint on the arm so it can't straighten, and the takedown and lock is different.

Jack, when you say, That's how you were originally taught to do it, do you mean that you were originally taught the way that involved almost no elbow, and mostly all wrist with the twisting action?

Then later it altered into the Oshi-tai-oshi type of movement?

Interesting. Maybe I'm onto something?

That' s exactly right, it was basically a one handed technique. You deflect the attacking arm and slide down to grasp the wrist, pretty much do the underhand circle push from the walking, and commute the lock through the elbow and shoulder to control the body. Interesting how things come around.