Aikido Thursday Night - 4/25/13

Aikido players: Troy, Dan the Elder

Ukemi:

None tonight

The Walk:

Not on Thursdays, normally.

Releases:

Not on Thursdays, normally.

Techniques:

We spent the evening working on Dan's Ushiro-ate.  The issue we have with most folks on Ushiro-ate is the entry.  Everyone gets locked up on uke's arm just below the wrist bone.  When that happens, the technique just stops.  The two bodies have come together in a huge wave and the wave peaks where the two wrist bones meet.

Troy came up with a fabulous suggestion for Dan to avoid that collision.  Try to get to uke's nose with the fat part of his palm below the pinky.  The posture for the hand is very similar to that used in a number of the techniques in the release portion of Koryu Dai Yon No Kata.

This does several things:

1) Causes you to be pushing throughout the technique
2) You'll be pushing up, not down
3) You won't lock up on the wrist

We had several successful kuzushis with this approach.

Aftermath:

None of note.