TECHNIQUES (continued)
Gokyo (Fifth teaching)
An arm pin or throw, very similar to ikkyo, but with nage’s hand on uke’s elbow reversed in that the grip has nage’s thumb on top instead of underneath as in ikkyo. It’s not used or practiced much from what I’ve seen.
These are the basic kyo techniques. There are said to be more, such as rokkyo, shichikyo, etc., up to jukyo, but I’ll leave that argument to others. I’ve seen some evidence of those in reading I’ve done on Daito-ryu aikijujitsu and at other web sites.
Shihonage (Four direction throw)
This is said to be based on shihogiri, a four direction sword technique. O-Sensei also ascribed certain attributes to the move in each direction as honoring various things such as parents and values.
This is often the first real technique taught to new Aikido students. Paradoxically, it’s been said to be one of the deadliest, literally, as a fall at speed could cause some real problems to the back of the head. When done improperly there are openings for all sorts of painful occurrences: If nage gets uke’s bent elbow on or over his own (nage’s) shoulder, some breakage could result; if uke’s arm is not bent correctly, but sort of stretched out laterally and then taken down, there’s some real potential for serious damage to the elbow; and, finally, if nage twists his hips, for power, away from uke during the takedown, a little helps maintain some control through off-balancing, but if a twisting of the wrist occurs, too, at the least you have an unhappy uke, and at most, one with a hurt wrist who doesn’t want you as a practice partner anymore.
This technique can also be done as a throw, and it looks real neat in photos, especially with the old “speed blur”, but this requires some real skill, on the part of both people. I had a classmate ask me to throw him, and he was one of the better ukes I’ve known, and at first I begged off. He insisted, and I knew he knew how to take the fall (much better than I could), and even though I did the throw correctly and at moderate speed without much power, he ended up with a separated shoulder. He wasn’t mad at me, because he had requested it, but he was hurting for some time.
AIkido Techniques (continued)