Meditation on Shiho-Nage

For the last day or two I've been watching videos of Saito Sensei doing Shiho-Nage. As a tall person training with mostly shorter ukes, I've found Shiho-Nage challenging because of how much I have to sink in the middle of the technique. And there's a lot going on, so I get confused and the whole thing breaks down. I was looking at Saito Sensei hoping for clues about how to make it simple. That's him on the left, adding the kokyu after stepping off 90 degrees.

When a friend named Brian came back from Iwama last year after a month of training with Hitohiro Sensei I noticed how his hips just came straight through and seemed to power the technique, leaving his arms to do very little beyond making a simple strike. That is, as simple as possible in the middle of doing a 180 degree turn.

Today at early morning class another friend, Jorge, showed up. It was the first time I'd seen him since his return from Iwama last month. Sure enough, Tatoian Sensei asked us to do katate-dori Shiho-Nage Omote, which is Shiho-Nage from a one-handed grab of the wrist.

I paired up with another student and then, out of the corner of my eye, watched Jorge do the technique. There it was: the hips just drive straight through, the body turns 180 degrees, the arms strike, all with impeccable footwork, and uke just folds up.

The hip movement was exactly the same as we use in the 8-direction sword form called Happo Giri. The hips drive through, the body turns, in hanmi, and the strike is executed. I marvelled at how far Jorge's hips were moving and how as he turned he resolved into perfect hanmi for a strike. So economical, so practical, so powerful.

I tried it, moving my hips through farther than I usually do, turn into hanmi, strike. Bingo, uke just folded up.

So now I'm going to add Happo-Giri to my daily routine. In the back of my mind I remember that the Happo-Giri diagram--like an eight-pointed star--is the logo of Hitohiro Sensei's new Aikido organization. It strikes me that this is no coincidence.

Comments

[Taras]

Interesting to note that no such difficulties ever arise in Yoshinkan aikido where each move of shiho-nage is based on very precise basic moves, i.e. one can even practice this throw alone doing it in a kata-like manner. No bent backs appear either :)
With best wishes,
T