Happiness Runs In A Circular Motion

Tonight we worked on a few responses to Yokomenuchi which is nice since we practiced some of the things on the 4th kyu test I hope to take in September or October ( I'm saving up for a blog entry about Aikido testing).

I suppose this applies to any move in Aikido, but with Yokomenuchi it seems an especially true expression of the whole “deal” and particularly relevant. With a side strike to the head the Aikdo response is to keep the proper distance (ma'ai ) but really you embrace the attack and then redirect the force if you do anything else you are lost. If somebody isn't cooperating you lose. It's all or nothing. With Shomenuchi or tsuki, if you are fast enough you could just get out of the way, but here you are supposed to step into the direction of the strike and use that force all the way to the end.

The video above resembles what we did tonight but Sidney really showed how it was effective when you followed through and maintained the circular motion.

As an aside, I'm still trying to ignore this sore muscle and still trying not to aggravate it but sill keep coming to practice.