Yokomenuchi

Today, 7AM class, another private lesson with JL. Yokomenuchi--a diagonal cutting strike. Start from ai hanmi, a little further back than you'd think, just out of range. Difficult to get the correct motion. You'd think I would know how to do this correctly by now.

Shomenuchi iriminage: enter, cut down striking hand, turn cutting hand palm up, tenkan, slide forward and throw.

Check out this illustration (click)

The nage here is completely giving up her center at the end of the technique, bending way over. Don't know why, but hey, that's what google found today.

Man, this is just a treasure trove of illustrations! Check these out.

Now, of course, yokomen is the title of this post, so it's not the same attack, but uh...

Here are the yokomenuchi techniques.

One interesting note: there are as many variations of aikido as there are aikido schools. One thing sensei recently pointed out is that while we should extend ki into our techniques, we should keep our center, don't extend completely. I have a habit of over-rotating my hips, not having them square at the end of the technique. As this relates to shomenuchi iriminage, at the end of the throw, nage's head and shoulders should remain somewhat above the hips. So from my perspective, the illustration shows some overextension.