The actual injury came about later on when I asked the class lead about something his taisabaki during the initial entry, and he showed to me. I think I was concentrating on the answer too much, as when he threw me again, I didn’t take a high fall, but rather an ushiro ukemi but had my had in the same position as in high falls. That is, a tad too far from my shoulder. That allowed the nage to execute the throw, but because of the distance my body didn’t have enough time react. The twist on my elbow was not at all bad, it just felt a bit uncomfortable and didn’t notice it at all until the next day when. The exact pain point is in the medial head of the triceps brachii, or at least that’s what I think. I don’t remember pulling a muscle like this before in shihonage, but I’m quite sure I have as this feels like something that would happen every once in a while. A harmless pull that you forget the next day.

During my 10 year aikido study, I’ve sustained two injuries that have forced for me to take a 4-6 month break, both to my knees. The first time, about the time when I had 3rd kyu, I tore my meniscus on the outside of my right knee. The details have started to escape me, but I think I tried to take a high fall from a kotegaeshi and got up with the momentum of the throw with my sideways. So it was actually the getting up that tore it, not the landing. The knee had to be operated on and I had to recover for half a year. However, now the knee is totally symptomless so it was a break worth taking.

The second time I had to take a break as just a severe pull on the tendons on the outside of my left knee. I healed on its own, but it did take some time to be pain free. That one was a shihonage with a high fall. I didn’t expect it at all and I did the worst thing you can do during an aerial exercise: I stiffened my body. That caused me to land with my foot touching the tatami first, not my side with the free hand making the initial contact. I don’t know if that mistake taught me anything directly, but it at least gave me first hand knowledge that when taking high falls you need to make like a wet dishcloth. Because you don’t always know in advance that nage is going to throw you high, I think the skill is in being able to switch from a steel spring (attack) to a wet rag (receive) without thinking. Is that then a part of trying to attain mushin no shin?

Avaa taulukko: Kyu-graduointitekniikat

Anyhoo, ‘yey me’ is in order. Today I actually managed to execute a kotegaeshi I was happy with. A kotegaeshi that felt like uke was thrown because of correct timing and position. While I don’t think there is a single aikido technique that is ‘easy’, kotegaeshi has for the last few years been the one that is the most challenging. My archnemesis. I believe my problems with it are mostly due to incorrect timing. For ‘hard’ throws that have a sharp angle, my throw is always late. Uke regains balance and then it’s just… too late. Then, for for those forms that use more distance between uke and nage, with the contact being like a rubber band, my timing is too early and that that leads to me trying to force uke to fall. Grr, so annyoing.

What was different today? Well, I took my time. Or rather, gave uke the time they need. I think the reason has been that I don’t trust the uke to turn and return, so that I can continue guiding them down and out. But why wouldn’t they, they’ve attacked me and will continue if they can. So one should be able to wait for the uke, and try achieve the feeling of ‘doing together’ as opposed to ‘you fly through the air and I stand here’. Another key was that I positioned myself differently, so that I could guide uke right up to the moment I actually did the throw. Position and timing are always linked together, change one and you have to adjust the other to match. Today I got those to working together. Maybe there’s hope after all. I just have to work on it and occasionally remind myself of the contradictory nature of kotegaeshi: it has very little to do with turning the wrist in.

Ever since I started aikido, I didn’t understand the logic behind the terms katatedori, katadori etc.; one hand grab and shoulder grab. I though kata in both terms was the same word, that literal translation of katadori was “single grab” but as a compound it meant “shoulder grab”. Well, no. They are two different words and just share pronunciation. Or actually three different words.

It’s probably been clear for everyone else since the dawn of time, but for me only now I’ve understood what the words actually are. Lesson to be learned? Never rely on romaji alone, always read the kanjis too. Even if you don’t understand a stroke you’re reading.

No wonder I’ve always preferred morotedori (諸手取) to katateryotedori (片手両手取).

Update

I might as well mention at least one other set of words that share the same pronunciation, tachi: