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?

Making a cup of coffee is like making love to a beautiful woman. It’s got to be hot. You’ve got to take your time. You’ve got to stir… gently and firmly. You’ve got to grind your beans until they squeak. And then you put in the milk.

—Swiss Toni

Making coffee really has absolutely nothing to do with shihonage (四方投げ); shihonage has everything to do with dropping bricks! Let me elaborate: the “throwing” stage of shihonage can be seen as something where you move the uke’s hand behind their shoulder and then you either push it forward or down. This works, the uke will most likely find themselves laying on the tatami, wondering how they got there. This, however, is perfect case of using force where there is no need for it. When you use force, the uke will reject it, i.e. resist it, and will end up stiffening the both of you, requiring even more force to be used to down the uke.

I’ve used the following in the basics course to describe shihonage “throw”: imagine you’re holding a brick and you’re asked to put it down on the floor. What do you do? Do you push it down? Do you throw it down? No, you drop it. The gravity will take care of the rest. Similarly, the “throw” in shihonage should be as if you were just dropping your hands. Dropping your hands, dropping ukes hands, dropping uke. In aikido fashion, dropping your hands is not just letting your hands go down, but rather dropping you hara and lettings the hands follow. Timing plays into this when you don’t stop after turning under ukes arms, instead let “everything” drop after you’ve stabilized your stand, i.e. dropping you hands is an extension of the henkan. If you execute the technique with step back, step in before the “throw”, the drop becomes the end of the step in. In any case, shihonage has nothing to do with pushing uke’s hands down, or with coffee. It has to do with dropping bricks.

Tags:
aikido,
shihonage