Training camp, Veszprem, Day 5

As I wrote in the previous post, the 5th technical training planned to be about ushiro waza. So according to the plans, Sensei explained how to grab and hold the defender, what positions are appropriate. The attacker's arm should form tegatana, i.e. it should not be bent too much at the elbow because then the defendar can easily attack the attacker's head. So we practiced the appropriate positions and how to grab both wrists of the defender from a static position from the back. After this, still from a static position, we studied how the defender should hold their arms. Starting with moving the arms we finished with a kokyunage throw. We did two different versions. Next, we switched to a more dynamic attack and technique execution. Here the attacker already came from the front, after taking on a proper base distance (mae) where the tegatanas of both parties stood against each other. From this, possibly tense, position it is the defender who leads uke's arm downwards and, as a result of this leading and circular movement (as well as the push by the attacker), the attacker ends up behind the defender in the well known static position. The attacker continues with the armwork that was practiced from a static position, raises their arms, throws the attacker off balance with this, and then, using the motion well known from the rowing exercise (funekogi undo), the defender will be able to throw the attacker with a kokyunage. This is a considerably dynamic series of movements and requires continuous movement from both partners. If we leave out the rowing movement, i.e. the closure towards our hips, but keep the arm-raising motion and the dynamism we can create an aihanmi position (left side against left side or the other way round) between us and the attacker. From this position, every technique can be executed just as from aihanmi katatedori. The extra bit at ushiro waza is that, in this aihanmi position, as the attacker holds both wrists of the defender, the defender can use both arms of the attacker to start any techniques. Basically, you can choose which hand you will use to do any of the techniques you know.
After the static and dynamic beginning we only practiced a couple of techniques in the rest of the training. One of the easiest ones among these was sankyo that was followed by kotegaeshi and shihonage. These were the main things I remember from the training. In summary, I think most of us realised how easy it can be to do any technique from an attack from the back if we follow the above mentioned gradual, simple steps.

The plans for the 6th technical training were katadori menuchi (shoulder grab + cut to the head, see videos) and ushiro katatedori kubishime. I hope to report on these in my next post.

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