Dangerous Moves

 

Of course finger tip thrusts to the throat, and technique making the neck revolve are dangerous. That does not mean they can be used with care.

 

Originally kata were never used for application studies. Things have changed greatly since those days.

 

I first heard of ‘bunkai’ from a Shotokan instructor. Who schooled me in his training. Of course his use of the term, form his fathers studies in Japan in the 1930s was a very different paradigm from what is used today, He also shared his fathers aikido studies and family tjimande training in part. Not that I was an expert but he did a serious job showing what was possible from his teachings.

 

In the aikido studies there were flowing thrusts into the throat as stop hits, to make the opponent cease forward momentum, an opening for the aikido to follow. I once used it on a skilled beginner. I invited him to attack me with his spinning jumping crescent kick which he had been playing on his friends who were novice beginners. I explained that I had been showing the principle that night that could readily defeat him. He took the challenge and came at me with that combination. I just moved into  his attack, and used the fingertip flowinsertion into his throat.

 

I did not hurt him but he went flying backwards 20 feet to end up slamming into the wall.

 

Had I chosen to use a karate thrusting nukite, the result could have been quite difficult, but I and my students learn the difference.

 

Now working the neck is dangerous. For one thing I have a whole study of neck choking/restraint techniques. Those from karate and those from the aikido studies. Many of the aikido technique studies I use end with the neck being immobilized. It is just a question of degree, if it was to be more.

 

Even more efficient are the indonisian answers I have from tjimande. Care must be used for training. But that does not mean we have to go soft. Rather we need to recognize how we are applying the technique.

 

I do not teach such things to beginners. Such studies only begin after Sho Dan, as beginners have more important things to learn.

 

That some movements are dangerous is part of the arts we study.

Knowing when and how to teach them is part of the art involved.