2024-02-26

Teaching my regular classes at the Ross Farnsworth - East Valley YMCA.

Tonight’s adult class added another option onto what they already knew about applications of the hammer-fist strike from Heian Shodan. Having previously discussed this as an escape from a wrist grab (on either side), tonight we applied it as a throw somewhat similar to Aikido’s “kokyu nage.”

Assuming your right foot is forward and the attacker has grabbed your right wrist with his left hand:

1. Grab and pin his left wrist with your left hand, then strip your right wrist out of his grasp by rotating your right elbow forward as you pull. At the same time, step your rear foot up to your front foot (in anticipation of tsugi-ashi footwork).
2. Extend your newly-freed right hand up and over the attacker, dropping your “bottom-fist strike” past the attacker’s head, so your elbow falls on the top of his chest, just below the neck. At the same time, extend your right leg so that your foot is directly between the attacker’s feet, then make front stance, disrupting his stance a bit forward as your dropping arm pitches him backward over your leg.

Notably this same application can come at the very beginning of Tekki Shodan except that:

1. Step into kiba-dachi instead of zenkutsu-dachi.
2. Your right hand is open, facing upward, instead of closed like a bottom-fist strike (but the elbow must still point down).
3. As a bonus, the attacker’s left arm will now be stretched across your own chest, ready to be hyperextended if you choose to flex your chest forward while pulling your left hand back.