Special Aikido demonstration by Christian Tissier Shihan

In Aikido, there is a whole set of movements, in particular the Tai Sabaki and the Tenkan, and often we quickly become prisoners of the Tai Sabaki. That is, the Tai Sabaki, which consists of going to a point and pivoting in relation to that point, here, by force of practice, becomes a habit, and which can often become a negative habit. That is, we will often tend to go back to the outside, which is not incorrect. But in fact, there are four directions. The idea, if you will, at the beginning, is to go to a point. When we are on this point, choose one direction or another direction. So when we arrive at a point, we can either go back here at 90 degrees, or at 180 degrees, the classic Tai Sabaki. We can arrive at a point and continue to move forward in relation to that point. We can arrive at a point and move back in relation to that point. That's three directions. And there is a direction that we forget all the time. It is this direction. Because usually, we tend to pivot. So we have to start mastering a slightly different movement, which consists of going to a point and with a change of support, go back to our direction. So there is a big difference between this movement here, of course it can be bigger, which can be here, and then a technique that consists of changing this kind of support. What we cannot do is go to a point and move with this leg. So here, what I will try to explain is this way of going here inside the movement and cut at 90 degrees. For example, the partner comes to grab the shoulder, we will first enter on the inside, control the axis, and at the right time, here we will come to change at 90 degrees. So finally, we have this movement. Enter and cut at 90 degrees. And we could not do the same projection here if we had an outside movement. So the idea is to enter on the inside, as if we were going to cut, let go this arm, possibly use both arms, that is to say, and turn. This is a first possibility. Second possibility with the same movement, an attack yokomen uchi. So we would enter on the inside, we can imagine that we are a little bit just with this hand, that is to say, we do not arrive, suppose that we do not arrive or that we do not want to come to control with this hand, at that time, we would change the angles and we would come back on the same movement. In action, it would give this kind of movement. If we want to keep the same movement, for example, on shomen uchi, or on jodan suki, we would have in the same way an inside entry, and instead of running away from this side, we would make an immediate change to come and cut. Which could be this way, but which could also be slightly lower. This feeling. So here we have applications. We can have the same applications on a footwork, for example, on a mawashi geri, rather than having a movement in which we would turn like this, we have a movement, we enter in the heart of the action and we come to cut. But really a movement that enters, that is to say that you really have to come here and shake the partner. So here we were on direct strikes, whether shomen, yokomen, and we had a direct entry, but we can imagine the same movement, for example, on katate dori, that is to say, go and build in this way and come back on the other side. At that moment, we would have this kind of technique. Enter and turn. Once again, I'm going to go up a little more now, and the feeling of entering and turning. Same thing on the shoulder, feeling here of entering, and the only possibility here to turn and cut is to move his legs, that is to say to come back. And here we have the application in the same way, a seizure, a cut. So here we also have the possibility on yokomen to go out very far on the outside. So we can see, suppose we weigh on the hand, of course we control, we weigh on the hand, but we can't leave this hand. If we leave this hand in any way to catch up with it, it will arrive there. So there is a work here where the partner is concerned, not only a hand work, it is also a work of displacement. So if I go a little faster, you see, it's a work of displacement. And this same action can become an application on a very short strike, for example, and more direct, which can be done with the hand, but which could also be done with only this kind of work. So we go through the displacement of a very large technique, what we have just seen, a very large technique, which is ultimately a kaitenage, that is, I use my hands and my displacement to make a kaitenage, to a very short application technique where we can really move here. So now what is interesting to see is that what we saw earlier on katadori which consisted of going cut in that direction, that is to say, go cut in that direction, it can then decline in another way, that is to say, it can then decline in another way. So it's how the hips, in the action here, here will move. So if we do it very slowly, we have an identical entry, but the same, a change of support. That's it.