In Aikido, as with all things, there’s bits we love and bits we hate. I’ve blogged a bit about that here. We all love the strategies and techniques that play to your strengths.
My favorite throw in Aikido is called the heaven and earth throw. In this throw a training partner, called uke, grabs both your wrists and pulls you towards them. Aikido techniques usually work by taking the attacker’s energy and momentum and using them against him. Instead of pulling away, which is what we might be most tempted to do, you move into the attacker. ‘You want me? You got me! ‘
You off balance the person by taking one of their hands low and just off centre and behind them and the other hand up high, heaven and earth. Once you’ve taken their balance, the throw is easy.
I love it because it gives an advantage to the shorter person (usually me) and it’s fun and beautiful to execute. It’s formal name is Tenchi Nage.
There is a nice animated gif here.
And you can read more about it in ’20 core aikido techniques’ here.
Do you practise a martial art? Do you have a favorite throw?
Beautiful photo
I found the photo on a feng shui website but it wasn’t credited to anyone so I can’t tell you who took it. It is beautiful though.