Question. When standing ready to train, do your hands adopt a tegatana (hand blade, fingers closed) position, a wide-open fingers position, or maybe even a fist? Why. I've heard arguments about 'letting the ki flow' out from the fingers. I personally use tegatana as the heel of the hand is a good striking tool, and it also keeps the arm in a strong position. Fists seem to closed of to many of the waza we do. Ok, let them argume....discussion begin!
Well.... Is it tegatana? Or is it unbendable arm? Or is it kokyu? Maybe our interpretation lies within our own personal view of what we are actually doing? Or not doing.
Tegatana. Why? Because Tintin told me to Seriously, I believe the fingers are better protected when held in tegatana. Col
Tegatana of course. Can't do a good cutting motion with a closed fist, and so much of aikido is cutting motions, right?
I believe that in most striking situations that tegatana is the most important... I have always believed using Aikido techniques that would work in the street... Whenever I strike a heavy bag is find it very important to keep the hand blade position for your hand However, there IS a reason to have the "open fingers"/"let the ki flow" position of the hands.... I find that it is very beneficial off the katate dori (wrist grips) (ai gamae or gyaku) to use the open fingers technique... I have found that it is much easier to use the force of someone else by adopting an open hand besides the tegatana hand.. I have also adopted the open hand technique in my irimi nage... I'm not 100 percent sure why it works but it just "feels" right and I notice I use less of my energy to down my opponent SO bottom line... my OPINION striking - tegatana, pretty much everything else "open fingers"
Open fingers on irimi-nage? Hmm. I'll give it a try. Off the wrist grabs I too open my fingers a bit to get that relaxed feeling. Works better for me too.
Personally I will use open fingers, closed, and fist depending on the situation. I do find however that I tend to have more of the open finger approach, I feel more relaxed, and the fact that both my hands are relaxed, that I can deliver quite strong atemi, although I will punch, I generally don't unless I'm applying henka waza as a result of a technique failing. I prefer to use Tegatana or Teshio as the basis for 'fixing' uke as he's attacking. Also use empi in very close maai. DaveH
Hmm open fingers .... I think it's best to take things as they come and do what's required. I realy have no preference.
I'm not sure how other Aikido styles think of extending ki. But in Ki Aikido we try to extend ki always. Extending through our fingers when striking just means we extend more (well in theory anyway lol). All that concetration makes for a very tiring practice. Especialy if a jo or bokken is involved and you have to extend through the end of the weapon.
You guys heard of 'Musubi' ? This can and does have several meanings however in Aikido terms it refers to the meeting and harmonising between Tori and Uke, in many occasions especially in the practice of principles from ai-hanmi and Gyaku-hanmi, Musubi cannot be correctly achieved with a fist or otherwise tensioned muscles. relaxatuion is a key part in this. The relaxed extension of one's fingers when training does help in the natural abilities to remain relaxed overall, well I find that anyway DaveH
Hehe, just the other night i was told to keep my fingers closed in the tegetana position, so they dont get snagged on anything. Plus the open hand allows for quick grabbing. While i practise Ju Jitsu, my instructor is also an Aikido instructor, so nyeaa *pokes his tongue out. ciao for now
lol...rightio then...I didnt mean he was definetly right exactly. I meant that what he said has some relevance here, despite the fact it was a ju jitsu class, hehe. And im doing the grabbing. I'm not sure about Aikido but in jujitsu alot of our locks come form the 'enter rotation' movement, where you grab there arm and pull them around to unbalance them prior to locking them up. Hope that answered your question.
Lol, true....i find its alot less stressful dealing with a grab than it is with a punch On a side note, i sat and watched an Aikido class today....and to sum it all up, i NEVER want to get into a fihgt with an Aikidoka.... Heh Ciao for now
Hm. Tegatana does not necessarily imply closed fingers, I think... Under Aikikai (at least in Japan) the tegatana implies that your fingers are spread open when you strike; certainly, the current Doshu's books explain the tegatana so. I am aware that some schools use closed fingers, but have never seen it within Aikikai. Is it an Iwama thing, or something?
