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I apologize if I'm not exactly answering your question, as I can't speak directly to Yoshinkan or Shodokan: I am not a part of either organization. However, I am a Hapkido-in, and who practices the equivalent tegatana as Yoshinkan; and I am an Aikido-ka with Aikikai, whose practice of tegatana is similar in Shodokan according to your descriptions. So I ...

Honestly, it seems to be largely tradition (with said tradition basically stemming back to a fashion trend in the aristocracy), with many practitioners pointing out that it creates a tripping hazard. The two main benefits I have seen people cite: It hides your footwork - This is sometimes cited as the reason why the samurai wore them, so that opponents ...

Yoshinkan Gozo Shioda describes (in Total Aikido, page 31): Open up the fingers of the hand. […] The fingers of both hands should be pointing at the base of your partner's throat. Beginners tend to need strength in order to keep the fingers open, but keep practising until it becomes natural. This naturally leads to the fingers pointing more forward ...

Style name(s)… "Tomiki Aikido" is a misnomer. However, keep on reading. Tomiki started teaching his system of learning/teaching Aikido before naming it. Thus, people (especially in the USA) started to call it "Tomiki Aikido" because it came from Tomiki. Afterwards, Tomiki (with others such as Oba and Nariyama) continue to refine his system. He called it ...

For me, the hakama simply belongs to the art. At my dojo, people are encouraged to wear the hakama as soon as they decide that they are going to make Aikido a siginificant part of their life, i.e., as soon as they are positive that they will attend regularly for a long time. Or in other words, we spare people the issue of investing the money and then having ...

⚠ Disclaimer: I am still learning about the goshin-ho and thus the below is best seen as a work in progress… Anyone with a more complete answer is welcome to post it. Any errors, confusion, and misrepresentations are mine alone. What is it? The term goshin-ho means "methods of self defence" and as such is not a kata. There is a set of (57) techniques ...

The kata in this video shows the basic applications of kaeshi waza, meaning counter techniques. The history of kaeshi waza goes before the foundation of aikido, it is already a known concept in older martial arts like jiu jitsu, judo, etc. Here is a link to Judo terminology. It is of course no surprise as Aikido has its root in older budo arts. Shihan ...

This is perfectly normal. Remember that instructors do not expect you to get it right, they expect you to try. ☺ Your best bet is to keep going to classes and try everything. The most important part of any Shodokan lesson is the first half an hour. That is the bit you have to concentrate on the most. Many shodokan instructors, following Nariyama, are unkeen ...

Mostly yes… There are two kaeshi waza in shodokan aikido: The first, the ura-waza kaeshi waza which is a set of ten fixed counters. The origins of the kata are unclear to me although I can see why each techniques makes perfect sense to use as a counter. The second is the Tanto kaeshi waza which is a set of fourteen (dropped to ten in gradings1) counters ...

Goshin ho no kata was developed by Tetsuro Nariyama. I first learned of in the mid 1990s. I saw Nariyama demonstrate it in 1996 in Baltimore, MD. Much of the kata involves using waza from ju nana hon kata in response to attacks other than shomanate. I’ve seen websites saying that the kata has 50 and 58 waza. There may have been additions to and/or ...

First, zenpou hiyaku ukemi (also known as tobu ukemi or a flip) is nothing but a forward roll (zempo kaiten ukemi) where tori holds uke's hand. They are the same rolls but depending on which technique is performed, one is safer to do than the other. Secondly, note that when uke performs a flip, they end up close to tori. This is fine when the alternative is ...

I'm a huge critic of the hakama, and of its related bane - sawari-waza. I've been given many reasons over the years, from fashion, history, tradition, hiding footwork, managing strides... In the end, I look at it as practical as the human appendix: we all have one, no one knows why, but you better care for it or else. I'm in Aikido for self-defense. I ...

Hakama are traditional horse-riding pants and come in a number of styles. They were worn in Aikido because back when Morihei Ueshiba began teaching, it was part of traditional clothing, and not wearing one would be akin nowadays to going around in your underwear. Presently, to the best of my knowledge, they are most often seen in Aikikai from either 3rd ...

Anatomically you have to think about what you are doing with that hand and arm. If you open the hand the wrist expands and is harder to hold onto (for someone grabbing the wrist) In Shorinji Kempo we call the principle of making your wrist hard to hold and bracing 'shuho' (kagite shuho, katate shuho and so on depending on how the rest of the body is ...

The ura-waza was developed by Tomiki-sensei as an example of counter techniques that could be done within toshu randori. However, two problems emerged: First, toshu randori tended to end up as Judo more often than not. This was due to the distance being inadequate to do Aikido and the fact that all practitioners knew Judo well. Second, the counters did not ...