Nikyo Undo

Video Transcript

"Alright, the second wrist stretch is called Nikyo. Nikyo means second control. Ni the Japanese word for two is Ni, Kyo is control. Basically, what you do is I put my right foot forward, my right hand out, my thumb down, and my fingers stretched out away from me. I put my other hand on the same exact way. There are two ways that this wrist stretch is done that I've seen. One is to hold your own hand like this, but the way I was taught and the way I do this, I just match my fingers up, bring the wrist into your chest, and your elbow around forward. A mistake that I see a lot, is people have their elbow up to high. You want to learn to relax. Just like in Kotegaeshi when I relaxed down to my center, in Nikyo Undo you relax and move from your center also. My knees are slightly bent, my whole body is relaxed, and the only tension is through this tendon right here. To stretch this I bring the wrist out, my elbow back, bring this around forward, just like this. It's almost like an elbow strike, only you're doing it with a stretch. I do that a few times, and then do the left side. Get a good stretch and the blood and everything will be flowing through the muscles and the tendons. To demonstrate this, Nikyo is done just like this. I bend the wrist, at this point you want the arm to be in a nice gentle curve, you don't want it to be straight and locked out. From here, what I'll do is put his fingers against my chest and I'll bring the arm just like that. That's a good way to do Nikyo. From here, take a slight bow, move from your center again, staying relaxed, just like this. Other side, nice gentle stretch."