Aikido Head Throw Technique

Series Summary

Aikido, the modern Japanese martial art, was developed between the 1920s and 1960s and emphasizes the spiritual and philosophical development of its students. This development of spirituality and philosophical belief is directly derived from Shinto and Buddhism. The name “aikido” comes directly from three Japanese characters that stand for “matching,” “spirit,” and “way.” Aikido is meant to distract or immobilize, not kill or permanently damage the attacker. Aikido fighters are thus demonstrating an effective but merciful response. Ueshiba (the Great Teacher of Aikido) declared “To control aggression without inflicting injury is the Art of Peace.”

In this series of videos, see an expert demonstrate aikido moves, strikes, throws, locks, and drops. Practice with our expert as he shows you how to do an arm lock. Take it a step further and learn an arm lock throw. Then, challenge yourself and learn a bent arm lock. Learn different elbow moves, including an elbow drop throw and an elbow throw. In Aikido, the head is a powerful weapon; watch as our expert demonstrates head strikes or “shomen ate.” See how to do a head throw and the more difficult spinning head throw. You’ll learn how to disarm an attacker using a reverse throw, a reverse wrist throw or turning wrist lock.

Video Transcript

"Hello, my name is Ronald Gotlin. I am the sensei and the lead instructor at the Biscayne Park Aikido School here in Biscayne Park Florida and on behalf of ExpertVillage.com, I would like to welcome you all to our session. Thank you very much. We are going to be demonstrating some Aikido techniques. Aikido is the art of avoiding force and my partner for tonight, will be James Murphy and together we will try to familiarize you with some of the techniques in the Aikido realm. The first technique that we are going to demonstrate is a technique called Kubi Nage, which is a head throw, when someone is attacking you from a distance and you just go and get out of the way and throw that person using his own strength against him. Before I actually do the live throw, basically what is going to happen is as James attacks I am going to block him out of the way and attack his head and turn him in a circle to allow the throw to happen. In real time it is going to look like this and James will be thrown. For our purposes here, we actually hold onto to our partner rather than let the partner go and absorb all of the shock himself. And one more time from this direction as James attacks, you will notice that my first move is getting out of the way attacking and then supporting his weight as he falls. We will be right back."