Aikido Shomen Uchi Tips

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 proper Morotedori Waza techniques and moves. Take it a step further and learn other Japanese specific Aikido techniques that are only referred to in the Japanese native tongue. This expert is a black belt in Aikido and will not lead you astray. You’ll learn many self defense tips for practical everyday situations.

Video Transcript

"As I discussed before with the principles of the striking, one of the things that drives me crazy in aikido dojo is when they do Shomen strike, and they strike to the top of the person's skull. You're going to try to hit the hardest part of the skull with the soft part of your hand? That's a very impractical strike and I don't like to train that way. I want to train with integrity, meaning I want to train for the actual situation. Most people are not going to start like this, come up, and try to hit me right on top of the skull. The correct place to strike as I told you before is the collarbone. The collarbone has a much more power, a much more chance of withstanding a break if you hit it straight in. If you hit it from the top, you have a much greater chance to break that. It's not a fatal wound; it's just going to make that arm inoperable, if in a striking situation, if you have to do that, that's what you need to do. So my Shomen strike will come here, bam! From here, drop down right on it. From here, one, two, notice my hand is relaxed, relaxed, relaxed. The moment of impact, it's tight and it's relaxed again. You can strike either side, one, or two. One of the things I don't like to train is coming up like this, because that's too telegraphed and I feel that if you can deal with a Shomen strike from here, boom! Then this is child's play. So I like to train for the worst case scenario. If she's got a bottle, or a knife, or something else in her hand, and she goes to strike me, well that's another thing that I can deal with. But the overhead action is going to be very, very similar. If you can deal with this quick up and down motion, then you could deal with the over the head attack any day of the week. Okay. So demonstrate the tight Shomen. Boom. And the telegraphed Shomen? Gotcha."