Break away & control
There are different kinds of attacking movements when confronting an opponent.
- Punching, striking, pushing…..
- Kicking
- Grasping
- Other attacks
Ridatsu-ho & seigo-ho are skills to deal with grasping attacks. The most basic grasping attack is certainly “grasping the wrist” and is the subject of many sequences in Tomiki Aikido kata. Koryu no kata dai yon has many examples of ridatsu-ho & seigo-ho.
The elbow in Ridatsu-ho and Seigo-ho
When the wrist is grasped, the common reaction is to resist the area of contact. Creating a skill of emptying the wrist will give you the opportunity to use the elbow and create “kuzushi”. The 7-hon-no-kuzushi omote and ura are movements where you use elbow power without touching the opponent with the elbow. In other cases we can use the elbow for pushing or hitting the opponent.
This is an example of an elbow skill in Sumo, Japanese traditional wrestling. It is said Sokaku Takeda, the founder of (Meiji era) Daito Ryu Aikijutsu, was a skillful practitioner in Sumo (Ozeki rank).
We also can see the use of the elbow in traditional Japanese jujutsu. In this example the corresponding hand is put at the waist level to create one body-block, the elbow is used with fullbody circular power against the arm of the opponent.
Tomiki Aikido & Tegatana
Tegatana is a special feature of Tomiki’s Aikido. The origin of the tegatana skill can be found in Daito Ryu Aikijujutsu and it is known that Kenji Tomiki asked advice at Maeda sensei, the headmaster of Renshinkan at that time. Maeda was a student of Matsuda sensei who was in turn a student of Sokaku Takeda, the founder of Daito Ryu Aikijujutsu.
The impact of the tegatana on Tomiki Aikido can be clearly seen in many applications of ridatsu-ho & seigo-ho. As an example, the elbow has a “power” role to play to free the wrist from th grip, followed by an atemi or controlling grip.
Study Group Tomiki Aikido 
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