Disclaimer; this is not necessarily the correct way of doing this technique, it is the way I see how it should be done.

差合 SASHI AI

Technique No 3 from Kukishin-ryu Rokushaku Bôjutsu – Keiko sabaki kata

1. I assume Chûdan no kamae and plan to make the opponent open up his left side…

2. I move the left foot forward to the left and enter in to the opponent’s right side. I angle the body in a way to draw the attention to my left hand and hide the right hand sliding back to the end of the staff.

3. I step forward with the left foot and thrust in chudan-tsuki to the opponent and force him to move. Since I enter on his right side I pretty much force him to move to his left.

Note: If he is not moving I strike through his guard and get him. If he put force into the block it is better for me, but I’m not waiting to feel it (physically) then it would be to late for the next step.

4. I quickly move the right foot forward and strike his left elbow with dô-uchi.

5. Then another quick kote-haneage strike from under to his right arm to completely disarm him. The kata officially finish here, but it is easy to keep going and take control of the space and the weapon he just lost.

6. Then I jump back to Seigan no kamae and assume zanshin (because the next kata starts from here which makes it easier to remember the next kata).

After you and your partner have learned the kata, try to work on a better defense with the sword. Try to be more offensive and gradually make it more difficult to attack with the staff, instead of moving backwards move forwards and be more offensive. The swordsman’s distance is shorter and he need to be on a safe distance or closer where he can get the opponent with the staff quickly. The person with the staff need to be outside the swordsman’s reach or be completely covered. You can practice this technique with more freely distance and timing, but keep the same sequence of attacks (keep to the kata). If you do this I suggest you use safe weapons (padded weapons) and maybe protections, or just be very careful.

There is also kuden; things taught personally from teacher to student, so please find a good teacher and study with him/her.

Happy training!

/Mats

One of the shihan who have been training with Soke for 47 years! Said that in the beginning when they trained in the basics they to did very deep kamae. But the feet was just shoulder width apart not so wide apart as most westerners do when they go deep in their kamae.

He said that they did this for some 20 years, then the next phase in training came when the theme changed to much wider stances. And this was around the same time the first westerners came to train in japan in the late 70’s and early 80’s.

足運び ASHIHAKOBI is the name of the technique the Sumo wrestlers use when they walk with the center of gravity as low as possible. With the feet’s too wide apart it would be very difficult to move quickly. And with the center of gravity too high they would be easily pushed out of the ring. Maybe now you get the idea better. 

Please don’t misunderstand me, keeping the feet wide apart makes it more difficult and useful in training, which I strongly believe is good for training drills. I think it is better to make the training drills more difficult and more demanding. But in practical use you should not keep the feet too far from each other because it will slow down your movement too much. It is very important to know what is a practice drill and what you would do in reality! 

Here is two video clips of Sumo matches, one is very bad use of ashihakobi, and one is good. The first one is the bad example, with these not so good “sumo wrestlers“. Compare the center of gravity of the previous ones with these two and you clearly see the difference. It is also a quite funny Sumo wrestling clip.

The first kanji 足 means foot or leg. The second kanji 運 means `carry’, `luck’, `destiny’, `fate’, `lot’, `transport’, `progress’, `advance’.