Aikido Striking Tips: Kokomen Uchi

Video Transcript

In the intermediate section of striking, a yokomen uchi is a side strike which is a lot like a shomen strike where it comes up and down, only now, it's a circular strike to the side of the head. Targeting, one of my favorite points is right here on the side of the neck. Imagine he's Frankenstein, and has bolts coming out of the side of his neck. That's exactly where I want to hit him. Along good place is right along the, right below the ear, right along the jawline. If you hit someone really hard on this side, it'll actually break the jaw on this side. And if that's a viable thing that you can do, in a self-defense situation, and you think well that's very not aikido-like, well, breaking his jaw versus having to kill him, that's harmonious to me. If he's really trying to attack me and the only thing I can do to stop him is to break his jaw to stop him, I think that's a pretty good choice. But when I'm teaching my students I'll usually tell them to hit them in the side of the neck. There's a pressure point on the side of the neck and you're going to see an example from this, just from hitting him like that it will drop the person down. Obviously in training class you don't want to hit that hard on your uchi. But if you need to hit someone for real, that's the way I would do it. Come in here and hit the person into the neck. On the side of the jaw you'd see even greater reaction, but there's a chance for damage so I usually don't hit people too hard on the side of the jaw. But in training, step in, wham, that's exactly where I'm going to aim for. The other thing a yokomen strike, that can be a hook punch. I'll teach punching to the side of the jaw too, just like this. They need to get out of the way, if I'm using my knuckles to a hook punch, I'll strike right on the side of the jaw here, or right back here behind the ear, and dig my knuckles into it, just like this. He needs to learn to get out of the way, otherwise I will hit him.

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