Aikido moves: Katadori yokomenuchi attack

The popular Facebook group “Aikido” shares well-written content about the traditional martial art, and the technical notebook.

Katadori yokomenuchi is a combination of two attacks: katadori and yokomenuchi, very similar to katadori menuchi. Uke grabs tori by the shoulder, and immediately follows up with a yokomenuchi strike. Since the initial attack is katadori, the relation between uke and tori is that of gyakuhanmi, so that if one has the left foot forward, then the other has right foot forward.

This is not a very common attack form in aikido – usually the katadori menuchi is used, with a shomen strike, and rarely a yokomen strike. The yokomen is a bit more awkward to do, since it is to the other side of tori, from where the katadori grip is applied. In the sword arts, though, there is actually little difference between shomen and yokomen, so where one is easy to to do, the other should be almost as easy.

Just like with katadori menuchi, most aikido students are taught that tori should wait for the second attack, the shomenuchi. Uke should make sure to do the attack so, that there is no pause between the katadori grip and the yokomenuchi strike.

Leave a Reply

History of Karate

Karate (空手) (/kəˈrɑːti/; Japanese pronunciation: [kaɾate] (About this soundlisten); Okinawan pronunciation: [kaɽati]) is a martial

Read More..