Tai no henkō

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Tai no henkō ( Japanese体 の 変 更) is Japanese and means "reversal of the body position". These include Irimi (direct entry) and Tenkan (indirect entry). Tai no henkō is also known as Tai no tenkan or Tenkan waza . Tai no henkō is one of the most important basic forms of many Aikidō techniques and is regularly repeated during training. With Irimi, the tori enters the attack of the uke , while the energies of tori and uke do not meet through a block, but merge or harmonize. The next movement, Tenkan, can be carried out via this merging. Here, the fused (bundled) energies are passed on from the tori, so that the attacker Uke is led past the tori with all the bundled energy. The tori has now changed its body position exactly opposite to the origin (180 °).

Tai no henkō or Tai no tenkan is a fundamental basic exercise in Aikidō, as essential elements and basic ideas of Aikido (gentle absorption and forwarding of the attack energy) become immediately visible and tangible when performing this movement.

execution

The attacker (uke) grabs the practitioner's left wrist (tori) with his right hand, or the right wrist with his left hand reversed. The partners stand in the position of gyaku hanmi (mirror symmetry). The handle is to be set so that the hand (tight) encloses the wrist (katate dori) and remains closed during the technique in order to maintain contact between the tori and uke. The reason lies in the origin of the aikido techniques . These come from Japanese sword fighting ( Ken-jutsu ). Loosely grasping your own sword ( katana ) is life-threatening, as the sword can be knocked out of the hand with a light blow. In addition, the opponent's katana is controlled by the contact of the blades. A central element of the exercise is that the quality of this grip is maintained in the following movement of the practitioner.

Sequence: The practitioner moves his own body with a sliding forward step (“mae ashi Irimi” or “tsugi ashi”) towards the hand he is holding and, with Tenkan, immediately turns his own body on the front foot by 180 ° on reaching this point. Both are now looking in the same direction. The practitioner directs his gaze into the distant space. He keeps the body largely upright, centered in his own focus. The position of both arms is held loosely with the palms open. In Tai no henkō, the pivot point is in the area of ​​the wrist that the partner has gripped. This movement brings the attacker, provided he wants to keep his hand tightly closed (“maintaining the attack”), in a very unfavorable position in his position and posture.

On the one hand, Tai no henkō aims to synchronize the practiced rotation of the body with the attack energy. On the other hand, the accessing partner practices accepting this movement by keeping the hand closed.