Category: Koei-Kan

I got to try some ground work with Sensai Robles on tusday night. He hurt his neck and was wearing a t-shirt. This was eye opening as it meant there was no collar on his garment to grab onto. So collar chokes were out. Turns out chokes and strangles are most of my ground work which was an interesting discovery in and of itself and definitely something I need to work on. Since I had nothing to work with on above the wast I kept trying to get Sensai with a figure four ankle lock. Apparently I did a comical job of it because when we were done Sensai though I was trying for the achilles lock. He was giving me the benefit of the doubt – the Achilles Lock is a much better technique to go for from the position I kept working from. 

The Achilles Lock is an ankle lock where the Radius of Nage’s arm is driven into the Achilles tendon of Uke. The technique is shown below from a seated position – but it looks like this technique can also be used from a standing position. 

The figure below shows the bones and muscles of the lower leg. The Achilles tendon connects the calf muscles to the Calcaneus or heal bone. It sits behind the tibia.

Once Nage positions the radius of his forearm on the achilles tendon of Uke, he sets the technique by arching his back away from Uke. The set is similar in this respect to a seated arm bar.  I need to talk to Sensai and ask him to show me ways to setup this technique – I tried this out on two different people at the dojo but just could not get into position to throw the technique. 

The achilles tendon connects to one of the strongest muscle groups in the body. It can apparently take 2-12 times the persons body weight when running or jumping. That stress is translated along the length of the leg. Two common achilles injuries are when the achilles stretches or snaps. Since this technique applies force orthogonally to the tendon I am forced to wonder how likely it is to cause achilles injury when applied. If not a snap – certainly a stressing or strain.

Sensai taught this technique last thursday (May 28th) – unfortunately I did not write it down right away and now that I sat down to capture it the details are fuzzy. The technique is a reversal, starting from a bottom position nage escapes the mount and puts uke in an arm-bar. The figure shows Nage putting an arm bar on Uke’s right hand

Step one

To start the technique Nage captures Uke’s right hand – immobilizing it on his chest with his left hand. If Uke is setting up Nage for a technique that starts with a lapel grab – like a deep collar choke – that lapel grab sets up Uke for the technique. So this technique should make for a counter.

As part of setting the escape up Nage makes sure the leg on the side he is arm baring is on Uke’s hip or higher. So if Nage is arm-barring Uke’s right arm then Nage’s right leg is on Uke’s left hip as shown in the figure. 

Step two and three

Nage wants to rotate under Uke. Nage does a hip out under Uke. At the same time Nage hooks Uke’s inner thigh with his right hand. This hook lets Nage spin under Uke as opposed to the escaping movement a normal hip out would cause. 

Step four

Nage raises his outer leg and hooks it over Uke’s neck. Since Nage still has Uke’s arm immobilized Uke is basically a tripod and unstable. So with Uke’s head hooked Nage can flip Uke over onto his back with just the leg hook. 

Step five

Uke’s shoulder and torso should be touching Nage’s rear, if it is not Nage may have to slide his body forward. Uke’s arm runs through Nage’s groin with Uke’s upper arm resting on Nage’s pelvic bone. Nage’s hip forms the base of a fulcrum formed by Uke’s arm so it is important that the arm is resting on the hip bone and prevented from moving side to side by being sandwiched between Nage’s Legs. Nage sets the technique by arching his hips into the technique – this applies force on the joints using Uke’s arm as a leaver. 

The seated arm bar is a joint technique executed on both the shoulder complex and elbow.  So the arm needs to be straight so the technique locks out both the elbow joint as well as the shoulder.