Hello all.

The Kote Gaeshi wristlock is one of the first locks I learned in Traditional JJ. For those not familiar, it is the compressing and twisting lock where your thumb(s) is on the back of their hand with your gripping fingers at the base of their wrist.

The lock occurs as you rotate their own wrist up and inward. It becomes a throw when foot work is added as the lock has a way of pulling them out of balance.

Of course, for SD the throw is more of a crumple as without proper ukemi, the uke just gets his wrist broken.

Yes, I love doing this wrist lock. One of my favorites.

Thumb on knuckles, press down on fingers out and back to you and the uke goes straight down. Or throw with the power step. Or just lock it up. Either way, when you get this tight, it's either cooperation or a broken wrist.

When I was a young guy I did break someones wrist with Kote Gaeshi. I was in High school and another kid pinned me up against a wall and threaten me with a knife to my neck. It worked like a charm on many levels. I disarmed him and put the knife in a teachers desk. I went to a kind of tough school. After the incedent I actually heard one guy tell another guy that was thinking about instigating say "Don't F*^( with Cook he'll brake your arm".

Kotegaeshi is one of my favorites as well. I love using it against a traditional straight punch or a jab. Pivoting as they move slightly before their punch (they need to get in range) aim for their shoulder (in actuality their inner elbow, but it's a timing thing)... as they extend your hand will be in the "v" their arm makes in the process of punching. From this point is is easy to "capture" the wrist, quickly turn and cut down. If you can spin and ride the motion of their punch you can hook their wrist as they finish their extension. A slight continuation forward will pull them waaaay off balance...pretty easy after that point.
Training with a good partner may result in being hit several times, but in the end, it'w well worth it.

What do you think of kote gaeshi as a weapon disarming technique?

Kote-gaeshi as a disarm? Well, from my viewpoint, any technique which results in the knife NOT pointing at my direction is a good disarm. Oh, you have to be able to take it from his hands as well. No Hollywood stuff of dropping the knife to the ground and kicking it away, that's dangerous. A) You could hit someone with the knife, or B) Your "victim"'s friends may pick it up and use it on you.

Kote-gaeshi. . That was the second move I learnt but when I was taught it was totally different from traditional JJJ. We use this after a mae-geri, grab the wrist with one hand, the other hand slams onto the elbow, another geri and then proceed with the step. I agree, if you don't have good ukemi, this is gonna break your wrist.

I believe, Kote-gaeshi if practiced properly is a solid tool in your arsenal for SD situations. It's also a good disarm as the pain in the arm will make the uke release any objects in the arm. If the uke is grounded and you still have control of the arm, many techniques can be followed.

-Taison out

This is also one of the first techniques I learned. I learned it on my second lesson ever in JJ actually.

From a traditional standpoint, I love Kote Gaeshi. It has entries from grabs, punches, thrusts, slashes, you name it. In a demo, it always gets oohs and ahhs. Past that however, I do not teach it, especially not for weapon counters.

Love to watch it though. With ukemi, it is poetry in motion.

Kote-gashi is a standard technique found in the kihon (basic) syallabus of most aikido school. It is a very effective technique against knife (tanto actually, if we wish to be nit-picky ).

But it is not one of my favourite moves. As I have found out that in multiple uke scenarios, while working under pressure, I usually slip the grip. Sweaty palms and wrists are not condusive to this technique either.

Xwf

That's interesting Fletch. So you don't see it as a valid or dependable response to a weapon disarm?

There are some other variations from the same entries when (a botched) kote gaeshi can be turned into a kote mawashi (wrist return) or kote oroshi (wrist drop) - depending on the situation.

Do you do the takedown and pins as well from kote gaeshi?