Get A Grip!

Many Aikido moves are based on sword work.  I was grateful that my first teacher, the late Rocky Izumi Sensei had me started on Aikido weapons as a beginner.  It helped me see the connection between sword movements and empty-handed techniques.  Because of my own experience, I encourage every student to start practicing Aikido weapons as early as possible.

The most fundamental thing an Aikido student should know is how to hold a sword properly.

Many people hold the bokken the way they hold a hammer.  In kamae position, in order to aim the tip of the bokken at the throat of their partner, they adjust by "breaking their wrist", borrowing baseball terminology.  Holding the wrists like this engages the forearms excessively.  Arm movements become reliant on upper arm muscles.  The resulting stiffness makes it impossible to use the elbows -- the key joint in upper limb control -- swiftly.  

Another problem with such grip is that it tightens the neck and turns one's head into a counterweight.  It throws the head back a little bit, but enough to undermine one's posture altogether.  When your body is not connected within itself, how do you expect to connect to the earth, or with your partner?

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My teachers -- the late Rocky Izumi Sensei, the late Keneth Cottier Sensei, and Clyde Takeguchi Sensei -- showed me a grip that offers tremendous stability, strength and mobility.  Let me try to describe it on paper this way:

Hold your right hand out in a relaxed manner as if you are going to shake someone's hand.  Make sure your hand is pointing along the same line as your right foot.  Slide a bokken into your hand and close your fingers gently in place: start with the pinky, then the ring finger, middle finger, and finally, the index finger and the thumb.  Your fist should look more like a real heart shape than a square.  It is actually exactly the same way you hold a nage's wrist with katate-tori.  As Takeguchi Sensei explains, by having an unbroken line of contact all the way from your pinky to the thumb, you are melding the center of your palm with whatever you are holding to form an unbreakable connection.

Your palm and the knuckle of your index finger should be on top of the bokken.  The spine of the bokken should seat diagonally in your hand -- from the base of the index finger towards the pinky side of the wrist, resting against the heel of your hand.  The bokken should not be parallel to your knuckles.  If it is, what you have is a "hammer grip".

Let the handle of the bokken point towards the back, off your left hip.  Place your left hand on top of the bokken handle and close your hand the same way as with your right hand, like you were shaking hands with your bokken.  

Many beginners hold the bokken right in front of their belly as if the sword grew out of their belly button.  The end of the bokken handle should not be pointing at any part of you.  

Many people initially find it very difficult to hold a bokken with this grip because it feels like their elbows are jamming into their ribcage.  The reason for that is:  You are not standing in hanmi.  Even when you are standing with one foot forward one foot back, if you twist at your hips to face the front square on, your stance is not a hanmi.  If you stand in a true hanmi -- you should have front foot, hip, shoulder and arm on one side and back foot, hip, shoulder and arm on the other.  When your stance is well aligned, all the pieces will fit into your overall structure like a perfect puzzle. 

The feeling of holding a bokken is like trying to push it away with your extended arms and hands.  Yet, because the bokken blade is so long and so heavy, as it is trying to tumble out of your hand, gravity presses the handle into your hands.  So long as you stand in hanmi with your arms extended, the bokken will continue to be firmly planted in your hands without much effort from your part.  

I always remind students:  If you think your grip is not strong enough for holding a kitchen knife to cut a carrot, you probably should not use it to hold a sword.  

Whether your grip is stronger enough to stand up against some root vegetables or not, your gut feelings should be able to tell you.  In case you need more help, try chopping up some carrots (and serve them with some good ranch dressing) before you attend the next weapons class.  You will be surprised by what a little carrot can do for you.