crushing fingers when doing taiatari

[samurai999]

I have a question for all the more experienced kenshi out there. Whenever doing taiatari, my thumbs get totally crushed especially my left one. This especially happens against the beginners. They come running in towards you and slam into you like a linebacker in football.

I tried a number of things. I collpase my arms, but not all the way to my do.(sorta gets tiring when doing kakarigeiko) I position my shinai at more of an angle with the vertical such that my arms are positioned outside the area of my dou.

Are there any other suggetions out there? Am I not receiving correctly? My supply of Air Salonpas is running out.

Tim

[Alicia]

the same happens to me. because i forget to recieve it properly. but when i remember (after having my thumbs mashed), i fix it by keeping my hands low, and pushing my hands forward, elbows in and turning my wrists inwards. (*sitting here recieving pretend taiataris and realsising how hard it is to explain*)
also, what do you mean by collapsing your arms? i cant really picture it. does it help?

[Kirin]

As you said, collasing your arm (easing impact) should help.
But probably your finger is getting crushed by opponents' tuka (between right and left grip)
If this is the case, you should adjust position of your left knuckle when recieving taiatari. When you recieve taiatari, if your opponents' height is same as yours, position of your left knuckle should be same as your chudan.
..and should adjust position of your left knuckle according to opponents' height.
...and also placing your left knuckle 'half' grip to your left might help.(still your left grip is in center.... kindda like hira-seigan)

But most of all, you need to educate proper taiatari to beginners.

ps. instead of Air Salonpas, try Banterin by Kowa. Works great for me!

[samurai999]

I found out today after kyoka renshu that my fingers are getting crushed because maybe my left hand is positioned a little too high. when Somebody comes barreling in, I always get it crushed against my do. But still, the positioning is really hard to get perfect every time. I guess I'll just have to watch it when going against the more "heftier kenshi" and especially big, helfty, adult kyu kenshi..

Thanks for your replies.

Tim

[Yowai]

I have never experienced this. Do people tackle their receivers to the ground in gaikoku dojos?

[Bleda]

*spears yowai to the ground*

There you go yowai

[Hongsermeier]

Tim,

Adult Kyu Hefty....We're not all like that. Maybe you miss the French at practice. :

[Halcyon]

tim,

two things to remember when you're going taiatari.

1. keep your elbows tucked in close to your body, rather than splayed out.
2. keep your hands low, closer to your abdomen rather than up near your chest.

this will allow you to keep your wrists BEHIND your tsuka, rather than rotated outward. if your wrists are rotated outward, you can't exert any force to cushion the collision. your hands will just get crushed beween your opponent and your do.

hope this helps.

[samurai999]

tim,

two things to remember when you're going taiatari.

1. keep your elbows tucked in close to your body, rather than splayed out.
2. keep your hands low, closer to your abdomen rather than up near your chest.

this will allow you to keep your wrists BEHIND your tsuka, rather than rotated outward. if your wrists are rotated outward, you can't exert any force to cushion the collision. your hands will just get crushed beween your opponent and your do.

hope this helps.

Thanks for the advice. However, my troubles start with my left thumb. My right thumb is usually unscathed. The location where my thumb gets crushed is towards the bottom edge of my do. I have even jammed my wrist at one point. My left wrist now makes a nice "poki-poki" sound whenever I try to rotate it. When somebody comes barreling in w/o any sort of control, I just throw his/her hands down so my wrist doesn't get crushed. I'm surprised that my wrists weren't broken yet.

Hey hongs. We now have a kenshi that dwarfs French in size. I always get hurt against this guy. His hands are usually too high so he always punches me in the face. Whenever he lowers his hands and does taiatari, my arms just get forced into my do and I come out with tons of bruises.

Tim

[hyuna]

Tim,

When your thumb gets crushed, do you mean it gets crushed between your tsuka and your do, or between your tsuka and your opponent's, or something else?

For what it's worth, I find purposefully "collapsing" my arms works very badly for me in pretty much all circumstances. I don't lock my elbows so a strong taiatari will cause my elbows to bend just because of the force, but I never get good results by trying to cushion receiving taiatari. Rather, when receiving a taiatari, at the last moment I use tenouchi and push with my back foot as if I were doing taiatari to my opponent. I try to control the strength of my push to be appropriate to the strength of the taiatari coming in.

I'll also second Halcyon's comment -- when I receive taiatari, I find that my elbows are touching the sides of my do, with left forearm more-or-less parallel to the ground. So, elbows tucked in, tsuka low.

[samurai999]

Ya.. I was experimenting the other day in practice. I tried keeping the "triangulation" in my arms and kept my elbows up against my do but my thumb was still getting crushed. My arms just can't hold too well against heftier kenshi, so my arms GET collpased. I didn't purposely collapse them this time. And Hyuna, only my left thumb gets crushed against my do and my tsuka.

I also found out that my shinai was tilted a bit towards my opponent so that's probably why my thumb was getting crushed. (If my shinai is tilted towards my opponent, my left hand is tilted more towards my do and therefore, it would hit first and absorb the brunt of the force exerted by the taiatari executed) So therefore, I fixed it and it worked. I am now enlightened.

Anyways, thanks all for your advice!

Tim

[m_french]

I'll just have to watch it when going against the more "heftier kenshi" and especially big, helfty, adult kyu kenshi..

Thanks for your replies.

Tim

I resemble that remark!

[hyuna]

If you're specifically receiving taiatari, like for kirikaishi or whatever, instead of just absorbing the impact, try doing your own very short taiatari back. That is, just before impact, use tenouchi and throw your weight forward to stop your opponent in front of you. Perhaps that will help you keep the triangle intact.