Aikiken defense: kote against a tsuki sword attack, by Stefan Stenudd 

AIKIKEN is the name for sword exercises in aikido. Here is a sequence where a chudan tsuki strike is parried and then countered by kote, a cut to the forearm or wrist. It can also be used against other sword attacks, such as chudan giri or shomen uchi.
In the parry, it is far more important to do taisabaki, the evasive step away from the line of the attack, than the actual parry with the sword. That step doesn’t have to be big, which would make it slower, but it should come as swiftly as a reflex. Actually, the goal is to make the taisabaki move a conditioned reflex.
The kote counter strike should be very swift, or it can easily be blocked. It is not done with the arms, but with the wrists. That’s enough for the kote strike.
This was filmed at an aikido seminar I held in Prague, Czech Republic, in February 2024.
I have several aikiken videos on my RU-vid channel. For exemple, here is one with the ten exercises of aikibatto:
• AIKIBATTO, ten duo swo...
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