The unbendable arm in deashibarai (that I hinted at in the previous post) is the same kind of unbendable arm you see in oshitaoshi (ikkyo) in aikido. It is not a downward snatching motion, as seen in the previous videos, but when uke's balance becomes disrupted somewhat, and he drops, tori's hand floats downward with uke until it locks into a downward-pressing unbendable arm. Uke drops and tori's unbendable arm holds him down. Check out tori's left arm in the following decent video about the time that uke hits the ground.
Now watch the following video of Kyuzo Mifune doing ashiwaza. Of course it's hard to be certain with this old, low-quality video, but it doesn't appear that Mifune snatches down to smash uke. Mifune does the sweep, and as uke falls, Mifune's arm that is hooked to the falling man extends and ends up straight. There are a couple of times in the video that the arm not only ends up in extension, but has power in it - thus the unbendable arm.
Hop back and forth between the aikido and the judo videos above a time or two, and you'll see the unbendable, downward-pressing arm that I'm talking about.
____________Patrick Parker, is a Christian, husband, father, judo and aikido teacher, Program Director for a Cardiac Rehab, and a Ph.D. Contact: mokurendojo@gmail.com or phone 601.248.7282
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