Anyone ever use Aikido style wrist stretches/strengthening for handstand training?

[Josh Vogel]

I've been doing thinking a lot about wrist prep after being exposed to the excellent handstand one course and also participating in a Hand balancing class at the Circus school in Philly and it got me thinking about how different martial arts approach wrist prep. I'm a Brazilian Jiujitsu instructor, and there's not much that I've seen in Bjj to deal with this, but I see Aikido guys yanking each other around by the wrists all over the place and it seems like they have pretty well developed wrists. Does anyone have any experience with this?

 

  I found this on youtube, and am going to experiment with some of these stretches. It's a different range of motion than Hand balancing, of course, but I'm curious to see how it effects both my hand balancing practice and my Bjj practice. 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DnAV_NziRg

[Ryan Libke]

I have observed some Aikido practices utilizing wrist push-ups that are not unlike the ones prescribed in the handstand course.  As you observe, Aikido, and some jujutsu ryu, emphasize seizing and locking the wrist, so it makes sense to prepare this joint.  I would think that having only a pronounced range of motion would not be enough; there would need to be resilience through a range of motion in order to help guard against injury.  

 

I read once that one of the reasons some of the jujutsu ryu focus some much on the wrist and controlling the hand is because of the predominance of bladed weapons in the classical setting.  Controlling the wrist and hand was then essential.  Not sure if that is actually true, but I guess it makes sense.  

 

Roy Dean has a DVD on wrist locks, put in the context of BJJ and submission wrestling.  I have wanted to purchase it; his other material is quite good.  He trained extensively in Aikido before turning his attention to BJJ.  I don't know if there is any wrist prep material on it.  I would think that the handstand wrist material would otherwise be very good for preparing the wrist for grappling martial arts such as bjj, judo, aikido, etc.  I have not trained grappling for a while, but my wrists do feel more resilient now after having been doing the handstand wrist work regularly.  

[Jeandel Matthieu]

Hello 

 

Just reply because I am a 5th dan Aikido and international teacher. Wrist prep in Aikido are far less interesting than what Coach Sommer give in Handstadn courses. 

 

I am personnal trainer with the speciality of injuries prevention and rehab. 

 

Just say that in order to say I know a little bit Aikido practice and sport training. 

 

Some Aikido teacher use some exercices but without any progression, or difference between the stiff guy and the hyperflexible one. 

The other problem is Aikido wrist prep is just flexibility, Coach Sommer progression is flexibility and strenght really different and much more interesting. 

[Josh Vogel]

I have observed some Aikido practices utilizing wrist push-ups that are not unlike the ones prescribed in the handstand course.  As you observe, Aikido, and some jujutsu ryu, emphasize seizing and locking the wrist, so it makes sense to prepare this joint.  I would think that having only a pronounced range of motion would not be enough; there would need to be resilience through a range of motion in order to help guard against injury.  

 

I read once that one of the reasons some of the jujutsu ryu focus some much on the wrist and controlling the hand is because of the predominance of bladed weapons in the classical setting.  Controlling the wrist and hand was then essential.  Not sure if that is actually true, but I guess it makes sense.  

 

Roy Dean has a DVD on wrist locks, put in the context of BJJ and submission wrestling.  I have wanted to purchase it; his other material is quite good.  He trained extensively in Aikido before turning his attention to BJJ.  I don't know if there is any wrist prep material on it.  I would think that the handstand wrist material would otherwise be very good for preparing the wrist for grappling martial arts such as bjj, judo, aikido, etc.  I have not trained grappling for a while, but my wrists do feel more resilient now after having been doing the handstand wrist work regularly.  

Nice, I like Roy Deans stuff too. I'll check and see if there is any mention of wrist prep in any reviews or anything. 

 

  I have been noticing that my wrists are a little more resilient from the wrist prep in handstand one and my grip strength/stability has improved a lot from that plus the handstand course I'm taking. I notice it most when I'm performing chokes with different wrist ranges of motion that used to bother me or lack endurance before. 

[Josh Vogel]

Hello 

 

Just reply because I am a 5th dan Aikido and international teacher. Wrist prep in Aikido are far less interesting than what Coach Sommer give in Handstadn courses. 

 

I am personnal trainer with the speciality of injuries prevention and rehab. 

 

Just say that in order to say I know a little bit Aikido practice and sport training. 

 

Some Aikido teacher use some exercices but without any progression, or difference between the stiff guy and the hyperflexible one. 

The other problem is Aikido wrist prep is just flexibility, Coach Sommer progression is flexibility and strenght really different and much more interesting. 

Awesome, thanks for the feedback and the perspective! That makes sense about the lack of progression. That's common in the Bjj world too in that the solo exercises that are often used to develop mobility or strength seldom have any sense of progression to them. They are more along the lines of "once you get the hang of this, do more of them". The joint prep in Handstand one and Foundation one are really fantastic and part of the appeal for me is that I think my Bjj and my students Bjj could benefit from using these approaches, provided I eventually understand their workings better.

[Jeandel Matthieu]

Just to complete, you can find all the version of the wrist prep in Aikido in foundation or handstand courses. But what really make the difference is you have in a whole body prep. 

 

By example: in aikido a lot of teacher use some tecnic for wrist prep but a lot of injuries in the elbow, shoulder or back. It's completely wrong to consider what it's is done in Aikido as a prep. Most of the teachers don't have the knowledge to do it but most of the people who joint a Aikido dojo are not coming to prep their body. 

 

Some traditionnal style of Karate in Okinawa have more prep exercice called "Tanren" (maybe more strenght less flexibilty).

 

Each discipline developp prep they need or they think they need. Since I practice foundation and handstand courses, my Aikido practice is better, feel my body freer and stronger. 

[Ryan Libke]

I just read an excellent book called Hojo Undo, which loosely translates to "supplementary training."  This was a part of te training (recognizing there were a number of names used to describe what we usually refer to as karate) on Okinawa, and used a number of tools for preparing and strengthening the body.  The author does not assert that the traditional methods are somehow superior to modern training methods, but there are some really interesting practices described.  From what I understand, most of the hojo undo practices did not travel extensively to Japan, and hence, did not spread internationally with the Japanese influenced karate-do.  I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the history of martial arts, and certainly to modern karateka.

 

Also of note, relative to the training prescribed in the GB courses, are references to the prevalence of rope climbing as a supplement to Judo training in the book Falling Hard.  The benefits of rope climbing to Judo or other grappling arts and sports seems patent.  

[Michaël Van den Berg]

The traditional goju ryu karate method of 'supplementary training' (hojo undo) involves lots of interesting exercises for the wrists/forearms/shoulders. Check the following oldskool documentary:

Hojo undo starts at the 35.20 mark. The next section ('gripping jars') is also nice.

[Michaël Van den Berg]

Hah, you beat me to it I'd already written my post but after adding the video link and feeding my three-month old son I forgot to hit the submit button

[Mark Weaver]

We did wrist stretches before every training session when I practiced Aikido, but like Matthieu said, they weren't really progressions.  The longer I practiced, the more strength and flexibility I felt.  I could get a deeper stretch when someone was practicing a technique before I had to tap out.

 

They also had some that aren't in handstand, like kotegaeshi, nikkyou, sankyou.

[Josh Vogel]

Nice, that Goju ryu video is awesome, thanks!

I'm going to check out that Hojo undo book also.

This kind of stuff is fascinating. I love hearing about the various ways that different martial arts approach preparing the body for the demands of the art.

[Josh Vogel]

Mark , my buddy who is an aikido teacher showed me some with the same names as the ones you mentioned. They seemed to be based more pn twisting movements of the wrist than what is found in hs one. Some cool stuff there!

[Blairbob]

 You also have to remember that the karate of Gichin Funakoshi-sensei which was developed and put into schools didn't seem to contain a lot of the old-school "body toughening exercises." At least not in the schools and I've never seen it the more popular Japanese forms of karate like Shotokan, Kyokushinkai, or Wado ryu that I'm familar with.

You'll still see variations of these training exercises in the Okinawan karate which pretty much all seem to stem from China.

[Mark Weaver]

Josh,

 

Yep.  There are a couple stretches for techniques that are similar to wrist stretches found in Handstand, but then there are the ones I mentioned that involve twisting.  They feel really good, especially sankyou.