-Anatomy-and-Aikido-Perceptual-and-Motor-Skills

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Perceptual and Motor Skills, 1991, 73, 1227-1234. @ Perceptual and Motor Skills 1991 A MARTIAL ARTS EXPLORATION OF ELBOW ANATOMY: IKKYO (AIKIDO'S FIRST TEACHING) GREGORY D. OLSON Department of Health and Human Development Montana State University

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FRANK C. SEITZ WAMI Medical School Program Montana State University

THOMAS E. STENZEL Big Sky Aikikai, Montana State University Summary.- The Martial Art of Aikido, based on several effective anatomical principles is used to subdue a training partner. One of these methods is Ikkyo (First Teaching). According to Saotome. the original intent of Ikkyo was to "break the elbow joint of an enemy". Nowadays the intent is to secure or pin a training partner to the mat. This investigation focused on examining Ikkyo with the purpose of describing rhe nerves, bones, and muscles involved in receiving this technique. Particular focus was placed on the locations and sources of the reported pain.

The Japanese martial arts, apart from being sophisticated forms of combat, involve complex manipulation of human anatomy and physiology. These martial arts forms have taken many different patterns and shapes reflecting a variety of philosophies, social environments, and cultural contexts. Judo, Karate-do, Kendo, and Aikido are but some of the modern forms with which people of the western world are more familiar. Aikido ("Way of divine harmony") represents one of the modern systems of Japanese combat recently introduced to the western world. Its teachings provide some impressive techniques of anatomical manipulation, which underlie some of the Oriental martial arts "secrets." This investiga- tion examined one of Aikido's basic teachings, Ikkyo (First Teaching), also known as Ude-Osae (Arm Securing/Pinning), and the etiology of pain and the anatomical structures involved when this teaching is applied in its proper pinning/securing form; see Fig. 1. The Ikkyo technique and some of its variations may also be found in other Japanese fighting arts such as Judo ("Way of flexibility"), Jujutsu ("Combative art of flexibility"), and Aiki-jujutsu ("Combative art of divine harmony") as well as other Asian and Western hand-to-hand fighting forms.


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