Aikido Pressure Points

Aikido pressure points include nerves, arteries and other sensitive areas which can be squeezed of pressed to cause pain.

This is not because Aikidoka are some kind of sadists (though we often joke among ourselves about being masochistic.) It's that pain from Aikido pressure points works either as a distraction or as a means of getting Uke (your bad guy) to signal that he surrenders.

One example of a pain pressure point is the one in the web of the hand, at the base of the thumb. You can test the pain yourself by squeezing the fleshy part between your other thumb and index finger. When it hurts like crazy, you've found the nerve center.

I was taught to use this when grabbing Uke's hand to do Tenkai-Kotehineri on him. (That's a Sankyo technique where you duck low under Uke's armput as you step through and turn, bringing him up on his toes in pain. You then throw, pull or push him to the ground.

This is just one of numerous Aikido pressure points. Another one is the hollow at the base of the ear... A finger pressed here can get the most unco-operative person to jump. It hurts!

Alan Ames is the one who taught me, and I know he was taught in turn by the late John Gay, Shihan, in Melbourne... many years back. It was taught to Victorian police cadets at the police academy as a way to get passive protesters to move. That way they could be arrested with little fuss and frog-marched off.

It's not nice, I know, but pressure point controls are better for the demonstrators than being bashed with a police nightstick or subdued with pepper-spray.

Aikido Techniques