SANKYO GRIP
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From: Charles Yeomans <yeomans@EUCLID.COLORADO.EDU>
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What is the proper grip for sankyo?  I know that
there must be one true answer, so I figured I
would get all of them from the list.

THe way I first learned sankyo is like this:
grab uke's right hand with your left, the web of your
hand  approximately at the bend of uke's
wrist, on the thumb side.  Your fingers
grab the edege of uke's hand, and you
bend uke's wrist so that the back of his hand makes
an angle approaching 90 degrees with the arm.
Your other hand reinforces the sankyo.
And as you apply sankyo, move it at about
uke's chest level.

Upon joining a new dojo, I found their sankyo
was different. They held the hand below the wrist,
kept the hand more in line with the rest of the arm, and
held uke's hand somewhat lower when applying sankyo.

My experience has been that how I actually do sankyo
depends on uke's attack and my response.  What do
the rest of you think?

Charles Yeomans
UK Aikido Club

Currently on tour:  does your sensei need to be
reminded of common mistakes students make?
Invite me to visit!

From: Eric Inazaki <eric@HOWDY.WUSTL.EDU>
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  I usually have my thumb on the knuckle of the index finger
  or between the knuckles of the index and 'bird' fingers.
  Somewhere in there, I'm not terribly precise.

  For a takedown you'd probably bend the wrist
  but I don't think it's necessary for a comealong.
  Also, you want the uke's upper and forearm at about
  right angles to each other and the elbow should lead.

> Your other hand reinforces the sankyo.
  The other hand doesn't have to get involved at all.
  In fact you should probably train w/o it (may need
  that hand for something else).

From: Wollstein <100670.430@COMPUSERVE.COM>
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My experience has been that how I actually do sankyo
depends on uke's attack and my response.  What do
the rest of you think?

    While this is certainly true, I think the grip shouldn't
    be very different. What can make quite a big difference
    in your grip is the size of uke's hand in relation to
    yours!

    If you wish to collect the opinions of how it should be
    done acc. to the different senseis, here's the one from
    our dojo:

    We do grab uke's hand so that the web between thumb and
    first finger is below uke's wrist, your last (small)
    finger should be wrapped around the palm where uke's
    small finger is attached to the palm (reads funny, right?).
    (You see that people with small hands will have to make
    quite an effort here.)

    We also keep uke's hand and forearm in line or only slightly
    bent, putting a lot of torsional tension (twisting the hand
    in relation to the forearm) on his wrist and holding his
    hand AT LEAST chest high (somewhere between chest and
    armpit) depending on what uke needs. (This, too, is hard
    for short people.)

    We tend to hold the hand so high because one of the
    kaeshi-waza taught in our dojo (don't try unless you
    have very robust wrists or have informed nage prior
    to trying it!) is evading/reversing the sankyo by
    by pulling the elbow upwards and backwards first,
    giving to nage's force.

    Another point is that when you keep uke's hand too low,
    and commit the additional mistake of bending his wrist
    (only possible when little torsion is applied to the wrist)
    there is another kaeshi-waza: Uke will then turn his body
    away from you (letting you hold his wrist behind his back)
    and hit you with the other elbow.