What makes this “street”? That’s a loooong way round the block to get that wrist lock.
Agreed.
Wrist locks mostly suffer from not intelligently moving through the space to get to the throw.
It doesn't matter what you use a wrist lock for. You still need to move in to it safely.
We have an interesting situation here, where something has been broken and has pieces missing. Since it is broken, it does not work and is not effective. But what we are doing is trying to find ways for the broken item to function anyway.... without restoring the missing pieces or repairing the item.
We have a broken car.... the transmission has been ripped out. It is not effective. But, instead of fixing the car, and replacing the transmission, we are coming up with scenarios where if the car is on a hill, it will roll down the hill.... maybe if the hill is not steep enough, the vibration of the engine will help get it going.... but this leads to solutions like damaging the fly wheel, to unbalance it and cause more vibration, rather that replacing the missing pieces.....
The wrist lock we have been looking at has been broken. Pieces have been removed. So we are now looking at this broken, half technique and are trying to fix it, by finding a situation where the broken, half technique can be useful.
Aikido is not about technique.... it is about producing a type of movement with the body... it is about blending with your opponent. They took that wrist lock and took the lock out of it, so they could use it as a tool to teach a body motion and blending. Other arts have also taken the lock out of that wrist lock.... some to focus on other things, others because they want to be "safe," others because they never learned it any other way.
Bear is right when he says we don't move through space intelligently or safely. He usually, and correctly, points out that you need to lock down your opponent, in order to apply the lock or they just get out of it.
The pieces that have been removed, are the pieces that put you in the right space, at the right time and that do lock the rest of the other person from easily getting out of it.
When you grip the hand for the lock, by the time your hand closes, uke's hand needs to be separated from his body, uke's balance needs to be taken, and uke's structure needs to be broken. The broken balance and structure, lock uke out from being able to get any strength back into his hand / wrist. This should all happen while closing your hand around uke's wrist. Applying the lock takes very little movement at all, but that movement comes from your body, not your arm or hand.
I spent 40ish minutes, looking on youtube, for a correct demonstration of this.... every example I find on youtube, people are moving and whipping uke's arm all over the place.... the fact that uke is not broken, shows that they do not have the pieces all put together.
The above Tritac version shown above, also leaves out the important pieces that make that wrist lock effective. He does go around the block, twice, to get some of the bits. But he still never gets all the bits. If he had all the bits, he could still do what he is doing.... it would only be a lot more effective. But, he would also be able to get there in different ways, that don't require such a trip around the block. But, until you fix the car properly, you will never understand that one with a transmission and all the working parts actually is an efficient way to travel. If all you have ever seen, is a busted up car, without a transmission.... then yeah, you would conclude cars are terrible for transportation.
