Whipping Drill

The Whipping Drill is another drill that is not completely intuitive. All Kuta strikes come straight in. The only possible exception is where the striking hand comes up Uke's chest to strike Uke's face or neck. This strike has a slight curve but it is still a stab and not a slice or chop. The Japanese like circular strikes that cut like Shomen Uchi or Yokomen Uchi which are both circular sword cuts. Even Kuta strikes that look like they would be circular come straight in.

The weird thing here is that these strikes are made with a circular motion of the body that throws the hand and arm like a whip that comes straight into the target. This is what the Whipping drill develops.

Movie of Whipping Drill.

Fig. 1 Start of Whip		Fig. 2 End of Whip		Fig. 3 Shorter Whipping motion

1. Fig. 1 shows how whipping starts. At first Nage's hand grabs the shirt on the opposite side of the body as shown.

2. Then Nage does a powerful Tornado Twist of the torso to whip the hand out and straight into the target as shown in Fig. 2.

3. Fig. 3 shows the hand starting at the center of the chest and not grabbing the shirt. Nage follows a progression of having less and less cocking of the arm to start the twist until Nage is starting with the hand hanging by the side towards the target.