A Practice Technique

You know how Nagato likes to push away incoming punches with his opposite palm, and then strike with a shuto straight into the neck? Well, we practiced this quite a lot one day, so “the body could learn it.”

Stand face-to-face about arm's length away from your partner. The puncher brings both of his fists up in front of him and rests his elbows on his stomach. The fists should be at about shoulder height. The defender stands with arms at his side. The puncher is free to punch with either hand. Punch slow. There is no reason to punch fast.

When the punch comes, use the opposite hand to push the fist away then slide the hand in to shuto to the neck (with either the hand or the forearm). In other words, if your opponent punches with the right hand, you bring up your right hand as you slide your right foot forward, and guide the punch to the left, then let your right hand continue in to slam the puncher in the right side of his neck. You should be able to get a Ganseki Nage on him by lifting up your left arm after that. The rules are that you must go to the inside of the punch, and you must step forward.

This practice is very unnerving. Even at a slow speed, you naturally want to go to the outside, or pull one of your feet back as you slide the other one forward. You must always be using your palm to push, and you must make it a paperthin move, so the punch is almost grazing you every time.

At one point, Nagato-sensei admonished me for pulling one leg back when sliding my other foot forward. I said that despite the slow speed it was surprisingly „scary.“ Nagato agreed, saying, „Naturally, it's scary. That's why you have to train your body to remember it.“