The Internet is wonderful. I came across a program called Close Combat Training by Captain Chris. His premise is that after years of martial arts training he found himself in a life threatening situation where it all went out the window. That near death experience sent him on a mission to find a truly effective, no BS approach to self defense which he discovered in the systematic training of World War 2 hand-to-hand combat.
He looked at kill or be killed situations. Adrenaline is flooding the system. Memory and finesse both fail. All that is left is raw, gross motor responses. So much of martial arts training falls into the realm of working fine on the mat or in the ring, but falling apart under stress.
Under stress, with only generalized motor control available, the human body has a limited number of fighting responses. I can't delineate everything Captain Chris had to say, especially because I didn't pay the 400 plus dollars for his course and only looked at his free material, but a few things stuck out for me. They struck me because they seem to be very much a part of aikido allbeit a part that is regularly addressed in only a minimal and dismissive way.
He says that two of the most fundamental and ferocious strikes we can deliver are the chin jab and the knife hand.
In my opinion these are a part of most martial arts but are practiced as crisp, precision oriented strikes delivered at a distance. Under stress, crisp precision goes to pieces. Captain Chris delivers these strikes as generalized, whole body movements. He delivers from the legs, powering in close to overwhelm the opponent with a crushing, smashing force to general areas of weakness.
The chin jab powers straight up under the chin, hitting with a broad open palm that snaps the head up and back. The knife hand drives down through the throat and collarbone region.
I think that aikido contains these. More so, I think it stresses them in virtually every technique. The problem is that most practitioners treat atemi as an afterthought, as something to save for the street, but I agree with the adage that the way you train is the way you react. Train to throw wimpy atemi aimed at nothing in particular and that is what you will be throwing when it counts.
Aikido is intimate. It insists that we get right in and take uke's space. I believe that proper atemi as practiced in aikido is meant to be up close and personal. It is meant to be devastating.
Growing up, I did a bit of boxing, mostly with my friend Mike who was older and very skilled in boxing and karate. He always said that the proper distance for punching is the same distance at which you can just reach your opponent with your elbow. In other words, if you can't touch me with that elbow, then you're too far away and that punch is going to be weak and just expose your vulnerabilities. Mike beat this concept into me regularly.
Later, practicing aiki-ken, this same concept was reiterated. The right distance for cutting with a sword is the distance at which I can just reach you with my hand. If I can't reach you my hand, you're too far away for me to cut effectively. Same principle.
Take all of this and synthesize it and I think we have a very effective and powerful approach to atemi in aikido. Aikido is sword based. My striking hand becomes a sword. I need to move in close to where I can reach with my elbow in order to have power in my striking/ cutting hand. I move in with my whole body, attacking the center. I attack with the chin jab, powering up under the jaw (irimi nage) or jaw line (kokyu nage). I attack the neck with a knife hand that is not dissimilar to my chin jab, overwhelming uke's posture and forcing his torso to lean out of balance.
Because I have positioned myself correctly to deliver truly powerful strikes, I am now in a position to deliver truly powerful throws.
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