Haito Uchi - Ridge-hand Strike

Overview

Haito means "ridge [hand]" and for some reason, we only ever refer to it in class using its Japanese name. It's the first of the advanced strikes that are only taught to graded belts. Ironically, I suspect that this is not so much because of the difficulty of the strike itself, but of the accompanying hip movement used when practising the strike as part of our line drills. It's an interesting strike for a number of reasons, not least because we practice with hip rotation at all in heiko dachi, because it's the only strike where we do that, despite the fact that the others are all capable of a hip movement too. With full hip rotation, haito is a very powerful strike, but it becomes so easy to see coming as to be almost useless. However, when used as one of a flurry of blows delivered with minimal preparation, to the jaw or the temple, it can stun your opponent whilst you follow up with a more powerful technique. If your opponent is already stunned, a full force version to the jaw will easily break it, and I'll leave you to imagine the results of a powerful strike to the neck...

Technique

Extend your left arm straight out in front you with your hand flat, and your palm downwards. Your thumb should be tucked right under your hand out of the way. The striking surface for this technique is the pad of flesh just below the bottom knuckle of your index finger, so if you leave your thumb sticking out, it'll break when you hit something. The other hand should also be open in the same way. Retract it to your waist, palm up.

Bending it at the elbow, pull your left hand back towards you so that it rests across your chest at about nipple height. At the same time, place your right arm behind you, so that it crosses your back, with the palm facing upwards. As you prepare your hands, turn your body clockwise by about 45 degrees (rotating in the direction of the hand that's behind your back).

Pivoting at the waist, spin your body back towards your target. As you do so, throw the arm that's behind your back, out in wide circular arc towards your target. Note, the arcing path is very important for two reasons: firstly, the longer the route from its origin to its destination, the more time your hand has to build up speed and power. Secondly, the circular path ensures that your hand approaches the target from the correct angle, which is from the side. Be aware of your body and resist the tendency to truncate the motion, moving your hand in a straight line upwards from your waist, rather than in a fully extended arc. As your attacking hand moves towards the target, you should retract the hand from across your chest, down to your waist.

Just as your attacking hand hits the target, turn your hips back in the opposite direction. This pulls the hand back towards you, increasing the striking force slightly.

You should finish the manoeuvre in the same position as you started but with your arms swapped over.