Illustrations to help new students become familiar with basic stances and grips

Chemere Birkensleigh, a Victorian member of the association and a very talented illustrator, has completed the second set in the series of illustrations to aid new students with the stances, grips and attacks we use in our training. 

These simple, clear, elegant illustrations show some of the numerous positions we employ along with their Japanese names. New students trying to fathom both the Japanese terminology as well as the actual physical movements should be able to use these teaching aids to become more familiar with the many attacks, grips and stances required in training.

Chemere spent innumerable hours of her own time faithfully reproducing each movement to a concise line drawing and we are extremely grateful for both the wonderful effort she put in and the fantastic finished art work!

Please keep in mind we couldn't easily show the dynamic energy that is happening with each movement. You shouldn't go away thinking we train in a stiff and formal way, far from it, these illustrations have captured just a brief second in time of the high energy being applied by both the uke and nage. 

These illustrations can also be found in the Media area of this website.

(Note: please consider these illustrations as guides only and follow any specific directions given by your instructor)