Question for the other Aikidoka

[FictionPimp]

If you look at the link I provided for Judo you'll see that there are 8 throws for every set. The throws are organized according to difficulty so a beginner typically learns throws from the first set before learning those of the second and so on. I was wondering if this was the same type of organization for the Yoshinkan. As in you had groupings of techniques organized into sets, i.e. the first set might contain something like Katatetori Ikkyo, Katatori Nikkyo, Kosatori Kote-gaeshi, Ryotedori Tenchi-nage, Ushiro Tekubidori Sankyo, etc. The second set would contain slightly more difficult techniques and so on. And in this way you would practice only techniques from the sets you know. I was under the belief that the Yoshinkan was organized this way but I guess I was mistaken.

I dont think all judo throws are in the right place. For example I had to learn De-ashi-harai as a white belt. I still suck at this throw and feel it requires a lot more timing and and skill then I ever had as a white belt.

[DCS]

This is actually how I feel as well. But in Iwama-styled schools are beginners only trained in grabbing defenses or do they also do striking defenses? The reason I ask is because I always felt that anything involving striking is inherently more intimidating and more difficult to deal with than a grab. So I feel that beginners in general should stick to just the grabbing defenses until they are able to do these with some level of competency.

Beginners train mostly grab defenses.

Let's see, when uke grabs is because he wants to establish control (of tori's body or armed hand) for setting his technique so the first thing to be learned is to move away to generate kuzushi and to strike at the same time (or as soon as you've moved out of range while uke is trying to ragain balance). This is more difficult to do than dealing with strikes withouth being grabbed because tori has to move himself and uke at the same time without losing his own balance while unbalancing and striking uke.

Another thing which makes Iwama slighty different from Tokyo Hombu mainline (and iirc it's shared with Yoshinkan) is most of the times the first strike is delivered by tori as a setting for the tecnique so, if you're asked as tori to perform "shomenuchi nikkyo omote - kihon" don't wait for uke to shomenuchi you, you have to shomenuchi him and do nikkyo in the hand he used to parry the strike.

Is uke who has to deal with the strikes, not tori.