Monthly Newsletter • 6 September 2026

Monthly Update from Wadō-Ryū Benkyō

Hello,

Welcome to your 28th monthly update from Wadō-Ryū Benkyō.

🎥 2. Kihon Fundamentals Volume IV – Part 1 is on the way

Shuto Uke / Uchi

The next instalment in our Kihon Fundamentals series begins Volume IV with a detailed look at Shuto Uke / Uchi.

Roger Vickerman Renshi continues to explore the fundamentals that sit beneath the visible technique, looking beyond the outward shape of Shuto to the body movement, structure and coordination required to make it work effectively within Wadō-Ryū.

📅 4. New Course – 11 October 2026

🧠 6. Principle of the Month - Ten-i (転位), Ten-tai (転体) and Ten-gi (転技)

Ten-i (転位), Ten-tai (転体) and Ten-gi (転技) provide a useful way of understanding something that lies at the heart of Wadō-Ryū: when an attack comes, we do not simply place a technique in its path. We change our relationship with the attacker. Position changes, the body changes, and the technique itself adapts to what is happening.

These ideas become especially clear in paired practice. In his teaching, Roger Vickerman Renshi often uses the opening movement of Kihon Kumite No. 1 as a practical tool to explore them. Rather than concentrating only on remembering the formal sequence, the exercise asks a more important question: what must actually change for the attack to cease being effective?

The answer is not simply “block it.” Correct Wadō movement seeks to remove the target, alter the angle, preserve connection, disturb the attacker’s momentum and create the opportunity to respond — preferably without unnecessary collision. Ten-i, Ten-tai and Ten-gi help us examine how that happens.

Three Ways of Understanding Change

The three terms can be introduced simply:

• Ten-i (転位) — change of position; moving the body or head from the attack
• Ten-tai (転体) — change or rotation of the body
• Ten-gi (転技) — change or adaptation of technique; allowing the technical action to fit the changing situation rather than remaining fixed, to be able to attack or defend

It is tempting to treat these as three separate items, or even as a sequence: first move, then turn, then perform a technique. In practice, that separation quickly becomes artificial. Good Wadō brings them together. The position changes with the body, and the technique is shaped by those changes.

Ten-i — Do Not Be Where the Attack Expects You to Be

Roger gives a deliberately simple instruction when teaching Ten-i: when the punch comes, move. The simplicity matters. Before worrying about what the hands are doing, the practitioner must understand that remaining on the attacking line creates the need for collision.

But Ten-i is not simply retreating. The objective is not to flee from the exchange or create as much distance as possible. The body moves enough to remove the intended target while maintaining a useful relationship with the opponent. That may mean moving back and approximately 45 degrees while the principle is first being learned. At a more experienced level, it may mean moving forward onto the live side — a much more demanding choice because the practitioner must be fully committed and properly timed.

This gives Ten-i an important strategic quality. We are not moving merely to be safe. We are moving to a position from which our own technique can function. If the movement takes us so far away that we cannot reach, or leaves us square and poorly aligned, we may have escaped the punch but we have not necessarily improved the situation.

The Minimum Amount Required

One of the most useful descriptions in Roger’s teaching is that this should be a small body movement — the minimum amount required. That idea prevents Ten-i from becoming exaggerated footwork or dramatic evasion.

If a punch is directed to the place where your head currently is, the task is not to move a metre away. It is to ensure that, at the moment the punch arrives, that target is no longer available. A small displacement may be enough. Excess movement can waste time, destroy Ma-ai and make the response slower than the attack itself.

Economy is therefore not simply aesthetic. It is functional. The smaller the useful movement, the easier it becomes to stay connected, maintain posture and remain capable of immediate action.

Ten-tai — The Body Must Change With the Position

Moving the feet is not enough. Roger repeatedly stresses the need to move off centre and turn the body. A practitioner can take a step and still leave the torso, shoulder or head available to the attack. Ten-tai addresses this problem by changing the orientation of the body itself.

This is where the hips and centre become important. Turning the body changes the line presented to the attacker while also supporting the receiving or redirecting action. Rather than leaving the arm to do the work independently, the movement of the body gives the technique its shape.

Roger uses the analogy of a sword when demonstrating this. A sword is not made effective by a large independent swing of the arm. The body moves to support the cutting edge. In the same way, when redirecting a punch through Nagasu or Inasu, the arm should not simply push across the attacker’s limb. The body turns and the arm travels as part of that movement.

This is why Ten-tai plays such an important role in non-collision. Instead of meeting force with a stronger arm, the practitioner changes the body so that the incoming force is guided into a different relationship.

Ten-gi — Technique Must Not Become Fixed

Ten-gi reminds us that technique is not a rigid object that exists independently of the exchange. What we do must adapt to the line, distance, timing and movement that are actually present.

In paired practice it is easy to know in advance what is coming and simply reproduce the expected answer. This can make the external shape appear correct while the underlying principle is absent. If the attacker’s position changes, if the distance is different, or if contact gives us new information, the technique must remain capable of changing with it.

This does not mean abandoning form or inventing a new response every time. Formal practice gives us a framework. Ten-gi asks us not to become trapped by that framework. The purpose of technique is to solve the changing problem in front of us, not to preserve a predetermined shape at all costs.

Kihon Kumite No. 1 as a Teaching Tool

The opening movement of Kihon Kumite No. 1 provides an excellent environment for exploring these principles because the attack is clear and the consequences of poor movement are easy to feel.

Roger describes using Ma-ai to establish the appropriate distance, remaining relaxed, making contact with the incoming Jōdan attack and then moving the head and body away from the place being punched. Contact can be retained, but the defender is no longer occupying the line for which the attack was intended.

At that point several things are happening together:

• Ten-i removes the target from the attacking line
• Ten-tai turns or rotate the body rather than leaving the torso behind
• Ten-gi allows the receiving action to adapt to defensive or attack
• Ma-ai ensures the movement does not destroy useful distance
• Nagasu / Inasu can redirect the attack rather than stopping it by force

The result is not simply an evasion followed by a block. The attacker’s momentum is affected because the expected target is no longer there. Their line has changed, their attack has been disturbed, and the defender has created a position from which the next action can emerge.

Using the Attacker’s Movement

Another important aspect of Roger’s explanation is the idea of allowing the attacker’s own energy to contribute to the movement. Instead of bracing and trying to overpower the incoming technique, contact can become information. The practitioner feels the direction of the attack and moves with what is already happening.

This is closely related to Datsuryoku. Unnecessary muscular tension makes the body less receptive and encourages us to oppose force. A relaxed body can detect pressure more clearly and change more readily. Rather than stopping the attacker and then beginning our own technique, we use their movement as part of the changing relationship.

Roger summarises the effect practically: by not being where the attack expected us to be, we disturb its momentum. The attack begins to fail because its original relationship to the target has disappeared.

From “Block Then Counter” to Simultaneous Action

Ten-i, Ten-tai and Ten-gi also help expose one of the common habits that develops in early training: treating defence and attack as two completely separate events.

Roger encourages practitioners to progress from a simple stepping-back response towards receiving and punching at the same time — uke and zuki together. This immediately brings the principles into contact with Dōjini and Kōbō-ittai. The movement that removes danger is not dead time before the counterattack. It should also create the conditions for our own technique.

This is particularly important when moving onto the live side. If we enter but leave our attack behind, we have moved closer to danger without taking advantage of the position. The attack, body movement and receiving action must belong to the same event.

Managing Where the Attack Arrives

At a deeper level, the practitioner is not merely reacting after the punch has fully developed. Roger describes reading the opponent’s movement and managing where you want them to hit. This introduces awareness and timing into what might otherwise be treated as a purely mechanical exercise.

The earlier we recognise the attacker’s movement, the less dramatic our own response needs to become. If we wait until the fist is almost at the target, we may be forced into a large, hurried action. If we recognise the body beginning to move, Ten-i and Ten-tai can happen naturally within the developing attack.

This connects the physical principles to Zanshin and the various forms of Sen. Position, body and technique do not change in isolation; they change because the practitioner is perceiving what is happening early enough to act appropriately.

Not Three Separate Tricks

Perhaps the biggest misunderstanding would be to learn Ten-i, Ten-tai and Ten-gi as three more things to “add” to a technique. In good practice they are not additions. They are descriptions of the adaptation already taking place within effective movement.

If we move position without changing the body, we may still be exposed. If we turn the body without changing position, we may simply rotate in front of the attack. If our technique remains rigid while the relationship changes, we may have correct form but no longer have the correct answer.

The three principles therefore support one another:

• Ten-i changes where the encounter is taking place
• Ten-tai changes how the body is presented and organised within that encounter
• Ten-gi changes how technique is expressed within the new relationship

When they become integrated, the practitioner is no longer thinking “step, turn, block, counter.” There is simply a changing relationship and an appropriate response to it.

Connections to Other Wadō Principles

Ten-i, Ten-tai and Ten-gi do not sit apart from the other principles of Wadō. They help explain how many of them become physically possible:

• Taisabaki — the broader body management through which position and angle are changed
• Ma-ai — maintaining a useful combative relationship rather than simply escaping
• Nagasu / Nagashi — allowing the attacking force to continue while guiding it
• Inasu — changing the direction or effect of the attack rather than opposing it
• Datsuryoku — releasing unnecessary tension so that the body can respond and adapt
• Dōjini — allowing actions to occur together rather than as disconnected stages
• Kōbō-ittai — defence and attack arising as one integrated action
• Sen — recognising and acting within the opponent’s developing intention and movement

Seen in this way, Ten-i, Ten-tai and Ten-gi are not isolated concepts. They offer a lens through which many familiar Wadō principles can be seen working together.

Common Misunderstandings

• Ten-i is not simply stepping backwards
• Ten-tai is not turning the hips for appearance while the centre remains exposed
• Ten-gi is not randomly changing technique or abandoning formal practice
• The three are not necessarily performed one after another
• Evasion is not successful merely because the punch misses — the resulting position must still have purpose

The aim is efficient adaptation: change enough to make the attack ineffective, while preserving the position, structure and opportunity needed to continue.

Closing Thoughts

Ten-i, Ten-tai and Ten-gi provide a useful vocabulary for understanding the adaptive quality of Wadō-Ryū. They remind us that technique does not happen against a static background. The opponent moves, distance changes, pressure changes and the relationship between two bodies is continually being reorganised.

Kihon Kumite No. 1 gives us a formal setting in which to study that process, but the lesson is much wider than one exercise. Move from the line without moving unnecessarily. Turn the body so that the whole structure participates. Allow technique to change with the situation. Maintain contact without relying on collision. Use the opponent’s movement rather than fighting against it.

Ultimately, Ten-i, Ten-tai and Ten-gi are not three additional techniques to memorise. They describe how Wadō changes when the situation changes — and how, through correct movement, the practitioner can remove danger while creating opportunity within the same moment.