Kaeshi Waza – Reversal Techniques In Aikido

How complex is your Aikido?

I do not mean complicated.

I mean:

How much complexity can you perceive, respond to, and embody in real time?

Aikido develops in stages.

At first, we need clear forms.

Then flowing movement.

Then variations.

Then application.

Eventually, more advanced practice asks us to remain responsive even when the other person is already applying Aikido to us.

This is where Kaeshi Waza enters the picture.

Kaeshi Waza means reversal techniques.

It is one of the most sophisticated and interesting forms of Aikido practice because the practitioner is no longer simply responding to an attack.

You are responding to someone who is already throwing, locking, or pinning you.

In a sense, Kaeshi Waza is:

doing Aikido on Aikido.

Doing Aikido On Aikido

Aikido is often described as receiving an attack, blending with its energy, and redirecting that energy into a throw, lock, or pin.

Kaeshi Waza uses the same underlying principle.

But instead of receiving the energy of an attack, you receive the energy of an Aikido technique.

The other practitioner begins Iriminage.

Or Kotegaeshi.

Or Shihonage.

And rather than simply becoming the recipient of the technique, you remain present enough to feel where another possibility opens.

You receive the technique.

Blend with it.

And use its own movement as the beginning of a reversal.

That is why Kaeshi Waza is not simply countering in the ordinary sense.

You are not blocking one technique and substituting another.

You are entering the structure of the first technique deeply enough that the reversal emerges from within it.

What I Learned From Saito Sensei

I learned Kaeshi Waza from my teacher, Morihiro Saito Sensei.

He was extraordinarily skilled at reversal techniques.

But more importantly for me, he knew how to teach them clearly.

Like so much of his teaching, he approached Kaeshi Waza progressively:

from simple to complex.

He did not treat reversals as mysterious improvisations that only advanced practitioners could somehow intuit.

He broke the process down.

That was one of Saito Sensei’s great strengths as a teacher.

Even sophisticated material could be made understandable when the underlying structure was clearly revealed.

Every Technique Has A Process

Saito Sensei taught that every Aikido technique unfolds through a process.

There is:

a beginning

a middle

an end

The technique is not one frozen thing.

It is an unfolding sequence.

And throughout that unfolding process, opportunities appear and disappear.

Saito Sensei referred to these opportunities as “chances.”

I often describe them as:

windows of opportunity.

A window opens.

For a brief moment, a reversal becomes possible.

Then the window closes.

Another may appear later.

Windows Of Opportunity

This is where Kaeshi Waza becomes especially interesting.

A technique can contain several potential openings.

One near the beginning.

Another in the middle.

Another near the completion.

Each window presents different possibilities.

The important skill is not simply knowing a collection of counters.

It is developing enough sensitivity to recognize:

What is available now?

That is a very different level of perception.

The practitioner has to feel the structure of the technique while it is happening.

Balance.

Direction.

Timing.

Connection.

Commitment.

Where the partner is strong.

Where the structure is still incomplete.

Where momentum can be redirected.

A moment too early, and there may be nothing to reverse.

A moment too late, and the opportunity is gone.

Reversal Intelligence

This is one reason I now place Kaeshi Waza fairly high in the developmental progression of Aikido.

In my current Shu–Ha–Ri map, the progression moves through:

1. Kihon Waza — Basic techniques

2. Ki No Nagare Waza — Flowing techniques

3. Henka Waza — Variations

4. Oyo Waza — Applied techniques

5. Kaeshi Waza — Reversal techniques

6. Jiyu Waza — Free techniques

Kaeshi Waza demands something different from simply knowing more techniques.

It requires relational intelligence.

You have to understand the other person’s technique from inside the relationship.

That is why I think of Kaeshi Waza as a form of reversal intelligence.

The practitioner is no longer asking:

What technique do I know?

The question becomes:

What is this interaction making possible?

From Form Toward Freedom

This also places Kaeshi Waza naturally within the larger movement of Shu–Ha–Ri.

In Shu, we establish form.

In Ha, we work with variation, adaptation, and application.

In Ri, form becomes increasingly transparent to principle.

Kaeshi Waza sits close to that transition into spontaneous, principle-based action.

The form still matters.

Technique still matters.

But the practitioner is no longer simply reproducing a predetermined pattern.

You are reading the interaction itself.

This is where technical development begins opening into greater freedom.

Three Examples

In the video below, I demonstrate Kaeshi Waza from:

• Tsuki Kotegaeshi

• Shomen Uchi Iriminage

• Yokomen Uchi Shihonage

As you watch, pay attention to the timing of each reversal.

The important question is not only:

What counter technique is being used?

Look instead for:

When does the opening appear?

Notice how the reversals progress from one window of opportunity to another.

I demonstrate only one possibility for each opening.

But the possibilities are not limited to those examples.

Once you begin recognizing the windows, the field opens considerably.

Explore The Possibilities

This is where Kaeshi Waza becomes a research practice.

Do not simply memorize the reversal.

Explore.

What else is possible at this point in the technique?

What happens if the timing changes?

If the direction changes?

If the partner is more committed?

Less committed?

What other reversal emerges from the same opening?

The point is not to collect endless counters.

The point is to develop perception.

Sensitivity.

Timing.

And the ability to remain responsive inside increasing complexity.

The Deeper Lesson

Kaeshi Waza reveals something important about advanced Aikido.

Mastery is not simply the ability to impose your technique more successfully.

It is the capacity to remain open even when your original plan has already been disrupted.

Someone else has taken the initiative.

You are already inside their movement.

And still, another possibility may appear.

Can you recognize it?

Can you stay connected long enough to enter it?

Can you act without forcing?

That is the deeper practice of reversal.