Irimitenkan: The Hidden Challenges of a Basic Aikido Footwork

A Step-by-Step Approach to Improving Taisabaki with Targeted Exercises

In a previous article on movement analysis, I asked whether you use preparatory exercises to improve irimitenkan. The responses ranged from "No, we just practice irimitenkan, that’s enough" to "We avoid it because people do it wrong."

I wasn’t surprised. For a long time, I also believed that the best way to learn irimitenkan was simply to do it. That’s how I was taught.

But over time, I realized how challenging this movement actually is. Other martial arts, like Karate or Taiji, they have many exercises to build proper leg structure and mobility - they start in symmetric stances, then they add asymmetric ones, then they do short steps, then longer steps... In Aikido, we often skip this gradual preparation and go straight to pivoting on one leg like irimitenkan.

It’s like teaching a gymnastics somersault without first developing body awareness, coordination, and strength. Irimitenkan is our somersault. We should work on it properly.

In this article, I’ll share a structured approach with videos and step-by-step exercises to improve stability, mobility, and coordination for irimitenkan—and, more importantly, show how we can think about movement in Aikido in a deeper way.

Let’s break it down.

Photo: archive of Aikido Prague Vinohrady

Irimitenkan: Analyzing Our Goal

To know what we should address in preparation exercises, we should analyze and understand irimitenkan movement.

Irimitenkan is “a step forward” and pivoting around the front leg - very common footwork in Aikido. It requires stability of standing leg and hip mobility:

1. For stability, the knee, ankle, and foot of the standing leg must align in the same direction while the torso pivots at the hip joint.

2. Mobility of the hip joint means that the joint allows movement in the required range while the pelvis is moving on the hip joint, keeping the torso vertical.

While irimitenkan may appear to be a step forward and then backward, it’s actually a movement of closing and opening the hips while switching legs. So the main movement is the internal and external rotation in hip joints.

Stability of Legs

We do this simple horizontal waving of hands in every warm-up. It's to improve blood flow, to relax tensions around the solar plexus, and to stabilize the legs. But when beginners first do it, they do something like this.

I apologize for my informal outfit in the video - I wanted you to see what knees and ankles do. If I had my keikogi and hakama, you’d see nothing 😉

I hope you see how badly I do it. Look at my legs; they are twisting in the knees and ankles, falling inside, and giving no support to the body. On the other hand, my upper body is stiff and movement is coming from my shoulders. If we perform this exercise with twisting knees and ankles, we risk gradual knee damage and decreasing stability.

Simply put, knees don’t handle side-to-side twisting well. A small controlled rotation in the knee is a physiological movement. But if someone has wobbly legs like I demonstrate in the video, imagine how (un)stable he/she would be in irimitenkan and how (un)healthy the irimitenkan would be for his/her knees.

So I quickly explain to beginners that in this exercise:

1. The feet should be parallel and shoulder-width.

2. The knees should aim in the same direction as their feet.

3. The pelvis should also be mostly aimed forward.

4. The legs should create a stable basis for the movement.

5. Most of the horizontal rotation should be done in the spine and

6. Arms should be relaxed.

Something like this:

This is the moment when beginners start to give their awareness to their legs and relax their upper body.

When we get there, we can take a wider stance and shift weight from side to side to make the legs even more active. Just remember, the knees are aimed in the direction of the feet and the pelvis aims forward, too:

Mobility of Hips

In the previous exercises, the hip joints were barely moving. However, once the legs are activated and knees and ankles understand their role in making standing legs stable, we can move to hip mobility. Have a look at this exercise:

It looks very similar to the previous one, but actually, it's completely different. In this case, there's almost no rotation in the spine, the huge side rotation of the upper body is done by the pelvis rotating around the hip joint of the standing leg. I use this exercise to demonstrate the ability of hip joints to beginners - they'll need it later in irimitenkan¹.

Please, observe that the standing leg should keep balance, and the knee and the foot are again in one direction - this is where the ability from the previous exercises comes in handy. We really don't want rotation or instabilities in our knees once we pivot in Aikido.

Putting Irimitenkan Together

A challenge of irimitenkan is that we should pivot our upper body 180 degrees, which is a lot even after the preparation from the previous exercises.

But of course, we can start with easier irimitenkans, changing hanmi to 0 degrees, 45 degrees, and 90 degrees… we also do many of these variations in different Aikido entrances and techniques.

The video shows the progression:

A quick note before we continue

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