Neck circle
The neck circle takedown is Goshin-Jutsu’s variant of aikidō’s kaiten-nage (literally: “rotary throw”). Unlike kaiten-nage, which launches your opponents into dive rolls, the neck circle takedown causes the opponent to fall down at your feet, allowing for easier follow-ups. Neck circle takedowns are appropriate for intermediate students. While neck circle takedowns fairly simple, novice students should focus on refining the basics.
Neck circle takedowns require the opponent to bend forward at the waist, while you are grabbing their wrist. While this sounds contrived, this is arm lever's ending position, and can be easily replicated by attacking the abdomen or groin of an opponent who has grabbed your wrist.
Press your free hand down on the back of the opponent’s neck, to prevent them from standing up straight. Immediately curl your middle finger to place pressure on the opponent’s C2 nerve. This nerve depression may cause pain in some individuals, we seek to trigger the opponent’s reflexive action to turn their head away to alleviate the pressure. Nerve techniques cannot be relied upon to stop opponents via pain-compliance, but they can reliably enhance mechanical-compliance.
[Photo of where and how to push for C2 nerve depression]
Then, simply push the opponent’s head into their own armpit. Where the head goes, the body follows. This sends the opponent spiraling downward, until they land in a side breakfall. From here, you can follow up with a shovel pin and apply stomp kicks, or transition to jiu-jitsu, as-needed.
[Neck circle throw from the front and side]
The neck circle takedown is one of the gentler takedown techniques, which is extremely useful in situations when the use of violence is inappropriate.