Note on Shuto 手刀 (sword hand)

Remember to always have the elbow at your centre line. Using this solid base, the hand pivots and rotates (whilst held loosely) from the elbow around the outside (supination) for omote and the inside (pronation) for ura. At its lowest or shortest point, the hand will come close to your forehead and in the beginning and as a mnemonic you might want to pretend you are wiping sweat off your forehead. For ura, your thumb and for omote, the back of your hand lightly swipe your forehead. The hand tightens into the shuto position on impact. Before this it is in loose and relaxed fist-like state. To deveop full body coordination practise with ken (kesa giri - migi/hidari), shoto, tanto etc. To build leg power and agility train this deep, low and as explosively as you can. Be sure you have relatively good, strong basic form and build up from there.
Ose, ose!!