Doodle

An Aiki doodle, inspired by the art from the book "Aikido and the Dynamic Sphere". Well worth a read, if you get the chance.

The Beer Talks

Over a beer the other day, the subject of martial arts came up, and I found myself describing what Aikido is about. This is what a came up with:

• The idea is not to be violent, but to control and diffuse an attack
• Most times, there is some kind of move off the line of attack, i.e. to avoid the power of a blow and the momentum of the attacker
• Most times, the next step is to make the attacker lose balance, while yourself remaining in balance and in control
• Sometimes evasion is possible (although it takes a true master to do this, in my view)
• We also use atemi (strikes), but this is not so much an attack, but rather to take the mind of the opponent, and help in pushing them off balance for the technique to follow
• There are joint locks and projections (throws) that we learn as techniques to use on opponents
• There are also immobilzations that we can use to finish techniques, and keep the attacker on the floor
• In the context of multiple attackers, we can use the body of an opponent as a barrier or shield to protect us from further attackers
• A true master can keep putting down an opponent until they lose the will the fight on
• This does not mean that the opponent should be humiliated or seriously injured

Of course there is much, much more to say, but I think this gives a flavour. I do not yet claim to be an expert.

Contests in Aikido

"There are no contests in the Art of Peace. A true warrior is invicible because he or she contests with nothing. Defeat means to defeat the mind of contention that we harbour within."

Morihei Ueshiba (O'Sensei) from "The Art of Peace".

Small Class

Another small class this week, as winter arrives people find fewer reasons to leave the house in the evening. Actually, since I started aikido I have never had a problem finding the motivation to go out and train. I just love it, and miss it when I'm away and have to miss class.

This week Sensei Chris had us trying the techniques from a wrist grab. First we had to try the technique kneeling, then standing. I think all of us found that we can't move around very well on our knees, and the techniques can look a bit scrappy. We did a variation on yonkyo that was nice, where you step off the line of attack, and apply the technique to the wrist even before he gets the chance to complete the attack, then spiral down into the ground. In yonkyo, the inside of the 1st finger knuckle is used to put pressure on the nerve on the thumb-side of the wrist, and when properly applied can be devastating.

It was quite a dynamic session, and I was quite pleased with a couple of high falls (ukemi) that I did in response to vigorous kotegaeshi (wrist turn-out) from Sensei. We were all panting a bit at the end of the session, and we had a 5 minute sit-down while Sensei demonstrated the folding of the hakama.

Dynamic Aikido

Just the old guard turned up tonight, four of us that have trained together these last three years. So we had a very dynamic session tonight, with lots of projections and full-on immobilzations. The theme of tonight's session was the double wrist grab (katate tori ryote mochi - two hands on two hands), running through all the basic techniques.

Sensei Chris showed us some interesting shortcuts, to get the technique applied efficiently with yonkyo, and a nice way to get the nikkyo applied, missing out a few steps, or as Chris said "taking the training wheels off".

It was definitely cold coming out into the air from the dojo tonight. Summer is over for another, and the cold weather is blowing in. We went to the pub for our monthly debriefing, definitely an important part of etiquette, at least in the UK tradition.

Etiquette

In many dojos the session opens with a bow, and everyone saying "Onegai Shimasu", which means something like "please let me train with you". The end of the session is marked with a bow and "Arigatou Gozaimasu", or "thank you very much". In our dojo we don't use the Japanese phrases, but we say "Thank you Sensei" at the end of the session. It's useful to know the Japanese, though, as we go on public courses and visit other dojos, where often the tradition is more strictly observed.

New Blogger

I changed the blog today to the new Blogger beta. I haven't checked out all the new features yet, but I understand that the tagging works better, so people searching (for example on technorati) for shihonage might be more likely to end up here. Let's see.