Close armpit and crossing arms.

Yamaguchi sensei in action.

When studying footage of Yamaguchi and Yamashima sensei they can be seen to use the swing of the arms in a relaxed and specific manner. This resembles the movement swinging a sword. However when not equipped with a sword this armswing is used to perform Aikido techniques. Please note that the absence of the sword allows to let the arms cross as they would naturally when the swing is continued.

In the following clips try to identify the armswing and crossing of the arms which result in quick and effortless movements.

Due to technical problems I cannot embed video's.

 

Yamaguchi sensei:

https://vimeo.com/66660573

Yamashima sensei.

In this clip he uses the pathway of bokken strike to perform ikkyo. He does not cross hands here, but the movement often travels past his midline!

http://youtu.be/x7ZTMlfoorU

 

Our own experimenting with this principle:

http://youtu.be/5OhZRpnqxyo

 

Yamashima would refer to this as "Close armpit and relax". So there are Aikido styles which use round arm movements and more sword like movements. Try them and enjoy practice.

 

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Use space.

 

Recently I visited the Gerrit Rietveld house in Utrecht. Rietveld was a Dutch architect and designer who used the concept of Space. His ideas are fuelled by what's NOT the material the object is made of instead the space surrounding it.

A few of his chairs...

 

What does all this have to do with Aikido practice?

All Aikido excercises should ideally be non aggressive and non competitive. This requires all techniques to use the space around uke instead of fighting the forces and structural alignment of your partner. In summary one should always be using intent, breath power and body movement towards the weak spot of uke. This will usually mean to use the space where he's not and cannot defend. It's not a weakness to avoid the strongest assets of uke, but a necessity for using Aikido technique. Note that the use of space is not confined to Aikido practice as it is used in all grappling based martial arts.

For me the excercise which shows this concept most clearly would be gyaku hanmi nikkyo as done by Fujita sensei. At 09:11 of the clip below. Maybe you should turn the sound off :)

 

Below I'll show a training clip in which I demonstrate these concepts for nikkyo kote gaeshi variations. No sound included. Note the use of balance points which are basically virtual points in space on the ground in relation to uke's use of footwork. Also trying to move around point of contact with footwork and te sabaki.

 

 

Enjoy practice.

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The Cilinder.

A concept I've been thinking about for a while would be the concept of " The Cilinder". This is a description of a principle which concerns itself with the position of uke in relation to tori. When practicing the Zhan Zhuang posture the cilinder is identified as the space which is in front of tori when the arms are held in the hugging a tree posture.

Not like this, but more like this...

 

So it's a virtual cilinder in front of tori. I'll call the space in which you have the most control of uke inside the cilinder, if uke touches the outside of the cilinder,it is called outside the cilinder.

 

What is the relation of all this to our Aikido practice?

When training in Aikido uke is usually held outside the cilinder for protection of oneself and defensive in nature. When executing a technique, uke is allowed to enter the cilinder, and therefore easily controlled.

In the next clip this is easily studied. Irimi nage is an excellent technique in which this concept is identified.

 

 

Try to incorporate these concepts in one's training and enjoy practice.

 

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Yamashima sensei video study.

This month Yamashima sensei is coming to West Europe again so I thought it would be nice to study a Youtube video which demonstrates a lot of usefull principles.

The video was shot at a seminar in Germany in 2014.

 

 

What are the principles at work?

 

- At 0:40. Yamashima sensei touches his belt with his free hand to show the use of hara. He uses his hip joint of the back foot. This is similar to the movement of a sword strike where both hip joints are used at the moment of the cut to maximize power. He is also heard to use a short burst of kokyu power.

- At 1:42. Use of whole body power istead of only hand and arm movement.

- At 3:02. "I turn my center". The arm stays in a relaxed but slightly extended state. Similar to the "unbendable arm" excercise.

- At 3:14. Use of whole body power and mainly by usage of "koshi" or hip joints.

- At 4:52. Turn shoulder and hand to connect to hip joints.

- At 5:12. Demonstration of opening and closing movements.

- At 5:54. Connect hip joint to shoulder in hanmi handachi waza.

- At 6:34. Soft connection excercise using palm to palm feeling or "barbarella lead".

- At 8:20 and 8:54. Barely visible. Attacking of center with second hip joint and hand from underneath hara of partner.

- At 9:03. "Figure out how to bring in koshi".

- At 9:53. Yamashima sensei closes the distance between his hara and his partner so technique is more powerful.

- At 10:42. "Enter and attack"

- At 11:00. Once again both hara almost touch due to the movement of Yamashima sensei.

- At 14:04. Correct use of arm in Aikido showed through shomen uchi strike. Whole body strike with minimum folding at the elbow joint.

So use hips, not hands seems to be the leading subject in this clip.

Enjoy practice.

 

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Laziness is good?

Researching Youtube video's I encountered this very interesting clip of Benedetti sensei. Although quite a "long" clip for today's standards there are a lot of Aikido principles to be seen and learned. The aspect I like most about his Aikido would be the use of "lazy" movement. Relaxation used in a way that's very interesting to me.

Few points to study:

- Uses warmup swings in his Aikido practice.

- Walking is used as basics for Aikido, natural movement?

- Small hip movements coordinate with hand movements.

- Hands in the center and use of body axis.

- Upright small stance which I like.

- "You forget walking...". When tori tries to force a technique.

These are just teaching moments from the first 10 minutes of this clip, so enjoy and study...

Stéphane lives in Barcelona and teaches Aikido across Europe. He brings his inimitable Corsican style and his superb understanding of Aikido to every encounter. "Aikido is scientific laziness - and laziness must be very precise, not sloppy!"

Born in 1951, Stéphane Benedetti started judo when he was five and discovered aikido in 1966 under the direction of Asai Katsuaki Shihan during judo training in Germany. The meeting with Nakazono and Tamura Shihan in the same year proved decisive.

Enjoy practice.

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Slow and relaxed?

Aikido practice can be done in multiple ways. Hard and fast, slow, moving, basic etc. Why I enjoy the practice used by Yamashima sensei would be the following:

- Relaxed, not focused on "reality" scenarios.

- Feeling and practicing the movements is done better when moving slow and relaxed.

- Soft touch reveals principles like unbalancing and tension problems in uke and nage.

- Room for experimenting with movements.

- Creativity will enhance during these methods.

- There's no use of pain induced movements, which I think is always based on competition and superiority.

- It's not lacking in substance, although to outside observers it may seem that way.

- Cardiovascular training is done without really thinking about it.

- Internal sensations like hip rotation and hara movements are better felt and studied.

 

Humor, nice practice and softness is shown in the next clip.

 

" It's a lot like Tai Chi". Yamashima sensei in Düsseldorf seminar 2014.

 

 

"Why you study Aikido?" "Enjoy" at 2:02 of the next clip.

 

 

Enjoy practice.

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Hiroshi Ikeda: Foundation.

Ikeda sensei uses small spiral movements of his hips expressed by his hands. The "building" of this body and it's use he calls the foundation. In my view aikido's practice is not to move the partner but let the partner be moved by your own body structure which is balanced, responsive and sensitive. Enjoy this next clip in which he explains training the foundation and the need for different uke's.

 

Enjoy practice.

 

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