Questions?

 

 

Honest questions.

 

 

Is your Aikido practice really:

 

- Free of aggression?

- Non ego driven?

- Free of fear?

- Natural flowing?

- Non competitive?

- Joyful?

 

No?......

 

 

 

Keep training and enjoy practice.

 

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Suwari waza kokyu ho, a practical guide.

Suwariwaza kokyu ho.

In my view the most important excercise in all Aikido training. Also the most misunderstood part of Aikido training. What's this excercise all about?

In Aikikai Aikido training the most training sessions are ended with this strange excercise. Tori and uke are seated towards each other and it looks like tori is forcing his movement upon uke and throws his partner to the side. In reality, good practice of this simple excercise reveals a lot of Aikido principles. Following I will try to explain the tips and tricks for this wonderful training tool.

 

What's going on?

 

A few "rules" have to be established when doing this excercise.

1. Never use strength.

2. Never compromise your posture.

3. Don't be aggressive.

4. Use hips, not hands.

5. Use listening energy, called ting jin in Tai Chi Chuan.

6. Tori in seiza, uke in kiza.

7. Be seated as close to each other as possible.

8. Use round arms, same as zhan zhuang chikung.

9. First connection, than move together.

10. Don't throw but unbalance your partner.

11. Always relax shoulders.

12. Use spiral movements, 3 directions at once.

13. Don't fight his structure but use space around him.

14. Use arm swing

15. "Kokyu breath power" is to be studied.

16. Identify open and closing of centerline, breath and joints.

 

Above are a few pointers which will give direction to the right way of training these movements.

First of all uke has to give a light pressing power in the direction of the center region of tori. This wil give tori an opportunity for experiencing center to center contact. One's this is established tori will have to direct the movement of his wrists, the contact points in this case, with his hips. When uke is solid or one unity it will be easy to unbalance him. Later on variables can be added to this training like different points of contact, more or less resistance of uke and so on... So I see this as a possible push hands like excercise without using feet and therefore only hara usage.

It really is a practice which doesn't receive the credits it should get. I could fill multiple lessons by this excercise and all it's variations.

 

Two clips to get a few ideas..

 

 

 

Enjoy practice, maybe more suwari waza kokyu ho.

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Arm drag in martial arts.

 

Remember Fujita study part nine? The armswing.

http://aikiprinciples.blogspot.nl/2014/11/fujita-sensei-study-part-nine.html

 

The arm swing is used in many martial arts because of it's efficiency. Sometimes called differently but the movement is the same. A natural swinging motion of the arm which mimics natural walking and therefore is very difficult to counter. Combined with a movement which is forward one can always reach the ura side of uke which is preferable.

 

Following a few examples from other martial arts then Aikido. Hope the similarities are recognized.

 

 

 

 

Enjoy practice.

 

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Ukemi and fear

Ukemi.

The practice of "falling down" is a big part of Aikido training. Tori practices the technique which has been shown, uke takes the appropriate ukemi. Is this way of training the way to learn to take natural ukemi?

First of all a decent amount of time is spent on solo training of ukemi. Forward, backward, sideways, standing, sitting, with a slap of the arm, free falls and more can be practiced. This is a physical way of training and often used as a part of warming up. I think this is an excellent way of starting a training session. The body is cardiovascular challenged and circulation is improved. Concentration on the falls is necessary and there will be a certain amount of stress reduction concerning the feared ground contact.

 

How can ukemi, the receiving of technique, become more natural and improved?

The greatest challenge concerning ukemi will be the letting go of pre-conceived ideas and expectations of what's going to happen. Simply put: Fear is causing problems.

Fear can only exist when there's thought about the future. There's an assumption of what will happen or likely to happen which causes stress. Natural ukemi will be free of fear or distress, because it will be impossible to think about the past or future. Saotome sensei mentioned in one of his books a phrase which sums it up perfectly. Now is now!

Good ukemi will feel effortless and a natural consequence of the harmonious interaction practiced in Aikido.

 

Next clip will show some techniques but instead try concentrating on ukemi skills.

 

 

 

 

 

A few tips for training:

1. Practice all kinds of falls on your own.

2. Give unconditional energy towards the center of your partner.

3. Don't think about wat is likely to happen.

4. As uke, "feel" the movements of tori while excecuting techniques.

 

Personally I feel my ukemi skills have improved, but still aren't natural and completely free of fear. Shimizu sensei once said the moment one's ukemi become natural, Aikido can be experienced and improved upon drastically. "Good uke becomes good nage"

 

Things to avoid in trying to improve ukemi:

1. Showing of ukemi skills on behalf of a demonstration. To make it look good or because of egoistic reasons.

2. To take falls because one is practicing with a higher grade out of respect.

3. To do ukemi which fits the technique. This is a thinking process based ukemi and therefore to slow to be natural.

4. Have fear of injuring oneself.

 

To conclude:

Ideally tori and uke will experience harmonious interaction where movement happens in a instant and naturally. This will only be possible when there will be no fear or anger during your practice.

 

Enjoy practice.

 

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On/off principle

On/off principle.

A student of Yamaguchi sensei, Endo sensei, is one of Aikido's teachers with a style where there's a lot to be studied. His Aikido is characterized by his ability to "listen" to his partner and act accordingly. Whenever there's a moment of tension or resistance he's able to relax completely in an instance and thereby creating a new situation. This is what I call the "on/off" principle.

 

I try to visualize this concept by comparing this to a light switch where it's possible to shut off the current for a moment. A total relaxation of muscles and tissue is the result. The aggressor loses control of the situation and an Aikido technique could evolve from this interaction. This way of training will result in different spontaneous creation of techniques. Listening and timing are most essential when practicing in this manner.

 

 

 

So try to use this on/off principle in your daily practice.

 

Enjoy practice.

 

 

 

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Fujita sensei study part twenty

Attack centerline or spine.

The last post on the study of Fujita sensei deals with a principle which is crucial to all Aikido practice but is often neglected. To create Aiki or harmonious interaction a connection is to be made. The best way to achieve this would be to "attack the center". This doesn't mean to aggressively hit or push towards the center of your partner but to extend your body through your arms towards this centerline. This will always create a connection which can be used to become essentially one body. Therefore where you move, your partner will move also.

 

Fujita sensei can be studied on video and his "attack" towards the spine will be obvious. Preferably the spine will be attacked from the rear side of uke. There are no weapons of attack for your partner and is therefore easily controlled.

 

The next clip is a long one(two hours) to conclude this study for now. Thanks Aikido Moldova for the upload.

Next blogposts will contain different subjects concerning Aikido and internal martial arts.

 

Enjoy practice.

 

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Fujita sensei study part nineteen

Yahazu.

Fujita sensei is known to use the hands in a specific way while doing Aikido. He called this hand position Yahazu. It's like the notch of an arrow or the playmobil hand. Why would he use this hand position? It's likely that it it used as a grasping hand with little chance of injuring the fingers. Also this position is naturally used when doing irimi nage, ikkyo and nikkyo in the style of Fujita sensei.

 

 

 

Whenever I use this "power hand" the techniques appear to be more solid and structurally sound. Try and feel for yourself.

 

Enjoy practice.

 

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Fujita sensei study part eighteen

Posture, taisabaki, technique.

The study and practice of Aikido is often "technique" oriented. This means that the sensei is showing a technique concerning an attack which has been agreed upon. The students try their best to emulate or imitate this technique with their partner. The technique is the starting point of their movement. One works towards the goal which is the described technique. This is a top-down learning method.

Fujita sensei stresses the importance of the basics in his kihon waza. First your posture has to be correct. Then one has to learn to move this posture in a natural way. The end result will be an Aikido technique. Therefore the sentence "posture, taisabaki, technique" contains the training method of sticking to the basics at all time. When one attempts a technique with bad posture and movement it will never be natural and harmonious practice.

The next clip Fujita sensei emphasizes posture. The starting point of all things concerning Aikido.

 

 

Enjoy practice.

 

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Fujita sensei study part seventeen

Use center.

Aikido can be a study of many different things but it can be seen as a study of knowing and using your center. Hara is a concept in Japan that can be studied through different excercises. A lot of martial arts are related to this study. Aikido in particular emphasizes the use of your center from the very first lesson. In my opinion the kihon waza of Fujita sensei can be used to give attention to and how to use your center.

 

Sometimes you can observe him tapping onto his hara to remind us not to use brute force or awkward strength, but instead use whole body movement directed by your hara. Simple, but not easy! Once you are able to use your center one can connect this to the center of your partner and Aikido movement can be experienced.

 

The following clip one can observe his use of hara with uke Armando Braat, who also gives attention to hara usage in his lessons.

 

Enjoy practice.

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Fujita sensei study part sixteen

Gyaku, aihanmi, ryote dori, ushiro ryote dori.

Fujita sensei kihon waza consists of movements derived from gyaku hanmi katate dori. Once these movements are understood one can proceed to aihanmi katate dori techniques. Ryote dori techniques are basically the same as gyaku hanmi movements, whereas ushiro ryote dori movements could be seen as a kind of aihanmi excercise.

 

So try to remember:

1. Gyaku hanmi katate dori: 4 basic taisabaki

2. Aihanmi katate dori: 4 basic taisabaki

3. Ryote dori same taisabaki as 1.

4. Ushiro ryote dori same as 2.

 

In this demo both gyaku hanmi and ryote dori are clearly seen.

 

In the following demo one can recognize gyaku hanmi katate dori, morote dori and aihanmi katate dori.

 

 

So all kihon waza of Fujita sensei are derived from the 4 basic taisabaki in gyaku hanmi katate dori and therefore to be practiced continuously.

Shomen uchi,yokomen uchi, tsuki can all be practiced using these body movements as shown in the next clip.

So Fujita sensei left us with a system to be studied and practiced while doing our Aikido.

 

Enjoy practice.

 

 

 

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