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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