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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