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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Jo nage principles.

Aikido throwing techniques done with the jo, or short staff.

 

 

 

 

What are the principles involved?

 

- Relax shoulders.

- Use hips, not arm strength.

- Extend whole body power into the tip of the jo.

- Use on/off principle in dealing with resistance.

- Use leverage and free movement of the whole jo.

- Feel!

- Move around point of contact with jo or body movement.

 

Jo nage is a training tool which I think is not practiced enough to explain and get used to Aikido's main principles. Following I have found a few jo nage clips from Ki Aikido's curriculum.

 

 

 

Enjoy practice.

 

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Gleason sensei

Gleason sensei is an American Aikido instructor ranked 7th dan. His main teacher would be Yamaguchi sensei, which shows in his approach concerning Aikido and sword like movements. What I like about his style of Aikido would be a that it appears a feeling sensitivity based learning environment. Also added are the theories behind the movements. One's techniques are empowered by this way of teaching and learning. In recent years he also studied with Dan Harden and those principles are recognizable in his recent clips on YouTube from Aikido Sydney.

In the next clip a lot of things can be learned. He explains spiral movement and it's components. Here the six directions theorie, expanding the fascia of the whole body, can be observed. Aikido movements and experience combined with insights from other fields of interest is the way I like to study body movements and feeling sensitivity in my Aikido practice.

 

 

Enjoy practice.

 

Technique based training is low level, principles based are medium level and high level would be knowing, using and feeling one's fascial body tissue to create Aiki.

Thoughts?

 

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" Hands and hips separate"

 

 

In Aikido movement one should pay attention to the principle which involves separating the movement directions of hip and hands. A human body is balanced because of this principle but also connection and power distribution will be able to arise.

 

In this slow motion clip of a baseball swing watch the relation between hips and hands. Notice the hip joint is not the waist. Hands and waist movement usually are the same whereas hip joint movement is in opposite direction. The moment of ball contact the arms and waist go in the direction intended while the hips stay stationary or counter turn. This creates power through whole body use in connection to ground strength.

 

Now study the next clip of Yamashima sensei and his subtle use of " Hands and hips separate".

 

 

To improve your natural movement abilities and power transfer possibilities in a relaxed manner study the whole body connection between hips and hands and their respective directions.

 

Enjoy practice.

 

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"Hand, taille, fuß"

"Hand, taille, fuß" is a German sentence translated in English as "Hand, waist, foot". I encountered this line in a book about Wu style Tai Chi in German language. What does it mean and how is this applicable to Aikido?

 

 

 

On two previous occasions I have encountered body movement practitioners refer to the principle that the hand leads natural movement of the human body. First during a seminar held by Peter Bacas sensei he instructed that in Aikido technique the hand leads the movement of the body. This seems to contradict the often used principle that the hara, or center of the body is the main component of Aikido movement.

Peter Bacas sensei.

 

Secondly a professional dancer led a workshop whereby natural movement was to be experienced and he instructed us to lead with the hand and the body would follow naturally.

My view on this would be that solo movement as well as partner work should involve using hand movement first.

Try to move like this:

 

1. Use intent to move the hand towards the centerline of uke.

2. Try to move the hand physically towards uke.

3. When resistance is met, turn your waist towards the hand.

4. Use the feet to connect to the ground. This connects hip joints to hands.

 

In solo practice it would be like this:

 

1. Use intent to position the hand.

2. Let the hand follow the path intended.

3. Let the waist follow the movement .

4. The hip joints connect to the hands.

5. Hips are naturally connected to the feet and the ground.

 

This practice builds an integrated natural moving body with power stored for use.

 

There's an exception to the hand, waist, feet principle when using soft arms as in the next clip by Yamashima sensei. Here the feet and hips move before the hands!! The arms are like ropes which follow hara movement.

 

Enjoy practice.

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Sobue shihan demo.

 

 

Following I will present a video of Sobue shihan where a lot of principles used by Yamaguchi sensei can be observed. Some of the things I notice are:

 

- His stance often resembles a stance used in Wu Tai Chi Chuan. It looks something like this:

Back is straight, but not always upright. This builds a good ground connection.

 

- Arms are relaxed and he uses natural arcs of movement as seen in normal walking.

- Good "listening" skills.

- No awkward strength, uses structure of his body to connect to uke.

- Arms are used as "feelers" and connectors to achieve center to center contact.

- Sword like movements can easily be observed.

- Flows nicely from standing into sitting practice.

- No signs of aggression or rushing the movements.

 

 

Yamaguchi sensei has several students who are active in Aikido today. Endo, Yamashima, Tissier and Sobue are the ones I am currently studying.

 

 

Enjoy practice.

 

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