Suwariwaza

Suwari is an interesting practice. It's hard to get a handle on the underlying structure to the practice. I think that's because Tomiki structured the tachiwaza and weapons practice to a greater degree and left the suwari as both more advanced practice and more of a retro-type of practice. Thus its inclusion in the koryunokata. So the small amount of suwari practice that we get tends to be either exemplary techniques (i.e. koryu) or freeform playing. Of course, suwari is a beneficial practice, but I think it would be more beneficial if it were subject to the same structure as the tachiwaza we learn.

I've been thinking about the suwari that we do a lot lately, and I want to begin including a very small amount of suwari as part of the warmup in each class. I've actually been including some suwari in the judo warmups and it has been a good thing. It introduces some techniques as well as the Kito principle while serving as a physical continuation of ukemi practice. Y'all aikidoka can probably expect to see 1-2 techniques from koryu katas #1, 3, 5 ,and 6 over the next few weeks while I try to figure out how to both structure it and fit it in.