What a great randori session we had tonight. It started out as judo with Rob and myself, but we were both feeling lazy, so after some standing drills (including some work on happo no kuzushi - look for the posts in the next couple of days) and some light nagekomi we de-volved into chatting about knife randori and our aikido system. We ended up shutting up and putting up. We played with some of the variant forms of randori that I've talked about on this blog lately, including grab-and-go knife randori and the S.T.A.B. hug the arm maeotoshi. I got my thighs and belly cut up pretty badly a couple of times but managed to catch Rob a couple of times with shomenate (You remember, the technique that Tomiki said preceeds all successful aikido).
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It was neat trying my aikido against a really dangerous knife guy in some unfamiliar randori situations with some resistance involved. You want to have someone worthy of testing your skills against, go find one of Bram Frank's CSSD Modern Arnis guys. It was neat to see how well the core of our aiki system (shomenate) works even against this worthy an adversary.
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We also played some drills that I've been preparing for the Aiki Buddy Gathering next month. Using aiki brushoff and rolling the ball to integrate the kata and chains we do into randori. Cool stuff. For instance, we worked on a couple of nijusan techniques (shomenate and oshitaoshi) with uke given the instructions to absolutely not fall using the standard fall from kata. This leads, naturally into rolling the ball to stay safe and retain control and aiki brushoff to disengage and flee. Really cool. Worked wonders on Rob even as he added greater levels of force and speed and resistance. And Rob was able to do it well with minimal instruction.
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The really cool thing is, I think I managed to communicate to Rob what I've been trying to tell him for a while (that our aikido is really cool) and he was definately able to show me better than tell me what he was talking about in his knife randori comments (that the CSSD modern Arnis guys really know what they are talking about). We clarified and simplified a lot of our talk and theory in the crucible of randori tonight.
I loved the randori sessions, and martial chat. I was really enlightened to what my old aiki system has evolved too. I was even surprised that when we were doing knife randori at miai or beyond that Pat (my sensei) was able to evade my initial attack without even a major scratch, which is almost unheard of. My tactical instructors especially my Grandmaster Bram Frank has given me a very useful piece of advice, and the basic jest is it is that you hold your truth inside of you and that when you have studied enough you know truth(whats really) and what wont work. I have found truth in my aiki studies and that is Pat Parker Kihara aikido from the lineage of Karl Geis. I seriously doubt my aiki studies will carry me out of kihara chains, nijusan, and tegatana. Rob..cssdsc and Mokuren Dojo
ReplyDeleteOh..I forgot also when we took the knife out of play..We were working on kihara chains and Pat smered me into the ground 99% of the time. I think one time I was able to stay on my feet. I would attack right handed as I am a natural lefty with a boxing background, and it was amazing how even if I was able to turn in my left arm was kept at bay. Granted, I was not coming in throwing wildly, but anyone who says they can learn anything from a slug fest besides maybe dealing with stress really does not have a clue about martial arts and training. Kihara chains are top notch true self defense sequences..
ReplyDeletePatrick;
ReplyDeleteDid you see any of Tim Cartmell's grappling on Dojo Rat?
I would be interested in your perspective. I loved it myself...
D.R.