Divide releases into 3 steps to help beginners get started

There are a lot of different modes that you can do most martial arts exercises in.  They seem to be made to be played in different ways under various conditions.

How to move efficiently during a conflict

Here is an interesting video to watch.  I think it might be important to your martial research, not because I agree with every point.  In fact, I think the second fellow sounds like a paranoid schizo in much of his lecture. But there is something here.  Perhaps just gleanings.  Maybe important gleanings. Watch this and let me know what you get from it.



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____________________
Patrick Parker
www.mokurendojo.com

Learning 1-2 karate kata could help you even if you're not a karate guy!

One of the things that can seem alien to a karate guy beginning in aikido or judo is the idea that each of the kata in judo and Tomiki aikido involves two people - tori (or nage) and uke.  All of the kata moves are actually done on an actual person's body.  There are no solo kata in judo or aikido.

Connections between Junokata, Koshiki, and Nanatsu!

You know what is really cool?  When you have both enough time in a body of work, and the opportunity to step back from it far enough that you can see the themes and motifs running through it.  Judo is like this.

My crazy names for Hirano's crazy exercises

Naming conventions for martial arts techniques and kata vary from art to art.  Some folks like the ultra-simple thing-1, thing-2 sort of ordinal naming system, while others like more descriptive names for things like the "arm-crushing cross-shaped armbar," from judo.

Tokio Hirano's unorthodox genius

Tokio Hirano was one of the, if not THE winningest competition judoka in history.

The story goes that he racked up 4300 competition wins in 6 years in western Europe in the early 1950's.  That's more than 700 wins per year, year-after-year!  Who among us modern mortals can even conceive of attempting 14-15 shiai matches per week for 6 years?

Aikido Ground Fighting by Walther G. Von Krenner

A relatively new addition to the body of literature about aikido is Walther G. Von Krenner's, Aikido Ground Fighting.  This is a really interesting book in a couple of ways.

I'm doing a new thing - www.roamingparkers.com

Martial Arts are not the only thing I do! I know - hard to believe. Like the rest of ya'll I juggle a few other activities like family and scouts and travel and sports and work.

Removing commas

I heard an interview on the radio today that was really interesting.  The subject was a fellow who translates Haruki Murakami works into other languages.  The interviewer asked him, "When do you know that a creative work is done?  That is, when do you stop fiddling with your translations and adjusting and fixing things?"

Aigamaeate by the numbers

Lately in class we have returned to an emphasis on kihon - that is (IMO) making sure that you get all the steps in and making them as distinct as possible.

A shadowy chicken and egg thing

A doctrine that is often attributed to Kano and his successors is that a technique is composed of three (some say 4) parts - kuzushi, tsukuri, kake (and some people add zanshin).

Big techniques can teach you BIG spirit

It's amazing how every old dead wise guy seems to say such amazing-sounding stuff.  For instance, I've been told that one old dead wise guy once said, "If you do small techniques you will have a small spirit, but if you do BIG technique then you can have a BIG spirit!"

Shomenate by the numbers

Per my last post, we've started working Junana in more of a kihon mode.  That is, static uke and explicit emphasis on making each phase of the technique (kuzushi, tsukuri, and kake) as distinct as possible.  This past week we worked shomenate and we've already seen some interesting aspects crop up in our practice.

Kuzushi, tsukuri, and kake in kihon no kata

Every teacher and organization and group and subgroup has its own distinctive practices.  Things they do because of the way they interact or the particular way that they happen to think about the art we are doing. It is easy to look at other artists doing this thing that you thought that you had the exclusive truth about and think, "That guy sucks."  If you're looking for videos of people sucking at aikido - they are super easy to find!  Heck, I guarantee I could show you a video of Tomiki Sensei and your response would be, That dude is a white belt!

Parallel evolution

When I'm filtering around the interwebs looking for things of interest, I prefer to look for the commonalities between different approaches rather than the differences.  For instance, I figure that if I look at how an aikido guy does a particular thing and how a karate guy does a similar thing then the truth might likely be somewhere in the middle.

A prefabular aiki allegory

Aikido is not aiki.  In fact, it is just a primer that we might be able to use to achieve a distant goal.  But a good primer is nothing to sneeze at.

Without this, they drop like they're shot

In my previous post I posed a question. Does aikido possess a technique or skill that would allow the aikidoka to reliably make a violent opponent stop their misdeeds immediately without necessarily causing them grievous injury?  I think I've left y'all in suspense long enough so I'll let you in on what I was thinking.

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Kuzushi is what I was thinking of.  The ability to rob someone of their balance.  Balance has been called the Mother Attribute, because without balance you cannot apply speed or power.

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So, kuzushi is not only a facilitator of technique, but it is also a great equalizer, and if it can be developed both skillfully and reliably, then it could potentially become the entirety of the art.  If you have the opponent's balance, you don't need anything else.

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To see more of what I've written on kuzushi, see this.

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____________________
Patrick Parker
www.mokurendojo.com