What is 6-jo kata good for anyway?

You thought I'd completely shifted my focus to judo, didn't you?  Not so!  Here's some of the other stuff I've been thinking about and playing around with lately.
.

For jo folks that are not used to this sort of practice, watch with fresh eyes and think about it as similar to the foot sweep to control exercise that Nick demonstrates here - that is, simple set of paired techniques that repeats infinitely and provides a basis from which to riff and expound - a basic framework to insert other techniques, jodori, jo no tsukai, etc... And a framework to begin varying toward something like randori.

Or think about it as similar to a hubud drill - as this instructor calls it, "a generator." That is, a basic sequence that spawns all sorts of opportunity to delve into other techniques or aspects of the art.

Want to discuss this blog post?
Come find me on Facebook at my Mokuren Dojo FB group

____________________
Patrick Parker
www.mokurendojo.com

What's jo got to do with it?

Today we had our first Aikido Renaissance Playday of the year, and I went into it thinking along the lines of playing with aiki-jo material and trying to figure out what sticks and swords have to do with our aikido anyway.  What is so 'aiki' about aiki-jo?

We worked on the first four of Tomiki's Jo-no-tsukai, A.K.A jo-nage in some aikido lineages.

• migi sumiotoshi
• hidari sumiotoshi
• tekubikime
• maeotoshi

As we worked on these techniques, I was paying attention to the hints and instructions that I was giving people.  I was particularly looking for times when I was telling stick-weilding aikidoka the same things I'm always telling the empty-handed aikidoka.  Today's major themes ended up being -

• Push straight down the length of the jo instead of pushing sideways (as if trying to bend the jo).  You'll bestronger, more controlleed, and less likely to slip and bust someone's teeth.
•  If you get to a place where you can feel uke's strength, then you are in the wrong place - move somewhere that he's not as strong.
• If you want uke to move away from a strong position, you can't hold him there.  Often you have to relax and give up your own territory in order to get uke to shift to different ground.

Do those sound familiar?  Anyone recognize those situations or phenomena from aikido or judo?

Then we worked on three of Tomiki's jo-dori

• shomenate
• gyakugamaeate
• maeotoshi

Here we wound up repeating one major theme a lot -

• If you allow uke to choose his own ground, you'll end up in a strength battle.  Walk away and tear his root out of the ground, and then do your technique.

Finally, we worked on the first two of the Seitei-jo techniques -

• tsukezue
• suigetsu

Here our emphasis was on honte and honteuchi and hikiotoshi.  I've said before that hikiotoshi has been the bane of my existence, but I have to admit today it was almost fun to work on ;-)  It was working very nicely.

Want to discuss this blog post?
Come find me on Facebook at my Mokuren Dojo FB group

____________________
Patrick Parker
www.mokurendojo.com

Police-jo

I know - it's technically not "Aiki-jo," but this is a cool old film that I'd not seen before...



Want to discuss this blog post?
Come find me on Facebook at my Mokuren Dojo FB group

____________________
Patrick Parker
www.mokurendojo.com

Get some jo in your aikido

I read it somewhere - not sure where - that the old jodo guys said that it was relatively unimportant to correct students on the things that go on in the middle of the kata.  He was saying that the really important thing to get right was the beginning and end of the kata.

.

This jives to a large degree with what little teaching I've had from SMR jojutsu guys - they were very peculiar about the beginnings and the ends, and they seemed perhaps slightly less interested in the in-between actions than I was.

.

They were emphasizing principle over tactics - the intangibles - ma-ai, kamae, metsuke, zanshin.  By paying close attention to the beginning and to the end of the encounter you get reinforcement in these intangibles.

.

You see this same sort of attention to beginnings and ends in some of the pre-war aikido folks (like Tomiki and Shioda), and perhaps a little less in some of the post-war guys, though I have heard Doshu Moriteru Ueshiba speak on his videos about the importance of precision in setting up the conditions before each technique.

.

In experienced jo guys there is a psychological (or dare I say, "psychic") pressure between them, as if there were terabytes of interaction being beamed back and forth between their eyes.  Because of the extreme consequences (jo or sword embedded in skull), neither partner dares break that line-of-sight communication until they see how it all works out.  I have found as an observer, it is easy to get drawn into and lost in that psychic communication between two good partners.  Often I have to make a concerted effort to watch their feet instead of their faces, or I won't know what happened after they are through with a kata.  

.

There is value in carrying this type of practice with you when doing aikido taijutsu - (improvement of ma-ai, kamae, metsuke, and zanshin) but there is also potentially stupid tangents (e.g. the zombie attack, the no-touch ki masters), so beware the stupidity, but be aware of the potential value to your practice.

Want to discuss this blog post?
Come find me on Facebook at my Mokuren Dojo FB group

____________________
Patrick Parker
www.mokurendojo.com

New eyes and fresh hearts

Over the past few years, maybe 10 or 15 years, I've heard several practitioners of various schools of koryu kenjutsu and jojutsu say that they just don't get the attraction of aiki-jo and aiki-ken - that there is just not that much martial skill involved in aiki weapons practices as compared to koryu.

.

Some of this I can attribute to koryu snobbery.  Nothing but the inside teaching is going to be good enough for some folk that fully buy into the propoganda about how they are the real guys with the real knowledge.  Brand loyalty plays a large role in this - but brand loyalty gets old eventually.

.

And some I can attribute to Ueshiba's lack of structure in passing down his weapon skills.  His students, and to a far larger extent, their students have a very un-even skill set ranging from great skill to cut-your-own-arm-off incompetence.

.

And some of this I can attribute to a difference in goals.  The SMR guys (for instance) are not trying to use the jo to get at takemusu aiki, so it makes sense that aiki-jo may differ from SMR jo because they are aiming at different endpoints.

.

But the snobbery of some (certainly not all) koryu guys and the resentment it engenders in some (again, not all) aiki guys is tiresome.   I like practicing with and learning from both groups and my personal practice has benefited from allowing myself to be influenced by each group, but I've gotten to the point that I don't especially want to be included in either group.  

.

Perhaps both communities could benefit from each looking at the other with new eyes and fresh hearts.

[photo courtesy of Magali Veldhuis]

Want to discuss this blog post?
Come find me on Facebook at my Mokuren Dojo FB group

____________________
Patrick Parker
www.mokurendojo.com

2013 - A year in the life

Lately I've been reflecting on this past year (2013) and projecting some plans...

In 2013 I planned to attend/teach one event per month (including my ABGs here).  I ended up doing 10 instead of 12.  Not bad...

• I started out with a trip to Corpus Christi for a get-away with Eric, Matl, Waddell, Nick, and some other excellent folks.  We ought to do another of those this next year sometime...
• I had the privilege of teaching a benefit seminar in Jackson MS to raise money to send Police trainers to Thailand to show people there how to extract children out of the sex trade.
• I got to attend a most excellent Isshin/Aiki camp at Hazlehurst.  Can't wait for the next one of these.
• I did one seminar at Union University (on kuzushi) but I wasn't able to attend the Fall shindig because of illness.
• I got to teach Koryu Dai Go at Windsong In OKC - what a great group of people!
• We did two Aiki Buddies Gatherings here in Magnolia - at the first one we worked on groundwork and goshin jutsu and we had two excellent Shodan demos - Jason in judo and Todd in aikido.  At the one in the Fall we worked on koshiki kihon and aikijo  - the second one was very well attended.
• In November I got to return to Richmond VA to teach a couple of classes on koshinage and Junokata.
• I made a flying trip to Starkville to work with James Reuster (who I haven't seen in about 15 years).  He taught a profound class on releases that has and will continue to impact my aikido.
• I also got to attend one judo tournament with Mike.

Here at Magnolia, we had several areas of emphasis in our studies...

• Aikijo and modular knife
• Ukemi as the most important, most practical self-defense skill
• Koryu dai go - more proactive, direct initiative "go and get em'" type aikido
• Tomiki's aiki taiso
• The extensive gray area between Kodokan judo and Tomiki aikido - we've been playing more with starting judo throws from releases and ending aikido throws in ukigatame (for instance).
• I've been watching a lot of Yoshinoro Kono - particularly his footwork, his aikijo,  and his students Koshiki no kata.
• I've also been watching a lot of Tokio Hirano and his students - particularly his wave-like entries into uchikomi and his Nanatsu no kata.  This man is inspiring.

There have been many ups and downs.  I've been plagued with elbow and shoulder pain problems for about 8 months.  It's getting better but it really put a damper on my jo work at Windsong this past summer.  I wasn't the only one with shoulder problems - Kel fell over a bush or something and broke his rotator cuff and had to have surgery so that put a major damper on our working together.  I'm looking forward to having him back with us this coming year.  On the positive side, I moved my oldest son, Whit, from kids classes to adult classes and it's been a blast having him as a regular partner.

In the coming year - 2014...

• I would like to attend 1 event per month, with the exception of January (new baby girl is due).  I'm especially looking forward to the Windsong Summer event - sounds like it'll be a hum dinger.
• Mike will attend 1-2 more tournaments this spring.
• I'd like to devote Saturday 9-noon classes for 2014 to embu-mode kata practice with emphasis on Koshiki, Nanatsu, Nage, Katame, Ju, and Nikata.  Hmm.  sounds like 6 katas 2 months each.
• We will continue our emphasis on aikijo and knife.

Want to discuss this blog post?

Come find me on Facebook at my Mokuren Dojo FB group

___________________

Patrick Parker

www.mokurendojo.com

Kihon and suburi - keiko and renshu

The basic practice in Aiki-jo is called suburi (swinging), while the SMR jo guys do a bunch of kihon (fundamentals).  These practices are largely similar, large motion fairly atomic-level foundational practices, and it is fairly easy to treat the two practices as the same.  

.

It may be a false distinction that I am making, but I think the two practices are distinct and each is valuable.  To me, the difference between kihon and suburi is very similar to the difference between keiko and renshu practice modes.

.

To me, kihon is almost like miniature kata that are often-repeated and used as building blocks for other, more complex kata...

• there are prescribed right and wrong ideals of how to do each kihon
• the kihon are often practiced in a series of steps, or postures practiced in a 1...2...3... manner
• Kihon are frequently done fairly slowly to give time to get the mind working the body right.

While suburi has the same foundational feel as kihon ...

• Suburi is about repetition...repetition...repetition
• Suburi folks often talk about muscle memory, and they like to talk about doing so many repetitions that they exhaust the practitioner into figuring out how to swing efficiently.
• There is not so much a right and wrong way - just better or worse.  If you are not as "right" as whatever ideal you have, don't analyze it too much - just swing the stick another thousand times and you will either be closer to the ideal or you will have a better idea of what the ideal is.
• Suburi are often done faster and more fluidly than kihon - so that you can get more reps in 
• Suburi are often done with longer, heaver practice weapons (suburito) to build strength and endurance.

[photo courtesy of Daniel Imfield]

Want to discuss this blog post?

Come find me on Facebook at my Mokuren Dojo FB group

____________________

Patrick Parker

www.mokurendojo.com

Intersection set aiki jo-jutsu

I could probably count the things I know for sure about jodo on 3 fingers or less.  But in some ways, jo is falling into place for me - or perhaps I'm just starting to come to peace with the jo.  I thought today I'd enumerate some of where I'm at in jo right now...

• Intersection-set jo - For me, aiki-jo and SMR jo and kenjutsu and etc... have got to be the same thing.  I don't have the time left in my life, nor do I have the personality or patience to learn two or three distinct weapon systems and be able to keep them separate from each other.  I am content to spend 80-90% of my practice time on the intersection set between aiki-jo and SMR and etc...
• Principles based jo - The weapon has got to be an extension of my body such that I can apply aikido strategies and heuristics and principles that I already know. Just like I can't deal with multiple weapon systems, I can't handle even one weapon system that teaches me to behave differently than I do in the context of taijutsu.
• Weaponizing the jo - Lately, I've been thinking that my kihon should be even simpler and more atomic than it is in the SMR kihon or the aiki-jo suburi.  For instance, there are only about 3 ways you can hold the stick to use it as a weapon (honte, gyakute, sakate), and there are about 4 real common ways we hold a stick when we are not using it as a weapon (hanmi, tsune/sage, ichimonji, monomi) so lately I've been working on drilling how to get offline and manage ma-ai while weaponizing the jo from each of the 4 starting points to each of the 3 grips.
• Poke and whack - When you get down to it, once you get the stick in one of those 3 grips, there's only about 2 things that you can do with it - swing or thrust.  So, for me these days, jodo has largely become a practice of figuring out how to 1) weaponize the stick, while 2) moving like I'm used to in aikido, and 3) swinging and thrusting effectively from whatever grip I have.
• Henka in jodori and jonage - We've also been practicing the jodori and jonage from each of the 3 grips, because you can't tell how you will be holding it when they grab it.
• Aiki-cane jutsu - and lately I've been thinking a lot about tanjojutsu...

I'm sure all that will bore the hardcore aiki-jo or SMR enthusiasts to death, but for me, "intersection-set aiki jo-jutsu" provides plenty of entertainment!

Want to discuss this blog post?
Come find me on Facebook at my Mokuren Dojo FB group

____________________
Patrick Parker
www.mokurendojo.com

Laser-focused autumnal tachidori

We have a small dojo space with limited headroom, so almost all of our long weapons practice (bokken, jo, etc...) is done outside on the driveway or lawn.  The only problem is it is usually scorching hot and 100% humidity outside in the summer here in southwest Mississippi, so summertime becomes our taijutsu (empty-hand) and tanto (knife) season, when we can practice in front of an air conditioner, and fall and spring become our taijutsu and long-weapons season when it is pleasant outside.  We don't quite hibernate in the winter-time, but that is our season to do more tandoku (solo practice) and much less falling while the mats and our bodies are cold.

.

We've been doing this for several years this way, but our weapons practice has not been as focused and productive in the last year or so (or perhaps I've been paying more attention to it and have just realized how sorry we are in the past year or so ;-).  So I decided that this year for our autumnal long-weapons practice we would have a laser focus on one particular aspect or kata or facet instead of doing a little bit of this and a little bit of that and then not seeing it again for several months.

.

So I asked Whit what facet of weapons he wanted to work on this Fall and he immediately said, tachidori! (Taking a sword from uke as you throw him!)    Really - the toughest aspect to practice outside (unless we drag a mat outside each day.  But you know what?  I'm up for it if he is!

.

I figure for the next 2-3 months to devote all our outside weapons practice to tachidori and collateral skills (kihon, maybe some jodori, maybe even some sparring or kumitachi with foam sticks?).  

.

Here is a list of the 9 Tomiki tachidori...

Tomiki Tachidori
Sankata

• men maeotoshi
• men shihonage
• men aigamaeate
• do oshitaoshi
• men hijikujiki

Rokukata

• men oshitaoshi
• men wakigatame
• men hineri oshitaoshi nage
• men kotegaeshi

And a couple of videos...

Sankata tachidori (starting at about 6:00)

 

Rokukata tachidori (starting at about 2:00)

Want to discuss this blog post?
Come find me on Facebook at my Mokuren Dojo FB group

____________________
Patrick Parker
www.mokurendojo.com

Explicit & implied in Tomiki-jo

Any artform is necessarily limited in scope.  Martial arts are no different.  In our aikido and judo there art things that are explicit and things that are implied.  Different arts, and even different teachers within a single art, will make different things implicit or explicit in their practice.

But I think it is importantant to know what the implicit things are - what are you assuming and ignoring  for the sake of your practice?

In Tomiki's expression of aiki-jo ( as seen exclusively in Sankata and Rokukata) there are jo and sword take-aways (jodori), jo-retention throws (jonage), and sword vs sword (kumitachi).  So, what's that represent?  For the most part, this is the grappling part of the encounter - it leaves out or implies the free-motion phase where tori is moving and jiving and maintaining space and poking and cracking with the stick.  I think Tomiki (or Ohba) assumed you know to move around and crack the bad guy with the stick until the bad guy manages to grab you or the stick. And that might not be a bad assumption in a society where schoolkids are universally exposed to kendo, but in the west in the 21st century, there are loads of folks that dont know anything about swinging a stick except what they see at the baseball games.

So, I think it would probably help our aiki-jo a great deal to make some of the free-movement phase of the encounter more explicit in our teachings.

If you look at the Saito or Nishio lines of aiki-jo, you see a much more explicit teaching of how to do moving and striking with a jo.  They also have the grappling components - much the same as Tomiki - but they do a better job (or at least make the attempt to explicitly teach) the striking part.

This makes sense.  Tomiki/Ohba was interested in the taijutsu and randori aspects of the art but he was making at least a nod to the older line of the school.  I want to make a bit more than a nod.  I think we should make the striking part of aiki-jo (as in 31-jo and 13-jo kata) more explicit.

Incidentally, Saito aiki-jo has solo practice elements - a useful mode that Tomiki-jo is also missing.  Also, a nice side effect - if we make the aiki-jo ukes/attackers more competent, they will in turn, make tori more competent at his thing.

Want to discuss this blog post?
Come find me on Facebook at my Mokuren Dojo FB group
___________________
Patrick Parker
www.mokurendojo.com

Why I like Yoshinori Kono's jo work

A few days ago I forwarded this video to a bunch of my friends with a note saying, "Check this guy out, I really like what he does."  Several of them were unimpressed, and had some good comments, like,

• he is working too far inside ma-ai
• no power behind his strikes
• his ukes don't appear to know what they are doing

...so I thought I'd write some about why I do like his aiki-like jo work.

.

First, I will readily admit I'm probably biased because of an old article I read about this fellow - Perceptual warfare in the classical Japanese martial arts.  This perceptual approach to aikido (etc...) feels right to me - I get the same feeling watching Ueshiba's later films of him doing magic.  Osensei was operating within the domain of his ukes' perceptions (inside their OODA loop), and that's what Kono appears to be getting at.

.

In all martial arts (that I've seen) there appear to be different factions and cults based on different preferences or attributes.  You can take a dozen students and teach them the same stuff at the same time and you will end up with a dozen different arts in a few years, because each practitioner has individual preferences and filters and attributes that they  use to interpret the art.  Some are stronger, some are faster, some are better at receiving while others are better at attacking, etc...  For example, within the world of Japanese karate-do, you see Shotokan, which sort of epitomizes the cult of power.  They are strong and linear and they make their karate work through strength. Then you have Shotokai, which is the same set of material taught by the same original teachers, but now they more epitomize a cult of timing.  They take a  more soft and flowing approach.  (Sure, these are generalizations, and real karate masters make use of both strength and timing, but the generalization holds I think).

.

With respect to jodo/jojutsu/aikijo, you see the same sort of differentiation into styles or cults.  Some folks are all about mechanical precision and power, while others are all about timing and flow.  Nick actually brings these aspects together in an interesting way in his jodo training matrix video...

I suspect this is what we are seeing in Kono's video with respect to power - in his preference to work in the perceptual realm, he is concentrating on speed and timing at the expense of power.  So, he is demonstrating an interesting thing about one facet of the big picture - how to develop the speed and timing necessary to work on uke's perceptions.

.

(but as a side note...speed is power... so they tell me...)

.

Now with regard to his working inside ma-ai.  That is a problem from my point of view too, but I think it is understandable for a couple of reasons.

• He is obviously working from the background of speed and timing, and in my experience, superfast practitioners love to work inside ma-ai, where they can disorient slower guys with a flurry of motion before the slower guys can react.  I probably enjoy that aspect of Kono's work particularly because it is so opposite of my personal preferences and style.  I avoid inside conditions like the plague unless I can cripple uke with kuzushi or get behind him.  So this seems exotic, like something that could benefit me.
• He is also obviously showing pieces of motion instead of fight-ending waza like we're used to seeing.  As such, I suspect his ma-ai is contracted for the sake of getting some clear video of what he's doing.  The camera has him and uke confined to a smaller space.

And as for his ukes being incompetent.  I don't much to say about that because just about everyone in the world is more competent with weapons than me.  But Morihei Ueshiba made his ukes look pretty dumb too, which suggests that Kono may be on a similar track as Ueshiba.

Want to discuss this blog post?
Come find me on Facebook at my Mokuren Dojo FB group

____________________
Patrick Parker
www.mokurendojo.com

An aiki recipe for jodo

Tomiki aikido has a pretty limited (but interesting in its own respects) set of jo material, so a lot of us in our aikido group study Seitei jo or SMR koryu jo.  SMR is its own thing, separate and awesome on its own, but for my part (and I suspect there are a bunch like me)  I like to do these jo arts because they are aiki-like and I want to see what the jo can teach me about aiki or how i can express aiki through the jo.

As such, I am not as interested in learning dozens of kata as i am in seeing where the aiki is hiding in the kata I do know. And it turns out that in the parts of Seitei and Omote that I have seen, there is a sort of heuristic or recipe that applies to most of the kata.

In the kata, jo usually...

• evades off the line of attack
• fixes the distance so he is outside of sword range but inside jo range
• attacks/controls the centerline
• gets a kuzushi
• then, either destroys the sword-man or gets another controlling kuzushi when the sword-man tries to recover.

In some of the kata the order of these elements get rearranged, but they are mostly all in there (like Ragu - it's in there!)

...and, incidentally, that is also a basic recipe for doing aiki techniques - evade, control distance, control centerline, control balance, then execute.

Want to discuss this blog post?
Come find me on Facebook at my Mokuren Dojo FB group

___________________
Patrick Parker
www.mokurendojo.com

Jodo seminar notes

This past week I had the pleasure and privilege of getting to talk and work with Sensei Jack Bieler of Denton TX on my jodo.  The practice was sublime as usual, but this time I really had the feeling that Sensei was tailoring and directing his instruction right at me and my problems and foibles (I'm fairly sure that the other participants felt like they were receiving special attention from Jack too - he's that great a teacher!). Following is my list of notes and pointers from the jodo sessions.   As usual, any mistakes or foolish misunderstandings are mine - not Jack's.

• Trust the kamae, when properly structured, to do what they were designed to do, either protect you and/or forestall Sword.
• Widen the feet a bit to counterbalance the jo
• Shochugeiko can mean "grip practice"(if stretched a bit, or made into a pun)  ;-) - In honte the jo lies diagonally across both hands.  In gyakute the jo lies in-line with the knuckles of both hands with the door-knocking knuckles of both hands on the 'edge' of the jo.
• Don't draw backward such that a lot of the jo lies behind you.  Rather, stretch forward to encompass the jo so that most of it stays in front of you.
• Honte is honte - weaponize the jo before you use it - The jo must be in honte before you apply leg/body power.  Don't use leg power to lift the jo, use arm power to lift and position (weaponize) the jo, then apply leg/body power through it.
• Jodan is jodan - both of these positions (honte and jodan) recur throughout the art, and their structure and use should be uniform.
• Tsukizue and monomi are mirror images of each other in several ways - one steps forward to the right, the other back to the left.  Both control/threaten the entire centerline.  One applies kuzushi into the back heel, the other applies kuzushi into the front toes.
• Hikiotoshi - set kamae so that jo lies in proper plane before you start.  Throw the stick using front-hand grip power.  Back hand has to follow rather than propel b/c when back hand propels, the body stops and you can't catch up with your own jo in time. Contact near middle of jo and twist hips so that the back heel comes up.  Stretch yourself forward almost into sutemi, then step. Project the sword 3'x6' behind, as in sumiotoshi.  must control Sword's hips.  In paired practice, responding to this gives Sword practice in tsugiashi and ayumiashi.
• A cool drill - Sword drops his tip a bit so that hikiotoshi misses and Sword takes control of chudan.  Jo bounces off ground and reverses path, sweeping sword from below and controlling centerline with honte (this feels like tsubamegaeshi to me) - this comes from the end of Ranai.
• Hold the kamae without bobbling if Sword disappears.
• Hiding in the shadow of the jo - as in gyakutezuki, etc...

Incidentally, re. the italics above - 

"Back hand has to follow rather than propel b/c when back hand propels, the body stops and you can't catch up with your own jo in time."

This was Sensei Bob Rea's same lesson to us re. okuriashibarai!  the following foot has to follow and must not propel, because you stop and lose timing with uke when you try to propel!  The synchronicity between instructors at this seminar was incredible!

Want to discuss this blog post?
Come find me on Facebook at my Mokuren Dojo FB group

____________________
Patrick Parker
www.mokurendojo.com

A pair of Aikijo books

On Wednesdays I've been doing short, quick book recommendations.  Today is a pair of Aiki-Jo manuals - the first of which (Autrelle's) I have found very useful in my studies, and the second of which (Kalkhof's) looks very handy - though I haven't gotten a copy yet.  I very much enjoy Kalkhof's illustrations and Autrelle's detailed textual descriptions.  Both are available on Kindle, and both are  very inexpensive compared to the information provided.

 Want to discuss this blog post?
Come find me on Facebook at my Mokuren Dojo FB group

____________________
Patrick Parker
www.mokurendojo.com

Cognates for tsuki

Consider the lowly thrust, lovely in its directness...

Want to discuss this blog post?
Come find me on Facebook at my Mokuren Dojo FB group

____________________
Patrick Parker
www.mokurendojo.com

Controlling rebounds and misses

So, you have practiced your staff forms religiously for 20 years or so and you have developed good precision and footwork and gotten pretty good at running through your routines without dropping your jo too often.

.

But then you actually have to use a stick to hit something hard for real and you learn a couple of new lessons - lessons you can't learn by waving your stick in the air for years without actually hitting something.

.

You learn that when you swing hard and actually connect with something solid there is that equal and opposite reaction thing from physics!  your stick rattles in your hands and hurts like hell and the end tends to bounce off into space instead of staying on the centerline where you would like it.

.

Or you exert hard in your swing and unknowingly shorten your arms a bit and swish past your target, sending the end of your stick off into space again!

.

So, how do you deal with the reverb and rebound off of a solid hit or with the uncontrolled momentum of a near-miss?  Besides just beating a pell a million times for real (and letting the reverb wreck your joints), are there any techniques that take rebound or misses into account?

.

I have found a couple of hints during my aikijo studies.  You can try...

• shortening the circle - assuming you are swinging the stick with a 2-handed grip on the end, like honte or gyakute, when the end of the stick gets out of control, pull the center of mass of the stick back through your lead hand, damping the vibrations out and letting you get the front end of the stick back under control rapidly.  This trick helps to control rebound and misses.
• switching ends - if the front end of your stick shoots out into space, throw the back end of the stick at the opponent.  This has a similar effect as pulling the COM of the stick through your hand - it damps the vibrations, but it often lets you start a second attack sooner.

I definitely recommend really hitting something solid sometimes so that you can get used to the feel, but doing enough pell work to learn these lessons can be punishing on the joints, so search for places in your forms where shortening the circle or switching ends to regain control shows up - they are hidden in there.

photo courtesy of privatenobby

A little bit extra on this topic...

 Want to discuss this blog post? 

Come find me on Facebook at my Mokuren Dojo FB group 

____________________ 

Patrick Parker 

www.mokurendojo.com

Gazing at far-distant mountains

People occasionally look upward - at a stop light or at a road sign, or occasionally at a startling cloud or sunset, but for the most part we keep our worlds within about 4-5 feet of the ground.  Especially if you work at a desk or at a computer.  We look downward a lot and this becomes habitual.

.

There is a great practice in jo and sword work to help counter this - when working solo kihon or suburi, you want to find a reference point in the distance - upward from the horizon.  Trees and the corners of buildings often work nicely for vertical strikes like menuchi and honteuchi.  Focus your eyes on these reference points in the distance and pretend that your jo/sword is a giant paintbrush and paint a stripe down the tree or down the distant corner over and over.

.

The old dead guys referred to this as enzan no metsuke - gazing at the far-distant mountains, and it is an important practice in creating a good mindset as well as proper posture.

Photo courtesy of Brice Canonne

--

____________________
Patrick Parker
www.mokurendojo.com

Diversify for survival

There is a lot of talk these days on Facebook and even some on the more traditional news sources about some combination of the Government and the UN and the Democrats (and maybe even alien invaders and undead communists) plotting and planning to take away our Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.

.

I can't ever figure out who to trust - I'm certainly not going to get my news from Facebook, and sources as diverse as Public Radio and FOX news are all at times both reasonable and ridiculous - so I will not weigh in today on the likelihood of our gun rights ever being seriously abridged.

.

But I did want to make a comment - and this applies to whichever side of that gun control issue you think you're on.  Don't rely solely on guns (they're just machines, for goodness sake!) and don't count on the perpetual good-will of the government toward your use of a gun.

.

You would be well-served to diversify your self-defense and survival skill-set.

.

Sure, you should practice with your guns and you should continue to lobby to protect your right to keep and bear arms, but you should hedge your bets.

.

Practice Proficiency in ...

• BULLETS
• BLADES (knives and swords)
• BLUDGEONS (sticks and clubs)
• BODY (unarmed)
• BRAIN (the art of strategy)
• BRAWN (strength, endurance...)

...for Protection.

.

One B is not enough.

(Can you tell I was feeling assonant today?)

--
____________________
Patrick Parker
www.mokurendojo.com

Ma-ai and the blood circle

If there is one principle that is discussed and trained extensively, perhaps even obsessively, in aikido classes and some judo classes, it is the idea of ma-ai.

Ma-ai is usually thought of as a boundary around your body, the inside of which is defined as your personal space.  So long as uke is outside of ma-ai, he cannot touch you without first moving toward you.  If you allow uke inside your ma-ai then you cna potentially be attacked without having time to respond.  Typically, ma-ai is thought to be the length of your arm plus the length of the attacker's arm, but this distance can flex a bit under various circumstances.

Despite our tendency to obsess about ma-ai, it is easy to get lax in your thinking and practice.  This is something that you have to watch out for in your practice.  A good way to instantly remind everyone about ma-ai is to put a rubber training knife in uke's hand (or in tori's).  You dont have to change anytihng else about the practice, but as soon as someone is holding a knife, ma-ai becomes more obviously important.

A very good expression of ma-ai that is used by the Boy Scouts to teach knife safety is the idea of the Blood Circle.  A blood circle is a radius around the knife-user the length of his arm plus the length of the blade.  Obviously, anything or anyone within this radius is at risk of being cut if the knife-user slips.

At our house, my oldest son has reached pocketknife age, so we've been talking in terms of Blood Circles a good bit lately.  Today, he picked up a bokken to do some jodo, held it at arm's length and turned in a circle and said, "Look, Dad, A really big blood circle!"

I smiled, and promptly the jodo lesson of the day became an emphasis on the interplay between uke's and tori's blood circles.

[photo courtesy of Hani Amir]

____________________
Patrick Parker
www.mokurendojo.com

How to make jodo practical and useful

One of the things that many modern students and potential students of jodo want to know pretty quickly is, how come we are forever practicing Jo vs. sword, when nobody uses swords anymore?  Why don't we learn something more practical and useful?

.

Well, it turns out that there are good pedigogical reasons for spending most of our time in that practice mode, but that koryu "wait and see" sort of answer is completely unsatisfactory for many students.  Following is a list of seven hints for making your jodo more robust and practical and useful - and more fun and rewarding...

• Really hit real stuff every so often - hang a tire from a tree, plant a post in the ground, get a heavy bag, whatever ... and beat it with an axe handle or a cheap suburito.
• Find a way to do at least a little of some kind of sparring or randori with another person, whether you have to armor up and use lighter sticks, or padded PVC, or just move at micro-speed.  You have to practice at least some against an opponent instead of a partner.
• Do the kata properly, the way Sensei wants, but also play with every conceivable variation of each kata - change every grip, and see how the things work. Look for the places that look like you could easily slip from one kata into another. What if you struck this way instead of that way at this point in the kata?
• Different kinds of attacks - not just sword.  Work your jodo on unarmed ukes, on knife-wielding, stick-wielding, etc... work on defending against the Jo guy, taking Jo and sword away from an attacker, and keeping your Jo from being disarmed.
• Work with different size sticks - not just the official 7/8 inch diameter, 128 cm long, white oak stick... use pencils, canes, and six and eight foot staves.
• Look up info from different traditions, including western european, Filipino, Chinese, and Korean.  Pay particular attention to the commonalities and the differences between the SMR jodo guys and the aikijo guys. 
• Ask the hard questions.  Is this true, or BS? Why is it like this - why not like this?  Is this custom or tradition or best practice or the only way that it can be?

photo courtesy of Fred Hall