Menuchi and seated shooting

One of the presents I got for the kids was a set of youth bokken (29" wooden swords styled after the regular 40-something inch tachi). They came in the mail today, and although the cheap plastic tsuba do not fit exceptionally well, I would highly recommend the red oak bokkens from karatedepot.com as good quality, highly affordable (<$10), and well-made with easy ordering and good shipping speed.

This afternoon Whit and I went and shot some coke cans with the new BB gun. I was shooting from standing and from seated cross-legged today. Whit was doing the watching and gun-carrying as he learns about gun safety. Afterwards we practiced drawing the bokken and stepping forward with a menuchi (downward head cut). I showed him how to rep the men cut in suburi fashion (synching the up and down of the sword with the up and down of the body as he steps forward and backward). It was fun and cool for him but we didn't overdo it because I don't want to wear out his almost-six-year-old attention and desire.

Releases #1 and #3 as separation events

Release#1 and #3 occur with uke approaching through maai and tori evading to one side. Tori’s evasion is not perfect, though, and uke is able to catch a wrist grab – either aigamae (cross hand) or gyakugamae (mirror image). At this point, examine where uke and tori are in relation to each other. They are always closer than 2 arm lengths (maai) and they are almost always within one arm’s length. Tori cannot turn to face uke from this position without both uke’s arm and tori’s arm bending. There are at least three problems here:

1. Upon principle, tori does not want to bend his arm
2. Tori can’t tell if uke will bend his arm from this position
3. Tori cannot force uke to bend his arm form this position

The solution is separation. This separation can happen by uke stepping away from tori or by tori stepping away from uke (or often both). Tori's motion is the only one of these factors that is under tori's control, So, tori must add in enough separation to account for his own arm length and then accommodate to uke’s arm length – either bent or straight. In any case, adding some distance between uke and tori during the second step of these releases helps to release the bind in these two exercises.

We still have the problem of not knowing whether or not uke is going to bend his arm but tori’s separation step provides some time to try to figure out if uke is bending or straightening his arm. We also have no idea whether uke will turn to continue to press the attack or continue his motion away from tori, so the separation step provides some safety margin in case uke is still viable.

These are some of the phenomena that I want to work on in the upcoming weeks as we get into chains #1 and #3. We’ll play with these issues with stiff vs. compliant vs. reactive ukes. Think about these issues at home and come to class raring to learn!

Aikido fundamentals

Ukemi. Tegatana with emphasis on the last step (polishing the mirror) and on the extra steps that pop up between the last evasion step and the first push step. Patrick M's last mvoe is much deeper than mine. My knees weren't doing that particular thing , so I tend to emphasize finding out where all I can point myself without having to move feet. Worked on Hanasu with an emphasis on #6 and #8. We repped these two many times and got into the chains for #8 tonight, allowing us to explore shihonage, tenkai kotegaeshi, ushiroate, and kaiten nage. Then we repped all of Nijusan 1-2 times each. Good, basic class. We need to do more randori.

Ya, dawg!

Wow, It's been a long time since I've written. Christmas and all was fun. Elise bought me the two presents I wanted for Christmas - a CD boxed set of Johnny Cash and an air rifle. The Johnny Cash was just what the doctor ordered and the air rifle was a blast. Until today I hadn't shot a rifle of any kind in over 25 years. The last was a .22 in Scouts. Today I set up a post with a nail where I can hang Coke cans and practice my marksmanship safely, responsibly, and efficiently.

I have to confess, I have an ulterior motive for these two gifts. I intend to lay an ambush from my bedroom window for the dogs that keep getting in my garbage cans, and I figure both the airgun and the Cash are necessary. Actually I am kidding. I am NOT planning to cruelly and unethically shoot any poor doggies in the ass with .177 caliber BBs, even though I live in an area where most folks think "animal control" means hollering "Ya, dawg!" So all the ASPCA and PETA freaks reading this can rest easy at night knowing that our garbage is being safely and ethically rifled by feral dogs that nobody could be bothered to take care of after Katrina.

No class Saturday 12/23/2006

Here's a reminder - there will be no class on Saturday, December the 23rd. We'll be having a get-together with the Parkers in Jackson. We will have normal class on Wednesday the 27th, Saturday the 30th, Wednesday the 3rd, and thereafter...

Upcoming special workouts

In January we will be having several special workouts. On the 5th we'll have Bryce Lumpkin (shodan aikido, shodan judo) in from Orlando Florida. We'll be working on the aikido syllabus in preparation for Bryce's nidan and we'll also be working on the judo syllabus - particularly hip throws to help him in his work with is group in Florida. At some point in January John Wood should also be coming in from Orlando to work mostly on nijusan and the chains. On the 12th we'll be having Chad Morrison (shodan judo) in from Akari Judo in Richmond VA to work particularly on the concepts of otoshi and guruma in judo. Chad and I will also likely be working on the syllabus in general - particularly groundwork - in preparation for Chad's long-overdue nidan. January should be very exciting and productive. I can hardly wait.

One-armed chain #4 variation

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-542193028499874140

Tonight, after ukemi, tegatana, evasions, and hanasu, we got into Chain #4 again. We'd intended to get into Chain #8 but got sidetracked. This is a one-armed version of this part of the chain. This variation came up because Patrick M. doesn't have much function in the second arm to "cheat" with. The release comes as an explicit breaking of uke's grip and re-gripping by tori, similar to some of the motion in one of the higher Koryu kata (I can't remember which one right now, maybe Roku). Anyway, if the tenkai kotegaeshi doesn't work or doesn't feel right then tori moves into release #3, and in this particular film segment, wakigatame. Another option that we played with was this one-armed tenkai kote gaeshi followed by ushiroate. Something we all need to work on - and it is visible in this video - is both partners keeping the free hand between uke and tori. This guards tori and makes uke more of a threat.

Incidently, I found this website for an aiki school in Salt Lake City. Interesting stuff - looks like they are having fun. Check out their videos.

Pragma

Today's practice was jodo kihon 1-12 and seiteikata 1-6 followed by reps of seiteikata #7. no commentary from me. No insights. No theory. Just practice.

Incidently, The following video is very nice. Well put-together demonstration video.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6701826229970392262

Progress toward what

Yesterday I wrote a lot about Progress. The tone of the poem I used as a lead-in to my ideas could lead folks to conclude that I am anti-progress. I am not. Judo, for instance, is all about progress. Take, for instance, one of Kano's two ruling principles of Judo, Jita Kyoei, is often translated 'mutual benefit,' but can also be translated loosely (and better in my opinion) 'you and me going forward together.' I don't think that progress is bad, but I do think that we should carefully consider where we are progressing to. To paraphrase Confucius (reputedly), "If you're not careful about the direction you're going, you will end up where you are headed." That sorta echoes Millay's poem about 'rolling downhill.'
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Progress implies a goal toward which we are moving. What are our goals in aikido and judo? What should our goals be?
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I am currently reading an interesting book by Renzo Gracie and John Danaher titled 'Mastering Jujitsu.' The authors make an interesting point about why non-grapplers (and non-Gracies in particular) got so thoroughly smashed in the early MMA contests. In most martial arts (according to the authors) there is no instruction in performance goals - more what I'd call strategy. Most martial arts (according to the authors) teach various tactics and techniques and spend little time on figuring out strategies for the use of those techniques. When a martial artist who is prepared tactically but not strategically gets into an unfamiliar situation (i.e. on the ground with a Gracie) not only do they have no technical base to handle it, but they have no place to go to make their tactical situation better. They freeze and get pounded because they have no hope. The authors contrast that to their jujitsu, in which they explicitly teach that position-A is better than position-B is better than position-C, etc... So, when they find themselves in the neighborhood of position-C for instance, they automatically know they ought to start tactically working toward a better position. Thus the grappler that is placed in a disadvantageous place knows where to go and has hope for the future.
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Our aikido is (in my opinion) particularly strong in this area. Thorough training in kihon (tegatana and hanasu) provides a deep understanding of proper posture, how to move in good posture, and how to move back toward proper posture when you are thrown out of whack. The addition of a relatively small set of foundational techniques (nijusan) allows lots of repetition in the few techniques that occur most often in randori. The chains teach how to move around in the neighborhoods in which the techniques live, and they also teach the 'positional hierarchy' that Gracie talks about in his book. The addition of the Koryunokata rounds out the system with many of the variations and applications found in the older schools of aikido and jujitsu. So, when the aikidoka is thrown into an unfamiliar situation, he knows if he keeps moving toward principle, keeps moving toward good posture, just keeps moving period, that he has hope of ending up in more familiar territory.
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Kodokan judo is not inherently deficient in these areas either. I think that the strategic thinking skills of some judoka may have been restricted through participation in a particular set of competition rules. The Gracies changed the rules to a more realistic training situation (so they think) and the first judoka that participated under the new rule set got beat up too (though I seem to recall a European Judo champ doing pretty well against Gracie in an early UFC.) Gracie doesn't appear to have anything that Kodokan does not - they just have a different rule set for randori and competition. But that is just my $0.02.

Classic!

Impressive skill

Progress

My favorite poet of all time is Edna St. Vincent Millay - probably for no particular reason that I can put my finger on. I'm generally not much on poems about death and love, but her rhythm and word choice turn me on. One of my favorite pieces of her work is as follows.

We have gone too far; we do not know how to stop; impetus

Is all we have. And we share it with the pushed Inert.

We are clever, -- we are as clever as monkeys; and some of us

Have intellect, which is our danger, for we lack intelligence

And have forgotten instinct.

Progress -- progress is the dirtiest word in the language--who ever told us --

And made us believe it - - that to take a step forward was necessarily, was always

A good idea? In this unlighted cave, one step forward

That step can be the down-step into the Abyss.

But we, we have no sense of direction; impetus

Is all we have; we do not proceed, we only

Roll down the mountain,

Like disbalanced boulders, crushing before us many

Delicate springing things, whose plan it was to grow.

Clever, we are, and inventive, -- but not creative;

For, to create, one must decide -- the cells must decide -- what
form,

What colour, what sex, how many petals, five, or more than five,

Or less than five.

But we, we decide nothing: the bland Opportunity

Presents itself, and we embrace it, -- we are so grateful

When something happens which is not directly War;

For we think -- although of course, now we very seldom

Clearly think--

That the other side of War is Peace.

We have no sense; we only roll downhill. Peace

Is the temporary beautiful ignorance that War

Somewhere progresses.

It has been a long time since I have read this in its entirety. I remembered phrases of it, but not in Millay's crisp, precise, beautiful language. Something in Tegatana no kata made me think of this poem the other day and I had to look it up. This poem speaks volumes about war and peace, which is what aikido is really about anyway. This poem speaks about aikido on the spiritual/philisophical level but also on the physical, tactical level.

Whenever we take a step, there is a part of the step that is ballistic. By that, I mean we can't take it back. We are committed to stepping. "Impetus is all we have - and we share it with the pushed Inert." However, in tegatana no kata we work on minimizing this ballistic phase of stepping by taking smaller steps, walking on the balls of the feet, etc... What this does for us is makes us more neutral and gives us more options - more choices."

Consider this quote from another 20th century mastermind, C.S. Lewis, in juxtaposition to Millay's poem about progress:

We all want progress, but if you're on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive.

That brings up another, related aspect of tegatana. You want your progress to be reversible. As a general rule of thumb you don't want to make ballistic (irreversible) actions because you end up (in Millay's words) "rolling down the mountain like disbalanced boulders, crushing before you many delicate springing things whose plan it was to grow." You lose the capacity to make intelligent choice, which is what makes us human. You lose opportunity. Moishe Feldenkrais mentions this in his book, Awareness through Movement - reversibility is the mark of voluntary [good] movement.

So, in tegatana we learn to make small, conservative steps, minimizing our disbalanced nature while also minimizing the ballistic nature of our motions. Working on this in your kata will bring Progress (with a captial P).

Quin Kata

Here is my third son practicing kata with me. He takes his inspiration from watching me do SMR Jodo and from watching me beat on a makiwara - not on the front columns of my house. Notice the cool outfit - It was 80 degrees in the middle of December.

Supercool shihonage practice

Prior to practice I got to work with Woodreaux on jodo kihon - particularly some of Henry Copeland's recent adjustments. Felt good. No comments in particular.
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Today at aiki practice it was Andy in his cool new brown belt and Kristof and I. We repped some easy ukemi (the mats were cool) and tegatana and hanasu. For the pastfew weeks we've been exploring release#2 and #4, so today we continued with #6. This gets us practice at shihonage, tenkai kotegaeshi, and ushiroate. There is also a cool tenkai kotehineri in there too, but we ignored it so we could work on the other three. Andy found it and got stuck in it for a while.
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We usually do hanasu #2 as a down and an up and the thing is finished. The most common mistake is for tori to go too wide around uke, which pulls him back onto tori. However, if we follow this motion, it allows tori to effortlessly countergrab and repeat hanasu #2, which is the basis of shihonage. When this happens in the context of hanasu we call it hanasu #6. If tori catches and maintains a nice extension all the way through then uke is forced to the ground onto his back with his arm in a bind.
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If anything goes wrong with the shihonage, the chain specifies a couple of potential backups. First is tenkai kote gaeshi - switch hands and back out, using the free hand to guard from uke's craziness. The second is based on uke's most common reaction, which is to force the arm back down toward his own center. If this happens, tori can flick uke's arm out of the way and take ushiroate.
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The first of these is cool and extremely useful. It is very hard for uke to stand up, let alone aggressively track tori from the tenkai kotegaeshi bind. Tenkai kote gaeshi has been 'proven' multiple times in street conflicts against larger, meaner, uglier villains.