Rank demo hints

Tonight was a sparse aikido class with only Patrick M. and Kristof. Class started off mostly standard with some focus on forward rolling ukemi, contact points in the pushes of tegatana, some emphasis on #6 and #8 of hanasu, and several reps of the atemiwaza in nijusan. The chain of the night was one of the hanasu#4 chains in which we switch hands to maeotoshi then work into shihonage or tenkai kotegaeshi and from there into aikinage or ushiroate.

Both of the studets are within a couple more classes of having hours for next rank, yonkyu for Patrick M. and gokyu for Kristof. Both already easily have the skill level for their rank and mostly just need to work on their demonstration of kata mode together. Tonight I think the biggest things that I saw needing work were Patrick's evasions in nijusan - needed to be more off the line of attack. Kristof's attacks were a little dead, and I think that probably comes from working with a static uke in his old class, but we worked with that (particularly in the context of shomenate) and saw some improvement.

Everybody who gets to class a few minutes early or has a few minutes to stay after a class needs to grab an uke and get some reps in on their rank requirements. It is particularly important for partners in a rank demo to get in some extra reps in kata mode several times before a rank demo.

I did see some interesting motions in the context of the evasion in nijusan. If tori pushes hard then it is easy to push uke through the offbalance into a recovery. We played some with bsolute minimum force offbalances, which seem to lead to an opportunity for the technique much faster than if tori pushes uke hard. In the event that tori pushes uke through the offbalance, ura always follows the omote offbalance in nijusan. Cool insights.

Uchikomi night

Today I ate supper at 4:30 in the afternoon so I'd have time to digest before Judo. Instead of the normal bunch it was just me and Vincent, a Sri Lankan nidan of Jacque LaGrande's. Vincent wanted to do uchikomis so we did and he wiped me out. I called a halt just before hurling (i didnt but thought i would). Reminds me why I hate uchikomis. After I cooled off for a few minutes we did some aiki randori-esque type wrist grab defenses...

Aiki Buddies Venue

Calling all Aiki Buddies...

The plan for now is to have the Aiki Buddies Gathering at the new Mokuren Dojo in Magnolia the weekend of October 27-28. We should have a total of about 12-20 people, all of whom are welcome to crash in my living room or in the dojo (Usher has dibs on the guest bedroom).

In the past we have easily accomodated classes of 25 people on the same mat space but the old dojo had more room around the edges of the mats. In the new dojo we have the same mat space but the wall is about a foot from the edge of the mat on all four sides. Mike (our karate instructor) has offered us the use of a somewhat larger room at his business about 10 miles north of Mokuren and convenient to the interstate. It won't give us any more mat space, but it will give us more space around the mats. If y'all want to move the venue let me know, otherwise I'll work on the assumption that you guys don't mind being careful and taking turns on the mat at Mokuren.

I'm plotting a bonfire for one of the nights and some trick-or-treating for Dr. Wake (her condition for coming to the ABG). If y'all have preferences for tucker, let me know or I'll plan something like pizza one meal (probably a condition to get Usher here anyway) and Mexican resturant another meal.

Do-nothing self-defense aiki

Today we had Clan McKenzie, Hattiesburg Andy, and Kristof the Ukrainian uchideshi. We calibrated, worked on ukemi, and moved rapidly into tegatana, which we repped twice without any particular focus. Then we paired up and did hanasu, at first in "kata mode" then moving into "experiment mode" for several reps. The topics that came up in hanasu included some commentary about there only being three releases in hanasu (walk-arounds, pass-bys, and walk-unders) and some discussion of the importance of beginning evasion at maai while there's still time. We practiced aigamae from nijusan, then the chain of the day was hanasu#3 followed by kote mawashi, wakigatame, and gyakugamae ate. The emphasis ended up being on evading, getting behind uke, and moving with him while limiting his potential. Good fundamental aikido self-defense.

Sensei James Reuster of Edwards AFB made an interesting comment in an email a few weeks ago that has been eating on me for a while. We were discussing the upcoming Aiki Buddies Gathering in Magnolia and tossing around ideas for topics or themes for the clinic. I suggested a self-defense theme, perhaps something related to how we teach "self defense" along side the principle of "do nothing." Reuster commented that everything we do every class day is self-defense oriented, that we don't have to do anything special or stronger, or rougher or anything different at all to be teaching self-defense. That pretty much put an end to the discussion because he is absolutely right. Self defense is not something special that we cover every so often at a special class. It is the ruling strategy underlying every technique and tactic that we teach and practice every class. Everything we teach has to have good probability curves under conditions of chaos, has to fail relatively softly, and has to be testable and falsifiable.

And that makes pretty good sense to me after nearly 20 years of martial arts practice, but the question still stands: when a student comes in wanting self defense and we tell him we can teach him a viable self-defense, then we try to explain "do nothing" aiki principles to him, it does not make sense. So my suggestion was not so much to work on cool ninja defense techniques at this ABG, but rather to work on how we teach the things we teach. What is the best way to explain the things we do in order to get the buy-in necessary from the beginning student to invest the time and effort necessary to learn our ideas of self-defense.

Which reminds me of a little story that Andy would like. An old master swordsman, veteran of a thousand battles, was trying to impress a student. The master asked the novice, "Quick, tell me, what would you do to save yourself if I were to attack you like this?" To which the novice answered, "Nothing." The master left enlightened.

(With that story in mind, check out my 'Creamed Asparagus' post from 9/24/2006. Interesting contradiction...)

What-ifs for tsukezue

Tonight my judoka didnt show, so I beat Woodreaux Roper with an axe handle for a while as warmup, then practiced my jodo. Having spun through about 20 reps of each of the kihon, I ran through Seiteikata #1-6 several times, Settled onto #1 for several more reps, then played some what-if henka type scenarios. What if, during the evasion in the beginning of #1, tori's left hand falls onto the jo in gyakute grip? It feels like this will become a sword trap similar to kuritsuke. What if tori grips the jo in sakate grip during the evasion? There is an opportunity for a knee atemi during the evasion and perhaps a dobarai type sweep/strike. I need some victims to play with in jodo. I need victims badly!

Wanted: 2-3 people who want to learn a 400 year-old stickfighting art with me.

Low is the way to go

Little things can make a big difference in your aikido if you choose things that affect every single part of aikido. This is why basic exercises like tegatana andhanasu have so much leverage to improve your aikido. Anything that you improve in these ends up improving all the rest of your aikido in small ways, until all those small improvements snowball and make a big difference.

One little tidbit that will help in hanasu is the positioning of tori's hand as he offers it for uke to grab. Tori wants to make sure that he presents the arm low, close to his own body, so that tori's face and hand are both the same distance from uke's lead shoulder. What this does is makes it unclear to tori's subconscious whether the attack is coming to the face or the wrist. Tori is helping uke to make a stronger attack and this forces tori to learn a response that begins as uke crosses maai and is viable for either attack. This also goes a long way toward tying all the wrist stuff (hanasu) together with the striking stuff (nijusan) so that we are not doing tegatana, then stopping that and doing a different thing (hanasu) then stopping that and doing something else (nijusan), etc... We're working on different views or facets of the same thing (aiki) throughout class. So, with hanasu, low is the way to go.

Perception

Alright, Andy, ID this quote:

"Power without perception is spiritually useless

and therefore, of no true consequence."

Wow, it seems like forever since I practiced and since I blogged - even though we only missed one day.

Tonight we calibrated and worked on tegatana, focussing in on the action of the off hand during the pushes and thinking about how our brains like to make patterns out of the walking steps. We did a repetition of the kata deliberately changing the grouping of movements in our minds and the result was interesting - nothing quantitative and not better or worse, but different perceptually.

Then we practiced hanasu in kata mode and played with a couple of other motions that allow us to easily play with the sidestep during any direction change. That sidestep is something that I've had a hard time wrapping my mind around for the past few years but tonight I felt some progress.

In a sudden direction change we have to absorb our own momentum, which stops our motion and leaves us vulnerable. I've understood that part for a while. Tonight we worked on the hanasu#1 motion, the deashi harai stepping around the corner motion, and the omote-ura offbalance for nijusan. I felt that absorption of momentum spread throughout the extra weight shift of the side step. It was a pretty cool thing perceptually.

Then we got down to wakigatame night. Chain #3 was the chain of the night, so we worked on a couple of variations of wakigatame and a couple of variations of kotegaeshi that come off of hanasu#3.

Gary and Andy asked for more airfall practice, so we did forward rolls and small airfalls on the crash pad. Everyone did great and there was some improvement in everyone's motion, but Thank God for crash pads and for closed-cell foam in general, because I would have pretty much run out of students tonight if we'd been practicing on rice straw tatami.

We cooled down with suwari katatedori gyakugamae followed by kote mawashi, waki gatame, and kotegaeshi. Sort of a combo of some of the rokukata stuff and the suwari kotegaeshi from sankata.

A class cancellation poem

For those that care,
Be aware!
No judo tomorrow,
Though you may sorrow.
I have a date,
With my bride of late.
Normal schedule will resume;
Wednesday afternoon.
Same judo time, same judo place,
We'll practice with grace.

Creamed Asparagus

One of the main reasons I wanted to build the new Mokuren dojo at my own house was so that my kids (three so far, one on the way) could more conveniently learn judo and later, aikido. I feel that there are lessons that these arts in particular teach that I want my kids to learn as they grow up.

Today I saw a thing that I thought was interesting - it was the DVD of Veggietales: Minnesota Cuke and the Hairbrush of Samson. The theme of the show was dealing with bullies. In it a playground bully oppresses Junior Asparagus and after Jr learns his lesson he confronts the bully and tells him that he won't fight but if the bully wants to keep up the bullying that he'll have to beat up Jr. and his friends every day because they're not afraid of him anymore.

Now, I love Veggietales.

And I understand the scriptures about turning the other cheek et al...

But I don't really like teaching the lesson that the little guy's only response is to get creamed by bullies every day of his life. Surely that's not the only application of "love your enemies" and "turn the other cheek" that the animators could have illustrated in this show.

I like aikido and judo because the moral underpinnings of these arts in particular are very much compatible with the Christian ethics and beliefs and worldview in which I will be bringing my children up. It is interesting that an episode of Minnesota Cuke could elicit such deep topics. I could probably write for hours on this but I won't. Suffice it to say, "Bravo, Veggietales team, for such an overall fine series and a fine show!" But consider not teaching kids to get beat up as the only application of the scripture.

Sharp and wide

Today's aikidoka included Kristof, Patrick M., and 3 of Clan McKenzie. Most of the Hattiesburgers were either sick or working. We calibrated and rolled. I think I saw a couple of the newbies being a little rounder - so we're making progress there. Worked on tegatana, mainly with the focus of balls of feet and recovery step and getting the pattern into the newbies. Everyone did hanasu 1-4. The more advanced folks did all of hanasu. We all got several reps of that then finished up chain #2 with the ideas of what happens when tori's execution of hanasu#2 is either too wide or too sharp. Wide tends to whip uke back around onto tori, which can lead to hanasu #1, 2, or 5 - or really anything that we have covered so far in chain #2. Folks seemed to especially like aigamaeate and gyakugamaeate as counters to wide hanasu#2. Sharp execution of #2 leads to the the interesting "Who's uke now?" exercise in which uke whips around into a shomenate and uke and tori take turns playing with wakigatame, gedanate, and ushiroate. We cooled down and rested our minds a bit with the omote-ura entry into most of nijusan. Post-aiki breakfast included pancakes, fruit salad, and juice.

Judo interrupted...

Well, today we started out by calibrating then working on the 1-2-3touch drill emphasizing synching the little finger curl to the ankle touch. Then we started working on deashi, intending to use it as an intro/lead-in to kosotogari when ... life intervened... I had to stop class and go fix an exchange student's attitude problem at my mother-in-law's house.

We won't be having judo next Tuesday because I have a hot date with my wife. We'll have aiki tomorrow as normal then resume normal schedule next Wednesday.

Omote and ura in atemiwaza

Tonight's aiki class worked on tegatana and hanasu, then did nijusan #1-3 with tori making the full omote and ura motions as I talked about in the previous post. It worked well and we played for a while with chain #2, including the hineri-gaeshi loop and the reverse kotegaeshi loop on both sides. We got to play with a little bit of hand randori. Cool class overall - nothing earth-shattering to write about...

Omote and ura

Omote and ura is an interesting relationship. most aikidoka think that they are opposites, omote meaning "to the front" while ura means "to the back." Some styles teach that omote techniques are the "face" of the movement (i.e. superficial learning) while ura are the more profound teachings. I think that omote and ura are not opposites, or even opposite faces of the same coin, but rather part of one spectrum of motion.
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It seems to me that if one practices ikkyo (for instance) with an omote irimi type entry and finishes with a tenkan ura type motion then the path of tori's motion includes all the points where uke can flush himself in this particular relationship. So tori, instead of learning two techniques (omote and ura) can be said to be walking down this path looking for the time and place where uke's posture and offbalance is right for ikkyo. Tori is learning all the variants of ikkyo in one motion.
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but my knowledge is small - your mileage might vary.

Mac put the 'ju' into judo for me!

Tonight we calibrated and rolled then practiced the 1-2-3touch footsweep drill emphasizing vertical posture and walking on the balls of the feet. This drill teaches an awful lot about being able to know where uke's feet are at all times. It is common for uke to want to leave a foot hanging out so that tori can feel like he is successful but it is very important for uke to be honest in this drill. Uke should retreat with steady rhythm without trying to give the foot to tori or snatch it fom him. When tori reaches out, if he misses the foot control then he learns to turn that motion into a step and get back in synch with uke. So honest ukemi is a no-lose proposition for tori.
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After getting our juices flowing we practiced the fundamental form of deashi and worked on fixing two common ways itcan get screwed up. his led to the "bumping the stuck deashi" variant and the deashi to kosotogari combination. They loved this pair of techniques - especially the deashi kosoto! There was constant giggling as uke dropped like he was shot.
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For newaza we got into the groove with the first groundwork cycle then learned leg entanglement and bridge&roll escape actions for deashi. Bridge and roll is often a monster to teach properly because observers ignore whatever sensei says and all they see is tori dragging uke horizontaly over himself - which is NOT what is going on. I have found that by over-preaching "plant his face in the ground" as a performance goal and by setting it up with an uphill bridging action students get the proper motion as well as a workable randori technique much faster and easier.
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This led to a discussion of how Judo is supposed to be "ju." That is, it is a gentle art of flexible tactics. If something is difficult to perform then tori is either not trying to do it right or is trying to do it wrong. This is a common problem because it is not natural to imagine that it should be easy to loft an opposing person. We think that we should fight during a fight!
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God bless the late, great Mac McNease for finally telling me a few years back, "If it's not easy then you're thinking wrongly about what you are trying to do." That meme buried itself in my mind and transformed my judo miraculously over the course of a few months! For that great lesson, I honor Mac as my first Judo instructor.