Monday, July 25, 2011

Monday Class

As is customary, the first hour was spent on very basic movements which will (hopefully) improve the contact between tori and uke. These are also aimed at giving a 'feel' of the aikido movements, one of them being something that sounds like funekogi undou.
Anyway, lots of serious questions had previously been raised concerning sankyo. It therefore follows that this was the technique of the day. This was executed from an ai-hanmi katatedori attack. Common mistakes noted included: (1.)wrong opening which leaves tori exposed, (2.) wrong sankyo grip (3.) wrong sanyo 'cut'. I have to mention here that the cut should be towards and into uke's center. Most of us tend to make it a round motion, which really doesn't work. If you know how to 'cut' with yonkyo, then it is the very same 'cut' even with sankyo. (4.) wrong finishing. When bringing uke down, tori should be in front, leading uke's elbow in a pulling motion. Maybe it is also worth noting that the grip should not change at any time during this technique. It is best to imagine your hands are glued to uke's. Quite obviously if you let go, nothing prevents uke from retaliating and delivering what may be a very vicious blow.
A change of pace was created with shihonage. The idea of this was to show how tori should create the opening.
The need for seriousness was emphasized since we put so many hours a week into this thing. It doesn't make sense to put so much time into something and not progress. This progress may be fast or slow, depending on the individual, but it is natural that whoever puts honest effort into something never comes out empty-handed.

Friday class

I don't really know how many techniques were covered, but at least in my presence we did aihanmi katatedori sumiotoshi, shomenuchi sumiotoshi, aihanmi kokyunage(a variation) and this very interesting technique from ryotedori. This latter one requires tori to raise both hands and do some sort of nikyo on uke. Not easily explained, you just have to see it.

A short story by Terry Dobson

Ohayou-gozaimasu my fellow Aikidoka.I came across an interesting story below please if you get time read through....Dewa mata.

Here is a story from Terry Dobson, a master of Aikido and conflict resolution.

A Shorty Story by Terry Dobson: Read by Ram Dass

THE TRAIN CLANKED and rattled through the suburbs of Tokyo on a drowsy spring afternoon. Our car was comparatively empty – a few housewives with their kids in tow, some old folks going shopping. I gazed absently at the drab houses and dusty hedgerows. At one station the doors opened, and suddenly the afternoon quiet was shattered by a man bellowing violent, incomprehensible curses. The man staggered into our car. He wore laborer’s clothing, and he was big, drunk, and dirty. Screaming, he swung at a woman holding a baby. The blow sent her spinning into the laps of an elderly couple. It was a miracle that she was unharmed.

Terrified, the couple jumped up and scrambled toward the other end of the car. The laborer aimed a kick at the retreating back of the old woman but missed as she scuttled to safety. This so enraged the drunk that he grabbed the metal pole in the center of the car and tried to wrench it out of its stanchion. I could see that on of his hands was cut and bleeding. The train lurched ahead, the passengers frozen with fear. I stood up.

I was young then, some 20 years ago, and in pretty good shape. I’d been putting in a solid eight hours of aikido training nearly every day for the past three years. I like to throw and grapple. I thought I was tough. Trouble was, my martial skill was untested in actual combat. As students of aikido, we were not allowed to fight.

“Aikido,” my teacher had said again and again, “is the art of reconciliation. Whoever has the mind to fight has broken his connection with the universe. If you try to dominate people, you are already defeated. We study how to resolve conflict, not how to start it.”

I listened to his words. I tried hard I even went so far as to cross the street to avoid the chimpira, the pinball punks who lounged around the train stations. My forbearance exalted me. I felt both tough and holy. In my heart, however, I wanted an absolutely legitimate opportunity whereby I might save the innocent by destroying the guilty.

This is it! I said to myself, getting to my feet. People are in danger and if I don’t do something fast, they will probably get hurt. Seeing me stand up, the drunk recognized a chance to focus his rage. “Aha!” He roared. “A foreigner! You need a lesson in Japanese manners!” I held on lightly to the commuter strap overhead and gave him a slow look of disgust and dismissal. I planned to take this turkey apart, but he had to make the first move. I wanted him mad, so I pursed my lips and blew him an insolent kiss.

“All right! He hollered. “You’re gonna get a lesson.” He gathered himself for a rush at me. A split second before he could move, someone shouted “Hey!” It was earsplitting. I remember the strangely joyous, lilting quality of it – as though you and a friend had been searching diligently for something, and he suddenly stumbled upon it. “Hey!”

I wheeled to my left; the drunk spun to his right. We both stared down at a little old Japanese. He must have been well into his seventies, this tiny gentleman, sitting there immaculate in his kimono. He took no notice of me, but beamed delightedly at the laborer, as though he had a most important, most welcome secret to share.

“C’mere,” the old man said in an easy vernacular, beckoning to the drunk. “C’mere and talk with me.” He waved his hand lightly. The big man followed, as if on a string. He planted his feet belligerently in front of the old gentleman, and roared above the clacking wheels, “Why the hell should I talk to you?” The drunk now had his back to me. If his elbow moved so much as a millimeter, I’d drop him in his socks.

The old man continued to beam at the laborer. “What’cha been drinkin’?” he asked, his eyes sparkling with interest. “I been drinkin’ sake,” the laborer bellowed back, “and it’s none of your business!” Flecks of spittle spattered the old man. “Ok, that’s wonderful,” the old man said, “absolutely wonderful! You see, I love sake too. Every night, me and my wife (she’s 76, you know), we warm up a little bottle of sake and take it out into the garden, and we sit on an old wooden bench. We watch the sun go down, and we look to see how our persimmon tree is doing. My great-grandfather planted that tree, and we worry about whether it will recover from those ice storms we had last winter. Our tree had done better than I expected, though especially when you consider the poor quality of the soil. It is gratifying to watch when we take our sake and go out to enjoy the evening – even when it rains!” He looked up at the laborer, eyes twinkling.

As he struggled to follow the old man’s conversation, the drunk’s face began to soften. His fists slowly unclenched. “Yeah,” he said. “I love persimmons too…” His voice trailed off. “Yes,” said the old man, smiling, “and I’m sure you have a wonderful wife.” “No,” replied the laborer. “My wife died.” Very gently, swaying with the motion of the train, the big man began to sob. “I don’t got no wife, I don’t got no home, I don’t got no job. I am so ashamed of myself.” Tears rolled down his cheeks; a spasm of despair rippled through his body.

Now it was my turn. Standing there in well-scrubbed youthful innocence, my make-this-world-safe-for-democracy righteousness, I suddenly felt dirtier than he was. Then the train arrived at my stop. As the doors opened, I heard the old man cluck sympathetically. “My, my,” he said, “that is a difficult predicament, indeed. Sit down here and tell me about it.”

I turned my head for one last look. The laborer was sprawled on the seat, his head in the old man’s lap. The old man was softly stroking the filthy, matted hair.

As the train pulled away, I sat down on a bench. What I had wanted to do with muscle had been accomplished with kind words. I had just seen aikido tried in combat, and the essence of it was love. I would have to practice the art with an entirely different spirit. It would be a long time before I could speak about the resolution of conflict.

Terry Dobson

Friday, July 22, 2011

Wednesday Class at Goan Gym

I believe if you go to all Birankai dojos, the way they do things is the same because aikido is passed down from the master. So, there is this custom of bowing to the weapon and the sensei before practise. The procedure was explained to us; i never knew why we did it the way we do it. When standing, the sword/bokken is held on the right hand, with the blade facing backwards (to your back). To do the bow, shift it to your left hand, (handle on the left), and hold the weapon horizontally in front of you with outstretched arms. The blade should face you. Then bow. Reason for handle being on the left is so that you cannot use the weapon at short notice. I guess it shows honor, that you are not going to attack at the wrong time.

When sitted there are a few differences but that is for another day.

We went through the first tachi, called ichi no tachi. Apparently there are 7 of them, and if we are lucky, we will get to practise all of them. We also did some conditioning exercises,(the ones from last week), which were quite tricky, but we managed somehow.

For the techniques, we started with ushiro ryotedori shiho nage. pointers included, (1.) the 2 authorised ways for tori to get out of uke's grip. and (2.) the necessity for quick movement to avoid uke counter-attacking. and also (3.) the necessity to not stay in place. It is vital to first move off the line and then forwards. this keeps uke occupied. This was best demonstrated by a conditioning exercise from ushiro ryokatadori, which requires uke to do ukemi over tori's shoulders.
The next technique was yokomenuchi tenchinage. Pointers included tori neutralizing uke's attack by attacking uke's elbow at the moment of uke's attack. Then tori has to keep both hands in front and outstretched, just like in normal ryotedori tenchinage. Another point is that the stike to uke's face is like an upper cut, which means it is an upward movement. It is not a karate punch. This is necessary in order to keep in line with aikido's 'opening' as opposed to 'striking'. (Hope this makes sense).

Ok, at the end of class there was one broken bokken and a few minor injuries, but nothing worth noting. I have seen injuries during iaito class, where people use live blades, so...For what its worth, injuries are never intentional, with a few exceptions as can be expected in life. So if something bad happens to you, take it all in stride and move on. I think.

Friday, July 15, 2011

@ Embassy demonstration Saturday 9 2011

Just A few more pics from Sat. Never mind the date as imprinted on the photos :)



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Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Wednesday Class at Goan Gym

Tori holds a bokken as if drawing out a sword. Uke stops this by grabbing tori's hand (aihanmi stance). Since tori has to counter, he/she does nikyo the normal way, only this time a bokken complicates life a little bit. This was the first thing in class.

Next up was gyakuhanmi katatedori uchikaiten sankyo. The steps involved were so many as to confuse things a bit, but one would do well to constantly practise until it becomes second nature.
From this we moved to aihanmi shomenuchi kokyunage. Anyone familiar with kokyunage knows that it is one of the most dynamic because tori blends into uke's movement and tries as much as possible not to give anything. To me it is the most basic aikido ever. This is the stuff you imagine when you hear the word aikido. It was a challenge doing it on a hard wooden floor, but we survived.
The last technique of the day was ryokatadori kokyunage. Again same challenges as with the former technique. With the last two, if tori doesn't get close to uke, it doesn't work very well. The idea of blending in should be taken literally as to become vulgar at some point. You have to move as one, and this is only possible when contact is so personal as to look almost intimate. I can't explain it any better than this.

On to some even harder stuff. Bokken. Most of us have forgotten even how to hold it. Understandably. Don't ask whose fault it is. Anyway, after a few kirikaeshi, we tried a form. I will have to check the name. This one involved a cut through a cut. Obviously both partners are equally at risk, but the brunt is borne by the one receiving the final blow. Since i don't have the words to describe this form, suffice it to say tsuba comes in handy, and the shomen uchi is trickier this time round because it has to be in tune with the other shomen uchi.

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Martial Arts demo at Japanese Embassy

Thank you all for participating. Seems like we were the show...
Unfortunately I have only two pictures...





Please feel free to share if you have more pics

Beginners Class at Goan Gym

It is during this class that Sammy was officially conferred gokyu status. Once again, congratulations! Keep up the spirit. The techniques of the day were uchikaiten and sotokaiten from a gyakuhanmi katatedori attack. So we did sankyo, yonkyo and kaitennage (both omote and ura) and katagatame. Some very valuable tips were offered, e.g. doing some motions in a synchronised manner so as to stretch personal limits etc. It was also mentioned that Chiba Sensei says a gyakuhanmi attack is always an ura attack (uke pushes) while an aihanmi attack is always an omote attack (uke pulls).

Common mistakes we were warned against include uke sticking head on tori's knee, hence missing the point that kaitennage ends with a knee strike to the face. Another has to do with the cut during yonkyo. If you don't cut forwards and downwards it just won't work. Its just like sankyo, only a little bit harder. This is better explained practically.

Monday, July 11, 2011

On Ki

There were several questions about the mystical super-powers of Aikido.
All I can say is this - if you feel that you personally feel something special and it works with Łabędzki - fine. But unless you know what you are doing - do not make the mistake of running into something like this:


For you might end up like this:


So - while philosophy-ing, fooling around and bullshitting might be fun - stick to something painful and physical. Like - for example - yonkyo:


Sunday, July 10, 2011

Aikido demonstration at the Information and Culture Centre of The Japanese embassy on 9 July 2011

Our Aikido demonstration stole the limelight and no sooner had we exited the tatami,everyone in the crowd came after us especially the lady 'journalists' from Precious Blood Girls who surrounded Sensei wanting to know more about Aikido.Some two ladies from the same school also interviewed me and for once I felt like a 'super star'.....
Thanks again Sensei for awarding me Gokyu...my journey in Aikido has just began.

Thursday, July 7, 2011

@ Gymkhana Jul 6 2011

Think Daniel has covered everything on the day's lesson.
Sensei showed us a good example of what Aikido IS NOT... Thanks Nick for being the subject of humour, we owe you one :-D

Wednesday Class at Goan Gym

The big day is nigh, and we did a number of intermediate-level/advanced-level techniques such as gyaku-hanmi shomen-uchi kokyu-ho, ai-hanmi chudan-tsuki kote-gaeshi, ai-hanmi katate-dori ikkyo omote, ai-hanmi katate-dori nikyo ura, among others. There was also shiho-nage and a variation of some techniques. Question is, we had enough problems during class, so can we pull this off successfully in public without looking overly amateurish? Arguably, aikido is not for public demonstrations but it would be nice if every one of us would struggle to grasp these techniques.
We practised the whole sequence of sansho 1 with jo for the last half of the class. Its not perfect yet, but at least we are practising and can remember most of it.

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

How did this happen?

When you enter Google.com and then select images, then do a search for Kisshomaru Ueshiba and then select Large images then... on second search page there will be a photo of mine. How did that happen?

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

The last couple of classes

This post should cover all the sessions from last Wednesday, but due to my poor memory i will only stick to what appealed to me, or rather what left an impression. We have gone through a number of techniques, most of them not very straight-forward, even for me. By this i mean that the movement is difficult because the techniques have mostly been variations of the basics. Attack has been everything from morote-dori, to kata-dori, shomen-uchi to yokomen-uchi. Basically we have been going wild, within reasonable limits. Take Friday for instance. We did ai-hanmi nikyo, shiho-nage, kote-gaeshi and kokyu-ho. These are basic techniques, right? What was different was the opening coz if i recall well, the attack was ai-hanmi katate-dori. Tori had to open with a tenkan very much close to the opening for ai-hanmi ikkyo/nikyo.
Yesterday we had an interesting session which i am sure will remain long in the minds of whoever was paying attention. We had a session like no other where we had to deal with a chudan-tsuki attack. So we had techniques like gyaku-hanmi kote-gaeshi, ai-hanmi ikkyo, and variations of irimi-nage and kokyu-ho. Then there was a variation? of kata-dori shiho-nage where tori has to literally ATTACK uke's elbow with the chin. This is not the first time we have covered this technique but it sends chills down my spine every time i see it. Just like koshi-nage. Or a perfectly executed sankyo, irimi-nage. Anyway, some aikido techniques just look overly lethal from an observer's point of view.
The reason for all these not very palatable techniques (for beginners and intermediate guys) was the upcoming event on saturday. I can't wait to see how it goes tomorrow.