New guy in aiki class

Aikido with Kel & Allen

• ROM
• tegatana with emphasis on tsugiashi
• hanasu #1, #3, and #2
• shomenate
• chain#2 - YK1→maeotoshi and YK1→wakigatame

More on the French Curve

The other day I titled an article, 'French Curve' but I didn't really explain why in that post. What we were talking about that day in class was thinking about this particular set of exercises as being like using a French Curve.

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That is, in the chains you know that there are points in space (relationships) that uke and tori should move through but it is not the points (techniques) that are important so much as the smooth, flowing, continuous curve through those points. You have to learn to move your body through an arc with uke without a lot of discontinuity. This is the same as a French curve - you plot a few points then find the template that matches those points most closely to help you draw your arc.

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The moves in tegatana are small arcs. The moves in hanasu are French Curves. The techniques in nijusan or junana are the points that the French Curve helps you plot a course through.

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We got a lot of mileage out of this analogy last class by working it with one-handed shihonage (that is releases #6 and #8). notice, that if you stand in place and hold uke's arm with your left hand and swing them through you describe an arc. Holding uke's same arm with your other arm you get a different arc through space. If you practice shihonage holding with both hands then you never have to develop this sensitivity to the precise arc that uke is moving through. That is why we practice two one-handed variants of shihonage - better opportunity to learn.

Kote hineri practice tonight

Aiki with Patrick M. and Rick

• ROM & ukemi
• Tegatana emphasizing synching arms with rise-fall of body and movig the center and building a stance underneath it.
• hanasu #1-4 with emphasis on releasing as brush-off. The idea was to make #1 feel like #3 and the strong side to feel like the weak side.
• Nijusan kote hineri
• Ichikata tachiwaza #3-4 (Release 5 into tenkai kote hineri and release 3 into mawashi oshitaoshi)

Early morning aikido

Aiki with Rob

Today was the beginning of our 5am aiki/judo mixed class. This morning was pretty cold and the mats were stacked so we did sweats and shoes aikido without the mats.

• tegatana emphasizing pulling with the front foot and making the turns more stable and stronger.
• hanasu working a lot on synchronization, stretching the step, direction of offbalance, and doing true releases so that uke can't reverse you.
• Chains 1 and 3 as a demonstration of how these release ideas come together into techniques.
• shomenate (junana and nijusan versions as two ends of a spectrum)
• Plus I got some jodo solo work done. Saw a neat thing on #7 and #8. Hard to put into words right now, but might improve #8 some.

Pink elephants

Aiki with Kel and Jill

• tegatana emphasizing balls of the feet. Have you ever tried to not think about pink elephants? Trying not to turn the ankles out in tegatana is the same thing. It works better to concentrate on something positive, like bearing weight on the medial two toes - the long levers of the foot.
• hanasu emphasizing pushing forward, centered, same-hand-same-foot especially on #1 and #3
• chain #2, including kotetaoshi, maeotoshi, hikitaoshi, sumiotoshi, and ushiroate.
• ushiroate from nijusan as well as some interesting variants including short-guy hipbone ushiro, a wrestling-like kneecap and waist ushiro, and an eyeball and far shoulder ushiro.

Saturday training log

Aikido with Patrick M. and Kel.

• We are entering into the cooler part of the year. That means more warmup time and fewer falls on cold mats.
• Tegatana with emphasis on the goofy foot heliopter pivot.
• Hanasu - miscellaneous pointers, including trying for that beautiful, pure release feeling in #1 and #3, sticking uke on both heels in #2 and #4 and hipswitching and stepping instead of pirouetting in #6 and #8.
• Chain #9 working on stepping inside and bumping the ovvbalance then continuing to the outside. This led us into working on the two fundamental types of motion (omote and ura) found in nijusan.
• The atemiwaza (the first five) of nujusan as examples of these two types of motion. Gedanate was working exceptionally well today. Udegaeshi and kotegaeshi as cool ninja techniques of the day.

Gaze angle in multiple attacker randori

A few weekends ago I taught a seminar at Starkville and we talked about and worked on the importance of metsuke (proper gaze control). We demonstrated and gave some exercises to work on how to slow down the speed of the conflict by keeping the gaze angle constant on a fixed place on uke. In order to be able to do this when uke is facing away from us and in order to be ale to get that “far mountain gaze,” I told tori to always look through the center of mass of uke’s head, as if burning a hole with laser-vision. (Bet you didn't know that turkeys were masters of metsuke, but anyway...)

Chops made the observation that this change in perceptual speed is likely part of why multiple opponent randori is so fatiguing. We’re forced to switch gaze angle from one attacker to the next to keep track of them. Good catch, Chops. Sure enough, we do tend to screw ourselves up and wear ourselves out by switching back and forth from one uke to the next. I’ve been thinking about how to minimize or at least reduce these gaze shifts.
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Consider this article from a while back about tenkan ura forms (turning backward movement like in most of nijusan) giving us a wider view of what is going on around us before we commit to smearing uke. What if we can make use of this to reduce shifts in perspective. Let’s try this…

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Everybody in class gets an uke and finds a place on the mat. Uke stands still while tori fixes his gaze on uke and then walks around uke outside ma-ai keeping eyes burning right through the center of uke’s head. Pay attention to what you can see in your peripheral vision without ever changing gaze angle. Now do some techniques from nijusan keeping your eyes focused on the center of his head but attending to what you can see in your peripheral vision. Now add a second uke at walking speed and see if you are able to keep track of the uke you are not dealing with by making these tenkan ura motions.

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I think you will find that your peripheral vision is actually enhanced by this strategy. You see, peripheral vision only picks up motion – not shape. So a relatively motionless uke in your peripheral vision would be invisible to you. But by turning in a circle with eyes fixed on a point, we’re moving our field of vision without ever changing gaze angle, thus making everything in our peripheral vision move with respect to us. So we can see the second uke even better when we are turning backward.

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Try that out, Chops (and everyone else), and let me know how your mileage varies.

Left-right and hineri-gaeshi loops

Aiki with Patrick M., Kel, and Jill

• Ukemi emphasizing using ab muscles to control momentum into the ground so that you can stop more gently or roll to standing more smoothly.
• Walking exercise emphasizing pulling with the lead foot to snap your recovery step back under your hips. Also emphasized brushing the inside of the sphere on the turns.
• All 8 releases in kata mode.
• My brain skipped a track on the KiHara chains and we ended up doing part of chain #4 when I said, "Ok, here's chain #2." It worked out and we got the lesson I'd intended anyway. We emphasized stay-off-me hands and moving with uke in the left-right and gaeshi-hineri loops related to release #4.
• Nijusan version of kote hineri emphasizing stepping aside at the end of the line and moving the body to make the hands conform in the right shape without ever losing your stay-off-me hands.

Gokyu and yonkyu rank requirements

Last night we had another well-attended aikido class. Perhaps our recent slump in attendance is turning around. We worked on tegatana, emphasizing the last movement, sometimes called “polishing the mirror.” With partners we practiced using this movement in a variety of offbalances in which tori’s part includes a turn, a centered push forward, and a body drop. From there, we moved into hanasu, emphasizing the “stepping over the hill” evasion and the same-hand-stuck-foot structure in technique #1. For the rest of class we worked on nijusan #1-6. So last night’s class pretty much constituted all of the gokyu and yonkyu requirements. I’m looking forward to this great group of aikidoka going forward together.

Funny lookin' #1 releases

Today we worked on all the usual suspects (warmup, tegatane, hanasu) but then focussed in on #1 of hanasu and looked at variations that pop up throughout the system. First we played with the shortened timing of the third technique in yonkata, working on stepping off the railroad tracks and raising the arm to put a post against uke right when he finishes his down motion. From this place, uke pretty much can only move away and if tori is in step he can project uke away.

Then we worked on the wrist-and-elbow grab from the beginning of Goshin Jitsu. The one in which tori kicks uke's knee to stop him for a moment then releases all the way around uke. This is a creepy feeling for uke because tori gives the appearance of nearly teleporting from uke's left front to his rear right corner. But it's just a big variation of #1 wrist release.

From here we moved for a moment into hiktaoshi from nijusan with the emphasis of sidestepping when you run forward into uke's power. This was not exactly #1 release, but it leads to #1 release - just stay with me for a minute. When you move forward into the nijusan offbalance for hikitaoshi and uke stops your momentum, you create two lines in space, one is the line you were travelling on, which you know is no good now. The other is the line that uke is on, which you nkow is where he is strong enough to stop you. You don't want to be on either of these linse so you switch hands and sidestep off the lines into a dead space for uke. Like I said, not exactly #1 but it gives a great example of releasing a bad situation.

Finally we worked on oshitaoshi as a neat example of both this sidestepping at the end of the line motion and the release #1 motion. As you sling apart from uke, slip sideways as the line snaps taut and you are automatically in a weaker place for uke. Cool. Things you can do with the first release we learn.

Direct irimi techniques

In aiki class today we worked on the idea of falling out of the way vs. stepping in tegatana. Then we worked on Nijusan #2-6, emphasizing the short, direct irimi variants that were explicit in Junana but are now sorta just assumed in Nijusan. These were fun and we got a goodly amount of repetition on these.

Day of the bear

I got schooled tonight by a measley judo shodan! Rob tapped me 5-6 times to my 1-2. Mostly positional deals, but I do recall him getting one fine jujigatame and one good choke of some sort. I think I tapped him with a sodegurumajime (sleeve wheel choke) and with a head-crushing tateshiho (north-south hold). But I know for sure that my mat mobility was off tonight and Rob did very well. Standing I got a sode tsurikomigoshi (sleve lifting hip throw) and a morotegari (double leg pick). Rob, as I recall, mostly got these clinches and dragged me into the ground, from which position he crushed me. He must have had a good judo instructor at some point in his past.

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And that was all before aikido class started! By the time Kel got there I had the shaky jelly triceps fasciculations. We worked releases into ukemi, tegatana, and the atemiwaza (striking throws) from Nijusan. Kel is getting very good at shomenate and his aigamaeate and gyakugamaeate were better than mine tonight. We'll keep working on his rank requirements and solidify his skill and knowledge and have a rank test in a few weeks. At the end we played with the offbalance for kubiguruma and the kata otoshi brushoff from Owaza Jupon. Fun, but not very sklled performances on my part by that late point in the night.

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If I did not already have a great name for the dojo, I think I'd come up with a name involving a bear - as in my defacto motto, "Sometimes you eat the bear and sometimes the bear eats you."

Shomenate and oshitaoshi

Tonight was a lovely aikido class with Kel and I working on releasing into throws, shomenate, and oshitaoshi (the omote form directly off of the Nijusan offbalance). Because there were only two of us, we got to work repetitions in rapid succession and spent almost half the class on each of these two techniques. Good exercise. Vigorous. Sweaty.

8, 9, 10, and Goshin Jitsu

Today we had a fun aiki class. We were incredibly sore from Thursday (at least I know I was and I think Andy was in much the same shape). We warmed up and then worked on nijusan #8, 9, and 10 (hikitaoshi, udehineri, and wakigatame). This was mostly review for Andy and Patrick M., but we refined these techniques and toward the end they were looking much more precise. At the end of class we worked on the first set of Kodokan Goshin Jitsu. Goshin Jitsu is interesting because it is very much the gray area where aikido and judo become the same thing. Invented by Tomiki and his cronies at the Kodokan in the 1950's, much of it either bears a great resemblance to Tomiki's Koryu Daisan or it compliments Daisan well. I recorded some video and should have it uploaded soon.

What they take away

I really like seeing my students’ blogs, like Andy’s Epic Ramble. It’s good to be able to see what they take away from each class. For instance, last night we talked about one of the initial offbalances in nijusan. I have been thinking about it lately as giving uke the feeling of hanging out over a hole on his toes without giving him extra support. If you can do this then uke is forced to slow way down, even if he was intent on attacking fast. Well, Andy phrased it in his blog as leaving uke “idling on his toes.” I love it. Great description.

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We worked on oshitaoshi (ikkyo), kotehineri (sankyo), and kotegaeshi and followed up with some work on chain #4 (primarily kotegaeshi and kotehineri) as a lead-in to randori.

Sidedness in aikido

I wrote a little bit yesterday about sidedness in judo. In that particular system, the left side is mostly un-needed because there is sufficient variety of throws that they cover the openings left by other throws.

The way aikido answers this question is a bit of the same and a bit different. That is, we practice some things two-sided and other things one-sided. Tegatana is structured so that you encounter all possible combinations of motions. For instance, in sidestepping, we learn to step left twice, step right twice, step right then left, and step left then right. That type of practice helps to cover a lot of our sidedness options. Hanasu is simple enough to do on both sides, though it can be somewhat of a stretch to the mind of a beginner. Junana/nijusan is somewhat transitional in that you can practice both sides or not. Traditionally it is done one-sided, but some clubs do the off-side too. Owaza and the Koryunokata are longer, more difficult, and complicated motion-wise, so they are done one-sided. It turns out that if you do the fundamentals (i.e. hanasu) enough, your mind develops the ability to flip a technique to the other side on the fly.

If you want an interesting challenge to the mind, try doing nijusan with a one-armed fellow as tori. There are situations that you cannot get into unless uke attacks with his off side. So, for instance, in the atemiwaza, Patrick M. has to demonstrate the first two with uke attacking right sided, the next two with uke attacking left-sided, and the fifth one right-sided again. In the floating throws section, Patrick cannot do the sumiotoshi with the free hand in uke's face, so he cannot get into the three or four variants of sumiotoshi that come as a result of uke responding to that hand in the face. Patrick ends up doing a technically interesting mix of junana and nijusan.

Nikyu rank reuirements class

Today we worked on Patrick M's nikyu reuirements. Tegatana, hanasu (particularly working on getting off the line on #2 & 4 and making the beginning of #1, 2, and 5 the same), and the wrist techniues in nijusan (kote hineri, kote gaeshi, tenkai kote hineri, tenkai kote gaeshi, and shihonage). Patrick has got the gist of the techniques - he just needs the seasoning that comes with time in grade.

We worked chain #1 and used it as an opportunity to talk about randori. We played some randori in different modes, including regular hand randori, contact improv, and some taichi push hands.

Thanks Henry, Greg, and Terry!

Tonight Patrick M. arrived a little early and we began early, moving straight into his rank requirements. Specifically emphasizing nijusan #6,7,11, and 12. We worked some of the wholly magical stuff Greg Henry recently showed me regarding slipping aside at the end of the line. Kel showed up and we rewound into tegatana, hanasu 1-4, and nijusan 1-3. It was a very good practice.

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The really interesting thing of the night was a followup to the momentum exercises I posted a week or so ago. Patrick M. and I ran races across the mat, stopping on designated finish lines and watching how long it takes to recover to a neutral, upright posture. Then we repeated the exercise with me holding his arm. Guess what? The simple fact that we were connected damped out our momentum at the finish line, allowing us to recover to neutral much faster.

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So, what does this mean for our aiki practice? When doing the offbalances in nijusan, you want to leave uke hanging freely out in space over the offbalance point. If you push or pull or even just connect to him then you give him stability and improve his speed of recovery. However, if you get the offbalance and leave him hanging in space then the only thing that he can exert against to regain control of his momentum is the ground and he is limited as to how hard he can push on the ground without coming off the ground. So, you get a much better offbalance and uke slows way down for you.

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Thanks to Henry Copeland, Greg Henry, and Terry Gibbs for explaining these points to me. They are making a huge difference in my aikido already and I've only just started exploring where these points fit in.

Aiki & judo weekend with John

This weekend at Mokuren Dojo we had John & Belique (hope I spelt that right) from Florida, Vincent, Andy the Hattiesburger, and a new guy, Trey. We had good workouts - the reason I know, we were all sore and tired and dragging today after yesterday's practice. Working backward through my memory of the weekend...

This afternoon, Andy and I worked on nijusan #6,7,11, and 12 (oshitaoshi, udegaeshi, kotehineri, kotegaeshi) emphasizing the slipping aside idea that I wrote about the other day. We worked slow and soft so we could really get into the coordination of these four techniques. They worked well. Andy is closing in on time in grade for nikkyu rank, and with a couple more months good work like this today, he'll be ready to feel good about ranking.

Earlier this morning, John, Andy, Belique, and I worked on aiki. We warmed up with tegatana and hanasu then focussed in on #1, 3, and 5. Andy had asked about the 'lost wrist releases' so we worked on jodan aigamae a while, trying to make it work just like hanasu #1 with uke grabbing wrong. When this happens, it places tori on the inside close to uke's free hand, so tori has to either strike uke or move away to stay safe. This led to practicing shomenate in nijusan mode as well as in aiki brushoff mode. John asked about what he missed from the recent ABG, so we worked brushoff, stab-twice randori, and multiple attacker randori for a while.

Yesterday, the class that wore everybody out and made us sore was judo. We worked on kosotogari into ukigatame into tateshihogatame, bridge&roll escape from tateshiho, and various escapes from the guard. I managed to pull one out of the hat that John hadn't seen (knee in the butt) so he'll have something to try on Bryce when he gets back to Florida

Sidestepping into oshitaoshi and udegaeshi

Yesterday I suggested a momentum exercise in which you learn to use a sidestep to kill your momentum, leaving you in shizentai ready to move in another direction. This experiment is easiest to do walking forward by yourself at a moderate speed. Here's you a modification to make it easier to run this experiment walking backward.

Tie a rope to a wall or post at shoulder-level. Hold the rope with about an arm-length amount of slack in the rope. Start standing right next to the pole and walk backward until the rope snaps taut. As the rope snaps taut, put one foot straight under your hips and use the other foot to do the sidestep trick. Repeat this experiment over and over so that you can practice sidestepping to both sides at the end of the line.

Now, where this becomes really cool is when you replace the pole and rope with an uke. The Nijusan form of oshitaoshi and udegaeshi are done with tori passing backward right beside uke and moving away until the connection at the wrist snaps taut. At that point, if you plant one foot you will sidestep behind uke and execute an oshitaoshi very similar to release #1. If you plant the other foot, you will sidestep in front of uke, turning into kotegaeshi or udegaeshi.