How to learn jodo without an uke

Jodo has grown on me like a fungus. When I first tried it out I found it quite esoteric and unpleasant and non-fun. In college I played with it off and on - more off than on. I think most of the folks that were in the college club with me were of the same opinion, so my instructor, Usher-san, wound up without a consistent, reliable set of training partners for jodo.

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Usher-san kept up his own solo kihon and kata practice though, and practiced with real live people when he could. Some years later I had the pleasure of watching Usher-san demonstrate in Houston for his Sandan and he wowed the examiners and the observers. I overheard one very highly-ranked examiner say that Usher was one of the few jodo or aikido folks he'd ever seen who actually looked comfortable and competent holding a sword. Everyone was doubly amazed because Usher-san had, for the most part, taught himself when he was between partners. When folks would ask him how he did it he'd shrug and say, "solo kihon and kata practice in front of a mirror."

Well, now I'm in a similar situation with a lack of regular jo partners, and while I can't say I have excelled as Usher-san did, I do have a couple of pointers (in addition to Usher-san's mirror hint)that y'all might find helpful if you have to practice jodo without a partner.

• Build a pell. I bought an 8 foot long 4x4 and buried about 2.5 feet of it in hard packed ground. Because it still gave too much when I pushed on it, I took a 2x4 that was about 3 feet long, cut one end into a wedge, and drove it into the ground directly against the back of the pell. This firmed it up nicely. I wrapped the pell from the top down to about knee level with 5/8” sisal rope – two windings thick to keep the post from splintering and more importantly to keep the post from denting or cracking my jo. Eventually I painted a couple of targets on the post – one the height and size of the orbit of my eye and the other the same size but solar plexus level. I would NOT recommend building a makiwara for punching this way – you’ll tear up your hands and arms – but for stick practice it is invaluable if you don’t have a regular partner. I gave my pell a name – Woodreaux Roper so I could practice cursing my enemy.


• Re-think your techniques. Instead of basing your actions on the likely responses of a partner that you don’t have, concentrate on keeping yourself safe and moving. Anything that can be thought of as stabbing uke and pushing him back can also be thought of as pushing yourself backward off of uke and getting away from him (resulting in the same spacings as in kata). So, for instance, the second kata, suigetsu, becomes a sidestep, push yourself backward off of the sword guy, then strike down with honteuchi.

AM training

AM aiki with Rob

• Koryu Dai Ichi - Sections B (variations on release #1 and oshitaoshi) and C (variations on YK#1 and shihonage).
• We talked a little about the positive influence that jodo has had on my aikido - particularly in the last year or so.

PM aiki with Rick

• We spent a lot of time working on ukemi paying attention to muscle coordination - relax/contact and the appropriate times for each.
• Same lesson plan as the AM session - Ichikata sections B&C - worked great. Wonderful flow.

Pick your nose

Straighten your shirt

Wipe your hands

Scratch your butt

Slap a mosquito

Shuffle your feet

How many of us have noticed that we have some unconscious or barely-conscious habits that occasionally take over during a practice. Do you find yourself starting to take a step during a kata and suddenly your nose itches maddeningly. How easy is it in solo practice to give in to the itch and call a do-over for that particular move? This happened to me this morning during the beginning of a jo kata. I'm sure it happens all the time but this morning at least I noticed it.

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I know my instructor in college was always complaining that I wiped my face with my sleeve or wiped my hands on my thighs during kata. not only does this spoil the kata aesthetically but it changes the place where your mind resides. You have gone from mind-in-the-fight to gotta-scratch-that-nose instantly and at random. What may be worse is trying to avoid the tic. Trying to defer it to a more opportune time. Here you mind is flipping back and forth between the two modes. Concentration and focus are right out the window.

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I have found in jodo that the occurance of this sort of tic seems to be similar to grabbing your jo with your hand in slightly wrong posture. Do you fix it then strike or strike then fix it? I tend to try to continue the motion with imperfect grip until I come to a node or a lull in the kata when I can reposition the grip.

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This morning I looked like a cartoon - at least I felt like I did. Trying to do a kata with a mosquito on my foot and some pesky imp tickling my nose with a feather.

Woodreaux got scrubbed today

Jodo with MytchiKo

• Practiced grips and measuring: pencil→gyakute, pencil→sakate, pencil→gyakute→honte
• Practiced upward and downward scrubbing strikes using Woodreaux to simulate an aggressor to the rear. The idea was to step away into gyakute, scrub the jo up either leg, separate, then scrub the jo downward onto any advanced target. Worked like a charm.
• Praticed an upward scrubbing buttstroke from pencil through sakate into the centerline of an aggressor (Woodreaux) close in front.

Wonderful jodo and aikido sessions

Jodo with MytchiKo

• Reviewed moving from pencil grip, which is her normal mode of holding the cane, into honte, gyakute, and sakate postures and measuring the distance to the opponent. She is improving on the measuring stick idea.
• Worked some strikes - pencil→sakate→ushirotsuke, pencil→gyakute→gyakuteuchi (to shin or knee or extended wrist)
• Worked on moving from pencil to sakate and using the structure of the forearms and stick like a cowcatcher to brush off and roll the ball.
• Showed her a cool addition to the stab-the-foot move that she has been working on - if you miss, use the stick as a reference and step forward onto their foot, then use their reaction to roll the ball and brush them off.
• I took out a quarterstave and worked some of the same concepts against Woodreaux.

Aiki with Rick

• ROM and ukemi with emphasis on landing position and rolling back to standing smoothly
• Hanasu #1-4. Rick has excellent motion.
• Rick asked about randori so we played releases #1-4 in a limited randori, then started broadening the scope of the randori as we talked about the randori concept. The rest of the night was randori.

A helpful handful: aigamaeate

Consider the similarities between aigamaeate and aikinage (known in aikikai as iriminage). They are really the same technique - or perhaps you could say that aigamaeate is a form of iriminage. Here is a handful of helpful hints - some of the things I work with my students on.

• Often in practice, aigamaeate is done as a more direct entry and abrupt atemi, whereas aikinage seems more flowing and roundabout, but either technique can be done either way. Try aigamaeate from a backing-around situation when uke interrupts your tenkan and tries to turn back in on you.
• Because aigamaeate and aikinage are about the same thing, all the helpful handful for aikinage apply to aigamaeate too.
• Where there two techniques really diverge is in the relative height of tori as compared to uke. A taller tori will often find it easier to strike over uke’s arm, while a shorter tori will strike under uke’s arm. Takng a palm to the chin from a short tori sliding upward along your body can be one of the worst experiences ever.
• Aigamaeate happens abruptly and effectively when someone is trying tori out using snappy lead jabs and testing feints. If you see 1-2 testing jabs, get ready for another one and follow it back into uke with an atemi of your own.
• Another fundamental version of aigamaeate is in response to a jo thrust – slip out of the way moving forward and outside the strike and clothesline or better yet, palm uke to the face while blocking and taking the jo with the other hand.

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.

Cheat notes in jodo

Here's a hint that has helped me in my jodo a good bit. Mark up your practice jo and bokken with a black Sharpie so that you will have significant reference marks. I thought about using marking tape so that I'd have a tactile as well as visual reference, but I figured the tape would rapidly wear off, leaving the jo gummy. Here's how I marked mine:

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For the bokken, first find the center of mass of the weapon by balancing it on one finger. Place a mark on the flat back edge right at the center of mass. It doesn't have to be conspicuous to others, but it should be highly visible to the swordsman holding the bokken. Then hold the tip end of the bokken in one closed fist and make a second mark on the back edge that is one palm-width from the tip. This marks the cutting surface (the last 3 inches) as well as marking the point to cross sword and jo to measure ma-ai. The center-of mass mark serves mostly as a reference point for your subconscious to make note of relative positions every time the jo and sword meet during a technique.

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For the jo, make a mark at the center of mass just as above. Then hold the jo in a proper honte grip and make a mark at the point that your front index finger and thumb rest on the jo. Do this on both ends. Finally, make a mark one palm-width from the end of the jo on both ends.

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These marks will be valuable references during kihon in getting your grips precisely correct, they will help you develop a more precise understanding of ma-ai distance, and they will serve as positional references for all the techniques.

Fun with Whit and stick

Here's some more video I've been holding onto for a while and now have finally had time to get it processed and posted. Here Whit and I are playing with a sword-throwaway from jodo. Legend has it that Draeger could break sword blades with techniques like this - I guess by driving them into the ground. I'm a long way away from that sort of ability.

And yes, I really do get a kick out of beating up on poor little kids - at least on this one. Whit would have probably kept coming back for more all evening long but I seem to remember it being about a million degrees outside that day.

A helpful handful: wakigatame

Here are a few hints I hold in my hat when I'm teaching wakigatame. Hope they help y'all too.

• Wakigatame is really the same thing as gokyo in aikikai – but the basic form that is commonly practiced looks different. In Tomiki and in Judo, the gokyo relationship is called wakigatame. This thing is superficially similar to ikkyo (oshitaoshi) but the hand grip is different (one hand over and one hand under).


• The first version we were taught was a “look ma, no hands” version in which the wrist is trapped in the crook of the elbow and the upper arm trapped under the other armpit with the elbow turned backwards across tori’s chest. This gives tori a little less control but leaves both hands free to do other things.


• When you try a variation more similar to the basic gokyo, try to get your hands on his arm (under the wrist and over the elbow) as if you were holding a jo, then maneuver your body in behind your hands and stab his arm forward in the direction his arm is pointing as if his arm were a jo.


• Try it with both hands on the wrist and your top elbow controlling his elbow. This elbow-to elbow wakigatame is an abrupt submission.


• If wakigatame goes bad, it tends to lead into kotegaeshi, gyakugamaeate, or gedanate.

A Mississippi Aikido Christmas Eve

'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the dojo
No students were stirring, none had their mojo;
The mats were all stacked in the corner with care,
In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;

The sensei was nestled all snug in his bed,
While kotegaeshi danced in his head;
And shihan in her hakama I in my gi,
Had no sooner tied them and we needed to pee,

When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like a crow,
grabbed up my tanto and drew nigh my jo.

The moon glinting off of the leaf-strewn driveway
Gave a lustre to the objects as if of mid-day,
When, what do you think I saw then from afar,
But a van and a truck and a hoopty old car,

With a little old driver, so lively and flush,
I knew in a moment that it must be Usher.
More rapid than eagles his minions they came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name;

"Now, P3! now, Rich-san! now, Porkchop and Quan!
On, Edward! on Gimli on Malloy and ‘that other one!
Get into that dojo and lay out the mats!
Now dash away! dash away, while I wake up Pat!"

As I drew in my hand, and was turning around,
In Doctor Usher came with a bound.
He was dressed in his gi, pressed shiny and neat,
Tied with his belt he just couldn’t be beat.

His eyes -- how they twinkled though he said his back ached.
His joints creaked, his hips popped and his knees they were fake!
His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,
And it looked that despite that he was ready to go!

He spoke not a word, we went into randori,
Sankata newaza and yoko wakari,
He throttled poor P3, to his team gave a whistle,
And we practiced like mad throwing ukes like missiles.

After practice he marked in his book with a glower,
"Merry Christmas to all! That was worth half-an-hour!"

Jodo kata practice

Jodo, on the other hand...

Jodo, on the other hand, is never done on the other hand. The most basic explanation for this is the old adage, "There is no left hand in Japan." The story goes that feudal Japan was such a homogenous society that left-handedness was repressed. Children were simply not allowed to grow up left-handed. So there were no left handed swordsmen.

Now that story might be apocryphal, but what is apparent is that jojutsu masters did not waste time trying to make the system symmetric. The kihon exhibit several different kinds of sidedness just like the judo throws described previously, but the seitei kata, like the one demonstrated below, are only ever done one-sided.

Occasionally for a mental stretch or as a cool-technique-of-the-day, I'll flip one of the kata to the other side and rep it a few times. But that is not really an attempt to bring my off-side up to speed but rather just a mental exercise. I've found that once you practice enough of the kihon on both sides then you can flip a kata on the fly pretty easily.

Stick with Whit

Last night I practiced jodo with Whit. I practiced honteuchi and gyakuteuchi and hikiotoshi solo forms and then got Whit to hold a sword so I could practice kuritsuke and makiotoshi. I had to coach Whit a good bit not to flinch away from the jo, but that is understandable. A jo is a scary thing to have flinging around your head. We emphasized stretching your arms out and keeping the sword between us. At the end I took the sword and Whit spontaneously translated the jodo kuritsuke into a quarterstave technique and did a really good job of it. At the end we worked aikido releases #1-4.

I’m so proud of Whit’s progress. Last night he asked me, “How long ago did I learn this stuff?” It’s only been a few months but he’s doing it as if he was born to it.

Surprise Chop

Today we had a surprise chop. Chops is summering in Baton Rouge and plans to make the trip to Magnolia on Saturdays for a while. We just thought he'd heard about the blackberries and tomatoes starting to make and was showing up two weeks early to the Aiki Buddies Gathering.

Before class we worked some jodo because I rarely get to stick-whack real people. We worked on the sword traps and on hikiotoshi. Chops verified some of the direction I've been going with my jodo based on a recent trip he took to see Henry.

In aiki, we worked tegatana and hanasu with the brown belts (Andy and Chops) rotating between the white belts (mytchi and Richard). We chained our way through chain #5, working on kaiten nage, wakigatame, and hikitaoshi. At the end we worked shomenate as a form of aiki brush-off. Richard and Mytchi had to leave early, so the brown belts worked on some grab-and-go knife randori and some knife nijusan with uke specifically instructed to stay centered on tori and keep cutting no matter what. Shomenate, gyakugamaeate, and aigamaeate were the most effective things we saw today.

Fear factor - Magnolia style

I pretty much defy someone to come up with a scarier thing than having a teenage white belt blind girl swinging a 52 inch oak pole within inches of your face.

Today I worked with Mytchi on a variation of tsukezue, the first kata of Seitei Jodo. She was doing good with her distancing, and after several repetitions hit the first offbalance point very well. We alternated working with my wooden jo and her aluminum cane that happens to be the same length. We need to work on her posture and grip, but she was doing good overall. I just had to stop and tell her to mash reset a couple of times because she was freaking me out too much.

I was having visions of my shiny, expensive implanted teeth scattered across the driveway.

If you can't see, you can't fight. HA!

Occasionally I've posted about my blind student, Mytchiko. One of the things I've worked with her on is being able to keep control of her cane when people are moving around her chaotically. Sometimes they bump her cane and disorient her. Mike Denton posted a comment that pretty much sums it up...

Who the hell kicks a person's cane out from under them? Even if it's accidental, you can see the thing easily and should be doing all you can to not interfere with it. Damn that pisses me off. I'm glad you're teaching her some cool ways to deal with it.

Well, Mike, So long as Mytchi is just some poor, helpless blind chick, there is no reason for people in this increasingly 'might makes right' world to treat her with respect. No consequences because, "if you can't see you can't fight." Right?

Well, today, Mytchi told me an interesting aiki story. At school people were jerking around in her vicinity and one of the guys ran through her personal space, frightening and disorienting her. She evaded with a turning sidestep and stabbed him in the foot with the cane. He started to fall on her and she evaded again, giving him the aiki brush-off. He landed on his back and the onlookers applauded and told Mytchi she was great!

Nobody got injured, and maybe she just kicked it up a notch for the inconsiderate.

Take away points

A skill that I haven't developed, but that I need to work on is being able to condense a seminar into a handful of concrete pointers to apply to my practice. Jack Bieler of Denton Aikido is great at this. Usually I leave seminars and clinics physically and mentally wiped out and unable to tell you what I learned. Over the course of the weeks following a seminar I begin to sort through the material as I come back to it in my regular practice. I have instances of realization like, "Hey, that's like what Henry was talking about when he said..." If I were to try to make a list of takeaway points for this past Henry seminar, they'd be...

• jo man never stops moving long enough to effect a technique on the sword man.
• the kokyunage in gokata feel very aiki to me. These are worth some regular practice...
• on iriminage, get the offbalance and let uke fall into orbit instead of trying to pull him
• the gokata ryotedori techniques represent a chain of backup techniques for failed attempts

Magical kurihanashi

Today we worked on jodo, getting onto some great hints that Henry gave me last weekend. Henry said one of his Henryisms that I wish I'd written down verbatim, but the gist of it is that the jo-man never stops moving long enough to bust the sword-man. This is because if tori stands still long enough to do something to the sword-guy and anything goes wrong then tori is stuck within striking range. We worked on this idea last weekend and today in the context of kihon #7, 8, and 9 - kuritsuke, kurihanashi, and taiatari. Sure enough they worked much better when tori lost the idea of trying to stick uke at a certain point. The most amazing thing that Henry showed me was a variation (i guess it is a variation - it's different from what I've been doing for years) of kuritsuke. If I understand Henry right, then the difference between these techniques is how uke is trying to get off the stick after he's caught. If he picks up and retreats, he gets kurihanashi. If he leans on the stick, tori takes one step under he sword to uke's other side, turns, and whips the sword into uke's groin. If uke tries to come off the end of the stick then tori controls the sword with the upper hand while pushing/striking uke with the butt of the stick. I'll have to get some video of this to post. Today we worked on how these relate to aikido ideas. these three traps are basically variants of oshitaoshi. We got a ton of practice on these in both nijusan and chain#1 forms.

Where to begin?

I'm back and somewhat recovered from the spring seminar with Henry Copeland at Starkville, MS. As always, it was great to see everyone and Henry's instruction was awesome. We worked on Gokata and randori and I got to ask Henry a couple of my jodo questions that I had for him.

Gokata is interesting because it brings up the two-wrist grab (ryotedori) and hooking strike (yokomenuchi) defenses that we don't often play with (we almost exclusively deal with straight strikes and single-wrist grabs up to about shodan). A couple of the later Gokata techniques are kokyunage - basically just brushing uke off so that tori can run. These two throws are now officially part of my personal set of the coolest, most aiki-like things in all of aikido.

I thought my randori was particularly bad this weekend - don't know if it was an off day or if I just especially suck and playing with new folks highlighted my suckitudinous randori.

The jodo was really remarkable. We worked on makiotoshi, kuritsuke, and kurihanashi. Henry simplified some of this stuff for me and validated some of the ideas I had about these things. Who'da thunk it - my thinking seems to be closer to right on jodo than on aiki randori.

I'll have some pics to post later...