Hanasu vs. shichihon

Lately, we’ve been working on Hanasu– the wrist releases – in greater detail, trying to really get that ‘releasing’ feeling. We’ve all been doing great, and I’ve been tweaking little details, “This time do it this way… Good, but think about this… What if we try it like this…” and then I realized that I was bringing elements into Hanasu that we usually practice in the other fundamental release kata, Shichihon no kuzushi (the 7 fundamentals of offbalance). So, what is the difference between Hanasu and Shichihon?

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Superficially, Hanasu includes eight techniques and Shichihon contains seven. Looking a little deeper, Hanasu includes four releases and four backup ideas in case those first four go in an unexpected direction. Shichihon repeats those first four releases from Hanasu, with a different emphasis, and adds three new releases.

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What is the different emphasis? Hanasu is mostly about evasion, blending, and synchronization, while Shichihon is more about timing and direction and extension of specific offbalances. It is possible to do either kata emphasizing any of the ideals from either exercise, but in normal practice, each has its own set of things that it teaches. Each of these two exercises contains a different piece of the puzzle. The pieces of the puzzle begin being put together in the chains, where we evade, blend, synch, and watch for proper times and directions to extend uke into weakness.

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So why the different emphasis in Shichihon? Because of the first two new releases being inside you don’t have the safety margin like you do on the outside releases so you have to do something (kuzushi) to slow uke down and sap some of his potential while you are releasing. The rest of the kata is a timing progression. That is, the first 2 techniques are timed off of the first footfall, the next two are timed off of the second footfall, the next two are timed off of the third footfall, and the 7th technique is just plain too late.

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We used to spend the first 1-2 years of our practice working almost exclusively with the releases in Hanasu, then we would practice the releases in Shichihon but in less detail. Since about Y2K, practicing the chains has brought some of these higher-level ideas back into the kyu ranks, but I want to start doing a little more work on the Shichihon ideas.

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We are going to be alternating the release kata that we use for warmup – one class we’ll warmup with Hanasu (emphasizing evasion and blending and synch) and the next class Shichihon (emphasizing timing and direction and extension). We should be able to see pretty soon if this will help us to move toward that vague, elusive ideal ‘release’ feeling in more of our motions and techniques.

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.

A helpful handful: gedanate

Here is a handful of thoughts about the fourth technique in the fundamentals kata, gedanate, which name means 'lower body strike.'

• Musashi claimed to be able to throw people 10-20 feet and kill them with this technique. Are you to that point in your training yet? No? Keep practicing, Grasshopper!
• Gedanate is the Tomiki aikido name for the judo technique called sukuinage. In normal practice in aikido you don’t grab his legs, but you can. If tori happens to fall with uke during gedanate then it resembles the judo throw called taniotoshi.
• If you are throwing uke over your forward leg to land behind you then you are using your weak back rotator muscles. Try getting this technique to work lunging forward through uke with a dropping motion like an otoshi throw – and with no over-the-leg rotation.
• Don’t hold uke up with the hand that is controlling his wrist. Sometimes it can make for a dramatically effective throw if you just carelessly toss uke’s arm over your shoulder behind you instead of hanging onto his wrist.
• Your first thought is to attack the face (which you might call jodan ate) but if anything prevents that you can still attack the lower body (gedan ate). For the purposes of this technique, you can consider lower body anything below the face. So, try pushing him off with an elbow to the ribs. Or keep in mind that you can step on his near knee or foot for a dramatic offbalance. Attacking anything lower than jodan (essentially face) can be considered gedan.

Aikido this afternoon

Aiki with Kel

• ROM, warmup
• tegatana
• hanasu emphasizing synching with uke's up-down rhythm all the way through the technique. We also worked on recognizing when uke shifts from casual walking to "getting ready to fight" walking and seeing if we could switch him back with an offbalance.
• rokukata maeotoshi off of release #4 emphasizing executing hte technique by stretching a footstep right at the instant of uke's footfall. Kel was getting it on the wrong footfall about half the time but it was still working great! Coolness.
• We started working on chain #3 and got as far as the elbow-to-elbow wakigatame when Kel was called away.

How did you decide, Martin?

Today we remember one of our country's foremost warriors in the cause of peace, equality, and freedom - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

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Though in his Letter From a Birmingham Jail, he states that he was a force of moderation standing between extremists on both sides, King was considered extreme by the establishment of the time, and this led to his assasination. Dr. King could have possibly prolonged his life if he had skillfully shifted his position based on the forces that he encountered (aiki), perhaps going along with the prevailing forces until he could overpower them or unbalance them (ju) but instead, he effectively took a stand and spent his life all at once in the service of his cause (kime) - And it was certainly a worthy cause.

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But this begs the question, how do you determine whether to stand and fight right here and now or shift and live to fight another day? At what point is the evil you face so grievous that you decide to spend all of yourself right now in its downfall? Or do you simply let your enemies decide when you take your final stand?

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What do you think King's effect on the civil rights movement would have been like if he were alive today? If he had accomodated the establishment to any significant degree he would have sacrificed some of the moral power of his cause, but he would have had many more years to exert that lessened power.

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CARNIVAL TIME!

With that question as an introduction, welcome to the January 2008 edition of carnival of martial arts. This is a themed issue on peaceful warriors and conflict resolution - not that every article submitted is directly on topic, but all are interesting and worth checking out.

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Hilltown Families presents Peace Episode on HFVS (New Year's Day '08) posted at Hilltown Families. A little peace music to stimulate your sense of nostalgia as you peruse the carnival.

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Patrick Parker presents Nonviolent self defense posted at Mokuren Dojo. A curious look at a (perhaps) faulty idea of non-violent self-defense.

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Dave Chesser presents Aikido-like Chinese IMA posted at Formosa Neijia. A potential answer to the question in the above post.

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Patrick Parker presents Rolling the ball and brushing off posted at Mokuren Dojo. My own take on Dave Chesser's article above.

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Chris presents Conflict Resolution: A Casualty of Non-Violent Martial Arts posted at Martial Development. A valuable reminder in light of the above articles.
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Nathan Teodoro presents Preventing Sexual Abuse in Martial Arts posted at TDA Training.

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Michael Bell presents Why Study Martial Arts? posted at live-it-true.com.

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Dave Shevitz presents Jury Duty and Ki Tests posted at AikiThoughts. Nobody I've seen has done a better job of applying the philosophy of aiki to his everyday life than Dave Shevitz.

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Patrick Parker presents Creamed Asparagus posted at Mokuren Dojo. Another perspective on nonviolent self-defense - in the context of bullying.

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Dave Shevitz presents Martial Arts and Bullying posted at AikiThoughts. A very good answer to the above post about Creamed Asparagus.

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Dojo Rat presents The Significance Of Billy Jack posted at Dojo Rat.

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Argonautica presents Jujutsu Suffragettes posted at Argos Classic Martial Reprints .
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Eric Frey presents Martial Arts, Why Belt Ranking Systems Are Bad. posted at Eric Frey Dot Com.

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Eric Frey presents Martial Arts Training, How To See A Punch Coming A Mile Away. posted at Eric Frey Dot Com.

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Shaheen Lakhan presents Martial Arts Program for Children with Epilepsy posted at GNIF Brain Blogger.

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That's it for this month's issue. Thank all of you for participating - I hope we can keep this important discussion going. Drop by the articles you find most interesting and leave comments.

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Submit your blog article to the next edition of *carnival of martial arts* using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

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Lastly, but certainly not least, We're always looking for blogs to host an upcoming issue of the Carnival. If you are interesting in having the Carnival appear on your blog, drop Argonautica a line at Argos Classic Martial Reprints .

A helpful handful: shomenate

Everybody who does Tomiki aikido or one of the Tomiki derivatives knows shomenate. It’s one of the first things taught, and it can rightfully be considered the foundational basis of virtually everything that comes after it. Shomenate is the essence of irimi. Here is a handful of helpful hints to get a little bit of extra mileage out of your shomenate.

• Get your distance right. You want this thing to be a mental shock to his system. You don’t get a good surprise reaction if he sees it coming from a couple of feet away. You want to be at arm’s length from his face at the end of the first step.
• Play with this technique with the idea of pushing yourself off of uke instead of pushing uke down backwards. Think of uke as a sprinter’s starting block to push off of. This will shorten the energy transfer between tori and uke and will help tori to get back outside ma-ai more quickly, even if it doesn’t knock uke down.
• It helps for tori to cultivate the attitude, “He is going to go backwards no matter what. Hit me, cut me, whatever… he’ll do in moving away from me.”
• It is more effective to bump uke’s lead arm with a straight arm as you evade just shorter than arms-length than to step aside and chop uke’s arm. Let uke feel the entire weight of your body through your unbendable arm and let that bump him into offbalance.
• Tomiki reportedly said of his aikido, “None of this stuff works unless you do shomenate first,” so, try shomenate as an entry to other techniques. For instance, enter, grasp the arm, push off the face and keep your momentum going until you hit the end of his reach. Then turn into shihonage or snap him past you into ushiroate.

"I would never punch that way"

One of the most common arguments against the viability of aikido training methods has got to be, “But I would never punch that way.” Folks want to know how aikido deals with short, efficient lead jabs and jab-cross combinations and why we don’t train against quick jab or jab-cross attacks.
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In order to make any attack, the attacker has to step to within arm’s reach. Saying, “I’d never punch that way,” assumes that the attacker is in good control of his momentum and balance and movement at the end of that step. When you are practicing kihon in karate, or shadow boxing, or some other solo striking form, that’s pretty easy to assume. There’s really no reason to expect that you shouldn’t be able to control your own body at the end of the attack step. But when your target moves during the middle of your step, when someone bumps into you during that step, when there is the possibility that the target might hurt you back, all your body dynamics change. You are not in complete control at the end of the attacking step.
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As an experiment, try stepping two feet forward and hitting a moving speed bag – hard – however you like – lunge punch, lead jab, hook, whatever. You just have to hit hard. Try this several times and unless you are really masterful, you’ll miss or hit improperly pretty often. Can you control your body just like you’d like when that happens or is your balance and momentum and timing at least a little off?
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A funny thing happens when something interrupts an attack step. The attacker seizes up for just a moment while he regains his balance and figures out a good appropriate next move. In this situation, the defender has caused the attacker to reset to the beginning of his OODA loop and now he has to observe his situation, orient to what is going on, and decide on an action, before he can act. The funny thing is, people tend to become cataleptic to some degree when they are reset to the beginning of the loop. They literally freeze in place almost catatonic for an instant.
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An instant is a long time to someone who expects it and knows when it is going to happen…

Tai chi for effect

Now this is interesting. This goes back to Formosa Neijia discussion of the reality of the no-touch energy effects which I commented on here. It also goes back to my Tai chi question from a few months ago about the hopping backward thing. This guy is getting much better effect (from what I can tell) than the magical dude in Dave's videos. This type of motion from uke is more like what I would figure involuntary motion would look like. It even resembles to a great degree the aikido offbalances I'm used to seeing - stuff I know you can't reproduce with strength. In fact, you can't even reproduce this quality of motion with a compliant, jumpy partner.

Vigorous judo tonight

Judo with Rob

• ROM and groundwork cycle as warmup. The groundwork cycle was a lot more freeform and ranged across the mat almost like no-resistance ground randori. Cool.
• Three flavors of ukigoshi. Good nagekomi. Lots of airtime and mat pounding followed by light standing randori emphasizing ukigoshi.
• Newaza randori. I think I was the bear tonight. My ground mobility was particularly good tonight and Rob just had a hard time. Take away lesson: you have to keep your butt in motion., or if you're going to rest, get an assymetric grip on the opponent, get him offbalance and make him bear your weight. Then you can rest.

Aiki with Rob

• Suwariwaza and Hammi handachi from Sankata.

CSSD with Rob

• basic cuts (1-12 and the abbreviated 1-2-3-4-5-12), a Modular pattern, and some stick Crossada. I can see how I could become comfortable with the system but it sure sucks for me right now. Ah, the joys of being a newbie!

Working up to a cool scoop

Aiki with Patrick M., Kel, and JP:

• Ukemi emphasizing matching the line across the back with the line of the fall and practicing slowly enough that you can catch errors.
• Walking emphasizing the third pushing motion, the first turning motion, and the last turning motion. Especially the idea of matching the rise and fall of the center with the rise and fall of the arm and using the arm to clear a path for the center to sweep into.
  Hanasu #1-4 emphasizing watching for uke switching from ayumiashi to tsugiashi just before the attack and using the first offbalance to force uke to shift back to ayumiashi.
• Chain #7 working our way through kaitennage, hikitaoshi, oshitaoshi, and tenkai kotehineri with special emphasis on the idea of switching from push to pull and from front to rear of uke and synchronizing hands with feet.
• Cool ninja technique of the night was a variant of kohonage similar to the fifth standing technique in the following film. This was definately cool - but it blew everyone's minds so we went back to the zero-distance tenkai kotehineri from sankata. It conveyed the same idea and made more sense to everyone.
  
  

Ukigoshi and gearing ratio

Considering ukigoshi, if you look at uke and tori from above you can imagine them as gears turning together. One typically has to turn faster and farther than the other, thus creating different forms of throws. For example, sometimes tori turns a lot while uke doesn’t turn much, creating the big hip throws like ogoshi and koshiguruma. In other instances, tori turns a little as uke spins around him, creating different hip throws, like ukigoshi and haraigoshi. Most often it is some middle condition, with tori and uke each making some part of the turn. This variation in the turning speed of the two ‘gears’ is called gearing ratio, and you can get more info on that at wikipedia.

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With that in mind, you can define about two basic forms of any koshinage:

• Catch uke stepping forward. Step to the side just as his front foot plants, pulling him into offbalance. Turn your hips backward into uke with a backstep, loading him and throwing.
• Catch uke stepping forward. Step to the side just as his front foot plants, pulling him into offbalance. Pull uke’s lapel side 90 degrees to get him to step with the other leg. Load him onto your hips and throw as he turns the corner.

In the first form, tori makes all the turn as uke hovers in offbalance. This is the form classically taught in uchikomi, with tori pulling with the left arm and turning in to catch with the right arm. This is also the form taught in amateur wrestling – called something like ‘the back-step’. In the second form above, uke makes part the turn as tori makes the other part of the turn. As tori is turning to the left, uke is stepping with his left foot, taking up the slack.

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Both forms are decent beginning ways to learn the thing. I alternate between them in my teaching. I often teach the back-step technique as kubinage instead of ukigoshi or ogoshi – but that’s just a preference thing. There are many variations, but they mostly tend to fall in a spectrum between these two basic forms. In randori situations you have to find the right middle-ground between these two basic forms on the fly. That is just part of the art of the thing.

SMART Goals

In a previous article I wrote about re-thinking your goals whenever you find techniques are not working for you. When this happens, you are likely thinking wrongly about how to approach the techniques. Specifically, you may be trying to accomplish the wrong goals. Instead of trying harder physically, re-think your goals.

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The overall goal in aikido is about self-defense. This does not mean beating someone else up, rather surviving violence intact. As Mike Denton puts it…

Aikido is not about 'winning' or finishing your opponent off, but rather about being able to disengage from a chaotic and violent situation as quickly and safely as possible.

With that overall objective in mind, it is possible to define better performance goals. An acronym that is used in business and personal coaching is SMART.

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A SMART goal is Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-bound.

• Specific – what exactly would be an acceptable outcome to you? What do you not really care about? Your flexibility or slack in the way you do the techniques exists among the things that you don’t really care about. You can’t sacrifice tactically if that means you don’t accomplish the essential outcomes but you can sacrifice tactically in the areas in which you don’t really care about the outcome.
• Measurable – how can you tell if you have achieved your goal? Is your measure objective or subjective?
• Attainable – Your essential goals must be things that are within your power to control. Something that is possible to practice safely.
• Realistic – Your essential goals must be things that are within the realm of normal physics and biomechanics. It is smarter to base your essential goals on the natural rather than super-natural (regardless of what you believe about the super-natural). Your goal should promote tactics that reliably generalize to most of the population of potential attackers. Your goal should be based on probabilities instead of possibilities.
• Time-Bound – You have to be able to execute tactics to move you toward your goals within real time. This means that your goals should promote tactics that make use of natural motion and gross motor skills within the opponent’s OODA loop.

Example: Kotegaeshi as a big fall. If tori gets the idea that in order to succeed at kotegaeshi, uke has to take a big fall that looks just like the instructor’s model, this is not SMART. It is not specific because you don’t know how big a fall uke has to take for tori to be a success. It is not measurable because you never know if the fall you just saw uke take was big enough. It is not attainable because it is not within tori’s power to control how uke reacts to the throw. It is not realistic because it is totally outside our experience to think that you can throw something as heavy as a person with that type of motion, and it is not time-bound because it often requires relatively precise leverage on the wrist and you are forced to plant your feet to exert into the throw – stopping your motion and taking you out of uke’s OODA loop.

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So, kotegaeshi as a big throw is a recipe for frustration. Without a compliant, skilled uke tori will never make that throw match his ideal of it.

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So, how do you make a SMART goal for kotegaeshi…

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Specific: tori should remain safe throughout the whole motion and uke should end up in a condition of unbalance with his arm turning outward in a gaeshi motion. Uke might fall down because of this but tori doesn’t really care if or how. Measurable: did tori get hit? is uke’s balance broken (this is a tough one to measure objectively)? Is uke’s arm turning outward? Attainable: staying safe, getting kuzushi, and holding uke’s wrist twisted are within tori’s ability to a great extent. These actions are largely related to things tori does as opposed to how uke acts or reacts. Realistic: it doesn’t take supernatural thinking to expect uke to stay safe, get an offbalance, and hold uke’s arm. Timebound: now, instead of exerting hard to throw uke thru the air, tori can relax and keep moving, acting to stay within uke’s ooda loop. These goals can be accomplished with natural, gross motor tactics.

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So, defining kotegaeshi as “tori safe, uke offbalance, holding uke’s wrist turned out” is SMARTer than defining it as some subjectively large fall out of a wrist-twist.

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The moral of the story is the same as in the previous post, “The mind drives the body. The body obeys the mind. Change your mind and you will change your performance.”

Jumpy jelly leg syndrome

In aikido we are always talking about relaxing and falling into our movements, but I think this can be taken too far at times and can lead to some stability problems that I'll call the jumpy jelly leg syndrome. This can lead to problems in your judo too. Let me give you some background.

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In order to take a step, you stand in an upright posture with knees slightly bent and feet under you. Disengage one leg - just turn it off - and your center of mass starts falling in that direction. Then you turn the leg back on under your hips and recover the leg that you left behind so that it is under your hips too. You have taken one sliding (tsugiashi) step.

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The problem comes right as the leading foot hits the ground. If you are only thinking to turn it on to keep your center vertically off the ground then your side-to-side and front-to-back muscles in your leg and hips and abs and back are left in an indeterminate state with your brain not really telling them to do anything at all. If you happen to be bumped right when the leading foot hits the ground then you can get this hyperactive reflex in these muscles that causes you to rock and bounce a few times before you can get your balance back. I'm sure you've encountered this if youve done randori with someone really good. They touch you and you either stand there bouncing spastically or you jump your own butt right out of the ground.

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How to fix the jumpy jelly leg syndrome? Give these otherwise-indeterminate muscles something to do. Doesn't especially matter what - just giving them a little tonus shuts down a lot of that bounce. For instance, you can:

• Think about pulling yourself forward with the front leg just as it hits the ground. This turns on all the muscles in the back of the leg.
• Think about tightening your thighs together to snap your recovery leg back under you. This turns on the thigh adductor (groin) muscles in the front leg.

Whatever scheme you use in your mind to get your legs to do this trick, your goal is to recover your rear leg back under you as quickly as possible and make your front leg active in the process. I often tell myself during walking kata to snap the recovery leg back under my hips.

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So how can you practice this? I say practice it in several different ways under different conditions. For instance...

• Concentrate on this phenomenon especially during the first three or so moves in the walking kata. When you get good at that, spread it out into the pushing moves in the walking kata and from there, apply it to the turns.
• Concentrate on this phenomenon when doing the nagenokata version of okuriashibarai. The side-to-side motion with a partner should be a great place to play with this. Have your partner bump you as the lead foot hits and see how different stepping strategies help or hurt.
• Do the foot-sweep-to-control drill with a partner walking together up and down the mat bumping and sweeping deashibarai every third step. Here uke gets to play with stepping strategies just like in the side-to-side motion, but tori also gets to concentrate on putting a little drag on the front foot right as it hits on the third step. This should make the ball of the foot drag back toward tori ever so slightly right as the foot hits.

Try it and let me know your mileage. Down with the jumpy jelly legs!

At the risk of being called a heretic...

...let’s re-think this falling thing.

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First, I am a big proponent of ukemi practice. It has a lot of benefits within and beyond the dojo. We practice ukemi in every single class and I am always preaching to take the technique all the way to the ground – nagekomi instead of uchikomi. But with that said, Does uke really have to take all those falls?

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If you make your aiki practice ukemi dependent, then...

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• ...you have to have special equipment and a lot of space to practice.


• ...you have to teach things in a certain order (generally from easier-to-harder) which means that you have to teach the relatively less street effective stuff first and it can take years to learn a sufficient amount of aikido to be effective in the street.


• ...you either limit your mat years or you have to change how you are doing aiki mid-career. At some age aikidoka need to slow down on the falling and eventually stop altogether for self-protection.


• ...you intimidate the novice and run students off.


• ...you increase the safety issues and incur greater liability. I've heard of judo clubs being told to get rid of climbing ropes because of liability. Well, for Pete's sake, think! Which is more dangerous, climbing up a rope once or twice per class or taking dozens of airfalls per class?

Throws like kotegaeshi and sumiotoshi do not have to end in an airfall if you can be satisfied with practicing slowly and deliberately and achieving the reflexive precursors to the throw (i.e. kuzushi, positioning, metatarsal reflex, etc...). Only two falls make up virtually all self-defense applications. – side falls and forward rolls. Nearly all other forms of falling are either preparatory exercises for these two forms or they are merely filling in the corners with a few special-purpose falls that are very limited in their utility.

But on the other hand, these big throws are, in large part, the artistic trademark of aikido. Many of the people that you ask will say they got into aikido in the first place because they saw a little old man with a beard pitching young, athletic judo-type guys effortlessly. That the big falls looked like magic. Well, in my opinion, that illusion of effortless magic is actually detrimental to the popularity of aikido in today’s environment of ultra-pragmatic self-defense systems (i.e. kravmaga, CQB, etc…) and full-contact sport systems (BJJ, GJJ, UFC, NHB, etc…). I say get rid of the magic, get rid of the illusion, and concentrate on the real aiki. The aiki that the old guys did – and not necessarily the large-motion aiki that is exhibited so beautifully in demonstrations.

What does that mean we need to do?

Rethink your goals. aikido can be amazingly effective without uke being required to take an airfall. In fact, to do good aikido, tori absolutely must get rid of the idea that his goal is to make uke fall in a certain way. This is a nearly impossible goal to accomplish unless you have a compliant uke. Change your goals to things you have more control over (staying safe, keeping uke extended and offbalance, staying in motion, etc…) and which are less dependent on uke's compliance or skill. Get away from choreography like "tori does X and then uke does Y and so tori throws Z" and work on learning skills that allows tori to say, "I don't care how uke reacts to this. I'll be okay."

Look for the large subsets of aiki that you can do with uke responding by kneeling down or sitting back into a gentle backfall. Emphasize these subsets and all of a sudden you have an extremely viable, practical self-defense system that virtually anyone can learn rapidly (months - not years), comfortably, and in greater safety without the need for large open spaces and matted floors.

Kid's judo and big-folks' aiki

Last night we had a superb kid's judo class. We worked on all our usual moving, falling, etc... Then got into some games that simulate different parts of randori. We did British bulldog (Sorry, Jill reminded me of the game but I couldn't remember the name she used, and it reminds me of British bulldog that we played as kids.) This was crawling man with one man in the middle and everyone else crawling across the mats with the man in the middle choosing someone to immobilize. Crawlers who are stopped become stoppers. The last crawler left unstopped wins.

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We also played with knee-grab randori. Start with a normal grip on the jacket and move around with the goal of securing a knee grab. The second form of randori that we played was really exceptional. Start with normal grips on the jacket and the goal is to win by taking a side or rear control (i.e. bearhug around the waist). to do this you have to remove one of his grips from your jacket and either spin him or offbalance him and slide around him. The kids did really well with this. The kohaku shiai for November is next week.

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In aikido, we worked on tegatana emphasizing how the unbendable arm helps with balance in the turns and how we should keep placing our feet under our butts instead of trying to move our butts over our feet. We spun thru hanasu a couple of times then got into chain #2 again to work on the sharp turn-shomenate-wakiatame chain and the kotetaoshi-maeotoshi-hikitaoshi chain.

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.

Yonkyo and yonkata

At this morning's aikido class the weather was perfect. Sunny, breezy, and cool. We threw open both ends of the dojo and got a lovely breeze across the mat.

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I've had a kink in my low back for a few days, so we had a prolonged warmup, stretching, and kihon day. We worked on tegatana and hanasu a good bit. Patrick M. was doing especially good on his releases from his off hand. I've also had a hankering to be able to work some of the more advanced stuff, so we took to the ground with several minutes of the kneeling tekubiosae from Gokata (that's suwari shomenuchi yonkyo to you aikikai folks;-). The kneeling and the motion on the ground seemed to really stretch out my low back and helped it a lot. From there we moved on to standing Yonkata - the first seven techniques, alternately called shichihon no kuzushi. And I discovered something really cool in a moment of enlightenment (Usher will probably tell me that he's been saying this to me for years.)

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The timing and offbalance in these seven techniques is varying systematically - they are not just seven random techniques grouped together. In the first two, tori must hit the paralllel offbalance right at uke's first footfall. The feeling is similar to the initial part of shomenate. On the next two, tori hits the parallel offbalance on uke's second footfall and projects uke away. On the next two, tori slips uke's third footfall and drops uke right there. And on the last one, tori is way too late for an otoshi so he gets the motion started with a perpendicular offbalance (guruma) and then follows uke around in a very large hanasu#1 motion. So, the systematic order of the thing is in the amount of delay between grab and projection. The delay is getting progressively larger with each pair of techniques, until on #7 tori is so far behind that the timing switches to a guruma action.

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."

Gasoline in your Vasoline

Arrows, grenades, and mines are different kinds of weapons. Each is a very good weapon but each has very different qualities that make it suited to its purpose. Arrows are about precision. It does no good to get them in the general vicinity of the target. They must hit exactly on a particular target to kill. Grenades, on the other hand, are area-effect weapons. A grenade can be very effective if you just get it in the general vicinity of the enemy. But grenades have their limitations. Hold it a couple of seconds too long and it kills you. Throw it a couple of seconds too early and the enemy dives for cover or throws it back. Grenades are about timing. Mines are also area-effect weapons, but they are all about proper positioning and concealment. An improperly placed or camoflaged mine will be swept prior to detonating on target.
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Similarly, different martial arts emphasize different qualities to the point that you might say each art has its own spirit. You can easily tell the difference between Shotokan karate, Isshinryu karate, and Taekwando (Korean karate) because they have different spiritual qualities. When martial arts masters talk about their arts developing the person spiritually, they are typically talking about developing these particular intangible qualities in the people.
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Because different martial arts have different emphases, or spirits, some will complement others. In my experience and opinion. Aikido, Judo, and Jodo go great together because they are mechanically similar but they develop different qualities in the practitioner.
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Aikido is often described as more cerebral. I like to think it is generally the most theoretically sound of these three martial arts. This does not make aikido impractical. Just the opposite. Aikidoka have, over the years, made probably the deepest study of using the principles of momentum and offbalance to survive striking attacks.
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Judo, while having part of the same theoretical basis as aikido, is extremely pragmatic. Everything is thrown in contest full force at speed against maximal resistance, so if it works, you know for certain it really works. I've heard street fighters say they'd rather have a judo guy on their side than any other martial artist because they are toughened and practical. I've also heard judo teachers say that anything that makes the opponent hit the ground hard, fast, and on his back is good technique.
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Jodo is the art of the stave. It is practiced against an opponent with a sword, which you might say detracts from its practicality. When will you ever fight a sword guy with a stick? But because of its extremely dangerous nature, jodo develops within the practitioner an awesome, careful precision and sense of distance and timing.
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Though, in my experience, judo, jodo, and aikido complement each other because they develop sound motion theory, reasoned pragmatism, and exacting precision, that does not mean that this is the only conceivable combination of arts to acheive this particular type of spiritual growth. For instance. I could see substituting Shotokan for jodo and still developing an awesome precision. Alternately you might substitute Isshinryu for judo and still develop pragmatism.
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Though I might not go so far as some of my fellow bloggers to say that eclectic or 'mixed martial arts' are not true martial arts, I will say that these gendai (new) martial arts each developed and purified its own training over time to perfectly facilitate development of their own specific spiritual traits. These systems are perfectly designed to cause the effect that they cause. So, while MMA practitioners might develop a healthy balance in their skills, they might not develop theoretically as well as (for instance) an aikidoka or they may not develop the precision and kime that the karateka develops.
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In his book, Twelve Winds, Karl Geis likens the modern 'pure' martial arts (i.e. judo, aikido, karate) to petroleum products. Kerosine, vasoline, and gasoline are all wonderful, useful products because of the purification processes they have been through, but you wouldn't want to mix gasoline into your vasoline, would you? You'd ruin both products

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.