Stepping aside into udegaeshi

Aiki with Kel

• ROM, ukemi
• tegetana with emphasis on how shifting how you think about the rhythm of the exercise changes what you get from the exercise.
• hanasu with emphasis on the flow: R1↔R2↔R6. R1 (or R3) is sort of a prelude to all of the releases, with R6 (or R8) being a little curlycue on the end that is sometimes required to make the release work (almost an afterthought). So R1↔R2↔R6 and R3↔R4↔R8 make great flow exercises that seem to work on a lot of of the types of motions that occur in aikido. We also got to play with ushiroate and aikinage in the context of R1↔R2↔R6.
• shomenate and aigamaeate with emphasis on moving offline using the cowcatcher.
• oshitaoshi and udegaeshi with emphasis on stepping aside when you meet resistance. There is a lot going on in udegaeshi...

The training log that had no name...

Aikido with Vincent and Ross

• ROM and ukemi with emphasis on turn-side rolls and turn-back rolls
• tegatana with emphasis on how shorter steps help conserve your energy and momentum and help you to stay in synch with uke.
• hanasu #1 and #3 with emphasis on starting to evade before uke has grabbed and putting both hands up between you and uke in the center like a cowcatcher or a snowblade.
• R1 and R3 as viable responses to a wrist grab, a straight lead, a grab-cross, or grab-hook
• R1→oshitaoshi→tenkai oshitaoshi→aigamaeate
• kaitennage - the push-the-head-through-the-armpit version

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.

You get just as wet no matter where you jump in

One of the cool things about aikido is that there are no prerequisites. There is no ‘most advanced skill.’ You can work the skills in any order and call that a ‘system’. A beginner may jump in with the whole class profitably practicing whatever happens to be on the lesson plan for that day. Sure there are safety considerations - you don't make newbies take big falls - but they can still practice the same techniques and principles as everyone else. I've heard it said that there are no advanced techniques or concepts in aikido - just skilled students practicing the fundamentals in a very advanced way.

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Many Aikikai schools (if I understand rightly) start with ikkyo (oshitaoshi) as the first teaching, while most Tomiki schools start with shomenate as the first teaching and only get to oshitaoshi (Aikikai’s ikkyo) as the sixth teaching after several hours of practice. Either is an okay way of teaching the thing, and after a few hours of practice, it probably doesn’t matter because students of both methods end up understanding both concepts.

In some schools, there is this talk of omote (superficial techniques taught to anyone) and ura (deep, hidden teachings only taught to the initiated) but Musashi in the end of the Wind Book writes about there being no internal teachings and no gate:

There is no "interior" nor "surface" in strategy.

The artistic accomplishments usually claim inner meaning and secret tradition, and "interior" and "gate", but in combat there is no such thing as fighting on the surface, or cutting with the interior. When I teach my Way, I first teach by training in techniques which are easy for the pupil to understand, a doctrine which is easy
to understand. I gradually endeavour to explain the deep principle, points which it is hardly possible to comprehend, according to the pupil's progress. In any event, because the way to understanding is through experience, I do not speak of "interior" and "gate".

...Accordingly I dislike passing on my Way through written pledges and regulations. Perceiving the ability of my pupils, I teach the direct Way, remove the bad influence of other schools, and gradually introduce them to the true Way of the warrior. The method of teaching my strategy is with a trustworthy spirit. You must train diligently.

…In my Ichi school of the long sword there is neither gate nor interior. There is no inner meaning in sword attitudes. You must simply keep your spirit true to realize the virtue of strategy.

Order your copy of Musashi's Book of Five Rings:

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)

Great falling practice

Aiki with Kel

• Ukemi emphasizing how the proper landing position is a natural consequence of managing the body properly throughout the entire fall.
• Tegatana emphasizing the panther walk and bringing the recovery step in fully
• Hanasu emphasizing full recovery steps
• chain #1 including the transition from release #1 to release #5 and the stuff that comes off of release #1 - mainly tenkai kote hineri, kotemawashi oshi taoshi, and kote hineri.
• Rokukata maeotoshi and Rokukata sakaotoshi with a crashpad emphasizing feeling to see if one step is enough or if you should take one more step and catch the next footfall. We were getting spectacular throws and falls.

Randori with locking techniques

Aiki with Kel

• We've gone from freezing cold to temperate to too-humid-to-survive in about two weeks. Scott Z. would feel right at home.
• Ukemi with emphasis on landing properly and slowing the legs down so they don't get hammered on the mat
• Tegatana & hanasu as warmup - no particular emphasis
• Nijusan #6-10 with the ukemi and pins (see this training log)
• Chain #1 - the shortcut that contains the hineri-gaeshi loop
• Randori with both partners walking into and out of gaeshi, hineri, mawashi, and wakigatame locks.
• Rokukata maeotoshi and Rokukata sakaotoshi as the cool ninja techniques of the night

Ninja invisibility in aikido

Aikido with Patrick M., Rick, and Mytchi

• Jodo with Mytchi. We worked on rolling the cane from pencil grip to honte, gyakute, and sakate grips. We also worked on #1 and #6 seiteikata as separation events against unarmed attackers.
• Tegatana emphasizing using ideokinesis to release into shizentai by visualizing forces drawing the crown of the head and the balls of the feet apart (is that enough jargon for you or what?). This was an amazing, relaxing postural fix.
• Hanasu #1-4
• Randori as a game of random releases. Everyone was doing great on this.
• Oshitaoshi (irimi omote and tenkan) emphasizing sidestepping into uke's blind spot and staying there with feelers until you can separate or execute a technique. We also got to play with good locking posture in pins.
• We talked about several really disorienting tricks that are part of tori's motion. Things that make tori seem to disappear and make it more difficult for uke to continue attacking. We nicknamed this the ninja invisibility trick. I'll probably have a good blog post on this soon.

PM Aiki

Aiki with Kel and Mytchi

• tegatana emphasizing falling during the first half of the step and pulling with the front leg in the second half.
• hanasu #1-4 emphasizing releasing feeling and "stay off me" hands
• chain #3 emphasizing synch and brush-off in kotemawashi oshitaoshi, hikitaoshi, and udehineri.
• review of shomenate and aigamaeate

The return of Rick

Aikido with Patrick M., Kel, and Rick

• Welcome back, Rick, an old head that hasn't been able to work out with us lately. We're stoked about his return and are looking forward to working out and having fun learning a lot.
• Warmup, tegatana
• partner evasion exercises - the aiki brushoff.
• hanasu#1 - the first wrist release - emphasizing the release feel and synchronization and finding a good time to brush off.
• randori off of release#1
• fast-direct oshitaoshi (ikkyo omote) as cool-technique of the 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.

New folks at aiki

Aikido with Kel, John, and David

• warmup, ROM, ukemi
• tegatana emphasizing moving with the nearest foot first and always bringing the back foot back under your hips ready for another step
• partner evasion drills using the steps from tegatana and pushing back off uke
• building release #1 off of the idea of uke grabbing tori's wrist during a brush-off. This led into chain #1 moving along watching for foot timing and either pushing into a face-down armbar (oshitaoshi) or pushing them off back outside the safe distance.
• Rokukata maeotoshi talking about the same ideas

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.
  
  

Aiki brush-off and oshitaoshi

Great aiki class last night. We had a new guy (the word is spreading) and he did good. We worked on ukemi, tegatana, and evasions (aiki brush-off) for most of the class and then for into oshitaoshi at the end of class. We did the standing ikkyo omote variation and the seated version from the beginning of sankata. My lesson plan had been to get back into chain #1 but new guy had to see this stuff and it didn't hurt the old heads to practice it too. We'll get into chain #1 Thursday.

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.

Katame no kata

Recently we’ve had a new aiki partner at classes. Jill comes to us from a judo background but is getting into aikido. She lives and works locally, so it seems like she could end up being a good, stable workout partner at Mokuren. She’s also dating the judo instructor at Lafayette, so she represents some more connectivity with the rest of the local judo scene. Welcome, Jill.
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Last nite at judo Rob and I warmed up as usual with ground cycle #1 and then I introduced Rob to katame no kata. This is an interesting exercise. Required for demonstration at nidan, sandan, and yondan levels, it is comprised of 15 grappling techniques, almost all of which the shodan has already seen – just not in this form. The really neat thing about katame no kata is that it is a hybrid between kata and randori.
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When you are doing randori and you get into a bad position you don’t want to avoid that position in the future. You want to recreate that position over and over and over until you learn from being at that particular disadvantage. Well, in normal randori, often it is hard to recreate a particular situation because your observant mind is not working as well as your habitual/reflexive brain. So sometimes it is hard to figure out how to recreate the position you just got into. Well, katame no kata gives us an exercise for exploring fifteen pretty common ground situations.
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Katame is done switching back and forth between kata and randori mode. Tori approaches uke, applies a precise form of a hold or choke or jointlock, and as tori cinches the position, uke takes that as a signal to switch to randori mode and attempt to break the hold or neutralize tori’s advantage. In practice it is often done with uke struggling full-on against tori’s position of advantage. For kata demonstration it is done with uke attempting three explicit escapes/neutralizations for each position then tapping. Below is a pretty good demonstration of katame no kata You have to forgive the silly posturing and crawling around on the knees – that’s part of the specified formality of the thing. Pay attention to uke attempting to reverse each position tori places him in. This video also gets the award for cool, funky background music!
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At aiki for the past couple of times, Weve been introducing Jill to how we do aiki. We worked on warm-ups, ukemi, about half of tegatana no kata (the walking exercise), about half of hanasu no kata (the wrist releases), and aigamaeate and oshitaoshi. She’s doing great and seems to be having fun. I can tell from the giddy grin when she smears a guy twice her size facedown on the mat in an armbar. We’re looking forward to having her at class and progressing – like Kano's motto...

You and me going forward together.

Oshitaoshi, kaitennage, and hikitaoshi

You know, Rob is one tough dude. He has spent a significant part of his time for the last 8-10 years lifting weights and working out. And what's worse, he's used to rolling with people who want to break his arms and choke him. He's comfortable in that environment. Tonight we mostly fought each other to a standstill, or to phrase it in 'bear' terminology, we took some good bites out of each other but nobody got eaten. I got him to submit once in a tateshihogatame (north-south hold) and once in something else (maybe tateshihogatame) and he got me once with a toehold which was really just a painful calf muscle compression (but I tapped) and he got me with a jaw-crushing choke of some sort. I was proud that I was able to roll smoothly out of one jujigatame at the end and end up on top crushing him.

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In aikido we started with releases and worked on the fast-direct oshitaoshi, followed by hikitaoshi and kaitennage. For a while we also worked chain #7, delving into the relationships between oshitaoshi, kaitennage, and hikitaoshi. I got some video and I'll try to get it uploaded soon.

Releases, shomenate, and udegaeshi

Another class of aikido with Kel and I. I've been really enjoying the classes with just Kel because I get to move more and uke more and generally do more aiki than when I have to stand on the side and coach. (not that I wouldn't like to have a half-dozen more regulars...) Kel seems to be enjoying the individual attention too.

Tonight we worked on hanasu a lot, making little adjustments. We completely skipped over tegatana tonight and went back into shomenate and oshitaoshi just like 3 classes ago. We used that as a lead into working on #7 (udegaeshi) a lot - that was our big repetition technique of the night. We also worked a good bit on the initial evasion and brush-off (kokyunage) concepts, part of the time with a knife.

Another aiki basics class

Another good aiki class (is there any such thing as a bad one?) with just Kel and myself. We spent a goodly long time warming up stiff low backs and hips and worked on some ukemi, including releasing into rolls and backfalls. From there we worked tegatana a couple of times emphasizing walking on the balls of the two longest levers in the foot instead of the outside toes.

Last time we worked on #1 and #6 (shomenate and oshitaoshi) so this time we worked on #2 (aigamaeate) and #8 (hikitaoshi). Kel took to doing hikitaoshi as if he'd been born to it.

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.