Last night's aikido

Aikido with Knox, Quin, Rick, and Kel

• Warmed up with the kids with a contest to see who could run across the mat in the silliest way. There was a lot of arm flailing and head wagging, hopping, and wiggling of butts. In short, good warmup.
• Ukemi with me throwing/spotting the kids into the crash pad for about 20 minutes before class started. Then the kids bailed and the grownups showed up and continued with the ukemi in the crash pad, emphasizing forward roll falling from a reflexed position.
• Tegatana emphasizing rapid recovery, bringing the back side of the body with you, and doing it as near-instantaneously as possible.
• hanasu #1-4 emphasizing tori staying centered on the power hand and uke flowing with tori.
• knife evasions, aiki brush-off, and stab-twice.
• The brush-off led into the tantodori section of sankata, including the ushiroate brushoff, the udehineri, the kotegaeshi, and the stab-the-knee gedanate.

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

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

Another 25 degree, 5am aikido session

Wow, Cool class! Cold even. When I got down to the dojo it was 25 degrees and one of the windows was open! Needless to say it was sweats and shoes aiki today.

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Aiki with Rob

• Shichihon no kuzushi
• chain #1 emphasizing whole-body motion, stepping to release, and the hand trades in the gaeshi-hineri loop. udehineri was working especially well today. Rob's dominant left side was not as coordinated as his non-dominant side today - interesting.
• various ryotedori and ushirodori from the koryunokata - these things seem to make tori more slippery and harder to hold onto.

A helpful handful: ude hineri

A.K.A. kaitennage in aikikai, A.K.A. udegarame in judo. A.K.A. hammerlock in wrestling. A.K.A. Kimura in BJJ. This is a pretty universal arm-twisting technique found in most all martial arts. Here are a handful of hints that have helped me in my practice.

• Put the free hand on his back and coil the moving arm around it. This is the simplest way of getting this lock when you're in motion without twisting and fighting and snaking your arm around his.
• You might slip out of the way as uke comes at you and throw it as kaitennage. I like to do this one pushing forward through uke in an otoshi motion instead of rotating the shoulder toward the head. This prevents those pesky double-jointed people from screwing up your kaitennage.
• This technique is nice and safe when the locked arm is bound to uke’s side, but as you get uke’s arm away from his body tori gets more and more mechanical advantage on the rotator cuff. Be extra careful when practicing this one – uke, don’t think you can resist in this position - go with it and take the roll/fall.
• An interesting variation is to set the udehineri, then sit on uke’s near foot, hooking his thigh and throwing with a wrong-side sumigaeshi or elevator-like technique. Roll with uke and end up on top with a Kimura. Again – scary and dangerous – but a good backup if the attacker runs over you and you can’t get out of the way for kaitennage.
• Hikitaoshi gone bad tends to lead to udehineri, which often ends up in kotegaeshi if it goes bad.

Taking the slack out

Kids' judo with Gavin, Whit, Mason, Knox, and Emma

• warmup, ukemi
• deashi
• deashi into kesagatame
• rolling with a partner, dragging a partner, etc...

Aiki with Kel

• tegatana - went into detail on specific questions from Kel
• hanasu - more specific questions, taking the slack out of #6 and #8, difference between #5 and #1
• Chain #7 and #5 particularly kaitennage/udehineri, and particularly looking at releasing and moving the butt so that the hands work right.

Goofy-foot parry, hikitaoshi, and tekubiosae

We had another small class last night. Jill and I warmed up, did some ukemi, and got a little farther into tegatana no kata. We've been adding 1-2 new motions to the kata each night and last night we got into the first goofy-foot turn, sometimes called the "helicopter pivot." One possible application for this is to build on our reflex to partly sidestep an attack and block/parry with the opposite arm. Well this is not always a great position - particularly if you happened to sidestep inside, so the helicopter pivot fixes the position by swinging uke's parried arm between uke and tori, placing tori behind.

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We worked on hanasu no kata (wrist releases) getting through 6 of the 8. Jill was doing much better last night of creating mechanically sound ground-paths during the releases (especially #1). For some reason release #3 is uncomfortable for her but she naturally does #5 just right.

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For the technique of the night we worked on hikitaoshi from the point of view of offbalancing, switching hands, and continuing your motion away from uke. We got into the idea of how the technique changes for reluctant vs. aggressive ukes. Aggressive ukes tend to get smeared onto their face, while reluctant ukes getbrushed off into shomenate. Ukes that become too aggressive to deal with get kaiten nage or udehineri.

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At the end we worked on suwari shomenuchi yonkyo (seated head-konk forearm press), also known as tekubi osae. This builds on the idea of the goofy-foot parry from tegatana, a blending loopty into an awkward posture for uke, followed by an immobilization of the arm/shoulder on the ground.

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.

Hodgepodge

Yesterday's afternoon class was a hodgepodge you-call-it class. Related to aikido we worked on Nijusan #6, 7, 10, 11, and 12. Take away points:

• on oshitaoshi, fade around the end instead of doing tension-compression. feels slmost like tekubiosae (yonkyo) instead of oshitaoshi, but with a strong sense of releasing.
• on udegaeshi, fade around the end in order to take their radial stylus (wrist knuckle) down the line away from them. Again, releasing feeling.
• on wakigatame, enter as in shomenate, push the arm, pull the arm, push the arm. Great feeling of releasing instead of doing. On the goshinjitsu wakigatame, collide with uke and seek the line down which the two bodies want to fall. then get behind the arm on that line.
• on udehineri, walk the ulnar styloid (the other wrist bone) up and in front of uke so that your two hands are not counter-pushing against each other.
• on kotegaeshi, hold the lock to take the slack out, and just after footfall, enter, stretch down the line, or separate. Also, otoshi can become guruma easily if you stretch the step by separating centers.

In judo, we worked on various things, including nagenokata kataguruma, seoinage, sasae tsurikomiashi, and tsurikomi goshi. Various hints. We worked on making seoinage a true hand throw, like the kodokan book says it is. We also worked on various little adjustments to nagenokata that imprve tori's time efficiency in stepping, like pulling in on sasae tsurikomi ashi.

Needless to say, after this three-hour hodgepodge we were all knackered.

Vocabulary revisited

Okay, I've worked over the aikido vocabulary a couple of times here and here, but tonight I feel like trying my hand at another treatment of it (more for my entertainment than anything else). There are (at least) two main sets of Japanese terms for aikido ideas - Aikikai and Tomiki. I don't know why Tomiki named things differently than Ueshiba did - but he did and now a large portion of the aiki world has grown up using different terminology. So, here's a comparison to aid in translation of ideas.

Check out this page for the core of aikikai terminology. In the list that follows, the entries start with Aikikai terms followed by Tomiki synonyms and then by English explanations.

• ikkyo - oshitaoshi - pushing the opponent into an armlock on the ground while holding his wrist and elbow.
• nikkyo - kotemawashi - wristlock bending the little finger toward the ulna (armbone).
• sankyo - kotehineri - wristlock with the wrist extended and the forearm turned inward.
• yonkyo - tekubiosae - nerve attack on the forearm or using the forearm to push the opponent away similar to ikkyo/oshitaoshi.
• gokyo - wakigatame - locking the elbow and leading the opponent into unbalance along the length of the arm. Similar in form to ikkyo/oshitaoshi but with a different grip.
• shihonage - shihonage or tenkai kotegaeshi. wrist/arm lock done by holding a wrist with both hands and turning outward and under the arm to twist the arm behind uke's shoulder and head.
• iriminage - shomenate, aigamaeate, gyakugamaeate, or aikinage - any blending evasion followed by a whole-body strike that takes uke off his feet. Gyakugamaeate is also called sokumen iriminage.
• kotegaeshi - kotegaeshi. Wristlock done by flexing the wrist and turning the forearm outward.
• kaitennage - kaitennage or udehineri. Locking the shoulder by holding it behind uke's back and using the arm as a lever to push uke away. Sometimes similar to the hammerlock in common wrestling.
• tenchinage - tenchinage or sumiotoshi or osotogari. Leading the opponent into sideways offbalance with one of his arms held low and the other high. Sometimes it is a hand throw - Aikikai calls this kokyu (breath throw) and Tomiki calls this ukiwaza (floating technique). At other times it is done stepping in behind ukes leg to trip him.

Chain #7

At aiki class last night we warmed up with tegatana and hanasu, skipped ukemi because of the cold mats, and moved into chain #7. All of the chains are really neat - each for its own reasons. Chain #7 consists of hanasu#7, kaitennage, hikitaoshi, and oshitaoshi. Kaitennage has several variants that we played with, including arm-and-head, kotemawashi kaitennage, and udehineri. Hikitaoshi, of course, also leads to udehineri when it goes bad and oshitaoshi, of course leads to udegaeshi and the other Chain #1 stuff when it goes bad. So, chain #7 and Chain #1 sorta represent a family of techniques that all live in the same neighborhood. Really, that neighborhood probably really includes all of chains #1, 3, 5, and 7. We ran through all of nijusan and then focussed in on kotehineri and tenkai kotehineri. Nothing to really note there on my part.

Afterward, Kristof did his yonkyu demonstration with Patrick M. as his partner. Kristof did very well. I thought he did particularly well on #4 - gedanate, whereas he thought he did particularly well on #3 - gyakugamae. Afterward we worked on #5 - ushiroate with an emphasis on getting a feeling of 'climbing up uke's arm' as you pass by him. By this point we were finally warmed up and we did several runs of the ukemi, including a couple of new falls and exercises that P4 and Kristof had not seen.

The magic in small steps

This morning we worked on Tegetana, dissecting the first turn and making sure that if you start with the balls of your feet on a line then you end up moving slightly off the line as part of the turn. This is an indicator that you are falling instead of stepping (a good thing). We also worked on bringing the small steps idea and the feet-under-center (as opposed to center-over-feet) ideas into this technique.

After tegatana we practiced the evasions some with partners, emphasizing small evasions. We worked on seeing how small a step wecould take and still be out of the way. From ma-ai, uke has to take a large step to hit tori and tori only has to take a small step to evade. This gives tori a lot of extra capacity or freedom that he can use to his advantage in several ways. We played with several offbalances emphasizing these smallsteps and Andy was throwing me onto my knees during the first step.

In hanasu we got into some ofthe principles and ideas surrounding and leading into chain #1, including the separation step and seeking the neutral place between #1 and #5. These worked well and we got to explore oshitaoshi, udegaeshi, hikitaoshi, udehineri, and kotegaeshi in this first chain.

In nijusan, shomenate was working like magic when we emphasized the small steps. I ran through 1-10 with Andy as my uke but he only got through #5 nijusan - but that was my fault. The humidity was so terrible and my out-of conditioning condition from the holidays made me a wimpy uke. I promise to return to better condition soon, and hopefully it won't be this humid for another long while.

Fast is really slow

Tegatana: short steps, balls of feet. We worked the evasions with a knife-wielding uke and got to explore that "fast/slow" phenomenon. It showed up remarkably well last night, as we did the shomenashi attack several times then switched to the fast-looking tsuki attack, then switched back to the shomenashi attack. When we switched to the "fast" attack, it was really very slow, and when we switched back to shomenashi after getting used to the "fast" attack, tori barely had time to evade. Amazing how slow "fast" is and how fast "slow" is.

Hanasu: kata mode. I also got to play with Kristof as my uke and I did releases from the 2 nijusan offbalances. Interesting play - sorta emphasizes that the techniques that we do are really just releases that occur from various places on those two paths.

Nijusan: I demonstrated all of nijusan twice with Kristof as my uke and then Kristof demonstrated the atemiwaza with P4 as his uke and P4 demonstrated the atemiwaza and hijiwaza with Kristof as uke. I showed them a little different timing for gedanate - similar to the timing for #8 (hikitaoshi) or #10 (wakigatame). seemed to work a little better. #9 (udehineri) is not exactly right the way we're doing it but it's not really far off and I havent gotten around to working on that one yet. Part of the coolness of the hijiwaza (6-10) is that this is where we begin demonstrating the various pins. The students need to be sure to follow these techniques into the ground and apply the pin - particularly in kata mode.

Chains: we did a #4 chain in which we got to play with kotegaeshi and kotehineri a lot. This is one of the coolest of the chains for me.

Yesterday was Kristof's birthday, so we cut off class about 20 minutes early and went to have a party with the Parkers and McKenzies.

New sankyu

Today in class we warmed up slowly because of the frigid mats, skipped ukemi practice, and moved into tegatana. We focussed on small displacements, weight bearing on the medial two knuckles of the balls of the feet, and on falling offline. We got to play with an interesting phenomenon - it isn't possible to fall straight forward without getting off the line. Because our legs are hanging off the sides of our hips, any time we lift one in order to fall forward we get at least a little bit of sideward motion. This hearkens back to my earlier post on some of Rudolf von Laban's and Lisa Ullmann's ideas about three-dimensional motion. It's interesting that it shows up so prominently in tegatana no kata.

We spun through hanasu and played for a while with #2, emphasizing not premeditating the technique - starting off as in #1 and letting uke force you into #2. From there we got to experiment with shihonage and sumiotoshi as uke responses to the motion of #2.

Andy's uke was unable to attend today, so we did his sankyu demonstration by way of each of us doing about a million repetitions of oshitaoshi, udegaeshi, hikitaoshi, udehineri, and both flavors of wakigatame. These we did in kata mode with the pins on the end. Andy has perfectionist tendencies, so I was concerned that he would feel cheated or inferior for not having done a formal rank demo with folks watching and etc... But, talking to him afterwards, he seemed to handle it well. He has the proper amount of time in grade, is improving (dramatically) on his gokyu and yonkyu requirements, and is able to reproduce the sankyu techniques without much trouble - and those are the requirements for the rank. The formal rank demo is mostly gravy. The things that Andy especially needs more work on are the same things that plague me these days - gedanate and udehineri. But, we're going forward together!

Tension-compression and the move that releases

In tegatana we talked about the pause between each step. When we are practicing this kata we always place a pause after each step and when we begin stringing these steps together in rapid succesion the brain retains the perception of a pause after each walking cycle. This allows an opportunity to change your mind or change your motion aftereach walking cycle. In hanasu we did one or two reps of kata mode and the point came up again that there were only three types of releases - walk-arounds, passbys, and walk-unders. Gary said that today he finally got that point and understood the logic in the order of the exercise. As a class we worked on shomenate, aigamaeate, gyakugamaeate, and ushiroate. Then we moved into chain #5 techniques, including the tension-compression oshitaoshi and hikiotoshi. This was a good opportunity to play with Henry's lesson on not releasing then moving but rather releasing with the movement. At this point we split the class with Gary and Kristof working on hanasu and Andy and me working on Nijusan #6-9 (oshitaoshi, udegaeshi, hikiotoshi, and udehineri). The tension-compression idea crops up in this set a lot too.

After a pause for breakfast, Andy and Gary and I worked on jodo kihon 1-4 in both solo and paired practice. Then we worked briefly on seiteikata#1. I saw some sparks of familiarity from Andy, who has seen this stuff a few times, so that's good. We'll keep working on it and we'll get better at more and more of it.

Broken rhythm in tegatana

There is an intertesting phenomenon that happens within tegatana no kata. In many places, the kata lulls us into a sense of rhythm, then breaks the rhythm. Each time the kata breaks the rhythm that it has apparently been setting up there is something to learn. For instance, at the end of the three forms of taisabaki the pattern changes from diagonal offline (taisabaki) to forward online (pushes). In the four forms of pushing that follow, the first three follow the pattern "left, right, right, left." Then the last of these is in the form of "left, left, right, right." There are examples of this throughout the kata, and each pattern change should focus our attention back to our kata so that we look for errors especially around the pattern breaks. forinstance, small extraneous foot adjustments are common near these rhythm breaks. These breaks should also make us ask ourselves the question "What is so special about this particular movement that the rhythm is broken for it?"

After exploring tegatana in this context tonight we went over hanasu #1-4 and then moved into chain #1, getting to the udehineri. For some variation on the theme we worked on menuchi tekubiosae with tenkai oshitaoshi as a backup plan. We also played with suwari oshitaoshi with provocative timing.

Udehineri

Funny thing happens when someone pulls their arm back from you. Depending on which way they are turning their arm - inward or outward - they tend to lean forward or backward. Thus, we have two things that tori is often able to follow that retracting arm into - udegaeshi (#7) and udehineri (#9). In udegaeshi uke retracts his arm, rotates it outward, and leans back. In udehineri, uke pulls his arm back, rotates it inward, and leans forward, creating that gem of a technique in every martial art - the bar hammer lock. In Judo it is called udegarami. In jujitsu it is called the Kimura. Tori's job in this technique is to find a way to safely follow the arm to it's final resting place and hold it there to maintain uke's forward leaning posture and to provide leverage to make uke move in the desired direction.

In our kata version everything is done with uke's arm very tight against uke's flank with the wristlock pressed against uke's butt or lower back. This is actually a safety measure for uke. With the arm in this position, uke's body is actually splinting the arm so that it is difficult to accidently break the arm before uke can roll out of the technique. Later variations in the koryunokata execute the technique with the arm away from uke's body. This requires a gentle tori and a skilled uke because this position is a recipe for disaster for uke's rotator cuff. This is a feature of the hineri position of the arm - it isolates the smalest muscle in the rotator cuff and places tori's and uke's weight against it.