An Unscheduled Seminar

[DexterTCN]

Unscheduled Seminar.

Our instructor (Martin) went on a course at the weekend down in England with Mike McCavish, who lives and trains in Japan at the Shodokan honbu. Mike and Martin are good friends and from the little I know, he helped Martin win the World Championship a little while back.

So we were quite pleased when he came back up to Scotland to give us an impromptu 3 hour class!

At the start Mr McCavish gave us some breathing exercises and told us that our duty this night was to work on our breathing as we trained.

We started with shomen-ate http://www.gedanate.com/shomenate-aikido-throw-01.html

I haven't seen this move in other schools of Aikido, although I do see the principle. We then changed the angle of approach and it turned into ai-gamae-ate (a form of tenchi-nage) and progressed further through numerous variations until we had done 10 different applications. Sometimes the most interesting part of training is when you can see the same principles appear again and again in unexpected places

After that we quickly ran through the 17 basic techniques in the Randori-no-kata, then some applications of kote-mawashi (nikkyo). These were practical applications and brought uke flat on the ground before changing the relationship into the final pin. I got the feeling that Mike had recently been unimpressed with the way some people had been doing kote-mawashi and was emphasising the total control of uke to us. Personally I don't like this way of applying nikkyo, it is needlessly painful and to be frank people outside do not know to lie flat on the ground so it is only found in club practice (usually).

We spent the last hour on randori and this was the real gem. As an ex Judoka I have some pretty strong opinions about certain throwing techniques and their effectiveness, some techniques will only work against a 12 year old girl whereas others are more realistic and contain not only good physical principles but also good aikido.

So it was very refreshing to see an application of Sumi-otoshi that actually works. Sumi-otoshi in Shodokan aikido is not the same as in other schools. We call the other form mae-otoshi. http://homepage2.nifty.com/shodokan/en/kyogi10d.html

Fittingly, the final movement of sumi-otoshi into oshi-taoshi ( a bit like ikkyo) seems to finish like doing shomen-ate, the first technique in the class, backwards.

As we knelt to finish the class, Mr McCavish complimented us on our fitness and dedication, praised our instructor Martin Livingstone and thanked us personally for attending. He explained that without the support of people turning up and paying, he could not afford to travel or train in Japan. After he left us the next day he was away down to Manchester, then off to Russia, then back to Japan.

[Freeform]

Hey Mark! I've had the pleasure of being battered by Sensei McCavish two yrs back (I got partnered with him to do aome of the base practices down at Skenny ).

I'm sure the session was excellent and that the technical points he would have given you will have definately improved your technique.

Catch you on sunday

Col

[kiaiki]

Shomen ate is also taught in Shudokan (Yoshinkan derived style) with 'kiai'. It is one technique you can keep as a 'banker' if freestyle gets a bit hectic but our sensei for one would expect a really good mixture of techniques applied to a wide range of attacks. It certainly allows you to take 2 breaths before uke is up and at you again!

[DexterTCN]

Interesting. Ron Tisdale (Yoshinkan) said the same as you on Aikiweb. Perhaps Shomen Ate is only found in pre-war styles.

[kiaiki]

Could be - it's pretty 'hard style' atemi, real 'jutsu' when done with skill, timing, good balance - and everything else I lack! The kiai really helps, especially when the uke isn't used to it! I've seen shomen ate used well against multiple attackers as a quick way to reduce the odds. I've also had positive reports from a BB at our dojo who worked on the door of a local club and used it vs. a broken bottle attack. Very effective but he was worried to death about police thinking he had used too much force - they were just grateful he'd downed the guy for them.

[aikiscotsman]

I dont know if this is the same mark, but in Iwama basic shomen uchi is where tori attacks ukes face like an upper cut or raising ken under uke into there face if they dont raise to defend you just step straight thrown in kokyu nage or use there block to perform a tech.

[DexterTCN]

(I slide in to the right, hopefully facing him at 45 degrees.

My left hand is near his attacking arm, my right rests on his jaw, I am centred on his shikaku (dead angle).

Keeping unbendable arms I drive through him, allowing my weight to drop using gravity and my motion, allowing my arm to come into contact with his chest as it drops.

As I move through his centre I draw my rear leg back up, settling me back into posture.)

If I had moved off-line to his left it would become tenchi nage (ai gamae ate)

If I had turned from right hanmi to left hanmi and stayed on the left it would be a kokyu nage (gyaku-gamae ate) with a more circular look to it because of my rotation....

....and so on.

It all looks different, but the principle is exactly the same. On paper, anyway

[DexterTCN]

Originally Posted by aikiscotsman

I dont know if this is the same mark, but in Iwama basic shomen uchi is where tori attacks ukes face like an upper cut or raising ken under uke into there face if they dont raise to defend you just step straight thrown in kokyu nage or use there block to perform a tech.

http://aikido-france.net/video/

Number 11 in the list of mpegs is 'almost' the same.

The major difference being that there is no space for a large ukemi as is used in the jo-dori, and the entry will take you right through him.

[Tintin]

Thanks for doing the write up for me their dex. It was a great session, even though I was still a bit broken from the weekend in Manchester where I had the pleasure of being uke for quite a few of the demonstrations. McCavish sensei has a wealth of knowledge, from what I can gather training every day at the Shodokan hombu for the last 16-17 years.

That Nikkyo that was mentioned really did hurt like hell, but it definately stopped me getting up so it did the job!