My recollections of the Cumbernauld course are not perfect and there were other courses in Glasgow and Edinburgh in my early Aiki days where other folk would appear. I would sometimes be told who people were afterwards which didnt help. Not long after this time, less and less established 'visitors' would appear, probably due to 'political' stuff.
I have just spoken to my dad about the above, and unfortunately he cannot remember, but just said that there is no room in Aikido for politics.He has passed on his thanks to Embra for the message.Also has said "Hi" to Koyo.
Hi, Margaret Hughes -now there's a name from the past.Margaret was a really good aikidoka and a very pleasant person.She was then Sandan.One of Chiba Sensei's most senior students.One of her best demos was at the B.A.F demo in Birmingham in 1973.She trained in London along with Dee Chen, Mick Holloway and Stuart Broughton[both sadly deceased].Margaret injured both her shoulder/s and I never saw her practice again.As it happens I was watching her yesterday on an old video tape taken in London circa 1970/1.
Hello Joe, Stuart Broughton deceased? I am sorry to hear this. I can remember Margaret and also Mick Holloway at Chiswick and I think I trained with Margaret in Tenpukan (the basement dojo near Earls Court?). Does anyone remember John Ferris? I can remember training with Chiba S in Tenpukan on one occasion and Stuart took uke. His head was slightly too high and the technique was ude-garame. The result was that Stuart B. spent a couple of days in hospital with concussion. I remember the episode because M Sekiya Sensei was also there (he was staying in the UK at the time) and really tore a strip off Chiba S on the way back to Hillfield Road, where both were staying. I was sitting in the back of the car and Chiba S turned to me with a grin and said, "Peter, I am a bad boy." Sorry for the thread drift. PAG
Hi this is a question from my dad.When did Mick Holloway pass away my dad has a slight memory of training with Mick at his own dojo near Burton Upon Trent. Thanks.
Stuart Broughton /Sekiya Sensei. Stuart has been dead for some time now.As far as John Ferris is concerned I knew him well. Havent seen him in ages.I used to visit the Tempukan Dojo.Always had a good hard practice.The Tempukan is now in Maida Vale, not far from the Maida Vale Underground station. Nearly all the old members of the Tempukan are no longer around.As far as Sekiya Sensei was concerned he was a really inspirational teacher. I met him in Stirling, London , Birmingham, Chester and he stayed with me for a short time.He was nearly always accompanied by his wife who was a very warm hearted and kind lady.Always full of joy.Even now I miss them both. I am sure you know Sekiya Sensei was Chiba Sensei's father in law.
SELF DEFENCE The main problem with aikido as a self defence art is that the aim of aikido is to resolve conflict with the minimum damage to the attacker and the techniques reflect this attitude. The training tends to reflect this attitude and students immediately begin to train in what are VERY advanced techniques. It is MOST difficult to control an aggressor and often this "problem" is solved by using compliant "attackers". THIS APPROACH IS WRONG. The first lesson MUST be DO NOT GET HIT rather than immediately beginning with techniques which have no value at all until the basic principles are understood. Basic training should teach basic PRINCIPLES not advanced techniques. The first principle is GET OFF LINE. It is enough for a beginner to train simply in body movement and evasion rather than attempting to execute techniques in the first few practice sessions. Below..What looks like a very basic technique of get off line unbalance strike and throw. However a thorough understanding of the basic principles must be grasped before ANY strike or technique will be effective. I shall address this area in future posts.
Body movement with evasion - supplemented with good timing i.e. not giving the game away too easily, can get you out of a fair ammount of real-life trouble. Therefore its worth always working on. In any art, how this works, is pretty much the no 1 aspect that I work on and seek to build on. Of course, other very basic things must be worked on e.g. guarding, striking and in Aikido's case, cutting - and many others. After that, and particularly in Aikido, the aspect that I seek to work on is Awase or 'blending' i.e. how you set-up the encounter (kimisubi?) to your advantage and their disadvantage. In less structured training this would be something along the lines of 'exploiting the transient opportunity'. I will leave the descriptions of Awase to koyo and others more experienced than myself to describe.
Koyo you have impeccable timing. I've been pushing this approach to the club I currently train with for the past year and they're finally coming round. I shall be watching this thread far more closely for tips and hints and ideas.
DO NOT GET HIT This relates to the entire body NOT simply the blocking or evading a single blow. Irrimi means to enter to the side ALONG THE LINE OF ATTACK. Even so defence must be maintained often you shall see the arms drop or the hands reach out to "secure" a technique. Below is hito emi making the body small by sharpening the triangular posture from which the art is performed. The sword cut is eschewed to emphasise the ANGLE of entry. ALONG the line of attack NOT around. KUDEN The secret of aikido is in the triangles. Therefore the often quoted aikido is a crcular art is incorrect and moving in a circular manner is also incorrect because you are easily unbalanced or resisted if you are "spinning around" The second picture shows the triangular entry and maintained protection of the centreline during it's execution. I have used the same technique as that shown in the previous post.
I attended a seminar with Matt Hill in February who made the point of changing from hanmi to hito emi during blending boken exercises, with both hidari-no-kamae and migi-no-kamae. Whilst difficult to co-ordinate and time effectively with whole body movement, the basic principle was clear enough. However, some questions I have been meaning to post here for a while, along these lines (no pun intended.) 1. If we now take a yokomen attack and as tori meeting in initial hidari-no-kamae (left-to-right or right-to left) engagement, switch hanmi-engagement from hidari-no-kamae to migi-no-kamae; i.e. meet on the inside, do we still need to devlop hito-emi engagement change? 2. Is there a name for hanmi change? 3. You often state that Aikido is an art of angular entry. However using the above example, upon changing hanmi engagement, tori then executes kote-gaeshi - to evade potential attackers from behind as well as to neutaralize the direct uke opponent. In transitioning from meeting the yokomen cut, to kotegaeshi, two aspects take place. One the mae (distance - cant spell the Japanese any more) changes from medium to much closer range and secondly, turning is involved to get onto the outside of the attacker - and ultimately apply the kotegeashi. For me this turning is pivoting and not a circular dance. However I leave it to you to comment on appropriately, as there is a lot more to making this effective than I describe above. Kote-gaeshi in this ura form i.e. against 2 ukes/opponents I recall as being a source of different application between differnt teachers. It is easy to do badly i.e. flowery dance, and damm difficult to execute effectively - but interpretations vary according to teaching. Also, how do we effectively unbalance the uke for ura kote-gaeshi? - and for that matter also omote kote-gaeshi.
I would not teach kote gaeshe ura against yoko men simply because it goes against the direction of the attack Indeed I would not teach kote gaeshe against a "haymaker" Such techniques were not taught until Noro shihan introduced a grading sylabus that had (i think) ten attacks and at a grading the aikidoka had to execute ALL aikido techniques against these attacks even when to do so complicated the movement and the techniques were NOT appropriate to the attacks. Yokomen is best dealt with by extending his attack in the circular direction his energy is taking.irrimi nage shiho nage jujinage all come to mind as far more effective than kote gaeshe. The entry for yokomen is direct and hito emi is used so that the entry is deeper and the strike can knock him off balance backwards to the side which is the optimum kuzushi for this and most techniques. Below the entry against yokomen.Turning need not SHOULD NOT be used to get to the outside for kote gaeshe. In the photo I could cut his attacking arm across his body and enter ALONG the line NOT around and throw with kote gaeshe but again why do so when it is complicated and more pragmatic techniques are available,
Embra Kote gaeshe Fundamental principle. Aikido is a TRIANGULAR art it is the attacker who is caused to spin,turn or spiral around the aikidoka NEVER the opposite. below the contact for kote gaeshe . The attacker shall be drawn off balance OVER THE EDGE OF HIS FOOT into a strike. Kote gaeshe is then applied (where it lies) not with a large circle but twisted where it lies or since a knife is involved the knife shall be turned on him. ALONG THE LINE OF ATTACK is fundamental..never spin or turn around and attacker. Remember how we showed you how easy it it to counter any technique when it is attempted "circularly"?
Embra The changing of kamae is simply tai sabaki body movement. On that subjuct we must retain optimum mobility but use minimum movement during execution. The principles are often taught as triangle circle and square. Below is a demonstration of the sword cuts used in irrimi nage. The sword is there so that the ANGLES can be seen more clearly. Is photo you can see the line of attack/angle of entry TRIANGLE Second photo I have stepped in ALONG THE LINE OF ATTACK and TWISTED my hip whiule unbalancing the attacker backwards to the side. His body is falling forward but his head is being turned back,causing him to spin around me. CIRCLE Third photo I enter triangularly to empower the throw. Forth photo the technique is executed "boldly" powerfully while my own balance is retained. SQUARE. It is a one tatami technique in that MINIMUM movement was used leaving no space for a counter.
Sorry just got a new computer and am still attempting to learn how to use it. THIS is the irrimi nage.I may seam to be belabouring these points however they are FUNDAMENTAL to proper training.And often missing in some approaches.
Tai sabaki can have different meanings in different contexts. However, maybe we can say that the purpose of tai sabaki is to effect a different angle of entry to attack? i.e. to find an opening to exploit when there was not one before. Tai sabaki movement without purpose will probably result in some daft dance. Angles and triangles are fundamental in Eskrima movement also, but with different dynamics. I believe that the optimal mobility is to exploit the transient openings of the opponent quickly and effectively, and the purposes of minimal movement are 1) to not offer openings to the opponent and 2) to be effective as possible in a diminishing space i.e. he will close-in on you if you dont close-in on him. Exploiting the opponent's openings and mitigating/removing your own openings, is fundamental to any MA. Finding the co-ordination of mind, body and spirit in movement and mobility to effective purpose is what I look for in any Art - but its easier said than done. I may not be correct in my interpretations, but sometimes I want to understand why we do what we do, rather than just go with the flow, so to speak - which means asking questions here and there along the road. Hence, I always return to Aikido (which is a difficult art to do well) to find my reference bearings. The points that you make are not laboured - they are clear and expressive.
Always thought it was very odd that all techniques from every attack have to be mastered in gradings. Some are so blatantly obviously not appropriate given the attack. For instance, I've witnessed a 3rd form Kokyo nage, 3rd form being an opposite upper arm grab, (left grabs right arm) that is taught as a grading technique and it's utterly ridiculous. There is no chance it would happen in real life ever but I suppose it exists as an exercise and people who know a lot more than me, agreed it must have some value!
The arm grabs in aikido were meant as EXERCISES to allow the student to accept the weight and strength of the partner so as to facilitate study in body alignment and unbalancing NOT as practical techniques. Now I see complete seminars given over to arm grabs and stated as techniques of aikido. So as you say they exist as EXERCISES and should be understood as such. Good to see someone questioning WHY? below training in kusushi (unbalancing) This is an exercise to be considered a technique he would have had to accompany the grasp with a strike. Instructors should explain this to students.:bang:
