Does anyone know of some good exercises for helping develop aikido? I'm a mid kyu grade in an aikikai school. What I'm looking for are ideas to help develop more physical aspects such as building the right hip strength, bokken training, grip strength, working on shikko, or tanren-uchi style training. Does anyone have any suggestions? Feel this is something I could work on outside of class.
How about having a go at the Yoshinkan aikido kihon dosa? [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Z2KgfmfkAU"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Z2KgfmfkAU[/ame]
At a bare minimum you should be doing squats and deadlifts. I would also recommend bench press, standing overhead press, and bent over rows.
Difficult question to answer until we know exactly what style of aikikai you follow. some RYu are so different to others that they are almost complete different arts with totally different principles. From an Iwama stand point the 3 most important principles are 1. hanmi (Everything starts and end from here) 2. Awase, 3. Kokyu The best solo exercises are Aiki ken/ Jo Saburi as these develop all the body movements required through the 3 principles. but again its down to what system you are following, they may have a completely different weapons system than traditional Aiki ken/jo Tanren Uchi again is connected to Ken saburi but is a harder form of training to strengthen the wrist, arms, and hips, you just need a good heavy Bokken and start practicing slow.
Take up kendo on the side. A huge percentage of aikido derives from Japanese swordsmanship. You'll get better at grips, cuts, hip rotation, the full-body forward movement.
Probably better to seek instruction in kenjutsu or iai, considering that the swordsmanship that influences Aikido predates Kendo by some time. Kendo has many benefits but if you wish to explore and compliment the sword roots of Aikido then I would imagine looking at something older and closer to those roots would be better. But then I'm not an Aikidoka.
As far as I know no and I'm only saying that because "all kendoka" is pretty definitive. The ones that I've known do tend to cross train at some point but it's more of a personal thing rather than it being as an auxiliary section of their Kendo. I can't comment on the rest of the kendo world though and I've only known a few kendoka. Kendo is pretty awesome though and well worth a look.
The best aikidoka I have ever had the luxury of training under were also regular Iaido practitioners (one guy practised Kenjutsu instead). Apparently the two were very complementary, though I cannot comment from personal experience. From what little I have done, It does help to put the movements in Aikido into perspective though. As a general principle yes, but deadlifts, bench presses, OHPs and pendlay rows aren't necessary or even wanted by most people. Personally I prefer low-tech, old school training above anything else. Hell one of the best ways I've seen on working your pinch grip (and indeed overall finger strength) is this: Spoiler I'm down to 2 - 3 fingers depending on the hand and it makes a massive difference. It also works on your squats at the same time if you do it right. For a slightly different grip that also works your wrist strength and forearm - take an old towel you don't mind tearing and a bucket of water. Soak the towel, then try and wring it out. When it's pretty much dry/you can't get any more water out of it, dunk it and wring it out again. If you want something a little more advanced, I present an old Okinawan Karate supplementary training tool (though I've seen older Chinese drawings of the same): Spoiler Between 4 -7kg is more than sufficient for most people with good practice and is brutally hard to use properly. For hip strength, I would suggest regular small practices of hindu squats. It's mainly for the legs, but the hips do get a workout in the process. That aside, just practising the skills you want to practice is the best way forward really. Hope that helps.
I've never been so lucky as to have kenjutsu offered near me!! But yes, if it is available, I would expect, too, that it would correspond better to aikido then does kendo. Iai is obviously good for understanding the cutting motions and the hand positions. That's a fair point.
aikiMac, assuming you are still in Los Angeles, there is at least one Kenjustu org that seems to have some offerings in your area. http://www.shinkendo.com/dojos/california.html
