Can I possibly suggest an alternative to “Static Stretching” to my Aikido teacher?

yeah the points i said apply to static stretching - it will have no effect on most aikido and doesnt cause muscle weakness unless you hold a stretched position for a stupid long time (a few minutes)

those studies (that youve linked) look at static stretching on power output immediately before exercise - no applicable to most aikido

static stretching in moderation = good for you unless you have insane natural flexibility

 

This isn't about a 'disagreement', this is about an instructor endangering the wellbeing of his/her students by not knowing very basic things and people being afraid to correct the instructor because of this myth of infallibility that we, the students, propagate.

The new guy coming in off the street shouldn't have to tell an instructor that their training methodologies are dangerous and outdated (by decades), their senior students or other instructors should have already done that.

 

Do some extra stretching before class it may awaken or enliven the instructors ideas....


No one is perfect.....not even Hannibal !!

 

I think we can agree we are in agreement. :hat:

 

Dear aikiwolfie, philosoraptor, zaad, jeffgau, holyheadjch, icefield, wildlings, aaradia, alansmurf, and aikimac,

A big greetings! to you.

I greatly enjoy the input from each one of you.

I should tell you that I just very recently asked 2 of my associates for their opinion regarding this. One associate, she having a background in tai chi, said to me, I’m greatly paraphrasing, that I should engage in the stretching just enough to be “social”, thus, not too intensely, just enough to play along.

Another associate, he being a judoka, said for me to, I’m greatly paraphrasing, that from reviewing old Judo books shows that the “warm up” exercises that were done in the old days (pertaining to judo) were intended to wake up the body's sense of mobility. They were movements, rather than stretches. He mentioned that it was in the late 1960’s or 70’s that they started “modernizing” judo to also include calisthenics and stretching.

My judoka associate also mentioned, again, I’m paraphrasing, that I might consider asking the Aikido sensei why stretches were introduced into the traditional taiso (the traditional curriculum). He said that I may not get a straight answer, but hopefully this will be a means of opening a conversation without challenging the idea of the tradition but by reinforcing its value.

I think that I have gotten plenty of information from each one of you to begin the process of deciding on what action I will take ... or what I will not take.

With all of you generously coming forward to offer to me constructive comments, I perhaps may not be commenting on this topic any more in the future. However, the rest of you are free to continue this discussion (but, without me).

Again, thank you very much to everyone.

The best to all. Take good care,
Greetings!

 

Agreed

Yep I had the same problem in the past. Sometimes, the traditional Aikiki warmups do have more movement/calistenic type warm up.

After reading Thomas Kurz's books on dynamic stretching, I refuse to do static stretches. Moreover, just gentle rolling will get you in a better state than static stretching.

My solution was to perform dynamic stretching before class and fake the stretch during class. Also as an inflexible person but quite agile I found many people who have excellent flexibility for which static stretching is not so much of a problem.

Sounds like you need to find another school anyway....

 

Not been on the forums for a while so interested to read this thread.
Just to give some background I am a Physiotherapist, 6th Dan Aikikai and currently a senior lecturer in a leading UK university sports science department so have some background knowledge.
Static stretches per se do not pose a health risk for athletes, but neither do they have a positive effect on explosive performance. In fact unless they are held for over 90 seconds or so they seem to have no effect on performance at all.
Static stretches do seem, however, to have a positive effect on joint range of motion (both in the short and long term) and so may well be beneficial for Aikido training.
If the goal is to develop flexibility static stretches should be applied to warm muscle as it's more effective.
Having said all that I start with a combination of dynamic and static stretches, ukeme and taisebaki.