Ukemi when you failed with the kick is treated like koshi nage.Since your hip is rotated i.e. your body rotates around the hip to enable a ukemi.techniques on the wrist arm or neck leave the hips relatively free although unbalanced. When executing ukemi from a kick you have the feeling of being "flipped" or spun over. Study the ukemi from koshi nage and there is much of value. Is someone manages to mount two concecutive kicks/attacks at us we are doing something wrong. Attack at all times.:evil: regards koyo koshi nage
Thanks koyo. I've given up thinking of using martial arts to fight, and more thinking about how I can use it to develop myself physically and mentally while helping others. Things like kicks really make it more interesting. Like free fighting or sparring with resistance, I'm not interested in the results but rather the solutions that can be good choice for one moment, and terribly bad the next. A dynamic puzzle that challenges the mind and body, that's what Budo is. Man, are you ever so right. Trained with a dedicated striker yesterday, and while the initial taisabaki is perfect in evading and getting within range, everytime my unbalancing followup is too slow, I get pummeled. Unbalancing and taisabaki work, but only for a second, if not milliseconds. It's all go-time until he is down!
Not sure about how you are doing your method, but you brought up a good point. For the most part, getting hit in general is not the end of the world. Most aikidoka stop there. You will fail if you have trained insufficiently or have mistimed the moment to have acted. So what? Life goes on. Harden up and take it for the meantime, and do better next time.
Attack at all times show a superior fighting spirit and unlimited responce to your attacker and dominate his fighting spirit.Cut directly through his intention to attack. These are basic principles of budo.The budo arts are self defence not competition. Taking /stealing the initiative and holding it is basic to effective budo. When teaching this to aikido groups I have found some who say I have a fighting mind that is against the principles of aikido. Aikido is how we would choose to live our lives but aikido techniques in a practical situation are different . This is something forgotten or ignored by many modern teachers. Of course there is much more to aikido or I would not have spent almost my entire lifetime in it's study. At different times in your training a different emphasis shall be placed on your manner of training. It is a lifetime study. I for one am glad that I entered into it.There is no need to question the art BUT constantly question yourself and your approach. regards koyo
The Muay Thai fighters, particularly the more agile ones, get really good at evading kicks. This is much preferred over blocking or taking the hit. But in Muay Thai, as you know, they work on body conditioning to toughen parts of they body. One of the drills we do against a mid level muay thai kick is to move in the direction away from the kick but slightly inside its arc... so instead of taking 100% of the force of the kick, you take about 50% of the force. We take the kick on our back and then drop the elbow and arm, catch the leg, and turn. I don't like taking a hit on my back, but the counter does work under fire. If the kick is lower, instead of catching with the arm, lift the heel up and use the leg to trap their leg. Also, the idea of evading the kick comes first to mind with me. Once I've reduced the power of the kick, I'll let it hit my elbow or my knee. Evading can be moving away or entering into/intercepting the kick, just so that the force is not 100% on impact. My point here is that I see evasion as part of Muay Thai even as much if not more than in Aikido at times. Another side point, one of the counters to a low kick is to jump in the air (using raising the knee up) and punch them in the chest, or come down on the top of their head if too close to punch). This is evasion and entering. As a result, to counter the counter, you kick out the rear leg, not the front leg with low kicks. The idea is to chop down the tree. You chop down the supporting leg (or actually take out both legs as the case often is). Then you climb the tree to take out all the vital areas. IMHO.
First of all, I'd like to say that I have never trained with a kick in my aikido dojo. Though, one of my teachers loves to kick me when we are practising. The first years he usually kicked my back when my centre was not pointed at him. Now he kicks me when I'm standing in a not so comfortable position while I'm applying a technique (no need to tell where he kicks me *ough*). Besides that, kicks have a certain line of attack, and you just have to make sure you avoid that line by entering or walking back. I have seen a few video clips on youtube where Steven Seagal parries a kick somehow. I've also saw some other guy doing some sort ok ikyo on a leg. You never take a hit in aikido! Why? Because if you get attacked by a bokken you won't be able to block it. Too bad we don't train with kicks in my dojo.
Dude, walking back is a bad option. If you walk back from an attack then you are falling into his rhythm and his zone, and any opponent will eat you up. And I'll correct you on one statement. You try never to take a hit in Aikido. That's in an ideal world. Very often, you are never in the ideal world. And while many of the principles of the sword arts are transferred into the taijutsu of Aikido, they never are exactly the same. Rebel was talking about when you have no choice, you take measures to reduce the impact that a hit has on you by not taking the full power of the hit while at the same time trying to gain a superior position. If you managed to avoid it completely, then either you are extremely skilled or you are up against a crap kicker. Oh and try not to use Steven Seagal as an example please, koyo gets one more grey hair every time someone mentions him. Sorry koyo.
Attack at all times includes when your principles were not perfect and you take a hit..then you continue to attack rather than go on the defencive. As for the grey hairs I am getting them on my chest now. regards koyo
I thought walking back was a viable option, Seagal mentioned something about this once in an interview (your chest is going to get more ugly now ).
To prepare your attack maybe, but not while they are attacking. Often they come in combinations, and you'll just eat strike after strike. You got to upset his balance and timing by evading on the spot or entering. And you are just being cruel to koyo. Real cruel. C'mon man, it's Christmas. I'll get to bed now, got to cook for the family tomorrow.
If you must move back..move back using corner step (back at an angle off the line of the sword/attack) so that he cannot continue a direct approach however as you move back you must be preparing to immediately move forward again to pre-empt his secondary attack. There is a principle that says when attacked on your right side use your left side to simultaneously counter attack. Below I have "pulled" my right hip back (corner step) to avoid the direct attack yet still managed to enter my leftt side. The sword is geld down to help illustrate this principle. regards koyo Please cut me some slack I have already grown a beard to accomodate more gray hairs.
It will be harder for him to kick you if you successfully take his center (unbalance him on contact). Usually this is done with atemi. Are you using atemi in your training? About moving... in my opinion, it is best to trust your intuition/instincts. If your survival instincts tell you to move away, then do so. The next step is to actually train your instincts to be more effective and practical. I know that the term "instincts" means something that is not trained but that comes naturally, so I use the term here loosely to describe what you are trained to do in an instinctive situation. If your instinct is to move away, then train it to instead use angular movement (such as the corner step that Koyo mentioned) to move to the side (off the line of attack). A couple of reasons, the main reason is that it is moving straight back is moving into a blind spot. You could step right back into something before you knew it was there. Try to move where you can see what is there. (e.g. if you have seen Samurai/monk movies or pictures where they walk with their chin down, this is so they can see behind them to the sides. Always try to be aware of your surroundings. There are situations where you may want to "back pedal", such as if you are trying to return fire with a pistol and you are a better shot than the enemy, the further you get away, the more chance they have of missing you, and if you are a good shot, the distance won't be as big a factor for you. You still want to use angles if possible, just to make yourself a harder to hit target. Also, is some places, you basically have to get your back to a wall before you can say any use of force is self-defense. Just hitting someone when you might be able to just back away is frowned upon in such places. If you don't trust your instincts and believe what you are doing is the right thing to do, you can hesitate and be caught in indecision and internal conflict, fighting yourself. You will have to define the context of "take a hit." In my context, you always accept the hit, but you do everything possible to lower the odds that it actually hits, and if it does hit, it hits with as little force as possible and not to a vital area. You always protect yourself. Given that I said what I just did, there are still times when you would take a hit. First, there is the attitude that no matter what, you are going to take out the other guy. This is a posture of being like a compressed spring ready to explode. Those that are aware of this body language, may be indecisive in fear that they will be hurt if they attack you. There is also situations where children or situations where you just should not be harming the other person. Given awareness and consideration of weapons, you still protect yourself, but you might take glancing blows rather than drop them to end the fight. A few times when my son was young, when he tried to hit me out of frustration, I just hugged him until he stopped. When they get to big to just hug, they might "accidentally" hit my elbow or some hard bone and they hurt their hand or foot, then the fight goes out of them. Again, you have to believe that what you do is the right thing to do (or be caught in internal conflict). The idea is practical application, not "one size fits all martial arts."
Children can be tough! My little brother and I goof/spar/roll a lot (not full contact [on my part, that is!] of course, given his age); this one time I got him in closed guard and then put up my shell to protect my face 'cause he was trying to ground and pound me. His response was to reach around my arms and stick his fingers up my nose and cause a nosebleed!
With enough training any given action can become "instinctive". That is to say you will act and perform without any concious thought process. The fact that we can be trained in such a way is the reason why habits are so hard to break. So your use of the term "instinct" is entirely correct.
Enten jizai means attack and defence are one. Therefor as you move back to a corner off the line of attack it must remain close enough that you can reach the opponent with a simultaneous counter attack.Post 31 shows the proper maai had I chose to strke with the sword. Although the katachi kamae (body alignment) may move "back" the kokoro kamae (attitude of mind) NEVER moves back. regards koyo
Thank you all for the continued interest in this subject. @ koyo: I have been considering your "always attack" concept because somehwere, unconsiously I have been working with it for sometime. I have found that working with that idea, which I like to refer to as always using atemi (not always in the litteral sense of hitting or kicking your attacker, but also moving with the spirit of atemi) actually enables you to be clear, sharp and "martial" without using the gentle side of aikido out of site. @ Blast: If somebody were to attack me with bokken certainly I would never try blocking it. But with an arm or a kick, I do not mind impact at times. Its just about you choosing the moment and place of impact wisely so as to less the force of the impact on yourself. As for Ikkyo on a leg. I cover this as a basic option in the book of course. If you want to see some possibilities just go to Youtube and search on "aikido keri waza". As for the principle of instinct. Instincts are not always correct. A basic instinct of a child (I have two young ones) is to cover there eyes when they see something scary. We teach them there are better ways to deal with these scary things. But here you can dinstinguist between the instinct to react and the reaction itself. You should nurture your instincts and head them, but train your reactions. Mark
Balance mobility and freedom of movement are ALL major principles of aikido. When executing a powerful kick there is a moment when all three of these are compromised to a certain extent. Using irrimi and enten jizai (attack and defence as one) is a most effective way in which to "seize that moment" Below you can see that Graham can be unbalanced because of standing on one foot. His mobility is also compromised. Defending and continuing his attack is also difficult. While I have retained all three principles.Although I could apply a technique on the leg it is much more effective and pragmatic to simpy "cut directly though his centreline to a kuzushi.(right tegatana) It is the "fear" of kicks that many aikido must confront. regards koyo word of warning many of my friends are great kickers and they know the vulerability and shall lead you onto their kicks.
I also think it's the fear of anything that is new that most aikidoka must confront. Challenges make you stronger, but not all people are comfortable with that.
