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

Dear friends,

I recently began taking about 4 weeks ago an Aikido class which I am enjoying. Having previously taken judo for several years in my youth, thus, judo already being ingrained or hardwired into my system beforehand, this has both maybe somewhat helped me, as well as possibly detracted me, from learning Aikido. For one thing, it’s been interesting to re-train myself in, what is brand new for me, the differences between the judo break fall and roll (which I have down pat since my youth) from the Aikido break fall and roll, which is gradually beginning to come to me now.

Our Aikido instructor, rather, our "sensei", he being a second degree black belt, thus, appears to be, as well as I would logically surmise, proficient in the art of Aikido. However, I am having some difficulty accepting the “warm up” that he begins our class with, rather, the approximate 15 minutes or so he has us spend on “doing stretches”, i.e. the traditional static “hamstring stretches”, groin stretches, shoulder and arm stretches, and the like.

I believe that I have read in the past how doing static stretches before your activity may be counter productive, as opposed to doing what may be helpful "dynamic stretches", instead, just before your activity. I seem to have validated this for myself.

For example, when I first show up at the Aikido dojo, just before class starts, my first initial instinctual reaction is to, rather than to “stretch out”, is to instead, I really first desire to just lie down on the mat and to want to begin to lightly roll around (not yet the full blown 360 degree ukemi), and to continue to do some gentle rolling, twisting and turning within the lying position well as in the standing position. However, I do not proceed to do any of this light movement. Instead, I just simply wait for sensei to come to the mat and to then guide us into his static stretching regime. Anyway, I never have any instinctual desire to do any kind of static stretching at the very beginning of class.

However, our sensei, I’m sure he having the best of intentions for all of us, has all of we students go into a static stretch, just for instance, say, a "hamstring stretch" or "hurdler stretch" or various other stretches, and to “hold the stretch” for several seconds. I, regrettably, comply to sensei's instructions.

I believe that I can validate from my very recent personal experience that these static stretches led by sensei are not productive. For example, immediately after the guided stretching led by our instructor, I unfortunately feel less fluid when we then proceed to go into the rest of the class. Whereas, in the very beginning of class, just before the 15 minutes of various static stretching exercises that we did together, I was aware that I had a more playful bounce to my body.

I can understand how slow and long post-activity static stretching, that is, at the end of class, can be actually beneficial so I would be fine with doing some "stretching" then. That is, I would be fine with holding a long stretch near the end of our class. However, instead, our sensei does not instruct us in any post workout “stretching”.

Therefore, is there a way that I can somehow lightly or humbly approach him (he is a 2nd dan, no less.) and suggest to him that I wish to refrain from doing these static stretches? Is there some way that I can gracefully state that I will join in with the rest of the class after he is done “stretching”? Are there any other ideas that you may have for me?

Otherwise, I am actually considering to intentionally arrive to class 15 minutes late in order to miss and avoid the sensei's structured stretching regime. The sensei has already told us at the very first class that if any of we students arrive late, we are to move to the outside of the class and to proceed to warm up on our own. Thus, I would interpret that to mean that, if this were the case, then I can somewhat "warm up in my own way", i.e. the light movements of lightly rolling around and twisting that I am naturally drawn to do before starting Aikido practice.

Any responses would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you very much.

The best to all,

Greetings!

 

The warm ups I used to do involved a few minutes static stretching and some ukemi practice. I also used to throw in a jog around the mat with some other exercises. Sit ups, leg raises, press ups and such. You're warm up doesn't really sound much like a warm up.

You can suggest anything you like to your teacher. But at the end of the day it's his class and his rules.

 

Oh and 2nd Dan is generally speaking a fairly low grade in Aikido. Black belt does not mean "expert".

 

Have you seen any other folks giving suggestions to the Sensei or performing their own warmups separately?

 

Dear Aikiwolfe and Philosoraptor,

Thank you very much for your replies.

I should mention that when I was referring to static stretching before, that that is the very first thing that sensei has us do in class, for about 15 minutes total.

Then, what seems to be the pattern within the last 4 weeks that I have been attending class, we go into some rolling, and then we do the foot work for one of the techniques (solo, by ourselves) that we are learning for the first time, and then we do the technique with a partner (nage/uke).

In my particular class, we are all white belts.

Aikiwolfe, you mentioned:

"You can suggest anything you like to your teacher. But at the end of the day it's his class and his rules."

I am just wondering that if I was to lightly suggest to sensei that I wish to refrain from the static stretching, if I would be coming off as being brash and disrespectful? Thus, I might be setting myself up as a non-compliant student, thus, discouraging sensei from being willing to give me any extra help in the future. (?)

Philosoraptor, you mentioned:

"Have you seen any other folks giving suggestions to the Sensei or performing their own warmups separately?"

No. I have not seen anyone approach sensei and give him any suggestions to his teaching with the exception of one student, this past week, apparently after being somewhat saturated, said to sensei, to paraphrase, "Is it possible that you can give us a sheet (of paper) on all the different (Japanese) terms that you have been using in class?"

No one has done their own warm up separately from the class. We have all been going along with sensei.

No one yet has ever arrived late to class, so we are all starting with sensei at the same time.

Again, Aikiwolfe and Philosoraptor, thank you very much for your responses.

The best to all,
Greetings!

 

Depends on how traditional your school is, but my guess is that you should just fall in line. If you want to do a separate warm up before class starts, that might be a good option.

 

I believe the specific studies done on this found that power out put was decreased in a gym environment.
Think it doesnt really apply to the technical environment of an aikido class.

If you feel like movement and rolling are a good way to go then try some yoga or ginastica natural

 

I your circumstances I think speaking to your sensei may be wise. Dont be confrontational about it, if you had an issue performing a technique you would speak to him surely.

I have recently had an issue with my boxing instructors due to an injury, I spoke to them and we worked something out and I can assure you it was not an easy conversation to approach.

http://www.martialartsplanet.com/forums/showthread.php?t=122129
Link to the thread I started about my issue if you want to read the advice I was given.

 

Martial Arts are fairly unique in that you can become a 'coach' with pretty much zero knowledge of sports training. The prevalence of static stretching as a warm up method is just one symptom of the almost systematic level of ignorance that exists within the martial arts community.

Don't even get me started on the continued use of sit ups as the only core exercise.

 

Stretching muscle fibres weakens them. But it's something we have to do to remain supple. 15 minutes every class seems excessive. Although I'd doubt it's doing any harm from an Aikido perspective.

 

where did you get this from?
I've never read anything about stretching weakening muscle fibres. if such things were true, then the powerlifters at my gym wouldnt do any eccentric work (focus on stretching muscle fibres with weight) or static stretching after a training session.

The research I've seen only shows a decrease in strength immediately following static stretching in athletes.

I doubt that will have any effect on most aikido classes

 

And most of those studies seem to use long static stretches, minutes or so followed by extreme explosive movements like sprints or jumps , as you say I don't think its going to have too much effect on a technical martial class

 

By the way, how should one go about these things precisely?
It's easy if you're Van Zandt and start doing splits all over the gym , showing that your method does indeed work, but if you're Mr. Nobody or even worse, a beginner, how can you make the coach take your advice seriously?
"Because research" doesn't really seem much of an argument against years of routine in a gym. Any ideas?

 

Research is the argument, but people don't like to be told they're being stupid, especially when the roles of people are placed in a hierarchy as strict as in TMAs.

I'd probably chat with my instructor about this new fangled 'dynamic' warm up routine that I'd read about and I'd ask him if we could include it in our warm up sessions to try it out.

From there, I'm just relying on the instructor recognising a good thing when he sees it.

 

Stick someone's name (who holds credibility) behind your argument.

But for many of aikido classes - the research doesnt move in the favour of dynamic stretches

Judo is quite centralised and requires updates in training courses and the like. thats mainly because they train athletes and kids under stricter regulations than other sports.

I dont know if aikido has the same organisation structure considering its so splintered and doesnt really focus on sport (except tomiki aikido)

 

I believe it was a Horizon episode. But here's a few links for some light bedtime reading. And are we not talking about static stretching?

http://healthland.time.com/2013/04/08/why-stretching-may-not-help-before-exercise/

http://sock-doc.com/2011/04/stop-stretching/

http://www.humankinetics.com/excerpts/excerpts/causes-of-muscle-weakness

 

There are centralised Aikido bodies that have training courses for coaches and such. But there's no obligation to register with them and in my experience most independent teachers don't want to register and be told how to run their class. Which is why they're independent in the first place.

 

Is the instructor being respectful of his/her student's patronage and time by failing to keep their knowledge of sport and exercise science up to date?

This isn't about having differing preferences which are equally valid, a lot of the stuff that TMA instructors do in their warm ups are either counter productive, suboptimal or potentially dangerous. And this cult of 'respect' is the reason that those training practices persist. People know better, but they daren't question the guy stood at the front of the room telling you to do the plough or the hurdle stretch, in spite of the fact that they've been contraindicated for over 30 years.