Complete and utter amateurs playing around. The curse of youtube.There is NO aikido OR competent striking there at all.
A lot of Aikido students and teachers buy into this no hitting people crap. When they make atemi they fake it so it doesn't make contact. This is particularly bad in many Ki Aikido orientated schools to the point where there isn't even a recognisable attempt to strike uke. So far as I can figure out this attitude comes from a misinterpretation of the principle of nondescension. Which is taken to the point of lunacy in some places.
If I understand your previous description correctly, it's a type of joint spiralling exercise most commonly encountered in some Pa Kua Chang. (Supposedly to be executed w/tea cups-with tea.Well, eventually.bragging rights and all.)
@ Ludde: I don't know, he's prabably trying to counter every attack. @ Koyo: Wish I had a picture of myself doing that. @ Aikiwolfie: what's the principle of nondescension? @ El medico: I think you understand what I'm trying to explain, but I don't know Pa Kua Chang. It's a Chinese MA.
Nondecension is basically about not taking liberties or even looking for non-violent ways to resolve a conflict. Which is all well and good. Nothing wrong with it so long as it doesn't get in the way.
Carrying on the conversation of Atemi, anyone thinking we don't do it in Aikido would have learnt a few things from our class last night We started off doing Shomen uchi Nikkajo Osei Ichi and Ni, then for the second half of the lesson we moved onto a shomen uchi hijiate.....something, apolgies for not remembering but it's the one where your arm comes over the top, grabs the wrist of Uke, locks the elbow and pivots with uke's elbow locked. Uke has to collapse behind Sh'te to stop their elbow from breaking. Anyway, after doing the Ni technique our sensei stopped us and told us to have a go at the "self defense version" that he has taught to the police Instead of standing in Kamae he told us to stand with our feet square on to Uke. He then told the Uke's to throw a punch, full on, at Sh'tes head with out indicating whether it was coming from left or right. Sh'te then had to move, catch the arm and apply the Hijiate technique we had been doing. Everyone took it really seriously and there were punches flying back and forth everywhere, it was really hard making sure you went the right way as soon as the began the punch. There were more than a few close calls in the fist to face department Aside from being great fun and completely knackering us all out at the end of training it really showed the practical aspects of the technique in a "real world" situation, i.e someone throwing a punch at your face. It was also a great reminder of the first principle DONT GET HIT EDIT: The techinique I was trying to describe was actually Shomen-uchi hiji-shime osae ni [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GszWqeqw9k"]YouTube- ???????(?)[/ame]
Balance and posture breaking in Aikido. Breaking the posture and balance of a partner is of primary iimportance in aikido training.Too often beginners try to get to the 'end' of the waza [the actual throw etc] rather than focus on the areas prior to the throw.If your timing , your own body position relative to your partner is correct and he /she is unbalanced the outcome will be correct.If however the balance /timing is off, you might have to engage him /her in the issue using superior strength.The use of strength in itself is ok, the incorrect application of strength is to be avoided. Maximum efficiency /minimum effort is the key.As far as pinning a flexible guy is concerned its not about controlling the arm etc, its about controlling the whole body. As far as mindset is concerned I think sincerity, openness,a selfless viewpoint and of course a willingness to learn is in my mind essential.I also think that you should try and avoid the element of competitiveness in your study. When a diamond comes out of the earth it is not that brilliant or good looking.It takes the skills of the jewellers to cut and polish the object to reveal its inner beauty.That is in essence what you do when you train with a partner.It is the mutual polishing of each other.Uke polishes his ukemi etc, Nage polishes his Waza. Each complements the other. There [ideally] should be no place for selfish or self centred people [although they exist] in aikido.
Videos The videos shown in your comments have very little in common with Aikido training .No 1. is almost Judo based. No 2. Badly performed kicking waza. Why do people feel that because one person wears a Hakama it must be Aikido the person is doing?
Another way to execute ude hishigi is to initiate the contact by attacking first striking at the partners head bringing his arm up in defence. below you can see how vulnerable his arm is to ude hishigi or any number of techniques.
Aikido is a dynamic art that strikes straight through the opponent's intention to attack. Morihei Ueshiba
Wow... lots of great posts while I've been away. With map being down my post about the bokken and vertical cut has been deleted, but I read Koyo's awesome response in my mailbox, so thanks. I've been away for a while being busy (sitting on a chair and studying books lol), but after last aikido lesson, I think I know have an 'interesting' question that might be good to be made clear. When practising kokyo ho on your knees with 1 arm (so 1 wrist grab): Uke (me) was supposed to grab the wrist and then push. tori let the push through, so turned the body a little and since I was supposed to push, I went forward. Then, at a certain point, it stopped. If I pushed any further, I would fall. So that's where tori was stuck, since I didn't continue to push (because I would fall if I did). So tori told me to keep pushing, but I said I won't because I would fall if I did. The teacher (the substitute teacher that is) told me to attack him and the same thing happened. He then said I should fall to get myself 'safe' because otherwise he could easily strike me with his other hand. I thought: that's just cheating, I have another hand as well. I told him that if I continued I would fall, and who would do that. He told me falling, rolling isn't negative at all and that it's good. Same thing with shomen uchi, sometimes I feel uke must just fall because he does shomen all the way to the ground, where tori basically only goes out of the line of attack and let uke pass. Whose going to do a shomen like that? Shomen with a bokken is the same without (I'm pretty sure of this). With a bokken, you don't overattack, you don't cut your sword all the way to their knees or feet. Sometimes tori just 'dives' under an uke who does shomen, and the uke will fall. Not that I doubt the 'dive' technique (or whatever it's called). I actually saw the technique happen in a competition video of tomiki aikido. I don't see why I'm supposed to do stuff like that.
Again this is people simply watching and aping what they think they see or worse involving themselves in compliant training. In ura (turning( when uke pushes tori MUST add power to the push blending so as to make uke overstreatch his arm must also be drawn slightly to the side out of his centreline. This unbalances uke BUT he need only take a half step forward to regain his balance. It is during the instant of the initial unbalancing that a technique must be applied. People only remain off balance for and instant. If told to roll rather than step forward this is to teach the ukemi for when a technique is applied using ura. YOU MUST NEVER JUMP. The japanese sword cuts on the push or pull and there is a tsurugi (wringing of the hands on the hilt) at the instant of contact. Shomen means the front of the head..a cut that goes further (to the ground) is incorrect. below Tamura shihan attacks O Sensei with shomen. Whenever you see a sword cut that passes down from the head height it should be because tori has driven it there.(see aikido insight for swordwork)
Embra As you know, This is a BASIC PRINCIPLE of aikido that all students should understand/be taught. It is entirely negated when "harmony" is demanded. Tori must accept that if he does not move he will be struck. If he does not unbalance he cannot throw or pin. Compliant training is an utter waste of time and ensures a false sense of security.
