breath, time you're breathing with your technique. Dont ever hold your breath . Remember the techniques work, so let the technique do all the work. If not you'll be a panting mess getting clobbered If you are new to randori pick a techniqued before the attack comes in. This way you dont evade and pause to think of an attack if one doesnt come naturally. Dont feel bad if you only use 1, 2 or maybe 3 different techniques. Alot is happening at once and you'd be amazed how quickly your mind shuts down under pressure if you are not use to it. If you're new start the randori with 2 techniques in mind. This way you get use to flowing from one oppenent to the next with out slowing yourself down recalling several different throws. Try not to think too much, the mind gets in the way and slows your reflexes. If a technique goes bad switch to another throw and shrug it off, dont dwell on it. A chin push type irimi nage is a good reliable back up to have in this situation. But the most important thing to remember is dont let your self panic or get anxious. Hope it helps
turn ur head. Always look where you going to throw him. (this ofcourse depends on the throw) If this applies tho do it. U rhead body follows where your head is facing. and gives greater power and speed to your tehcniques. I'm rubish at randori but like it. (i prefer normal sparring with take downs and everything else allowed) I was under the impression that aikido practiciners didn't do much randori?
We practice randori all the time. It is a true pressure test for you and your abilities. The last part of our 6 hour shodan test is 15 minutes of full speed randori with a minimum of 5 ukes at a time, The ukes are swapped out every 3 minutes or so to ensure freshness. FUN STUFF
Randori as in one against one...or randori as in a half-assed attempt by 3 people to fall over or leap gracefully into the air when they get near the guy in the middle, pretending that an effective technique has been applied? Needless to say, I am not impressed by the latter.
Hmm, Dexter I really find that quite offensive and ignorant. When ever I have practiced randori with multiple people (usually 5), punches arent pulled and Ukes dont throw them selves. If an Uke attacks and you screw up a technique they are going to try to attack you again how ever they can. Maybe its just my Ryu or School that really trains randori this hard, I have no idea. I have seen some randori videos of the tori just placing his hands on people and they mystically fly through the air, that doesnt impress me either, but all randori is not like this.
my understanding of randori (or how we practice it in our school) is more like wretling.No strikes lowed. We do it pretty much teh same as the Judo guys (but we may work a bit more/less on the gorund)
Virtuous If you don't train like that, then why do you find it offensive? Dexter isn't having a go at all aikido, he trains in it himself (I know, I train with him) He makes a fair point, as I'm sure we all know that some aikidoka have a slighly 'cosmic' approach to randori, or at least the no-resistance approach to it. Touching someone then watching them fly away. It can look nice and gives you a chance to practise waza you may not otherwise be able to, but it is missing a lot of the pressure testing required to understand how they work. If you are not after that side of things then it is a fine, and fun aspect of training, but I don't really want to drag this thread into a debate on the use or abuse of randori (with resistance) in aikido.
I believe Dexter was refering to the highly unrealistic nature of that type of randori, in the case of which, the attackers aren't really 'multiple' in the true sense of the word. (Mark, if I've picked that up wrong... nah, I haven't ) Col
I meant no offense of course. I was merely pointing out the possible differences when 'randori' is being discussed. Those multiple attackers should be cutting off your space, as that is what would happen in real life. I am only a beginner but surely I am not being disagreeable when I say the first lesson in 'multiple attacker' randori should be to learn where to move to. Yes I know that there are many yudansha who are proficient at such movement. That leads me to believe that it is a 'learnable' method of movement How does Mr Rehse put it? Dojo complacency. Wonderful term.
Just realise we're losing sight of the point of this thread. Sorry Jordan, hope you're still reading. Relax. If you are tense you become 'jumpy' and easy to fake out. Watch the eyes. They will give away an incoming attack, unless the guy is a poker genius. Learn from it. Don't lose your cool and become aggressive. Think about what is happening, and if you get nailed, try to work out how it happened so it doesn't happen next time.
Re: Virtuous Maybe it was his choice of language and it was apparent to me the he made a broad assumption. If that is the way you train with him thats fine, I had no way of knowing that he trains with you. From my perspective it sounded as if he had no experience at all and was just noting an observation and a poor one at that.
My language is no different from many of the shihans I have listened to who say exactly the same thing. That is: many of the people who practice randori (as in multi-opponent free practice) are deluding themselves because frankly many of them could not deal with a commited attack from one person, nevermind 3 or more. My 30 years of martial arts experience says the same thing to me, even though I am only a beginner at Aikido in my 5th year. Please don't talk about me in the 3rd person when you have already addressed me, you obviously took exception to my comments but that is no reason to become insulting. Please remember I was not addressing you when I made my comments about randori and you have already said my comments do not reflect your practice. I fail to see why you keep going on about it.
I was talking to tintin about his explanation of your reply. I did read your follow up post and you seem squite agreeable to the idea. I've been away for a few days so the timing of the post may have made it sound a little ackward. Any ways my post wasnt meant to cause any ill feeling or that of a personal attack...
No offence taken What randori tips would you give? I was being slightly facetious in my original observations, so I apologise.
I've already posted the beginner tips. For example pick one or two techniques before you start and stick with those and add more as you feel comfortable. For real speed randori it is a little different. This is what works best for me. Do not concern yourself with using 'traditional' techniques, rely solely on principals. The technical aspect of a throw during randori should be very loose, alot of compromises will have to be made in order to prepare for the next attacker. You're training should have given you basic tools for recieving and taking balance, this is the time to use those. There is also an issue of speed, the vibe I get from the 'purist' is that things should be done slowly, because if you have an attackers balance he cant attack so why bother to be fast? To a degree I agree with this. But when you are taking down one attack and another one is comming in you dont have the luxury of being slow. You need to match your attacker's speed and maintain it or accelerate it by using smaller circular movements. Throw attackers into would be attackers. If I have all this energy at my disposal (attacker's body) why would I waste it and send it flying off into no where when it could be alot more useful if used to prevent an attack. This to me is alot of fun and I affectionatly call it 'bowling for ukes'. Keep moving, dont stay stationary, this allows attackers to move in on you real fast. Sometimes more than one attacker will come at you at once. You're creativity and intuition will be the only thing that will save you in this scenario. It takes alot of practice and you really need to expose yourself to this kind of intensity in order to get past that panic feeling. If you panic you're toast, this requires a ton of focus and composer. Just so you know I am no expert, I have had my nose bloodied and have out right clobbered in randori when things have gone real bad. It doesnt happen very often but I look at them as painful learning experiences . PS. Glad we got that all squared away
