Do you remember the time that the chinese students were visiting the martial arts groups in Glasgow Uni trying to intimidate the instructors. At one of our classes one of them was struck in the groin (by accident..NOT). He attempted to leave the mat and was told by Charles.."We still have half an hour to go..sit there!!" That was an aha moment .
Funny enough I remember that incident vaguely, the good old days.I remember that either it was their students or friends that were watching at the door to the dojo and after the so called accident they left. Charles a man of few words...............but effective A good "Ah ha" moment
Bill another good "Ah ha" moment, but due to my memory loss I cannot remember if it was me or Andy Henderson that said it, I am sure you will recall Ah ha moment:- You were giving a demo (I cannot remember where....sorry) and a pain in the ass little so called Glesga tough guy was watching, everytime you threw uke he kept saying it was a fix and he could "take you" this went on a bit and it is then that as I said it was either Andy or myself had had enough and turn to the guy and said " See that guy doing the demo he can kick the s..t out of me, and do you know what I can kick the s..t out of you now either shut up or leave." Exit so called tough guy. A nice "Ah ha" moment
They were outside in a couple of cars when we came out,glaring at us. Jack (cop) and Robert (SAS) wandered over and told them they were illegaly parked. They drove off. later I heard that Robert suggested they could park round the corner. They didn't.
I'd agree with koyo. If your uke hits the floor and doesn't know how he got there? You did it. But I'd like to add if your uke hits the floor and "you" don't know how he got there? You need to pay more attention to what you're doing. Are you by any chance studying a form of Ki Aikido? I ask because this sounds very much like Ki Aikido. Beware old mystics eager to share their "wisdom". Soft techniques do not work in reality the same as they do in the dojo. I currently train with a body builder. He's as big as a house. A good test of what soft technique can actually do. None of the soft techniques worked. Again if something is happening in the dojo while you are applying a technique and you don't understand why? Feel free to study and question what is happening. I'm not sure if uke should be thanking you. But you shouldn't be apologizing either. If uke finds themselves being hit they need to learn to move. My Aikido "ah-ha" moment? Finding a place to train where I can properly study the my chosen style of Aikido.
Well, maybe you don't understand. It's possible that you are the one who doesn't understand... or maybe I didn't explain it well enough. The technique was #4 in Yoshinkan (I don't know the Japanese name), Ikkyo I think, but you turn 180* and take Uke down. Before, I felt like I was pulling him down, or "forcing" the technique to work. After the instruction, I went with his forward momentum into the "spin", and to me it almost felt like he had thrown himself and I was just "guiding" him around. My instructor said he probably felt that it was me who was taking him down. In reality, it's the cliche ying/yang thing, there was no uke or shi'ite, it was just one thing. Don't mean to be cosmic, but that was what I was getting at. Does that clarify? No, I am not by chance studying a form of Ki Aikido. I take Yoshinkan Aikido, one of the most hard styles in Aikido. I think you are presuming WAY too much from one comment about one position in one technique. My instructor was talking about a specific soft hold, which is actually stronger than trying to grip someone like a vice. Maybe you presume / assume too much based on a couple buzz words that trigger something in you from past experiences?
Last Friday at the ATM, I was waiting in line at a very busy location in broad daylight, when 3 very drunk college type guys stumbled up to the ATM. One pulled it out and in front of everyone urinated on one of the 2 ATMs. Everyone stood there, but I confronted him and asked what the F' he thought was doing. They looked at me in shock and I just glared back and said they were F'ing disgusting. They took a few steps back and one said some dumb insult about my haircut. I got my money, prevented a girl from using the defiled ATM, and told the manager - when I went back outside, they were gone. I think it was good to say something to them. The "aha" for me was that just because things didn't breakdown into some physical altercation, I really was using some aikido in terms of, at least from my point of view, speaking out against such behaivior, and holding my ground with no expectations or fear as to what might happen. No one got hurt, I tried to harmonize and deal with the situation, and it naturally just dissapated. Was that Aikido?
Technique #4 is yonkyo (or yonkajo, if you want the Yoshinkan-specific spelling ). Ikkyo (yup, ikkajo) is technique #1. EDIT: I don't think wolfie meant any harm, just that some of us get a little "nervous" when we hear cosmic sounding explanations, because they often come from "mystic aiki-bunnies" (or as I like to call them, ki-hippies :evil. I for one am put off when I hear such things, especially because my Coach doesn't talk in terms of "take energy out of him, now put it back into him", he explains "muscle x is doing thus and such". At a recent seminar, one of the visiting senseis was demonstrating unbendable arm, and made a comment about "staring out into the universe". Those words put me on my guard because I always do my best to make sure I'm learning practical Aikido, not some mystic dance; thankfully her Aikido was good, in spite of the somewhat cosmic sounding explanation. The point is, simple and practical explanations are usually best - easier to follow, with less chance of someone trying to twist your words and put a mystic spin on them.
heh im fairly new to Aikido (A few weeks) as such every lesson is full of ah ha! moments Anyway spinmaster's example reminded me of a teacher giving a course and his guiness examples for pretty much everything he did =). The weekend course was just amazing as a beginner being able to see higher grades getting ah ha! moments on techniques was really something I enjoyed. There's always more to learn or a way to do something better!
So you understand how or why the technique works or you don't? If you don't then you need to pay more attention to what you are doing. I'm not making any assumptions. Which is why I asked the question. And yes certain buzz words and phrases or methods of teaching do trigger things from past experiences. Rather than use the term soft, I prefer to tell people to find a happy medium between being tense and relaxed.
