Solo Exercises for Aikido

On the days you don't train in a dojo, what kind of aikido exercises do you do on your own? I would like to add something to improve my aikido to my regular workouts.

 

practice with a bokken. teaches you so much in regards to aikido.

 

Aiki-taiso are great exercises (rowing exercise, ikkyo undo, te kubi kosa, the tenkan practices...there are so many of them you could easily make up an hour solo work out doing those alone). They are actually a form of chi gong, also called ki ko in Japanese.

Add in 30-40 forward rolls, and 30-40 backward rolls (I like to avoid using my hands to push me up from the ground, it's a better workout, and leaves the hands free for more important uses).

Also, as Giovanni mentions, bokken practice is great as is jo practice.

You are easily looking at an hour to an hour and a half work out...add in some stretching, say a good twenty minutes, and that will put you at about an hour and a half.

 

Can you suggest anything specific with regards to individual bokken and jo training?

 

start with basic suburi (cutting) then move on to adding movement. have your instructor show you some exercises. start slow concentrating on how bokken translates to empty hand techniques. this will be important later if/when your instructor shows atemi.

bokken work really, really helped me in the short time i did aikido. so much to learn...posture, breathing, movement, atemi, attacking/defending...

 

I also like to practice 1000 bokken cuts sitting in seiza. Takes about twenty minutes to do them, and is also great practice sitting in seiza, then I follow with some happo undo (8 direction exercise) cuts in a variety of forms...left leg forward, right leg forward, alternating right/left legs and so on.

I'll usually do about 80 (10 sets of 8) of each of those just for fun, and mostly to loosen up my legs from sitting in seiza. (Especially on the days when I do a 15-20 minute warm up all from seiza, including wrist stretches, and then follow with the bokken cuts for a total of 35-40 minutes in seiza).

I do this in addition to my training in the dojo, but these are all exercises one can and should be definately doing at home. You will see your own skill improving a lot quicker (relatively) than if all you trained was when you attended the dojo.

EDIT: For the Jo, I like to do similar exercises using Happo Undo, or I mostly practice the 21 Jo Kata a couple times on both sides.
Another fun training is to actually have a target in which to strike. I have taken an old jo of mine, stuck it in the ground, and practiced striking the top of it with either another jo or bokken. Great accuracy drills, and you get a nice feeling of a rewarding solid connection upon contact. Be sure to use your cheap weapons set for this...you can also just have someone in the family hold the weapon for you to strike the tip of, if they are up for it.

As for the 1000 bokken cuts, you might want to build up to it...you know set a goal of say 200 and do that for a couple weeks, then go up to 300 for a couple weeks, then bump it up to 500 for a good 3 or 5 weeks and so on.

 

Sadly, I don't have enough room at home to practise techniques and throw an uke around but here's what I can do

Kihon Doza. 6 Basic Movements from Yoshinkan. I repeat them over and over

Suburi Bokken cuts both standing and in seiza

Various Bokken, Jo and Tanto katas. Done at quite a fast pace so you get a sweat on (just watch your light fittings!).

I try to do something at home every day

 

Please bear in mind...

Studying outside of the dojo environment is all well and good however, if you're engaging in poor or improper methods this will only develop equally poor and improper habits which will be harder to correct later by your instructor.

I suppose my point is; ensure you understand how to correctly perform (or at least the basis of) what you want to practice away from the dojo so that you develop good habits and form.

If you're practicing with a bokuto or jo, understand the emphasis between development of technique for yourself as an individual and, with a partner should be the same.

My regards to everyone.

Dave

 

We're kind of getting off-topic here.

My goal here is to find exercises I can do at home without a partner that will help my aikido. Aikiken, as I see it (i'm an ASU guy), is a tool for improving my aikido, not an art to be cultivated for its own sake. So it's a waste of time for us to argue about the subtlties of swordsmanship except insofar as they can be applied to aikido as a whole.

 

Without sounding unhelpful, you should ask your instructor what exercises he/she considers useful for you at your current level of skill/grade and to ensure you don't deviate from the ASU method of training.

 

The trouble is, my dojo is an ASU dojo that used to be a USAF dojo that was founded by a sensei who predates both and was a student of Akira Tohei Sensei and Koichi Tohei Shihan (before the Ki Society). Every one of my instructors has a noticeably different method of teaching and training from the others, and none of them are pure ASU. So in short, I'm already completely screwed in terms of staying on the ASU straight and narrow.

 

I hate to say it but.. That's gendai budo for you and, one of the pitfalls of studying a system which for the vast majority, is wide open to entirely personal interpretation.

 

Actually, I wasn't particularly helpful in my last reply to you on this point.

Ok here's my second run at this issue and taking the style/method/organisation/lineage issues of of this equation for a moment here's what I'd be saying to you if you were my student expressing an interest in doing some home study in between dojo keiko.

I'd be looking at your current experience and skill levels, listening to what you're asking (IE you want to study at home, what should I be doing?) then offering you suggestions on solo training which meets your ability and fits with the training syllabus within the dojo.

As a teacher I'd want to see you practice the [whatever skills] which would be practised at home to ensure you understand the kihon aspects and that you're on the right track.

What I cannot give you on a faceless forum on the internet is a list or suggestion of techniques or training methods because I'm not your teacher. I may be a little stuck in my ways on this issue but, at the end of the day, you have a student-instructor relationship with your teacher, he/she is responsible for your development in aikido until such point you go your separate ways.

Dave

 

here are a couple of exercises that seems to be part of a new trend in Aiki arts

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NITuqK0fqIk"]YouTube - Shiko-Tenchijin Aunkai seminar in Paris december 2009[/ame]

According to a book by Ellis Amdur and the opinions of certain people in the Aiki community there are a number of exercises that seem to have "gone missing" or been kept back or "hidden in plain sight" as the title of the book suggests. The idea seems to be is that they where in Daito Ryu, Ushiba learnt them, but didn't pass them on.

I don't have a view on this one way or the other, but do have an interest in the exercises and the story is quite an interesting one anyway. I personally havn't read this book yet, but have heard from others posting on forums who have.. I've even signed up for an upcoming seminar in the uk with one of the guys teaching these exercises, a certain Dan Harden. Some of you may know of him? Should be interesting, and I'm quite looking forward to comparing how it matches up with and feels against Chinese Methods that I've been exposed to.

 

Try the book I mentioned, as I said I'm relaying information from other people. So it won't necessarily be accurate or reliable. I havn't memorized it for scutiny or an internet investigation tribunal. It may not be that the exercises or all of them where in DR. Perhaps I worded that wrong "they were in DR" , but I think what is being suggested is that Takeda, Sokaku had these exercises and it's what powered their technique and made them formidable and respected amongst JMA'ists, same goes for Ueshiba.

It's a theory that some people in the Aiki community or thereabouts seems to be running with. I'm not one of those people, just a curious spectator.

You're welcome to have an opinion about it, and more than welcome to share it. But Ellis Amdur claims to have done some research and written a book about it, so you might want to check out his book for more information on what you ask for.

 

I thought this thread was for discussing solo exercises for Aikido Scott?

Out of respect for the thread starter and other MAP users viewing the thread under its given title and topic, maybe you could take your off topic chat or questions to your own new thread ?

Some people might actually want to discuss solo exercises suitable for Aikido. Rather than things that have no direct relation to that topic. such as:

Thanks.

So getting back to the actual topic of the thread: has anyone here practiced for example shiko or tenchijin or any other solo exercises for aikido. If so, How did you find them, both as solo exercises and in relation to Aiki arts ?

 

Thanks mate.. my issue isn't with Amdur for whom I hold a great deal of respect.

Scott start an entirely new thread a suggested and we'll look at your questions

 

Cloudz, I guess you ignored this:

A simple 'yes, own thread' would've sufficed.

 

Well.. It's interesting that you say you have issues. Maybe you have the same ones I did, when some of these posters from the Aiki boards posted their own brand of "internal" rhetoric on a CIMA board I frequent.

If your issue is something else you'd rather not discuss or is something off topic then, no worries.

 

yep, sorry - I totally ignored it Scott.