Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Aikido in Poulsbo
I'll keep this brief because I want to make a video clip or two to demonstrate the cool stuff I learned. First off, everyone at the class was super friendly and cool. It never ceases to amaze me how family-like the Fugakukai always feels. It doesn't matter what part of the country or who it is, everyone always welcomes you with open arms and I couldn't dream of wanting it any other way. Ok that being said, there were a few differences (as there always are) between what I've been doing, and how they do things up north. Let me say different is not synonymous with bad, different is good. We had lots of space so instead of starting at Ma ai, we started 12-15 ft apart and I got to experience uke crossing into ma ai, which is something I haven't worked on in a while. Also, we did all the techniques left handed as well as right, which is also something I haven't done in a while and I'm glad to get the full thing now. Aigamae ate and gedan ate are the meat of what I want to talk about. Aigamae ate as we've been working on it at Pat's (second part of the video) started with the off balance, then a clock-wise turn as you drop out of the way behind the arm and then the hand to the face. The way we do it up here is still with the off balance then a counter clock-wise turn (kind of like in Owaza) which puts Uke right into Tori's hand. The thing to notice is the different directions of the spin after the off-balance. Gedan ate would probably be easier with the video clip but basically the only difference in how I did it at Pat's and how it's done here is the timing. At Pat's we seen to push through uke, and here there's a spot where we rise with uke but don't continue to step around behind him which causes uke to step into tori and it puts tori right into position where all he has to do is drop his weight. I know the video is not gedan ate, but gyaku gamae ate, it's just that it's the closest video I could find to demonstrate. The point I wanted to make is how Karl about 7 secs in doesn't continue around, but rises and uke just ends up where he needs to be. The SAME thing can happen with gedan ate you're just a little lower and rising up uke's body and he just falls into place. Comments? Oh and if you're reading this Pat, I invented this new way of doing things. Karl just copied me and put videos online (don't say anything Sensei Sheehy, let me have this).
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2 comments:
the aigamaeate that you are talking about is what karl shows on the video and it is very close to what we learned coming up thru the ranks at msu. but so far as me teaching it at my club to my students, I think it is a variation and not the central idea of the technique.
you know, a technique can sort of be like a bell curve where more robust, workable variations are in the middle and less workable or more special-purpose techniques are on the tails of the curve. For kata i wanted to do the back- around version that we always work on because it seems to me to illustrate the center of that technical spectrum.
also, for the most part, nijusan is supposed to be about otoshi and that variant you are talking about is sort of a guruma expression of the aigamae idea. Not really a damning reason not to do it that way but it is a little inconsistent.
I think that the main reason i do aigamae the way i do instead of doing it that way is because that way is included in my way. that variant you are talking about is the first possible timing instance on that outside motion path for aigamae to happen.
Again, though, what they are doing is not wrong. Do it their way in their club and you'll learn a lot! you already know that.
and regarding gedan, I'm sure that your miraculous way is just what i've been telling you to do for years. If you guys would actually listen to me for a change and do what I say you would have mastered that technique 4 years ago ;-)
seriously, though, karl demonstrated a variant of gedan in a chain a few years ago that involves rising like your talking about. it was amazong, almost like tossing uke straight up, or lifting and letting uke's feet slip like a footsweep. but i've never yet been able to duplicate that, so we've mostly continued on our same idea about gedan. and it works pretty good so i havent worried about it too much.
john, you seem to prefer another variant of gedan like we used to play it some years back. but i think that variant is enclosed in the kata form we are doing. once you offbalance uke like you always did, if he pulls back to runs into you or seems offbalance toward his far foot. step directly into that far foot then drop thru uke. if anything goes wrong with that then you don't want to bei n front of him, so turn out behind like we practice now.
We do both versions in our dojo. It is just a matter of your timing.
If you are on time and manage to get a hip switch before uke's lands a second foot, you're good to go.
If you're late, you can lead uke in a circle and you'll get another chance at the off-balance and the hip switch into aigamaeate.
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