The guard and it's many uses

Today we went over yep, you guessed it, the guard. This started from conversations on seeing people get someone else into the guard then not knowing what to do with it once they have it. Other than just scissoring someone with it (which seems to almost always be the case if the guard's even being used at all), you have enormous control of your opponent's hips using your legs as hooks. We practiced just keeping the other person off-balance and while a bit tiring, it takes almost no time to effectively learn to use. We also went over kesa gatame and briefly escapes from kesa. One thing I need constant reminding of is that when a hold is done improperly the escapes work, but once it's set and set right, you can't really escape (at least not without GREAT effort). The best defense is always to not get into a bad position in the first place.

Knives, knives, and more knives.......

Last night me and Bryce went over knife evasion techniques and how the affect our Aikido. We did this exercise due to all the knife postings from Pat and Dojorat. First all, knife work makes my Aikido go to crap. It shouldn't, but it does. I get so focused on that wooden spoon we were using as a knife that I can't relax enough to do proper Aikido. This was the lesson Bryce was trying to get across by jabbing me all night and keeping me on edge. I know it sounds simple to say "well just take a deep breath and relax and do proper smooth Aikido" but it didn't work out that way for me. Afterwards he told me I did well and now I know what I need to work on...staying calm. He was also saying that he was told knife randori is about as close as you can get to the real thing because in an actual life and death encounter you'll be a bit stiff and awkward and moving on reflex. Hence the need for constant practice and proper posture training. The exercise was great at showing me how far I've come and how far I need to go though. Any suggestions from anyone reading these posts on other exercises to try?

New Understandings

It never ceases to amaze me how in any martial art, two people can do similar moves, study them and get drastically different results. Last night me and Bryce were up discussing how different people in our organization of Aikido came up with their own unique ideas of how a move should be performed under similar circumstances. For instance, in honasu number 1, Uke grabs Tori's wrist with his opposite hand (so Uke's right hand to Tori's right hand making their arms go across the body). In our version of this Uke is pulling on Tori's wrist so we follow it and step with that motion. In another group, they teach that Uke doesn't pull but squeezes and roots himself to the ground requiring different movements to offbalance him. I'd seen that one before but there was one more that blew my mind how simple it was and that I'd never considered it before. Uke grabs and pulls but Tori steps AWAY straightening the arms and when they become straight he swings his hand inside the body and gently takes Uke's already slipping grip with his other hand turning it into a Kotogaeshi with very little movement. Afterwards we spiraled into a discussion of High School wrestling techniques versus what I've seen Jujitsu guys do that appear to be very similar moves. After an hour or two of that, Enter the Dragon came on tv and that led to a few more hours of how to defend against someone with the speed of Bruce Lee (other than throwing something at him and running away). All in all, a good learning experience. Pat if you're reading this, I won't physically be in McComb for the Aiki Buddy Gathering in June, but I'm sending Andy in my stead with a camera so I won't miss any of the action.

One more thing...

I forgot to add in the last post that me and Bryce also spent around 2 hours (after physical practice) talking about mai and it's relationship to everyone in Aikido and how it changes in Judo. Apparently there are 2 mai distances. There is the Aikido mai where your opponent would have to commit to stepping (or leaping) forward to get you, and there's a passive mai where someone gets about the distance and arm would be before it could hit your face, not your other arm. We played around how differently people react to those two instances. We did a little Judo randori and I've decided that every time I go back home now I'm going to take the video camera to Pat's with me, especially for me and Andy's randori sessions before class so when I get back home I can analyze what I need to work on a bit more objectively. Not so much point out "I should've done this here or that there", but more "Ok I'm leaning in when I'm closing mai, or my posture is horrible as I attempt hip throws". Any other suggestions on improving one's self when not in class (other than the standard repetition of tegatana would be most appreciated.

Long night

First off let me apologize for not posting more often but I haven't done anything other than tegatana for a couple of weeks until last night. Me and Bryce worked for 2 hours straight on the difference between getting real tension to move with, and giving what feels like real tension to GET uke to move with. Basically committed attacks and attacks that look and at first feel real but without any substance. We also went over some ground work and how we use leverage by not collapsing our circular and triangular shapes, but by rotating them but keeping the same shape. All of this came together with a very good speech on staying inside "the box" when facing an opponent. The only exception being in Judo where you can leave the box but only if you take your opponent outside his as well and you can get back to yours first. I unfortunately won't be able to go to the Aiki-Buddies gathering in June but I've gotten a week in July off to head back. My girlfriend wants to know what all this Aikido stuff is so she'll be coming with me so it should be a pretty good couple of classes. I still want to work on multiple attackers when I'm there and movement from the kneeling position.

June Aiki Buddy Gathering

I got the go ahead from work that I'll have the time off to go to the Aiki Buddy weekend in Magnolia in the middle of June. I was looking at Pat's post with the randori videos on it and I realized I've never done any exercises with multiple attackers. Usually (almost always) it's because we just don't have enough bodies in class for this. Hopefully this can be addressed in June. For anyone who has done exercises concerning multiple assailants, how big is the gap between handing one uke and handling 3 or 4?

Got home early today....

Today was the end of Bryce's days off from school so I left work a little early and got some Aikido time in. We briefly ran through Nijusan and concentrated on kote-geshi. Now that I have a DVD of Pat doing Nijusan thanks to my last trip down :) I was able to have a visual on some differences of Bryce's kote-geshi and Pat's Kote-geshi. The most notable difference is that in Pat's version, when Uke reaches the end of the line, Pat doesn't set kote-geshi, but has it in place and holds it while Uke walks into it while keeping the other hand up for shomenate. This technique makes Uke feel like he's walking into a brick wall, he tries to move forward but as he sets kote-geshi on himself he can't keep moving forward. In Bryce's version, Bryce will set kote-geshi at the end of the line and keep moving around the point of contact giving Uke that feeling of having his legs whip out from under him. While this requires more room, it's more fun to do (if not quite as foolproof as Pat's). Then we went into close kote-geshi and far kote-geshi. We finished up with playing around with how often kote-geshi and waki-gatame actually come up in "real life" situations and what to do if for some reason or another the movement from Uke and tori stops (from Tori losing his balance and regaining it or Uke just standing up because Tori wasn't in total control with tension).