Saturday night-aikido time! We practiced a series of wazas, but one really stuck out in my mind. It's one of those irminage technques but instead of dropping of the opponent, we guide them onto our knee. It looks a bit like pro-wrestling and is great fun.
I was practicing with a young woman who is new to aikido and a bit unsure of herself. She had difficulty maintaining a straight posture. My 90 kilos didn't help, I might add. She dropped me repeatedly, usually onto herself. Particpants and observers enjoyed the comedic value of the situation.
As I tried the waza with her I had two points to consider. Can I do the waza correctly without injuring this person who is not quite ready to be thrown/dropped? Apparently, yes I can. Going slowly allowed me to focus and improve my own posture while making sure I didn't injure her. The grandmothers present complimented me on my kindness.
Nietzsche said that kindness was a warrior's greatest virtue as it represented his ability to control, even conquer, himself. I could have jumped into the waza gungho and potentially injured my partner (or myself). Instead I went slowly, concentrating on my form and my partner's safety. That was a win-win situation for both of us. Lots of fun, too.
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Sunday, November 04, 2007
Following the Current-November 3, 2007
Another gap in posting, sorry folks. Long story short, my job for the past four years or so has gone straight into the toilet. Shady stock deals, delayed wages, eminent bankruptcy. Good times indeed. I was reminded of a book on stock investing which said that one can not control the market, only how we react to the market. True indeed. Do we panic when attacked in the dojo? No, we perform a waza and throw the attacker. Same thing here.
Back to aikido. Friday morning. Sensei was working with us two new black belts on katatedori nikkyo and sankyo. We spent just over an hour going over every little detail of two basic wazas. Shed a new light on techniques I have been practicing for years.
The key here is to follow the contours and movements of the opponent. If we fight the m, we lose control. One of my mistakes is that I twist the aite's wrist too much when doing sankyo. It hurts them and they move out of my path and it becomes more difficult to complete the waza. Like overreacting to a minor fluctuation in the stock market, I try too hard and focus on the wrong thing. Instead of twisting their wrist, thus forcing them to spin out of range, we should tenkan and control them as we bring them down to the mat. Matching our knee to their shoulder, we gain total control over them.
Another issue was how we treat other students. With less experienced partners we should do the waza properly, but also keep in mind that a new student is not accustomed to being twisted like that. Second key point was varying our reaction to different body types. I have found that some people's arms are difficult to twist in nikkyo. Some will twist harder, but that is a sloppy technique. Painful and dangerous for the aite. Instead we can simply raise their arm away from their shoulder to achieve the same result.
Again there is no need to fight. We simply need to control and vary our reactions. This latest practice came at a turbulent time in my life outside of the dojo. Perfect timing.
Back to aikido. Friday morning. Sensei was working with us two new black belts on katatedori nikkyo and sankyo. We spent just over an hour going over every little detail of two basic wazas. Shed a new light on techniques I have been practicing for years.
The key here is to follow the contours and movements of the opponent. If we fight the m, we lose control. One of my mistakes is that I twist the aite's wrist too much when doing sankyo. It hurts them and they move out of my path and it becomes more difficult to complete the waza. Like overreacting to a minor fluctuation in the stock market, I try too hard and focus on the wrong thing. Instead of twisting their wrist, thus forcing them to spin out of range, we should tenkan and control them as we bring them down to the mat. Matching our knee to their shoulder, we gain total control over them.
Another issue was how we treat other students. With less experienced partners we should do the waza properly, but also keep in mind that a new student is not accustomed to being twisted like that. Second key point was varying our reaction to different body types. I have found that some people's arms are difficult to twist in nikkyo. Some will twist harder, but that is a sloppy technique. Painful and dangerous for the aite. Instead we can simply raise their arm away from their shoulder to achieve the same result.
Again there is no need to fight. We simply need to control and vary our reactions. This latest practice came at a turbulent time in my life outside of the dojo. Perfect timing.
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