I like this dude.

Pat has posted a couple of videos on this guy: Robert Sharpe. The videos are great to watch, very informative in their own right, but (as Pat said on his blog) if you substitute aiki or aikido into his discussion it comes out as a great lesson for us aiki guys. I wish there was more to find on this guy, i like his personality and his philosophy on what he does and the world around him is definitely worthy of note.

Enough of my gabbing, here's the one i wanted to show first(since that link apparently has every freaking one of them). This one is part of the interview that relates who he is and what he's done:





And this is an example of one that you can throw aikido into what he's talking about, he's talking about tai chi push hands and randori can be interchangeable with much of it:




Anyway, i like the videos ( reiteration ) and i think you should go watch them all. Yes even the capoeria ones.

The things i think i understand

I went to Sensei Charles' class again last night and here are two points that stuck with me:

1. Get my hands involved with forward rolling.



2. Have confidence that the technique will work.

After reading the email that john forwarded him Sensei Charles wanted to go over again why he also teaches aikikai ukemi at his dojo. Demonstration: concrete sans mats. A perfect arena to make a full roll to standing. I have to say i was somewhat nervous to try it out, akin to them moving the floor and revealing a shallow indention full of burning hot coals, but after seeing them do it i had to try. I have to say i didn't do bad, i could use some work....but i didn't dive right into the ground like a mangled airplane either.

I've always had problems with getting into a roll and coming up to standing. Putting my feet into a different position than i've been trying seems to work out. (duh, right?) I'm not saying the other fall is some kind of archaic false religion now, by no means, just at the moment it seems to me how the foot and hand slap helps more with airfalls than with forward rolls. It also helped me to look at the roll as something continuous till the end. With the other way i was trying to do it, my momentum would stop fully down on the mat and i would then push myself up over my extended leg to get up. With the new roll i just keep on moving, my arms come in at the right time and guide my momentum (i.e. large bulk) up off the ground.

My final theory is, using the way John put it; Aikikai = forward rolls, Kodokan = air fall recovery. All theories are subject to change due to me only being a sankyu. And just as a disclaimer the Fugakukai way is taught at the dojo.

As we went through Nijusan, it was neat to look at it from the angle of "As you create the offbalance, they will generally go a certain way, so don't worry about it, clear your mind for what happens next." I think this comes from a different idea/perspective and the experience of having done this for a little while. It's took me a little while to really see what it meant, but like in ushiro ate if you aiki brush them off to the side uke will move from point a to point b and that's when the throw takes place. So do the brush off and the rest falls into place.

Last night was the last chance i'll get to go to Sensei Charles' class, as i'll be moving back to Mississippi this weekend, but i definitely enjoyed the time i did get to spend at his dojo and the classes gave me a lot of things to noodle over. If anyone is in the kissimmie, fl area you should definitely check out his dojo.

Oh, and read this....

I dug this story and wanted to link share. All credit goes to AikiThoughts.

Dharmakaya Aikido

After months of false starts and schedule animosity John and i finally headed down to the Kissimmie, FL area to see Sensei Charles Crist at his dojo. His dojo is in his garage which was cool to us given out little slice of heaven downstairs and Pat's dojo back home...the Fugakukai tradition continues.

Sensei Charles is a great guy and even better teacher. The class started off with ukemi and his students are AWESOME at it. I have to say when it came to my turn i was a little intimidated. They were all very fluid in their motion and came right back up and rolled right back down again. I have seriously got to practice more, it was a clear view of what i need to aim for.

Next we did tegatana but the switch from what we're used to came in the form of doing it by the count. It was a different tempo to attempt and i found myself looking around once or twice to make sure i was on the right foot or hadn't skipped ahead by accident.

Then came nijusan. I really enjoyed this part of class (which luckily lasted the rest of the session). Tori would step out on the mat and the rest of the students would line up and attack with a straight arm to the chest at what Sensei Charles called "actual speed". It was a different animal from measuring off at ma'ai and making a single step/lunge forward but i dug it. Shomen ate, Aigamae ate, and gyaku gamae ate were all easy for me to go through but gedan ate, the black sheep, reared it's head again. As we lined up for it i was curious to see how they were able to use the technique in the midst of all this dynamic movement and avoidance. The way they practice it is different from ours...but i think (because i'm able to make this work much better) that it's more effective. It involves the same idea...a "failed" attempt at gyaku gamae ate but instead of getting under the arm for a bumping off balance it uses uke's other arm being turned over the first to cause him to air fall onto the ground.

The one we practice the most often, Sensei Charles said, seems to work best as a linear move instead of happening in the parameters of what their type of nijusan creates. He still has the regular version of it up on his techniques page and all of them are worth looking at.

Afterwards we talked about aikido and whatnot and said our goodbyes. I walked away with a refreshed sense of aikido. Our time in class gave me another opportunity to see how aikido works no matter how it's approached and a few new ideas to use when i travel back home next week.

And soreness...jeeze it's been a while since i've practiced.

Woot!

It's my birthday!

A different kind of aikido.

Well, it's been (almost) a month since my last post and there hasn't been anything to report since then. With current circumstances being what they are where i live, these days i don't see my aikido training staying a continuing practice the way it has been in the past i.e. going to the dojo and getting to practice with an uke on even an occasional schedule. I used to worry about that kind of situation happening and my aikido sliding into atrophy but i realize even going it alone a lot of aiki training can still be maintained without a training partner. Tegatana, our aikido style's walking kata that demonstrates the basics of evasion, can (of course) be done solo and with the different thoughts behind it I can keep staying out of the way of an attack fresh in my mind.

Ukemi, falling practice, is something i've been uncomfortable with in the past and though i have a long way to go to make it a second hand idea or an automatic response i'm getting there. Another solo practice it may be (who needs an uke to roll?) it's one that i actually need to do more regularly... tegatana can be broken down into segments and done "out in the world" where you wont get cross looks but if someone clear out of the blue decided to fall backwards to one side or the other you tend to feel like an odd duck. My current (much after the new year) resolution is to get into the habit of doing some ukemi practice since i have to set it aside just to find a place to do it easily/safely.

Well that's all well and good, but the title of this post hints at i've been mentally noodling over what's still aikido when actually physical practice isnt involved. This is the point where i think everyday aikido comes into play, the aikido you use by rolling with life and blending with the occasional hard knock and getting along with the people you come across.

The Way of Harmony a guy named Ueshiba talked about once.

You may be familiar with it.

The philosophical parts some may gloss over entirely or focus on exclusively. Their or your call.

It was never a driving goal for me, but the spiritual side (if you'll allow) seems to have popped up over the time i've been in aikido as a by-product of the whittling away of anxiety over learning something like the kind of martial art aikido is, looking silly, not getting it right aways - name your poison. The training that you place on yourself that gets Andy(insert your name here) at white belt to Andy at brown belt and beyond.

So even though i don't have a good destination for that train of thought to end up at the moment in the confines of this post i am working on it. Enjoying the knowledge that i'm handling life better that previous and the understanding that aikido had a part to play in it. It may not be fighting an army of Agent Smiths but i think it's the aikido that we end up practicing much longer in the end than the martial side.

Thoughts?

Merry Christmas

It's been a while since i've updated and both John and I are looking forward to posting about our training and ideas but i just wanted to say Merry Christmas to everybody. Here's hoping that the year ahead fosters peace on earth and good will towards everyone.

I claim the first dojo injury

It was bound to happen sooner or later....you go to a martial art class long enough and eventually, as the man says, "the bar eats you". Tonight for our session we had both Beleek and Beau (the aforementioned absent class mate) down in the dojo for some judo. John had us go over a new judo throw, deashi harai, we all did a few reps of that. Then we moved on to ground work. John went over the mount and guard positions and ways to manuever our of being scisored. Then we went on to some simple sparring where the idea was to simply roll around and try to gain position but it escilated. I got a knee to the mouth. I still gots mah teeth, but i have three holes in my upper lip now. Bitting down on a sock with ice in it to stop the bleeding, John snaged a pic of it so im sure it'll be up on the net tomorrow.

Let's try something different.

Last night's workout was a lot of fun. We started out by doing a quick go over of ko soto gari, i wanted to make sure i still had the basics of the throw from the other night. I still remember how the throw goes, woo!

Next we went through tegatana, nothing especially new there this time around. We forgot Pat's jumpy jelly leg syndrome exercise but we're going back to the dojo tonight and that's one of the things we'll work on.

Next John wanted to work on a judo throw who's name escapes me at the moment. I'm sure he'll be describing it in his next post.

After i had gotten off the mat several times we moved on to the first five of Ni ju san:

1. Shomen ate
2. Aigame ate
3. Gyaku gamae ate
4. Gedan ate
5. Ushiro ate

These first five are all striking techniques and i had been noodling over the idea for the last few days of changing the exercise up a bit from the way we normally do it just for a change of pace from the established way and...well...mainly just to see what would happen. Instead of uke making a straight armed forward attack from mai as usual, after checking mai and tori dropping his hand (signaling he's ready for the attack) uke brings his hand straight back to his shoulder then pushes it back out as he steps forward. Not quite a punch granted but the fact the arm, and especially a hand, visually seems to be "coming at you" was a load of fun to avoid during ni ju san.

Our mantra of "getting the hell out of the way" was a quicker and more automatic response with a different simulated attack thrown into the mix. Another thing we both noticed was that the initial off balance became a more "final" maneuver if uke was totally committed to the attack (which an attacker may or may not have a recover step in their game plan when they're trying to kick your ass and i'm wondering how different your body's natural recover step will react vs. a deliberate attempt to right one's self) and the technique often ended there if we were devoted enough into dropping the attacking arm into the hole between their feet. When the techniques DID continue they often produced spectacular results. We did tweak a few things every now and then, making sure tori stayed close to uke and aigame ate works better if you wait for it instead of just stiff arming your buddy in the head whenever, but over all pretty kewl beans.

After that John wanted to work on some ideas he had about being attacked in the guard and from the guard. He's been thinking on different ground work ideas he's come up with while watching UFC and other MMA shows where the opponent on the ground generally gets pounded instead of tying up the arms or simply shrimping side to side to avoid the attack entirely. Now this is not generally the case but i've seen it happen alot on TV (which is always a great meter stick to judge your ideas). I strapped on some gloves to be the uke on this one, and while i'll let John describe the whole thing in his words when he posts on it i will say i was pretty amazed at the ease someone can simply shrimp out of the way of an attack. The guy in the mount has to change his posture if he wants to attack someone in the guard which facilitates an easy block or evasion. It's a weird point where aikido and judo get close to the same thing in relation to being attacked.

I'm going to TRY and get some pictures up for some stuff soon. I think our dojo would definitely fall under a Dojo Rat heading. Nothing beats having an automatic door rise up as you approach your inner sanctum.

The difference between 1 and 1

John and i got some practice in the other night. We warmed up and went through tegatana (the walking kata we practice that teaches the basic evasions) a couple of times, the first runthrough as a warm up then the second go round we emphasised the idea of keeping our feet under our rears. It was interesting to see how different we each did the first attempt. I suppose it shows what we've each gotten used to and how we comfortably interpret the motions when we're not shaking things up.

Next we went straight to nijusan (the 23 main forms as it's called, all dealing with the forward attack of a single uke) and after clearing up the misunderstanding of which technique John wanted to work on we did several reps of both shomenate and the initial offbalance that proceeds the techniques throught the rest of the kata. John's interest was focused on where our initial step off the line places us when doing the shomen ate and how the second foot ends up (John may have to correct me on this):

1) Uke attacks; tori side steps off the line avoiding the attack at the same time as uke's forward foot lands with the second foot coming up underneath then face uke's center and a push forward,

OR

2) Uke attacks; tori's sidestep ends with him already in postition to shomenate uke and he pushes forward.

As i typed this i realized that the same number of foot movements occured in both versions we tried. John's shomen ate leaned more towards the first, while mine favored the second idea but we came to the conclusion that both worked.

I'm going to have to start asking Pat for his long distance training tip of the week.

Solo Training is still training.

In the absense of a training partner (John's pretty busy) i've reverted back to my can't-go-to-McComb method of training. This time around though i get to add some ukemi practice to my routine thanks to the mats we have in our makeshift dojo in the garage downstairs. So on top of the triangle rolls i'm doing straight off the mat (both backward and forward) in the half hour or so before i get prepared for work i'm also doing"

• Toothbrush tegatana (One of Pat's super secret training techniques)
• Wall brush offs (these still get odd looks at work, i don't know why)
• The easy floor push offs for getting off the ground without so much strain on the knees (making a bridge with your legs and pushing off the ground up and over the gap between them, it's great for stocking shelves on the bottom and then getting right back up) = this one i'm repeating over and over so i can make it a more automatic idea then pushing up with my knees after a breakfall

One of the things i've noticed as of late that i thought was (maybe) worth a mention was moving your weight onto the balls of your feel during the day, especially if you're standing around or walking on them all day. It really helps with sore feet and it gives me the opportunity to take a step or two from tegatana. As you've stretched up on both feet, you can pick a hip to disengage for a overexagerated example of the evasion movements we practice.

(P.S. Didnt realize my link to Aikithoughts wasn't working. It's fixed now so go check it out if you havent already! Check out the one on blending he did recently. Sorry aikithoughts dude!)

I made it to Florida!

First post since moving in and getting settled down and so far i'd have to say i'm enjoying myself. John and i haven't specifically done aiki yet, my schedule had to be ironed out and i've spent my free time just checking out some of the sites and and what not. All i have of note aikido wise is that which is pool oriented. I played around with tegatana in the pool and to a plesant discovery the falling forward method of movement (disengaging the forward foot and "falling" in that direction) works wonderfully in a pool. Something that would be a unique way of getting a new student to understand and expeiriance that concept. Another thing that came to mind was that if you use your lungs to correct your posture (ala feldenkrais) during tegatana becomes another thing that's easier to expeierence in a pool. I shared these tidbits of idea with John and he seemed to dig them. So if you want to do some rather effective tegatana just go for a swim.

Hopefully in the next few days John and i can get back in a regular training schedule for both aikido and judo. More updates later.

Winds of change.

Last post i was in the frame of mind to put together a post about perfection in aikido, trying to weigh the pros and cons which might have ended up into some sort of andy vs. self solo discussion on old school aikido vs. new aikido. I would have tried my best to get my point across on all of this, eventually saying that wether you learn aikido rigidly going through 1,000 move or the dojo you train at experiments and what-not it's still aikido. It would have been an insightful post (if anyone could keep up with my scatterbrain).

All of that will not be appearing in this post.

Woosh. (That would be the aforementioned wind of change, just go with me on this)

I'm moving to Florida. That has taken up a huge part of my mental storage space the last few weeks as the idea has taken shape from concept to actually happening next thursday (the 18th of october). Yikes would be an understatement. I'll be moving in with ol' John, my best friend and also student of Pat. We'll be getting to train practically everyday and there are several dojos (dojoes? sp?) in the area to attend as well. The downside is i feel like a heel. I like learning at my dojo. Now i'll be learning with new people and under new teachers, probably always wondering "How would Pat approach this". I'm leaving home territory to learn from them! I think the culture shock is going to get to me, plus as i progress i can't even see myself getting rank tests from anyone else? Has anyone else had to undergo sensei transplant? What is that like, learning a certain way of doing things, even inside the same organization, and then going somewhere else where everything could be (God forbid!) different?

These are the things i ponder at the moment. Well, that and all the chances i'll get to help John with his ukemi ;-)

Isn't the blogsphere great?

I found this while i was wandering around the Aikido oriented websphere and i wanted to share it. The whole blog at Aikithoughts is pretty insightful. Somethimg else i wanted to bring to someone's attention is this article at Martial Views. I think the second most difficult thing someone taking aikido faces, after falling, is the idea that it doesn't have to be perfect to be effective. That, in fact, the search for perfection might actually get in the way of achieving functional, comfortable aikido. This is only my thinking btw, and only applies to my experience. I'm going to try and collect my thoughts on that and make a post about it later.

Just an update to keep things current and to invite discussion.

I just wanted to link to these two things from Pat's blog. His post about Rhadi Ferguson is pretty interesting and i wanted to keep track of the discussion on forward rolls since it's something i struggle with. I doubt i'm the hub of anyone's blog perusal, but if so check them out.

Way of the Warrior - Aikido and Kendo Pt4

Way of the Warrior - Aikido and Kendo Pt3

Way of the Warrior - Aikido and Kendo Pt2

Major point of interest in this one is his ideas on "cultural movement". I really enjoyed the insight of it. It's not something one thinks of often but it's so true. His insight on the difference in breathing is another good thing to listen to, i thought.

Way of the Warrior - Aikido and Kendo Pt1

Aikido on thursdays

I made it to class last night, and we went through the usual tegatana and hanasu. Pat is turning those into general warm-up practices instead of actively working on them in class. We worked on oshi taoshi, kote gaeshi and kote hineri by first breaking down the initial off balance and getting the feel for how uke is balanced and which direction he could be leading the technique. It also helped illuminate how timing effects both tori's and uke's positioning.

For anyone curious as to how these techniques begin (if anyone's reading) all of the moves in this kata (where oshi taoshi, kote gaeshi and kote hineri can be found) begin by checking mai and uke moving in with a shomenate. As uke moves in, tori responds by making a small forward step, his hands raised to guide uke's shomenate off his line of attack facing into the gap created between his feet.

One of the two main ways this will end up (if i'm not mistaken) is either uke's off balance will leave him "idling" on the balls of his feet with his mass leaning in some direction or he'll get his footing right after the "push" and that will leave him flat footed and stable.

Anyhoo, we worked with those three techniques for quite a bit...how they work and interact with each other. This all ended up in some cool sensitivity drills akin to the tai chi push hands exercises. All in all another good class.