Halloween Aikido

Worked on some more halloween "themed" techniques today.

Worked on rolls with two possible new students.  While they were shown how to do a proper roll we practiced our front rolls, back rolls, front to back rolls and rolls with Tonto's.

The first technique we worked on was a knife strike Shomen style with a blade that played the Psycho knife theme music.  While the knife attack comes from the Shomen we deflect it to the side of us and bringing the blade down and across their leg pass it into a Sankyo lock.  This is important to remember keeping the blade away from your body and passing it across theirs.  If you don't emphasize this you would end up still getting cut and possibly worse if their blade comes loose at you.

Zombie grab with a weave defense.  As the attacker comes to grab with both hands your hand weaves between theirs and knocks one down and then feeds the upper hand into the other for a Nikyo or Sankyo.  This was really cool as Josh Sensei showed this technique.  As the grab comes in from Uke, Nage steps back a bit to draw in the attack whilst the right hand comes across and knocks their left hand down whilst "weaving" over to the right hand and drawing this into a Sankyo lock and a shot to the ribs whilst passing under them.  For Nikyo the hand is simply drawn into the shoulder where the pressure for Nikyo is them applied to their locked up wrist.

Grab from behind to pull them into the dark abyss (one hand wraps body other goes around mouth).  Nage strikes with an elbow to the stomach and grabs their hand from the mouth to put them into a Sankyo.  This one was the classical helpless character is grabbed from the darkness and dragged away.  When Uke grabs around the body and is going to cover the mouth Nage turns and delivers an elbow to the gut which should loosen Uke's grip a bit.  During this window, depending on which way you turn, one of their hands should be lower than the other and near your hands.  This is the arm that is grabbed and continues with the turn you are doing to lock in the Sankyo.  It is important to drop your center when you feel the grab and not to resist and tighten up.  When you elbow them you will naturally turn your body one way, this is the direction you should continue turning in when you apply Sankyo.

Worked on Zombie style randori where the only attack was a double grab the the throat or collar (kinda like zombies walking around during an apocalypse!!).  This was a nice spin on a randori session and was still very exhilarating even though everyone was doing the same attack.  It was no less beneficial and education for me to practice staying calm and evading attackers.  Keeping them from surrounding you is very important and trying to line up the Uke's so they can't all get at you is important and I need to work on that some more.

Some New Exercises

Worked on rowing exercise (Funekogi Undo), corkscrew exercise and then applying that to technique.  The "corkscrew" exercise is applying an Ikkyo Undo motion with a 360 rotation and ending as if you had Uke's arm and used it to pin them down.  The rowing exercise is an extension of the arms from the center power source, and should not just be you throwing your arms out.  they should stay connected and drawing from your center to keep you balanced throughout the entire motion.  We worked on this a lot at NFA as well and I think it is a great exercise for helping to feel that extension from your body's core and not just using your arms and excess power.

Did the mirroring technique into a throw where you setup your arm like a roll and extend through their elbow making sure to keep your center lined up on them and focused in the direction in which you are throwing them.  This seems simple but it can be difficult to remember to setup that curved arm under theirs and extend through their arm to get them to roll rather than just bounce step out of it.  Keeping everything lined up with your body is key to executing this correctly.

Aikido Demo/Open House

Today was our Open House Demonstration.  I'd love to write about all the great things we did today but unfortunately you will just have to come and watch one to see to get the details :-D  Overall it was a lot of fun.  All of the students and myself got to showcase some techniques we enjoy and thought would be fun for the crowd, and then Sensei's Mike and Josh demonstrated some more upper level techniques while still giving us some time to show a few other techniques.

Reminder to myself to perform a technique all the way through to completion, and not leave it half way done.  Bad habit that I am still trying to break.  Other than that the demo was great!!

Parrying and Projections

Worked on break falls again at the lesson.  I feel more confident with the break falls now, but have to remember to make that slap out very important and once I slap retracting my arm back to my center.

Worked on projection throws and taking the big step forward to project themselves.  This is effective in taking a roll when Uke performs a Kokyoho or other breath throw to Uke that has a lot of power and push behind it.  If Uke tries to do a shallow roll they will hit the ground long before they can set up for a roll. Taking the big step and projecting the arms out into the Ukemi helps to deal with the speed at which you can be thrown.  We practiced this being throw from a Kumiyotosh.  Again the roll shouldn't be such a wide stretching of the arms out like I have learned initially when I started Aikido.  The arms should be coming from the center, like the motion of the rowing exercise and then forming that "unbendable curve" for the roll.  This also helps to get set up for a roll much easier than trying to form that huge circle.

Did carryover and parrying technique:

Cutting down a yoko strike I need to remember to keep my fingers out and extended feeding my energy outwards and not pointed in towards myself.  Keeping the fingers extended is key and took me awhile to figure out and remember.  When done correctly their arm with swing around and set themselves up for many possibilities.  In this case I was able to cut down the strike and either apply a Kotagaeish, Sankyo or Shihonage.

Demo Practice

Went over demo ideas tonight.

Went over ideas for the demo, and which techniques the students and instructors were interested in explaining to the audience.  It is turning out to be a great demo and will be a great experience for the audience and participants.

Then worked on the carry over drills with Uke performing different punches and strikes while Nage blended or carried over their attack.

More Break Falls and Stick Defense

Worked on break falls and a few different Ukemi's:
Did some more breakfalls starting from a static position where I flip myself over the lock making sure my head goes over the arm and not around it.  Then we did some more motional breakfalls where Sensei would apply some force to my wrist or arm depending on the lock and I would continue over into a breakfall.  I tried to work on breathing in before and breathing out as I slapped the map in the breakfall.  We worked on doing Kotagaeish and Shihonage into breakfalls, as well as some body launches where you are flipped over Nage's body into a breakfall.

Then we worked on some unorthodox rolls where the left foot is forward as you go over the right shoulder, and vice versa for the other side.  It's essentially the same as a regular roll but you have to make sure to get some launch outwards to get past your knee and not collide it into your chest.

The last roll Sensei showed me was from seiza (sitting on legs) and called it the "elevation roll".  I had to push up from the legs but eventually all the force should be coming from the top section of the foot into the mat and, almost like a diving board, launch your body up and outwards into a roll.  It helps to keep the hands in at the center and do a rowing motion with the arms out from your center as you go into an Ukemi roll.

Short stick work, represents a club or small blunt weapon that could be used.  We did a basic striking drill, striking high rotating the wrist to strike again the other way, and repeating a few times, then repeating this drill low.  The high drill is focused on striking at their temple, while the low is aiming at Uke's knee.  This drill was good for getting a fluid flow with the sticks and not getting stuck up with using them.

Stick defense done:
Worked on defending a Yokomen strike with a Geiko Irimi (backwards step) then as the strike misses and they wind up for another strike you Irimi in and execute an atemi to their chin/throat which pushes their face back and breaks their center as well as extends their arm out allowing for a big Tenkan with the striking hand which comes down to their armed hand and leads them around before performing a second tenkan to bring the stick across their face and allow for the finish.  Another important thing I had to get was to use the inner arm (non-striking one) to blend the strike and get it "off-line" so that at the very least the strike won't connect with your face!! Again, I have trouble with being aggressive with my atemi's during a technique and had to get comfortable with the strike to Sensei's face so that it was controlled and didn't accidentally hit too hard.   Once I started to get used to throwing the atemi into the technique it helped with unbalancing Uke and making the technique much more effective.

The other technique was again from a yokomen strike but with a mirrored movement allowing Nage to cut down their striking hand and deliver a disrupting atemi to their face.  Once the atemi hits and the attack is cut down it is drawn to Nage's hands and can be locked in shihonage.  But wait!! They have a stick in their hand which you can use to your advantage.  How nice of them to have brought you such a useful tool!! When performing Omote I had to remember to step out and across Uke standing in my horse stance.  Sensei pointed out to me several times until it took to memory.  For Ura stepping next to them to perform the lock behind them was the key motion to remember here setting up for the takedown.  The lock can be established at their wrist, palm facing down, can be bent in towards their elbow to pop the stick loose and use it to wench in between their elbow and wrist and torque them down.  As they go down Sensei pointed out that placing a knee on their ribs helps with the lock until they tap out.

Working the Grab (Katata Katate etc)

Worked a katatadori (one hand grab) to the lapel when your opposite hand blends their grab past you and you lock up a few of their fingers with your other hand and point them back over their forearm into their center.  I had a bit of trouble actually locking their hand because I was not grabbing at a few fingers, rather the whole group of fingers which doesn't give you much leverage.  The important thing to remember was to lock those fingers and bend them back over their arm and not to the side and away from their body where it has minimal effect.

Worked a katatadori to shirt with a following roundhouse punch.  As the roundhouse comes you put your arm out to catch their blow but not resist it, and work that folding motion we practiced to redirect it past your head and out across their body, tying them up in themselves.  As their punch is blended they are in a very unbalanced position and you can proceed to take their center.  I cannot remember the lock we finished with...

Next was a katatedori (double grab to shirt) where Nage reaches out with one arm to knock Uke's head up, and as the arm goes forward (ex. the right arm) the left leg slides back so that you are standing with your striking arm shoulder pointing at them while the other hand holds their arm on your shirt.  Then you slide your striking arm down their trapped arm and tenkan back allowing you to apply Nikyo to them.  It's important when you grab the hand with your hand that you keep it pressed to your body when you "bow" down with them to effectively keep the Nikyo.  The other hand goes to the elbow to make sure it bends and allows you to turn their wrist into their center.  I noticed that if you don't bend their arm down to their center it really has no effect and you end up having to use a lot of power to try and bring them down unnecessarily.  It helped me to remember to keep their trapped hand locked to your chest near the bend between your torso and shoulder.  This keeps their arm elevated and allows it to be higher than their body for more control and pressure.

One thing I noticed when working some of these techniques is that there's a lot of strength being exerted against me when being Uke.  What I've had emphasized to me at my past dojo's and here as well by Sensei is that your arms should not be tensed, straightened, and exerting a lot of strength.  They are merely, and I use this in the best way I can describe it, acting as points of connection between Nage and Uke.  Your arms give you two points of contact that you should try to establish when feeling Uke's energy being directed at you.  This allows you to place that "table" there for Uke to sense and then move it away as suddenly as you place it there.  I interpreted this, after seeing it over and over, as a way of preventing Uke from feeling your center and overtaking you by getting a "hold of your strength", and allows you to unbalance them and allow their energy to flow unimpeded to the ground.  Another thing I've been told in the past is that you should not immediately grab onto Uke, because that locks you into a battle and doesn't allow you time for counters, feeling Uke's energy and other things.  Once your GRAB onto Uke's arm, which you may not always be able to do in a real combat situation anyways, you have committed to whatever you are doing and leave little room for adjustment if you have not taken Uke's center correctly.  As Sensei Mike has said, merely placing your weight on their arm is enough to bring them down without all the torquing and "muscling" of Uke to the ground.  Not to say that you don't NEED to ever grab onto them, but more or less to feel things out rather than locking into one situation too early.

Worked three styles of Randori:

One with hands tucked into belt while the rest of the students attacked you, and you practice using your Tenkan's and Irimi's to get past them.  This was very interesting because you couldn't use your arms to deflect or redirect their attacks.  Rather, you had to move around the mat and move the others into a position that they all crash into one another and can't all get to you at once.  This allows you to deal with only one enemy at a time rather than all of them at once.  This was a great exercise for training Irimi and Tenkan application in randori.

Second part was keeping your eyes closed, Sensei would grab us with one or two hands, to the wrist, shirt, a double arm grab around the upper body etc. and we would react with feeling only to get them in a lock or throw.  This was something I've never done before and really worked your senses and feeling what Uke is giving you and how to accept the attack and react to it.  I ended up countering with Sankyo a few times, not purposely, but because that's what the attack and defense flowed into for me.  Basically, that was what felt the most natural to apply in that situation and for the most part, I felt pretty good about it afterwards.

Last part was our more traditional Randori with multiple attackers coming at you.  This is always fun and takes the breath out of you if you don't stay relaxed and remember to breath as you evade and execute your techniques against the attackers.

Overall a great class lots of fun!!!


Review of grab names:
Kata Dori        = Shoulder grab
Ryokata Dori   = Both Shoulders
Eri Dori           = Lapel(collar)
Katate Dori     = Single wrist same side (i.e. your left hand to their right wrist)
Ryote Dori      = both wrists grabbed
Morote Dori    = one wrist grabbed with both hands
Kosa Dori       = Single wrist grabbed cross hand (i.e. your left hand to their left wrist)