AikiWeb: The Source for Aikido Information AikiWeb's principal purpose is to serve the Internet community as a repository and dissemination point for aikido information.
Hello and thank you for visiting AikiWeb, the
world's most active online Aikido community! This site is home to
over 16,000 aikido practitioners from around the world and covers a
wide range of aikido topics including techniques, philosophy, history,
humor, beginner issues, the marketplace, and more.
If you wish to join in the discussions or use the other advanced
features available, you will need to register first. Registration is
absolutely free and takes only a few minutes to complete so sign up today!
I find it increasingly difficult to make progress when I practice with ukes who do not attack honestly. You know the old joke about how an aikidoka attacks? He says "grab my arm!" There's some truth in that joke.
I am not talking here about beginners. For them a strong attack will be confusing and will only make them freeze up. But higher kyus and yudansha should practice techniques against commited attacks. It's hard to explain what sort of an attack is "commited": it's not a crazy person jumping on top of you, and it's not an idiot that blindly walks into a technique even if the technique is badly executed. A commited attack has several components.
Intent
The attacker must honestly have the wish to execute the attack. Often I get ukes who stop their attack as soon as anything unexpected happens. You can try it on your uke: if the attack is a hand grab and at the last moment you unexpectedly withdraw your hand a little, what does your uke do? Do they chase the hand, and if so, do they chase it in an intelligent way? Or do they change the attack to a strike? Or do they just stand there thinking "oh, was it four times already"? I don't think anyone in the street will trade places with you after they kicked you four times.
Another way to test uke's intent is for nage to unexpectedly do nothing. Ukes intent is revealed. If he stops, he did not really want to attack. If he partially executes the technique on himself (not an uncommon situation) he was anticipating you
...More
09-10-2009 08:23 AM 
