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 22,000 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'm finally getting used to doing randori. It's taken a while. It's not that I'm any better technically but at least it's less stressful being out there and I can actually enjoy the process and start to think a little bit more about what I need to try and work on when I'm out there.
I've been trying to figure out how to not circle around so much because although it looks nice and generally people can't touch me, I can't control the situation. So one of the guys told me that I should actually try and enter more. So I've been trying that the last couple of times. I find it means I have a higher tendency to grab (hard on the uke and less fluid and wastes time) so then the next time I tried turning even less but then while i stopped grabbing so much, I realised my positioning got a lot poorer and there were a couple of times I got swamped.
So i'll have to keep trying to find a good balance and learn how to position myself better.
It was also fun watching the new shodans get out there. Some of them can move so those are the ones who are real naturals at it but others started out pretty much like me. Getting swamped by losing time through improper technique then the whole session falls apart. Taking ukemi is also tough on some of them I notice but one of them who actually looks like Po in Kungfu Panda turned out his ukemi is improving by leaps and bounds (literally). It's a joy to watch him now and it's fun to do randori with him.