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Yesterday I took the opportunity to train at Itten Dojo, which is near my home, and has hosted two seminars with Ellis Amdur that I've attended. As always, the folks there were very welcoming and the level of training was intense.
I could only attend the open mat session but I hope to come back and take a regular class from time to time.
In any event, Budd and John led me through a number of judo drills with an eye toward the similarities in priciples with aikido. We worked on single leg takedowns and a counter, a hip throw and a counter to that, and a method for reversing one's position while on the ground. I enjoyed myself immensly and hopefully learned a little bit in the process.
So now my total training time in judo is about an hour -- hardly enough time to even begin to appreciate what seems to be a vast and rich art. However, one point that Ellis has made recently makes a bit more sense to me now: He stated that when he saw footage of Donn Draeger doing aikido, Draeger always had three points of contact with uke -- a concept taken from Judo.
I noticed that when I performed a reasonably kihon version of iriminage with John or Budd, it had a koshi-nage feel to it in that I had contact with them at my arm, opposite hand and my hip. I think this is the result of the closer context of judo compared to aikido, but I'm not sure.
06-30-2005 09:42 AM 