home practice

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[jennyvanwest]

I'm away from Aikido for 10 days :eek: and need some ideas for home practice. I'm traveling just myself with my two young boys, so 10-20 minutes of focused practice is realistic for my attention span.

Any ideas to share?

TIA!

Jenny

[JAMJTX]

Practice your kamae and taisabaki
If you have this right, no matter what martial art you train in, all of your technqiues will flow from here.
Anytime you do not have a training partner and can not do techniques, this is the best practice.
Even if you do have a partner for techniques, these can not be neglected.

[Upyu]

Good Kamae and Taisabaki are a product of correct training. No amount of training your Kamae and Taisabaki are really going to get you anywhere.

I'd suggest your Funekogi undou (if your teacher knows how to do it properly). Which (I'm guessing)you should be doing everyday anyways.

[grondahl]

First ken suburi. Quality over quantity.

[eyrie]

Good Kamae and Taisabaki are a product of correct training. No amount of training your Kamae and Taisabaki are really going to get you anywhere.

I'd suggest your Funekogi undou (if your teacher knows how to do it properly). Which (I'm guessing)you should be doing everyday anyways.

Row row row your boat... :D

Seriously, even if people do the entire "warm up" or Aiki Taiso routine on their own... everyday... is better than nothing...

The point about "correct" training is too important to gloss over... doing the basic tandou undou "correctly" is absolutely critical....

[Pauliina Lievonen]

Stand on one leg whenever you have a chance. Seriously. Get your kids to join you, too. :)

kvaak
Pauliina

[jennyvanwest]

thanks everyone!

doing the basic tandou undou "correctly" is absolutely critical....

could you please define tandou undou...

[Mark Uttech]

Practicing mindfulness is practicing aikido.

In gassho

Mark

[eyrie]

tandou undou = solo exercises

All those individual "warm up" exercises everyone does while waiting to get into the "meat" of the class.... waza. ;)

As far as I'm concerned, "warm ups" ARE the body conditioning exercises AND should be done OUTSIDE of class EVERYDAY. Class/mat time is merely a venue for either learning technical application of those body conditioning skills you've worked so hard to get outside of class, and a venue to TEST those skills.

[jennyvanwest]

excellent. thanks Ignatius.

[CNYMike]

I'm away from Aikido for 10 days :eek: and need some ideas for home practice. I'm traveling just myself with my two young boys, so 10-20 minutes of focused practice is realistic for my attention span.

Any ideas to share?

TIA!

Jenny

Stretching -- legs and wrists -- and then footwork drills, ie irimi tenkan, could cover it. If you have a boken and a jo and room to use them, haul those out.

[Mark Uttech]

Simply practicing mindfulness may seem easy, but it isn't. It certainly takes up the time!

In gassho,

Mark

[Bronson]

Ok, I'll be the dissonant voice in the forest and say take a 10 day break. Relax, regroup, focus on the time with your kids, do whatever. I've experienced it myself and seen it in others that after a short break people often come back better than they were before.

Bronson

[jennyvanwest]

Ok, I'll be the dissonant voice in the forest and say take a 10 day break. Relax, regroup, focus on the time with your kids, do whatever. I've experienced it myself and seen it in others that after a short break people often come back better than they were before.

Bronson

interesting!

Well, the situation right now is that I had a week's trip in December that turned into a 3 week hiatus from practice due to illness, then I came back for a month (the beginning of which I literally could remember almost nothing I'd learned in 4 months), got back in the groove, then I caught the chicken pox (!!) which had me out for 10 days. Fortunately, I rallied before my 6th kyu test, which was a real boost!

I'm 39 and new to Aikido since September and it's been really great to start to feel like at least the basic idea of Aikido is sinking in, and that I'm finally getting back into shape. so, to take 10 days off right now is really like one more major step backward at a time when discernable progress is only beginning to happen.

Visiting with my family (on my own with both boys) can be stressful and it is great to have a brief diversion each day when I focus on this new and positive aspect of my life. I also homeschool my boys so ample opportunity to be with them and focus on them presents itself daily; and they are happy right now to spend some time just with their grandparents.

I'm really not all that Type A....despite all this...just ask my husband :D

[eyrie]

Since we're discussing "home practice"... and given that many of us have a life outside of MA practice, there are many things one can do during the day, and in the "downtime", to maintain one's practice.

For example, when you're making a cuppa and waiting for the kettle to boil, sit in horse stance or do some leg raises - using the time it takes for the kettle to boil. If you make 5 cuppas a day like I do, and it takes 5 mins for the kettle to boil... that's 25mins practice done.

Here's another... when you're in the supermarket, use your hara to push the trolley. When you pick up an item from the shelf, use your hara.

So when Mark U says to "practice with mindfulness", that's really what is meant by the term... (and I'm sure that's what Mark means too).

There are many other opportunities to practice that doesn't have to be within a set time block... even while watching TV, or especially during an ad break... get up and do some training.

The key is to look at your everyday activities and find opportunities within the day and thru those activities, that help you train something specifically.

[jennyvanwest]

OK, great little success story today. This afternoon everyone was very tired and cranky (grandparents included!). My 4 yo was in need of completely falling apart, so I took him upstairs here at my parents' house and let him do so.

He just wanted to kick me so I got out of the way (success!) and took the moment to do some warm ups and rolls and deep hamni stance and some ki exercises. I calmed way down, he calmed way down. We were both just being right where we needed to be.

thanks for this wonderful conversation. It's been very supportive!

[Insane Duane]

Since I moved well over an hour away from my dojo, I only go once a week now. At home I practice shikko waza, ukeme waza, boken and jo kata's. Also the basic movements like irimi and tenkan.

I have 5 year old twins so I get to practice my shikko real time :) .