Aikido Girl

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[David Orange]

This is pretty impressive.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfdpXiTLe-4&feature=related

And this is not bad, either.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uswPUq43m-0&NR=1

Best to all.

David

[dps]

This is pretty impressive.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfdpXiTLe-4&feature=related

She is way too young to be doing ukemi.

dps

[graham christian]

This is pretty impressive.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfdpXiTLe-4&feature=related

And this is not bad, either.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uswPUq43m-0&NR=1

Best to all.

David

EXCELLENT!

[Marc Abrams]

This is pretty impressive.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfdpXiTLe-4&feature=related

And this is not bad, either.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uswPUq43m-0&NR=1

Best to all.

David

David:

1st girl was having fun, thanks to an overly compliant uke. I would never teach my young students to try and do things, that they simply could not realistically do. Giving children a false sense of security does no one any good. The teacher could have focused on proper balance, body movement,.... . I also do not teach young children joint locking techniques for a variety of reasons.

2nd. woman- Hard jujitsu, where a lot of her throws, she is simply off balance by over-committing herself forward in the throws. Had the uke simply held on to her, she would have spilled over on top of him. She was wide open to sacrifice throws. Some of her moves were clean and she demonstrated a good commitment to her actions.

Marc Abrams

[David Maidment]

I had to disagree with the general consensus where it comes to teaching kids certain things. Yes, you go easy on them for the sake of their joints and yes you know it won't work for them 'in real life', but if you can make them realise both of these things and they stay in it for the long-haul, you can lay an amazing foundation for their adult Aikido career. Coming from a dojo with a huge kids membership, I see this in so many of the younger members.

[Marc Abrams]

I had to disagree with the general consensus where it comes to teaching kids certain things. Yes, you go easy on them for the sake of their joints and yes you know it won't work for them 'in real life', but if you can make them realise both of these things and they stay in it for the long-haul, you can lay an amazing foundation for their adult Aikido career. Coming from a dojo with a huge kids membership, I see this in so many of the younger members.

David:

The problem with that approach is that you do what you are taught. If you have to think about something, it is simply too late. The children in my classes have fun and develop solid foundations that they build upon as they learn to employ techniques, escape maneuvers, .... that are gauged to encounters that children of certain age groups are likely to experience.

Once again, it is simply my opinion. Opinions are like rear-ends. Everybody has them. Everybody has to judge the merits of any one opinion and go with what they think is best.

Marc Abrams

[David Maidment]

Oh, I agree with that. But you only need to reteach certain aspects when they're older. Because they've learnt a pseudo-version, it's not starting completely from scratch.

I learnt Aikido as a kid and then gave up for fifteen years. When I came back to it I had a nice solid foundation which I've really been able to build upon, even though what I learnt when I was younger was, for all intents and purposes, useless.

[David Orange]

She is way too young to be doing ukemi.

I'd say too young to be doing it without great care from nage. There's one point early on where it looks like she hits her head. In that case, nage should have given her better support. I saw a couple of spots where it looked like he might injure her spine, as well. Maybe getting a little too carried up in the demo.

But her repertoire shows incredible learning ability which has obviously been well developed. I'd say it's partly that unique child, but partly because aikido movement does complement child movement.

Best.

David

[David Orange]

David:

1st girl was having fun, thanks to an overly compliant uke. I would never teach my young students to try and do things, that they simply could not realistically do. Giving children a false sense of security does no one any good. The teacher could have focused on proper balance, body movement,.... . I also do not teach young children joint locking techniques for a variety of reasons.

Marc,

That kind of aikido, to me, is not terribly relevant to self-defense, anyway. And she'll have to unlearn a lot of stuff to overcome that. But I just admire the way the sticks with it and clearly knows a number of techniques and I think her practice is like a little sprout just coming out of the ground. If she knows that much at that age, just think what she can develop by the time she's ten.

And I agree with you on teaching joint locks, for the most part. I taught my kids yonkyo and shiho nage (or gyakute seoi nage) as natural results of turning all the way around, either to the inside or to the outside when someone grabs their hand.

What I didn't like was the man (her father, presumably) doing joint locks on her. I don't think you can safely do ikkyo on a child, for instance and it looked like he was really applying it to her even though she received it pretty well. That and the way she arches her back in the middle of a fall worries me for her long-term skeletal development.

2nd. woman- Hard jujitsu, where a lot of her throws, she is simply off balance by over-committing herself forward in the throws. Had the uke simply held on to her, she would have spilled over on top of him. She was wide open to sacrifice throws. Some of her moves were clean and she demonstrated a good commitment to her actions.

I agree. I just thought she looked like a pretty good shodan or maybe even nidan for a person of that age. She seemed not to be afraid to get in there and go for it but she wasn't just playing, either. I think she can become very good if she keeps it up.

Best to you.

David