Types of randori?

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[bob_stra]

Hi

I'm having a discussion on another board abt sparring and such. It occurs to me that I know very little of the different types / stages of sparring employed in aikido.

For example we
do this "reflex drills" thing, where the instructor stands behind you and the attacker infront. The instructor mimes the attack (which only the attacker can see). He attacks - you defend with whatever comes to
mind. If your defense starts comming apart / not working then you're encourated to switch to something else mid-technique.

What are some other methods used in your dojo?

[Kelly Allen]

What my instructor has done is very simalar. He would apply an attack and we would have to come up with as many variations of a defence to that attack as possible. For extra bonus points we would have to tell him the name of the technic.

[James Trueman]

We use a variety of methods, here are some:

Standard 1:1 jiyu waza (fixed attack, any response)

Multiple attacker and/or mixed attack / response

Reflex training, working on the evasion/parry and entry into whatever response works at the time

Sparring where the uke can avoid the technique if not on properly but not counter, this can also be applied where the tori simulates an atemi strike during the response, uke counts off (e.g)two simulating the daze from the strike, if tori's technique is not complete, uke can counter with whatever if they can!

If you've got enough you can also do circle or line drills similar to Bob's. In circle uke's attack either with a prefixed attack or anything, depends what's agreed - tori has to be aware where they are coming from and deal with them. In line, sensei walks behind tori - pointing out uke's randomly to attack - very good with weapons!!

I'm sure there are loads more and would love to hear of them

[siwilson]

Jiyu Waza 1v1, 1v2, 1v3, etc., 2v3, 2v4, 3v4, 3v5, etc., with fixed attack, any attack, unarmed, weapons, etc.

Also, an exercise which I very much like, is where you have Tori (Sh'te/Nage) standing in the middle surrounded by the Uke's - at least 4. One person controls the exercise by pointing at one Uke at a time, the Uke then shouts out an attack and then immediately attacks that way. Tori must shout out a technique (optional) and performs it against that attack. The next attack comes immediately from a randomly chosen Uke.

This can also be done with Uke only calling attetion to themself and not calling out the attack. A very good exercise.

BTW, James. How are you and Roger enjoying your new school?