Keeeeeksssss

[Please visit our sponsor:]

[andrew]

It appears most people don't practice kicks too often. Does anybody know why they don't practice them is their own particular dojo?
In ours I think it's mainly because the ukemi can be dangerous and difficult.

andrew

[ian]

Hi Andrew,

I like to bias the amount of practise in certain attacks to the frequency with which people tend to be attacked in that manner. In my experience I have never been attacked by a kick, and have only ever seen one other person kicked, and thats when they were on the floor. Admittedly I do know of people that have been kicked, but only good martial artists tend to try this, and in my opinion these type of people are less likely to start fights.

Also, ideally you don't give your opponent a chance to kick you (getting inside and unbalancing them before they attack). Hands, elbows, grabs are much harder to stop my moving in to closer range. i.e. I would expect most kicks to be when you expect an attack (i.e. a face of like scenario) where you can quickly stop the kick occuring.

HOWEVER, I do think its useful training against kicks (though I only know about 4 or 5 defences purely against the kicking foot; obviously you can do stuff like irimi-nage). I think its best to be prepared for every eventuality.

Ian

N.B. also non-martial artists often have a problem producing convincing kicks - thats why I think we should have more striking & kicking as part of aiki practise.

[REK]

Hey, Ian!

I agree with your point about practicing strikes. We have had a recent decline in praciticing aikido against kicks only because there are so few uke who can take the ukemi. They tend to be dramatic and difficult (the falls, not the uke :D), so only the advanced students practice them. Some of the other students and I have started "uke school", a sub-group of students who spend 3 nights per week working to improve our balance and focus in strikes and followthrough (including kicks, eg). Our hope is that eventually, enough people will be able to do the kicks AND the ukemi to make for better classes and practice. How do others manage it?

Rob

[Sam]

As part of our base practices, we work on kicks, but not the full extension, we learn to enter as the knee comes up, so you don't have to be a good kicker to practice.
Unfortunately for me, I used to do karate and silat, so I can kick. This means I always have to do the ukemi for techniques against kicks - ouch!
I think the trick to doing ukemi from a kick is to let your feet come higher than usual so your shoulder girdle lands first. Plus you need to trust tori/nage/sh'te!

[The Piranah]

I have always been told there are no kicks in aikido! from the little green belt

[Matt Banks]

HI Andrew we do practice defence against kicks regularly at our dojo's, most schools ive trained with do, Iwas surprised on this forum of how many people who dont practice it. At seminars etc the dan grades defend against chains etc in jiuwaza's. I think the problem is that there are too many styles out there which concentrate on the flowing side of aikido without first harnising the basics of good hard dynamic aikido first, thus their stlye is more like a dance than effective aikido. Gozo Shioda worried about this point, he said alot of aikido nowdayus was ''hollow'' as people were trying to be too flowy etc without first trying to harness the basics e.g. focused hips ..power etc etc-the components which makes aikido fantastically practical.

Matt Banks

[andrew]

Matt Banks wrote:
I think the problem is that there are too many styles out there which concentrate on the flowing side of aikido without first harnising the basics of good hard dynamic aikido first,

There is this problem, but I don't think it has much to do with not practicing kicks too often. I think anyone who can handle themselves aikidowise could enter and perform technique against a kick easily enough. I think eventually the direction an attacks intention is coming from is more important than the actual attack. (eg attacks can be grouped into vertical, yokomenesque, ushiro...)

Have I made myself clear? (probably no- sorry!)
andrew