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Entries for the Month of January 2009
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In Weapons
Students of White Oak and Hickory
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#241
 01-29-2009 10:32 AM |
I never thought I'd be saying this, but...I really miss weapons practice. In the old dojo, we had the opportunity to do this twice a week (one day for bokken, one day for jo). I suppose it's one of those instances where "you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone". Though I'd always enjoyed the feel of both sword and staff movements, there was a great part of me that I eventually found grudgingly practicing the sword --- the staff was so much more versatile, after all and the movements could readily be adapted towards a real-world improvised weapon. And you know I'm all about the real-world scenarios. 
Yet over the past year or so that we've been at the new venue, we've practiced with weapons less and less. Initially we only had access to the upstairs gym (with high ceilings) once a week so we alternated back and forth between bokken and jo practice. Now that we no longer have access to the upstairs and are exclusively downstairs where the ceiling is fairly low, we haven't been doing weapons work at all for the past few months.
As a result, I'm seeing a difference in the group of newbies that has come through the dojo lately. I'm now convinced that within the group of new students who have done little to no weapons practice, we're "raising a generation" of Aikidoka who:
- don't know how to kiai (and thus find it more difficult to generate power through their kokyu/breath --- you're forced to do this all the time in weapons striking and I'm certain that
...More 
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Views: 1575
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In Miscellaneous
Conditioning for Aikido: Kettlebells!
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#240
01-10-2009 12:54 PM |
I just updated my Strength/Conditioning post to reflect that after some research, I started incorporating Kettlebell exercises into my regimen back in December and thought it might be helpful to elaborate on this decision a bit. One of the "selling features" of Kettlebells has always been the claim that more than traditional weight exercises (ie. using machines), Kettlebell exercises offer "real world" increases in strength by engaging your whole body and working groups of muscles instead of isolating muscles like some machines do. It is because of this that many personal trainers have advocated the use of Kettlebells in the conditioning regimens of martial artists. So what have I found?
Not only have I been finding workouts with Kettlebells more convenient given the demands of my workplace this time of year (I do my Kettlebell workouts at home first thing in the morning before heading off to work) but almost immediately, I have found the exercises translating into improvements in my performance of Aikido technique. I believe that because many Kettlebell exercises rely upon engaging your whole body from your core on up (and only then, secondarily through the arms), I'm finding more and more that habitually using my center to initiate movement against this kind of resistance in my conditioning regimen, I am in turn doing this more and more in Aikido as well.
Within just a couple of weeks of starting these exercises, I started feeling a greater connection with my c
...More
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Views: 4399
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In Humor
A Shameless Plug :-D
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#239
01-10-2009 11:25 AM |
Just because I had so much fun putting these together as a (belated) Christmas gift for my fellow dojo mates, I can't help but share them here on AikiWeb as well.
"That's Why We Practice": Aikido Bloopers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrylhtH3tjE
"Mat-thumping!": Ukemi Video
http://www.veoh.com/videos/v17165363ak7j9naH
*chuckles*
Not to worry, I'll be posting another serious entry again soon.
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Views: 1601
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