AikiWeb: The Source for Aikido Information AikiWeb's principal purpose is to serve the Internet community as a repository and dissemination point for aikido information.
Hello and thank you for visiting AikiWeb, the
world's most active online Aikido community! This site is home to
over 22,000 aikido practitioners from around the world and covers a
wide range of aikido topics including techniques, philosophy, history,
humor, beginner issues, the marketplace, and more.
If you wish to join in the discussions or use the other advanced
features available, you will need to register first. Registration is
absolutely free and takes only a few minutes to complete so sign up today!
On wednesday night I trained at my mates father's dojo, which I do from time to time, after all they need regular visits from me, being as I am 8th Dan shihan in Karate...........
That's what my friends dad tells his students anyway. Once a student asked who I'd trained under in Japan and I just said "Serious people." No-ones yet clocked on why I can't do a single kata correctly yet though.
I actually find Karate classes to be a doddle. There's no getting slammed into the floor or put in a submission or being made to drag my tired body off the mat when I'd rather just lay there and make sure there are no bumps in it. Somehow getting kicked and punched just doesn't bother me anymore. I think once you're used to having a bokken getting bounced off your skull getting hit in the head just isn't a worry.
Even the cardiovascular stuff isn't that taxing compared to my normal Aikido practice.
Sparing was fun, I can't believe anyone thinks of it as training for real fighting, but it is fun. Caught the instructor good and propper once. I used a hooking kick to sweep his lead leg, which brought him forward onto my punch. I managed to keep all the dan grades on the back foot, I wish there'd been a mat. I'd have had so much fun.
I find that when I spar with my mates from striking arts they're ok provided you trade strikes with them, as soon as I cover up and enter in though I find that something like irimi nage or tenchi nage becomes inevitable. I find that I end
...More
It was my own fault. I play very aggressively. I forgot to organise suppressing fire and forgot about the element of suprise and so got well and truely lit up. I have twenty welts on me that are about one and a half inches across. So I was already limping from that when the second game started.
My second attack worked much better, I organised it futher back so that the enemy couldn't see me marshalling people for an attack, whispered my intentions to the people around me rather than yelling and organised pleanty of suppression fire.
Everything was going so well. I counted down "Three, two, one.....GO!" I lept up, everyone else went with me and we stormed forward the noise from the guys laying down fire for us was awesome, they were really laying it down. So I'm dashing up the field with my suicide squad, paint is flying around all over the place, we bunkered about 5 people on the way. I come dashing through the smoke (smoke grenades are a must in this kinda situation) a guy pops up from behind the bunker we were running for and he got lit up by the guys laying down suppression fire. I didn't see the other two guys get hit so I hit the deck slid into the bunker.
No, not into cover behind the bunker, INTO the bunker, car crash stylee. OMG does my knee hurt. Not that I cared, no, I just popped a grenade over the bunker, then crawled around. Then I rolled around in agony.
I think between paintball and Aikido I'm now largely indifferent to pain. Earlier in
...More
I feel like Sensei's only student at the moment. For whatever reason there have been at least four classes recently where it's just been me and him. I feel like I'm in the Aikido fast lane now though. Who else gets one on one tuition around here?
Yesterday Sensei asked me if I was willing to put in some hard slog and go for the 1st kyu grading on the 19th. I can't resist a challenge like that so I agreed. They're going to fail me regardless of what I do, but I enjoy the odd couple of weeks of really intense practice where I'm putting in six days a week or so. I like that feeling of being ground down and just carrying on and of settling into a rhythm.
Plus a couple of personal projects I've been working on for the past seven months are, well, on hold for a while and the training is a useful distraction. You could say one set of intense training has been replaced by another.
I was having coffee with a friend of mine that occasionally practices Aikido and a man walked past that had very good posture and I remarked upon it. She agreed and I, jokingly, said, "It's almost as good as mine." "Your's is different" she says "Different, how?" "Your's is more centered and he's just walking as if he has a purpose. Your's is menacing, when you walk into a place people look at you and they get worried." "I probably get that from Sensei." "No, he's more of a stealth assasin, you're getting that way but you're not there yet. He doesn't look menacing and imposing, you do. You look like you're about to amush someone."
07-30-2009 08:15 PM 
