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I think it was Peak Freans, a British cookie manufacturer (do they call cookies "biscuits" over there? I get these things mixed up).... who had a commercial in the US that they were a "very serious cookie"
This was many years ago, but some commercials come to mind at the oddest moments.
Right now, because although Aikido can be fun, and it can be taught using games, the games usually have a serious side, a serious purpose. Bond Street Dojo, which Terry Dobson and Ken Nisson founded, was a very serious dojo (and still is), but the games part is what I "stole" and used back in my own classes for both new students and those who had been there a while, some of whom had studied other martial arts. Not exactly "stole", they were meant to be learned, used, passed on to others.
In my first entry on "Games Terry Taught" I tried to describe turning in place while being pushed by ukes from four directions. There was another game that dealt with "when does the attack begin?"
The game was called "Stop" if it had a name at all. This game was fascinating. I think it began with tsuki or shomen uchi. It worked when I brought it back to our little YMCA dojo, too. It eliminated the forearm to forearm clashing, at least it seemed to to me. If you want to mention ki, it was as if two firehose powerful streams of water met at a slight angle and the water went whoosh! up in the air.
Because your own arm was going up from the low center line upwards in an arc while uke's arm was still raising, because you knew when uke started to move.
The game itself was simply to say "Stop" when you saw or sensed uke begin the movement to strike.
Fascinating concept. Personally I think Terry had a lot of genius in transmitting concepts that could be used in training. That dojo trained a lot, the students were dedicated and sincere, hard training you could say, but they had fun, too. And the games had a serious purpose. You can still find people around who trained with Terry. Don't take my word for it, as LeVar Burton said on "Reading Rainbow" ask them!
11-10-2011 12:55 PM 
