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Patrick O'Reilly wrote:
This is probably a mistake to reply but....David Yap, above your post where do you see the words " "teasing" attacks or "dummy" attacks"? I hope you didn't get that from my post which is just above yours because that's not at all what I said. I looked through all the posts and couldn't find those words, maybe I missed them.
I was saying that uke shouldn't consider himself/herself just a bag of rags to just be tossed around or am I mislead? From what I've learned from a year in Aikido is that Uke has just as much of a roll as Nage. I have been in classes where uke just sits there like a bag of rags and it's harder to learn as nage in that situation.
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Sorry Peter, it wasn't from your post. I was replying to someone's post on separate instructions for Uke and Nage.
You are absolutely right -- Uke has an equal role as the Nage. Almost all of the learning processes in Aikido are in drill forms. Drills that need a partner to train with. Even when your Uke is a beginner, you still would learn something from this experience. Have you tried doing shihonage with a first day beginner? As you turned around to lock the Uke's arm in a bended elbow the Uke turned around with you and both of you ended up in the same neutral position as before. Do you blame your Uke for not understanding your intention (not allowing you to complete the technique) or do you blame yourself for giving enough room for the Uke to turn with you?
There is a whole mix of people doing Aikido. My seniors for not allowing them to complete their techniques sometime reprimand me. Honestly, I have no intention to stop them or to behave like a bag of rags. I had been a Uke for visiting shihans and senior instructors, I can proudly say that my ukemi is good having done judo before. As a Uke, my attacks are willing, committed and consistent regardless whether the Nage is a Shihan or a 5th kyu. As a Uke, I will try to feel what the Nage is doing. When the Nage happens to be a Shihan or senior instructor, I would normally feel nothing until I am in the air or being locked or swirled and I am helpless to do anything while in this state and before you know it, it's all over. When the Nage is of lesser experience, I would feel almost everything from the inception till the end of the technique. Thus with lesser experience Nage, I would tell him what I felt so he can know the flaw of his technique. In this new class I joined, I was a Uke for a senior (with 10-15 years of Aikido experience behind him) in jiyu waza. As usual, I attacked with the same commitment, he turned ura and I found myself in his swirl and when the swirling(s) stopped I felt nothing and found myself in upright balanced position with one of his hand resting on my neck and the other gripping my upper arm. I waited for his next move to unbalance me again - it never came. What I got was a nasty bruise on my arm where he gripped me. Later, he told me off that as a Uke, I must learn how to blend with him to allow him to do his techniques; I should learn to empty the cup of the art/style I learned before (TKD, Iwama-ryu aikido) and start all over again. As for the bruise, I did not get any apology from him. I cannot figure out what I did right or wrong. The icing on the cake was "Don't be angry with what I said". As a budoka, I was definitely angry with him for undermining my maturity and insinuated that I have used TKD in the class. Then again, if I had used TKD in the class wouldn't it be easier for him to throw me?
Can someone out there figure it out what are my mistakes as the Uke in this instance? But don't ever tell me go for a special course in ukemi; O sensei will flip in his grave if there's one.
Still searching …
David