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Old 01-08-2011, 08:57 AM   #6
Diana Frese
Dojo: Aikikai of S.W. Conn. (formerly)
Location: Stamford Connecticut
Join Date: Nov 2010
Posts: 386
United_States
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Re: bad technique vs. resistance

yes, Tony, I agree that's really important to develop our movement and technique, but Carina's comment reminds me of when I did
exactly what Mary recommends.

Yamada Sensei had missed a previous seminar date for a medical or dental reason he was in Florida, which is quite far away so he showed up for his next scheduled seminar in New Haven even though his foot had been broken (someone had fallen on it, maybe in a demo...)
Yamada Sensei has great technique, great kokyu ryoku,
but sometimes these things happen.

Anyway, he brought two of his main assistants with him and
had them demonstrate the important points he was instructing
us about. Then came time for questions.
Now I wasn't anything like one of his favorite students, but he had a special concern for any of us who were teaching, and I was, at a YMCA in the city where I live in Stamford, between New York and New Haven.
A friend of my husband's and mine I had just met back around 1980 was in Aikido class in the summer prior to teaching kung fu in the fall, his teacher had retired passing on the
authorization to Clyde and another student who was to teach
it as "Chinese exercises" at the Greenwich YMCA.

I explained my situation to Yamada Sensei, and asked if the person raises his or her hand to strike shomen uchi and they have a lot of weight or extension in it, what do I do, I'm having trouble turning it back to do ikkyo.

Then an example of compassion and great kindness. Forgetting
to have his assistants do the technique, Sensei took a step, though
one of his feet he was supposed to stay off....

You're the teacher, you have to do the technique. So step
back, change the technique.

It seemed to be advice to let uke's force dissipate a little, then
ikkyo can indeed be done.

Carina , I hope you like this little example. Did Yamada Sensei
visit Gran Canaria? I might have seen it one year on a seminar
schedule.
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