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Old 01-24-2010, 02:59 PM   #2
JW
 
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Location: San Diego CA USA
Join Date: Aug 2000
Posts: 561
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Re: The Problem with Being a Big Guy

Hi Scott, great post. It sounds really hard.

Quote:
Scott Ellis wrote: View Post
actually managed to grab with enough force to interupt their technique, I spend the next moment trying to dodge what is invariably coming next.
I think that's key-- if you are both being honest, then it sometimes would come down to that situation. I am not a big guy, but I remember feeling like certain levels/kinds of resistance were just tempting my nage to give me something I can't handle. So it is a good point that your ability to put a wrench in someone's works does not indicate your ability to receive... something similarly difficult. Your ukemi must have really improved as a result of being able to mess up people's throws!

Anyway I think you know how things should end up but are having trouble trying to get there:
Quote:
Scott Ellis wrote: View Post
And people that seem to have you before you even attacked, and with these people I spend no time in limbo, because size has ceased to be a factor in their training.
So you have already felt the ideal where your size or strength aren't such an issue. I think that's aikido, so if your nage is not doing it like this, then are you really the one causing the problem?

Anyway I haven't said anything really useful for you yet. 1: I think this has come up before, so better aikidoka than me have probably already weighed in (might take some playing with search strings), and 2: my personal advice, the "honesty" in the attack (and on the nage's part) are what you are going for, not the absolute magnitude of the forces involved, or the absolute speed, etc. So, if you pretend your maximum power output is say 50% of what it is and stick to that, you can simulate an uke that is not too much for a particular nage to handle-- the key is that your intent in your body is acting like you are going all out. Do you know what I mean? Like if you pretend you are pushing with all your might, but relax you muscles a bit on top of that, your body is still acting like a person shoving with all he's got, but the force is lower.

I think aikido operates with respect to that intent in your body, so the art should be able to be practiced well for both uke and nage in that situation. Thus you create a stepping stone on the way to the greatness that you described experiencing in seminars. What do you think?
--JW
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