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Old 02-26-2006, 05:26 AM   #2
eyrie
 
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Location: Summerholm, Queensland
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Re: Kihon, kata, kumite and bunkai in Aikido

Good analysis Alec.

For clarity, I prefer to refer to kihon as foundational elements, rather than "basics", since everything is "basic" just done with higher levels of sophistication. Without a good foundation (in any martial art), the student unnecessarily impedes their own progress.

To me, the foundational elements of aikido (and indeed of any martial art) comprise breath control, posture, stance, transference of weight, striking/kicking, parrying/blocking/receiving, stepping and pivoting off lines of attack, balance and how to break someone's balance, breakfalls/rolling. In aikido, these are usually taught by way of basic warm-up exercises, chikon-kishin, and tando-undo (i.e. "wrist" exercises, shikko, ukemi, sayu-undo, funi-kogi-undo, kokyu-dosa, irimi-tenkan, senkai, ashi sabaki, tai sabaki, ikkyo-undo etc. etc.). I also tend to include basic striking and kicking practice, and solo/paired drills involving stepping/sliding/pivoting, parrying/blocking.

By understanding why these building blocks are necessary, the student can progress toward an understanding of how to put these building blocks together to create movement and respond to movement. Unfortunately, as you're aware, few students stay long enough to progress beyond the foundational stuff, much less develop any sort of proficiency in it.

I tend to agree that jumping straight into aikido kihon-waza can be confusing for students new to martial arts generally. The trick for me is structuring lessons in such a way that new students may spend weeks on these solo exercise before they are introduced to basic releases and responses from grabs and shoves, followed by a simple technique - usually kotegaeshi or ikkyo, but only a small part of the full technique. (A teaching concept I stole from jujitsu training ).

I find it easier for many new students to follow if the movements are broken down into smaller chunks. This works especially well for kids. Although, it tends to hamper their feeling of flow initially, I feel that in the long run, it prevents them from becoming easily disillusioned or demotivated by the seeming complexity. (After all, it does take time before some level of proficiency becomes apparent).

They also get to see the more senior students at "play", with more free-form movement (actual implementation of the same building blocks) to give them an inkling that there is another level of practice different to the one that they are at. It is also a good way for me to integrate the younger/newer students with the seniors and ease them into it at their own pace.

Sometimes, I find it necessary to split the class up and have one of the seniors take the juniors thru the foundational stuff. This also reinforces the importance of the foundational elements to the senior students. In many ways, it is also about me (as the instructor) working out what the senior student needs to be working on as well.

I think the teaching delivery needs to be modified for each student to suit their learning needs, within the framework of overarching learning objectives. Because there is a lot going on within a particular paired waza (2-person kata?), I feel that it is sometimes necessary to break down movements (bunkai) and explain things in different ways, or provide additional information as required. Usually, this would only be done to add finer points to the movement. Sometimes I will change the movement in order to highlight a point, or to get the student to do something - e.g. instead of saying "your partner will strike shomen-uchi and you step off the line at 45 degrees and walk past your partner", I might say, "both of you walk toward your partner and do a high five and slip past each other". This inculcates the fundamental concept of irimi, and serves its purpose of meeting the learning objective. I'm sure most traditional teachers would baulk at what I'm doing, but as far as my students are concerned, it makes sense to them and they're getting the drift a lot quicker.

I'm not suggesting that you need to change your style of instruction, but hopefully this has given you some ideas for you own teaching delivery methods. The key is to make it fun and be creative.

Last edited by eyrie : 02-26-2006 at 05:38 AM.

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