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Old 06-15-2010, 10:03 AM   #10
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Re: Difficulty with Tenkan

Quote:
Niall Matthews wrote: View Post
I don't know what this is Mark. It sounds like an interesting exercise for body awareness. But it's not aikido. No aikido teacher I know would agree with you.

In aikido you always move from your hips. Always. If the shoulders move first you can be blocked easily. I don't know Ikeda Sensei but in Phi Truong's link you can clearly see he moves very smoothly from his hips and his shoulders follow. All the shihan I know do it this way.
Let's first look at the Ikeda video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8e2gz1L4xkE

Notice at the very beginning to the 0:06 second mark that Ikeda's hips stay straight forward while his shoulders turn. What you can't see but I bet he's doing is that he's also turning his whole body from shoulders to V around his spine.

At 0:36-0:37, he deliberately shows shoulders and hips together and how that movement is bad, or difficult.

Watch his shoulders and you'll see that they initiate a turn one way or the other before his hips move. The problem (for beginners to see) with Ikeda is that he's got an integrated body and therefore his movements are smooth and hard to catch. While in quick movements, it may look like he's moving with hips first, I'd bet he isn't. Check out 0:46-0:48 and notice his hips don't move from straight forward.

Now, back to, "I don't know what this is Mark." I didn't either until I met someone who had aiki to a decent level. It was completely foreign to me. And most aikido teachers I knew never taught it nor did they know about it. NOTE: I'm not saying I had bad aikido teachers. AT ALL. I had some of the best modern aikido teachers that I'd recommend to anyone.

"But it's not aikido. No aikido teacher I know would agree with you." I would completely agree with you if we are talking about modern aikido. Ellis recently brought up a very good point in another thread about the benefits of modern aikido. I agree with him. I also think some schools are turning out some very good, high level jujutsu people. And there's nothing wrong with that. High level jujutsu skills can be awesome to have. There's some very respectable martial artists out there that fall into this category.

But, it's not the aiki of the founder of aikido. That aiki is something that is missing from modern aikido. NO blame placed here - that's a can of worms I don't want to open.

Anyone ever look at the pictures of Ueshiba in the Budo book (1933 or 1938, I forget which one) where he's showing sword work? Ever notice how Ueshiba's hips are forward toward the attacker *except* when he's giving an opening to the attacker? Then they are not forward but one hip is opened. Ever wonder why?

Watch Shioda here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROXaswf5OWo

At 0:28-0:29, his shoulders turn but his hips are forward.
At 0:36-0:38, his shoulders turn, but his hips are forward as he's moving forward.
At 1:03-1:04, he tosses to his left but his hips are still forward.

Look at all the clips of the giants like Shioda and Shirata and slow them down. Watch their shoulders and hips and see which actually moves first. In randori, movement is very fast and ever changing, so it's hard to see sometimes. But, at points, it's ever so obvious.

Why is it that Ueshiba and the giants of aikido move and feel differently than modern aikido shihan? It's been suggested that when the translation of how to move was done, "move from hips" didn't really mean "hips" at all. I don't know. Might be worth finding out, though.
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