Adam Huss

Lars,

Thanks Lars, I hope you would find it interesting given your inquiry about various weapons forms. We use a litany of kumi buki.

Naming of our weapons pairing techniques are pretty simple; "Kumi Weapon A, Weapon B, First movement, Last movement." So, for example, "Kumitachi Kote giri Kote Osae" is a kihon buki waza that pairs sword vs sword starting with a wrist cut and finishing with a wrist control. Or "Kumitachi Jo Kote Sando giri" is a sword vs jo pairing that involves wrist cut three times.

These movements were changed slightly from their original forms and altered slightly to adhere to basic principals of our aikido training. More extension, our particular stances, and most importantly spiritual training (ie 'harder training' since its a little safer to go all out with weapons training than aikido hand techniques..so we can really push focus and go hard).

To answer your question a little more specifically I will say that varied length kumibuki are my favorite weapons techniques. Pairing a tanto against a sword or jo really teachers a student to move confidently; a student with appropriate ma'ai and timing who is moving in and out of the danger ranges of a student with a jo can really get good training in their aikido principals and train a budo spirit. If I want to see how serious a fellow student is, I pay attention to how they go about their weapons work. If they lazily slap sticks with their partner, don'y fully lock into the stance from 'step one' before transitioning to 'step two' then I have a bit of a gauge of what training means to them (or myself).

Specific application to 'tai jutsu.' So we don't really have the famous 'four/five principals of aikido' as staple specifically talked about in our training. We are guided to be aware of other martial arts styles and organizations, so we are aware of these principals, but we do not use them as 'taught training methods.' Rather than telling a student to 'extend ki,' we require specific body posture and movement that will result in appropriate application of ki. Or rather than saying 'keep weight underside' students are required to have a specific orientation of heads/shoulders/hips that result in weight being 'underside' or centered. And, of course, movement and transitioning from position to position while maintaining these appropriate postures is key for hand techniques when training buki waza. Thanks again for your interest...all the best!

hope that wasn't worded too poorly!