Don

Aikido teaches principles of (not to sound too eastern here) blending with the energy a person presents (for those of you who want to think concretely think kinetic energy or momentum), and off balancing. You know that. These principles are all very valid in a martial or fighting context, We use contrived attacks to practice these principles. Uke cooperates so nage can practice mastering these principles. However, if you want to apply these principles in a "modern attack scenario you usually will have to ask yourself "what is aikido teaching me about martial application. You've already figured out that, for instance, (a) most people don't attack shomenuchi or even yokomenuchi, unless they are wild. Most people don't come and grab your wrist and then do nothing else.....so how do you translate what you have hopefully begun to put in muscle memory into applying it toward, say a right cross, or a push? You've got to ask yourself those questions and consciously try and figure them out for yourself. Your sensei can only help. Why? Because (a) he or she may not KNOW how to apply techniques in a martial context, (b) but more likely, (and don't take this as an insult), he or she is probably at a place where what SEEMS obvious to them is not to you and can only be explained to a degree. When I teach people with much less experience, I wrack my brain to figure ways to get as much over to them as I can both by verbal explanation and demonstration of technique. And still there are things they do not get. I know this from observation and by being their uke. Some of it you just have to consciously experiment with, For instance, we practice in this benign way of receiving techniques usually with our hands down by our sides. Well, duh, someone who wants to hit you is not going to use aikido maai. They are going to close the distance first. You have to go beyond starting at aikido maai, and learning to react when someone enters that zone AND getting your hands and arms up and out like holding a sword. I guarantee you if you are positioned correctly (lead foot outside their lead foot) you can block (deflect) their right cross or left hook and execute a devestating ikkyo (for instance). I had to teach myself that though. I did not directly learn it from my sensei.

Here's another thing to think about martially. We do iriminage and wonder how this is going to work for real. Well, usually you aren't going to do a full tenkan. Or another strategy is teaching yourself to move in literally right behind nage (and I do mean right behind them). This usually isn't done in the beginning because iriminage is about entering and blending. Usually so we are practicing in big lazy circles to practice the blending aspects. But if you teach yourself to enter right behind nage, you have put yourself in their dead spot, and in perfect position for a choke. Is it the nice figure 8 iriminage we have all come to love and practice? NO! But is is very martial. A choke out from this position can end an altercation quickly.

Also in randori practice all the uke's are attacking like madmen on a battlefield. Is that the way it would happen if you were stupid enough or unlucky enough to get in a bar fight? Nah. You'd most likely suprise the first guy, and if you were that lucky, what do you think would happen next. Well the way I figure it, their buddies would all either rush you at once or if they attacked indivdually, you can bet they would be expecting you to do something and be resistive. Wouldn't you if you just saw your buddy get trashed and you were about to take up for him? So at some point you have to practice henka waza. If you practice diligently and long enough you will see the openings to change to another technique or angle when someone is resistive. It just takes time and conscious effort. You HAVE to take some responsibility for what you get out of aikido if what that is is to be martially effective. I just don't buy this argument that some are putting out there that aikido is just really not about being martially effective. It may not be taught in a way that appears to make it martially effective, but jeez there HAVE been plenty of practitioners who have made it martially effective and the techniques did COME from martial systems. However, what we have is a system that has been invented by O'Sensei with a different purpose in mind. So like I said in the beginning. If you want your aikido to be martially effective, YOU have to ask yourself what aikido is teaching you that can be martially effective and then seek to develop that. Then you have your aikido. Someone else may not want that and may be perfectly happy getting better and better at blending and extending just doing the kihon kata. That is their aikido. Take charge, Don't just depend on your sensei to feed it all to you. You will never discover what you want if you don't take that initiative.