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Justin Couch wrote:
Quite a few in our school...
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Congratulations. You're in the minority.
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In aikido class we generally don't practice much against kicking, but in randori, kicks are seen on a somewhat regular basis.
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So any idea why they're not practised in class especially as there seems to be a lot of cross fertilisation not to say interest in your school? And how do people fare against them in randori? My guess is they're stepping in with a big 'here it comes' and a single kick right?
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As for your boxing jab; they're mostly ignorable. There's no energy to directly work with unless you go for catching the return side of the jab then shihonage or some form of hip or shoulder throw is realttively easy. If you're not looking for that, then there's no forward projection of nage's centre with a jab, which leaves you little to work with, but also means that the strike isn't going to hit you either. If you've let them get into the range where a jab would hit you, you've lost you ma'ai so something else needs to be worked on prior to this point...
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Firstly I chose the jab as a quick example. The thread is already about kicking! But since nobody's really saying much at the moment about kicking and you've responded about the jab, and the jab has some things in common with kicking in terms of liveness of application in aiki, let's look at you answer a bit more.
1) Maai means distance. Especially the distance of engagement. You never lose your maai, there is always a distance of engagement... maybe you mean you've lost the ideal aiki maai?
Anyway, this idea is also not very realistic. Maai should not dictate to you, nor should you only have one distance you can work from. You've already mentioned a shoulder throw (whatever that may be) and shihonage which works from a close distance, so you've already mentioned a distance which is perfectly within jabbing range.
2) You seem to be mystifying the concept of 'centre'. When the guy steps in to your ideal maai to close the distance you're trying to keep him at so he has a good range for a jab, his centre moves with him! It's part of his body. As for 'there's no forward projection of nage's centre' I take it you mean he is on posture? As in not overextended? Well, working with people from other arts (and practising them yourself) you shoudl know that mostly attackers don't overextend, and it's part of aiki to cause them to do so.
As a natural move, most attacks will withdraw the limb, and as you said, assuming they didn't nail you in first place you could then choose to blend with their withdrawal... but you would need to be proactive, and in that case, you may as well use preemptive timing; ie, atemi first... as you need to provoke some response. If you allow him to dictate timing you are losing another vital part of aiki awase.
3) Shihonage against a jab is frankly asking to get hit again. The jab's withdrawal is much faster than your whole body moving in and it will withdraw to a place where the hand is by the head and the elbow is just outside the shoulder and one of the most difficult positions to lead into shihonage, unless you're going to use brute force, and then: good luck.
These things should be kept in mind when practising against kicks or any other 'real' attacks too.
I've put my suggestions which I think are applicable to most real attacks including jabs and kicks in bold (hope it's not too obnoxious!):
maai is never lost and
it is necessary for you to create the maai you will work from rather than let it be dictated to you; and then you can use your maai to provide fine tuning to getting your uke into
overprojection which is often a subtle balance-reading move and not a huge swipe visible from a mile away; unless you preempt or lead effectively (which needs more than just 'backing away to regain your ideal maai' against a short-range attacker or a long range kicker who will both just chase you down faster than you can backpedal/wheel away)
you will not be able to move your body faster than the strike or it's withdrawal.