Thread: Resistance?
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Old 05-01-2012, 11:48 AM   #1
chubbycubbysmash
Dojo: Long Island Aikikai (Bay Shore)
Location: New York
Join Date: Apr 2012
Posts: 25
United_States
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Resistance?

I was wondering what everyone else's take on resistance and how teachers should address it in the practice of Aikido.

I was reading some threads and it seems (at least to me~but tones in text are often lost so I could be vastly, vastly wrong) that the general consensus is that higher rank should be able to MAKE lower rank fall and lower rank should give resist or counter if he has the opportunity or just feel like it, and if higher rank can't do it, it's his/her fault.

But... doesn't it allow more room for injuries and fighting, which Aikido is supposedly (or at least that's how I have been perceiving it) against? If an uke refuses to fall and you force them to do so, couldn't you end up breaking their joints or hurting them? Whose fault is it then? Is it uke's for resisting or nage's for forcing the throw even when it's dangerous? How do you decide whether an uke can take it or not? There are older high dan ranks who just can't do breakfalls anymore safely, so is it still fair game to try and make them?

I always thought it was so that we could learn the techniques cooperatively, and not turn it into a competition. If it's understood between nage and uke that you are helping each other train by giving a bit of resistance to help eachother fine tune their techniques, I think that's fine--but sometimes I find people who deliberately go around trying to resist and test people and it causes injuries.

Recently, we've had a frequent visitor (around 3rd kyu) who has often repeatedly tested other students, be they higher or lower rank. We were in a basic ukemi class doing randori (learning to break fall in groups safely) and when it was his turn to be thrown, he began jabbing a higher rank in the ribs with his elbows, grappling him, and refused to fall (which he has done frequently to other members as well before). Higher rank is a very sweet guy who is non-confrontational, and did slow down and gently force the issue until he downed the 3rd kyu, but Sensei got SO mad that he called the guy out on the spot and told him that our exercise was not about countering, and our dojo does not promote confrontation and countering, and if he sees him doing it again then he will have to respectfully ask him to stop practicing here.

Of course, this was only after the guy had been warned multiple times in the past about his behavior, but hasn't stopped. I wonder what the proper protocol would be then?

Anyway, thanks for your thoughts!

Last edited by chubbycubbysmash : 05-01-2012 at 11:50 AM.

I'm not brave or smart or particularly generous, but I'll take my values and live by them--and that is my standard measurement of strength.

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