oisin bourke

I think Tamura Sensei's irimi is amazing. His timing and sensitivity is excellent. He cuts straight up uke's center line and uses elbow power (as opposed to shoulder power) to destabilise Uke. I find it interesting that he has virtually discarded tenkan. Sunadomari sensei did the same thing when he got older. Tamura looks very different from his demos of the eighties. Did he train in something else that changed his aikido, or did he just develop naturally? Perhaps he trained in some sort of sword based art?

As a criticism, I don't like his method of repeatedly blocking students without explanation when showing them something. I think it just makes students frustrated and doesn't help them understand the principles Tamura is demonstrating. However, in such large groups, perhaps he doesn't have much time to go into much detail?