Quote:
Graham Jenkins wrote:
Regards aikido/MMA strategies.
I was in the MMA class the other day, and the teacher explained the intention behind boxing: 'you don't want to be at your opponent's twelve o'clock', is how he put it - i.e., you're always trying to get from in front of him, and off-line...just like aikido, I thought.
He also taught a left jab, right cross, left hook, right roundhouse kick combination - and the left hook set me up off-line, and with my right hip back, to then deliver a kick; the exact same kind of hip movements i've found time and again in aikido, where the back hip is naturally and powerfully rotated forward to execute a technique.
FWIW
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Not specific to you, but the overall point that you brought up.
When boxers encountered Ueshiba, they found something very different than what they'd experienced. These people trained to move, hit, jab, generate power, etc. But Ueshiba was not the same.
When Kisshomaru was studying sword, Ueshiba would later say, with aiki it would be like this. Not kata, not technique, but aiki.
When highly ranked kendo people studied with Ueshiba, they wanted to know how he used his body so differently than everyone else. These kendo people had been around for quite a while and had trained with a lot of people and knew how kendo people moved.
When Tenryu, who was highly respected in sumo, met Ueshiba, he found something completely different. Sumo people trained very hard, yet, Tenryu knew that Ueshiba was unlike anyone he had ever experienced.
These are just basic overviews. But, put them together. Boxers, wrestlers, and swordsmen who tested Ueshiba came away wondering what in the world Ueshiba was doing and really wanted to know how he was doing it. Ueshiba did not move, act, respond, or feel like anyone they'd trained with.
Now, if we take modern aikido training and find that hip generated power is very similar to boxing/MMA hip generated power, then shouldn't we be wondering why? If what Ueshiba was doing was vastly different, why is it that hip generated power in Modern Aikido is similar to boxing/MMA? Brings up the question, is Modern Aikido doing the same thing as Morihei Ueshiba ...