Thread: Atemi
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Old 08-31-2003, 06:44 AM   #35
L. Camejo
 
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Dojo: Ontario Martial Arts
Location: Mississauga, Ontario
Join Date: Aug 2001
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A while back I was asked by a student who did striking arts before Aikido, why we don't train with makiwara and do breaking practices to practice our atemi in Aikido.

My little answer to that was both makiwara and breaking practice are based on striking from pretty static positions, also in the case of breaking, this is practice of "hard" atemi utilising mostly our own force to generate power.

The atemi waza we do in Aikido can be applied either soft or hard, but more important than that is the ability of the atemi to disrupt the attacker's balance while in motion and utilising the attacker's incoming force/momentum to set up powerful atemi waza (basically by making em run into the strike). I think timing is very important to apply atemi properly within the flow of technique, but one should not rely on the percussive (pain inflicting) aspect of atemi alone to make effective technique.

So, getting back to topic - I think application of atemi in striking based arts like Karate, TKD etc. is a little bit different to Aikido application, i.e. to disrupt uke's physical and mental balance to create openings to apply successful technique.

Though I would also admit that thorough knowledge of striking can only help one's Aikido.

Just some thoughts.

L.C.

--Mushin Mugamae - No Mind No Posture. He who is possessed by nothing possesses everything.--
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