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Old 06-15-2009, 10:31 AM   #15
CarrieP
 
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Location: Michigan
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Re: The role of weapons in Aikido

I have just started doing more weapons in my aikido training, and so I'm just scratching the surface on how weapons relate to the rest of aikido.

However, here's what I've observed so far.

Helps to improve form and body movement in non-weapons practice. When holding and using a weapon, you must really focus on relaxing your upper body and shoulders. Also, using of the hips to move the weapon, rather than the arms. All things that translate directly into non-weapons techniques.

Helps to improve co-ordination and strength. We do a lot of warm-up exercises that simply involve moving the jo or bokken repetetively. These strengthen muscles, tire out muscles and help us learn how to move the weapons better when we do kata.

Adds a dimension of realism, martial awareness to training. Example: We were doing ikkyo shomenuchi suwariwaza recently. First, without weapon, then with a tanto. Just having the small wooden dagger in hand made it much more difficult to do the techinque, even though the technique nage was doing hadn't really changed at all. But now, as nage, we needed to keep an eye on that knife, to make sure we moved off the line before it hit us, and to make sure we were controlling the knife hand at all times and that we did not allow a possible attack of opportunity from uke. Not that uke would take that attack, because we were not training that way, but you could definitely see if you were in a place where 1. you did not have control of the tanto and 2. uke might be able to stab you.

Especially since a lot of aikidoka are not the best at attacking (I'll raise my here and include myself here, though I'm working on it) the weapon makes the attack feel more "real" (and some people do find it easier to use a weapon than to strike).

Weapons help with knowing your distance between you and your partner. Can see much more clearly how far you need to be to strike, or how far away you need to move in order to be out of the way of the strike.

Weapons can also help with "beginners mind." If you've been training a few years, and just start weapons, techniques that are very similar to each other will seem different, and you will look at them in a new way. I personally believe that struggling with something new and trying to figure it out is fundamental to learning. You take it to heart, and absorb it better that way.

Whether or not aikido came from weapons, or the other way around, you will definitely start to see connections between weapons techniques and aikido. IMHO, the more connections you see among different techniques, the easier it will be for you to learn and absorb what you are learning. Although there are several techniques in aikdio, it's all a few basic principles when you whittle everything away and get down to it. I think weapons helps to reinforce this concept.

Last edited by CarrieP : 06-15-2009 at 10:37 AM.
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