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Old 08-03-2012, 03:05 PM   #6
TokyoZeplin
Dojo: Seishinkan Dojo
Location: Copenhagen
Join Date: Jun 2012
Posts: 111
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Re: Overly Compliant Uke - Belief in Non-existent power

Maybe I'm explaining myself very badly here...

I understand that generally Uke takes big leaps and falls, which to some look very fake, to avoid serious injury. That is not at all what I'm talking about. I also think I made it clear, but perhaps not enough, that I'm not saying Aikido doesn't work, or that there aren't outright amazing top-level practitioners. Those are certainly not the people I'm talking about.

But there certainly are videos where it's quite clear that Uke is simply doing "whatever it takes" to make the techniques look good. I remember one video, as an example, where Nage does that bend-over-like-a-ball technique (no clue that it's called) as Uke is charging. Uke is naturally supposed to "fall over" Nage, but literally stopped a little, and then jumped over, without ever touching Nage. Then there are other videos where you can see Uke falling before actually being touched.
Those are the extreme cases of what I'm talking about, simply to point out the, uhm, point, in a clear manner.

You don't even need to look further than these forums, for some light (and often ever so slightly off-topic, so it never really goes into it) discussion on this, with some horrible demonstrations. A recent Aikido Journal also briefly mentions this type of Nage, in it's "Bulldogs" article.
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