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Old 10-22-2012, 08:13 PM   #5
Diana Frese
Dojo: Aikikai of S.W. Conn. (formerly)
Location: Stamford Connecticut
Join Date: Nov 2010
Posts: 386
United_States
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Re: Magic, Bullfighting, Front-loaders, and Aikido

Well, we never got the TV box after they switched, or a new TV because we would never get anything done around here! And computer is dial up, so no video of debate, so now back to a thread I just love.

I'm sure more people have used imagery to show Aikido techniques, but in the meantime I will inflict some more of mine here. By the way, yes Linda, in spite of many beautiful things connected with bullfighting, like the music, the costumes, the movements, doing stuff like that to animals isn't anything I want to think about having worried about my own animals' injuries and illnesses over many years. I'm not even a vegetarian but there are things I draw the line at.

But yes, the concept of the focus of the bull, the matador's cape, the turns is one of the first things that Aikido reminded me of. And without trying to start another "no touch throws" debate (one of my favorite teachers was Nobuyuki Watanabe Sensei) I called one of the techniques we learned in New York, possibly when Koichi Tohei Sensei was visiting there -- the technique where a hand appears before uke's face , the face stops and the feet run out from under him or her -- Instant Banana Peel.
New York Aikikai was a serious dojo with a large sense of humor being possessed by many of its members. Okay Daian blame it on everybody else!

Yes, I did see currency waved around. Terry Dobson Sensei of Bond Street Dojo used that method of getting uke to "really WANT to grab nage's hand." Saotome Sensei had a baby doll which he held while turning this way and that teaching people how to protect their center. In my own classes, I realized none of us at our little YMCA class at the time had ever had a kid, so I renamed it "groceries" My assistants, two young men in their twenties, really identified with that concept! One of them was not exactly my assistant, he was my assistant's assistant, he was a rugby player and presumably needed those groceries to fuel his favorite sport!

Well, as Fire Marshall Bob said on Saturday Night Live in a skit I only saw a second or two of ....."Somebody Stop Me"..... Hopefully others will add their examples before I tell the rest of mine. I can't believe there are only three of us on Aiki Web who teach this way!

Last edited by Diana Frese : 10-22-2012 at 08:18 PM.
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