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Old 05-04-2012, 11:13 AM   #48
tarik
 
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Dojo: Iwae Dojo
Location: Boulder Creek, CA
Join Date: Jun 2000
Posts: 568
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Re: What is atemi really for?

Quote:
Phi Truong wrote: View Post
wouldn't that mean we should be practice half of our time on receiving and the other half on delivering?
It depends upon the mode of practice. If I am doing things well, I find that I am usually both receiving and delivering force at the same time regardless of my role. So I practice all the time receiving (whether as uke or even or especially as tori) and most of the time on delivering force (again, both as uke and tori).

Receiving and delivering force is something that is intimately tied together. The idea that you are only doing one or the other in your role as uke or tori is very misleading in my mind, because when I am receiving force I am always looking for a way to channel it through me to somewhere, ideally somewhere that allows me to steal back the sente.

The only difference in my mind with regard to who is in which role is not who is delivering or receiving the force, but who has the sente and can make the next decision (or as Kevin might say, who is ahead in the OODA loop). I can be receiving and/or delivering force and still have the sente. When things happen correctly, uke falls down mostly because of the force that they delivered to me, returned to them skillfully with some of my own force plus gravity.

Also, I, for one, don't go in for the typical, "you throw me 4 times, I throw you 4 times" mode of practice. Even as a student I didn't comply well with that methodology; even when I was in an Aikikai dojo. I'd often insist on remaining uke (or tori) until we were reasonably close to achieving the thing we were supposed to be working on. Sometimes, I'd explain it as.. "I can't count". When I taught there, I'd often set different patterns for learning.

Now that I run my own place, I remain in the role of uke or tori for as long my partner and I feel is necessary for learning. If I remain uke for an entire class, that's just fine for my own learning and often better for my students learning.

Best,

Tarik Ghbeish
Jiyūshin-ryū AikiBudō - Iwae Dojo

MASAKATSU AGATSU -- "The true victory of self-mastery."
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