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Old 11-23-2009, 10:59 AM   #26
Victoria Pitt
Dojo: Shinjinkai, Chicago, IL
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Re: Does the hakama help your training?

Quote:
Ashley Carter wrote: View Post
No one wears knee pads in my dojo for iaido.
LOL.. I don't know what other people do but I wear knee pads. I'm old so I'm trying to make my knees last!

~Do one thing each day that scares you...~
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Old 11-23-2009, 09:46 PM   #27
Kent Enfield
 
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Re: Does the hakama help your training?

Quote:
Ashley Carter wrote: View Post
No one wears knee pads in my dojo for iaido.
Do you practice on tatami or on a hardwood floor?

Kentokuseisei
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Old 11-23-2009, 11:10 PM   #28
Atticus
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Re: Does the hakama help your training?

Quote:
Walter Martindale wrote: View Post
The gi pants rub on the floor and the knee skin gets a good stretching.

The hakama rubs on the floor, the pants slide a bit on top of the inside of the hakama, and the skin doesn't get as much stretching.

That's my theory, and I'm sticking with it.

Walter
It's similar to wearing two pairs of socks when you're hiking. The hakama definitely reduced the discomfort of doing suwariwaza. Another benefit I find is that I don't have to worry any more about my belt coming untied!
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Old 11-24-2009, 02:32 AM   #29
Flintstone
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Re: Does the hakama help your training?

Quote:
Atticus Sims wrote: View Post
Another benefit I find is that I don't have to worry any more about my belt coming untied!
Oh my. Just an excuse for not learning to tie it properly.

Iaido with kneepads, hakama protecting your knees, belts untying... Ok, ok, I see.

Sorry guys, I'll go back in lurking mode from my cave.
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Old 11-24-2009, 09:46 AM   #30
ninjaqutie
 
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Re: Does the hakama help your training?

I think an important factor in my dojo is that if you have bad knees, you do all the forms from standing. If you have good knees, then you do most of the forms from seiza.

~Look into the eyes of your opponent & steal his spirit.
~To be a good martial artist is to be good thief; if you want my knowledge, you must take it from me.
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Old 11-24-2009, 10:02 AM   #31
Maarten De Queecker
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Re: Does the hakama help your training?

Quote:
Ashley Carter wrote: View Post
I think an important factor in my dojo is that if you have bad knees, you do all the forms from standing. If you have good knees, then you do most of the forms from seiza.
You 'd have to be really stupid to do suwari waza techniques when you have bad knees -unless you're a masochist.
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Old 11-24-2009, 10:06 AM   #32
ninjaqutie
 
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Re: Does the hakama help your training?

Oh, I agree. I was just saying...

~Look into the eyes of your opponent & steal his spirit.
~To be a good martial artist is to be good thief; if you want my knowledge, you must take it from me.
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Old 11-24-2009, 11:26 AM   #33
Budd
 
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Re: Does the hakama help your training?

As someone that's grappled for a number of years (competitively and just playing with friends at Judo, Bjj, MMA schools, etc.), I was pretty sure that I was going to hate (in an aikido context) the hakama when I finally got around to joining the yudansha. I'd worn it years ago when doing traditional weapons and liked how it made it very clear where my dantien/hara/one point operated from, but was pretty sure my gi/singlet operating systems were going to reject the addition of the skirt.

In the last few years, I've also gotten very interested (obsessed, even) in training Internal Strength, in an aikido context as well as in the broader how-to's and different environment applications contexts.

Surprisingly to me (it really shouldn't have been in retrospect), training with the hakama on is a pretty nice cheat from an Internal Strength perspective. As in how it's tied, where the obi lies - it removes all doubt where the dantien components of the front and back are - it also helps pull together the connective tissue underneath the skin (assuming you've done any work to connect them to the middle) so that you have an inherited whole-body connect going if you're looking for it and can capitalize.

So, if I look at aikido training (solo tanren, partner practice) as a means of training ki/kokyu, then that cheat can immediately assist in getting the systems online and engaged in their respective network array (tech talk, I know, but my vocation and avocation run together in my head). Which then means, I shouldn't have to worry about the dantien/connective tissues *as much* in that milieau. However, I need to recognize the cheat, then address it when I do IS work in a non-aikido environment, so that I don't get too dependent on the cheat . .

Anyhow, it's lunchtime and my hungry brain starts a ramblin and and . .
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Old 12-10-2009, 09:19 AM   #34
Daniel Wilson
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Re: Does the hakama help your training?

Quote:
Ahmad Abas wrote: View Post
I like the whoosh sound....
Just wanted to ditto that.

All things meet in the middle.
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Old 12-10-2009, 11:29 AM   #35
James Davis
 
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Re: Does the hakama help your training?

Lift it up a bit if you're walking up stairs. You have been warned.

"The only difference between Congress and drunken sailors is that drunken sailors spend their own money." -Tom Feeney, representative from Florida
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Old 12-10-2009, 11:54 AM   #36
Gerardo Torres
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Re: Does the hakama help your training?

No... I wish I could train aikido without it. I feel that I have more freedom of movement without it.

For koryu training I do need the hakama though as I'm usually not wearing long pants under it.
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Old 12-10-2009, 12:37 PM   #37
Gerardo Torres
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Re: Does the hakama help your training?

Re. Iai with kneepads... some used them, some don't. It depends on many things: the technical nature of a particular ryu, the student's age/health/experience, the type of floor, the type of kneepad, what the teacher thinks/allows, etc. It's hard to make a general statement on whether they should be worn or not for the practice of iai.
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Old 12-29-2009, 07:03 AM   #38
Melchizedek
 
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Re: Does the hakama help your training?

from what I know the seven pleats of the HAKAMA represents the seven virtue of BUSHIDO.

yes it helps me from training, wearing a GI and HAKAMA its my known funeral attire.
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Old 12-29-2009, 08:20 AM   #39
Shadowfax
 
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Re: Does the hakama help your training?

Been wearing one for just about 2 months now. I was pretty hesitant about the whole idea in the beginning ,thinking it would hinder my freedom of movement... yeah it certainly does at times. It has forced me to pay a lot more attention to where my feet are. It's hard to stand up when your foot is on your hakima. :P lol

I don't know that I'd say it has been hugely helpful in training itself but for me when I began to wear one I felt different. It has, for me a feeling of formality and finish. More polished, more serious more a part of the tradition and history of aikido.

I like the feel of the belts and ties and even the koshita. It seems to give me some great lower back support and makes me stand up straighter. It makes me more aware of my center by the fact that I feel all of that heaviness of the hakima hanging from that point. It gives me more awareness of my hips and reminds me to use them. And yes it does make swari waza and seiza a little easier on my knees.

I would not say that wearing a hakima has made my training better in any specific ways but it has enhanced it in many small ways.

And besides all that it looks really cool.
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Old 12-29-2009, 11:54 AM   #40
Walter Martindale
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Re: Does the hakama help your training?

Quote:
Alejandro Villanueva wrote: View Post
Oh my. Just an excuse for not learning to tie it properly.

Iaido with kneepads, hakama protecting your knees, belts untying... Ok, ok, I see.

Sorry guys, I'll go back in lurking mode from my cave.
revisiting an older thread... I tie my belt the way I was shown by a bunch of yudansha in a judo dojo, and the way the guys at the Kodokan tied their belts when they trained on the Japanese national judo team (I watched - the only one that ever practiced with me "gave me a lesson" - it was fun, but a whole 'nother level). Everyone there, including Yasuhiro Yamashita (again, I watched) had their belts un-tie and trail behind them at some stage.

I've seen some aikido people tie their belts with a sort of basket weave, and it didn't come undone, and I've seen others loop their loose-ends around the belt again, but that wouldn't be permitted in judo, where your opponent's belt is sometimes used in newaza to control your opponent.
I've also seen people with a different type of belt from the standard judo-type belt - one in particular who's spent several years in Japan - his belt seems to taper and is tied quite differently, but I've never been told that my belt was tied "wrong."

They work loose. It seems to matter to Aikido people - I seem to recall the judo folks treated it as a minor inconvenience.

Is there a web site somewhere with "how to tie an obi so it won't work loose" video? Will have a look at youtube and report back.

Ok - found one. tried it - seems to work...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksKl1ptKUV8
May even try it, but the hakama keeps the old-style knot in place...

W

Last edited by Walter Martindale : 12-29-2009 at 12:09 PM.
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Old 12-29-2009, 12:10 PM   #41
Maarten De Queecker
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Re: Does the hakama help your training?

Quote:
Walter Martindale wrote: View Post
revisiting an older thread... I tie my belt the way I was shown by a bunch of yudansha in a judo dojo, and the way the guys at the Kodokan tied their belts when they trained on the Japanese national judo team (I watched - the only one that ever practiced with me "gave me a lesson" - it was fun, but a whole 'nother level). Everyone there, including Yasuhiro Yamashita (again, I watched) had their belts un-tie and trail behind them at some stage.

I've seen some aikido people tie their belts with a sort of basket weave, and it didn't come undone, and I've seen others loop their loose-ends around the belt again, but that wouldn't be permitted in judo, where your opponent's belt is sometimes used in newaza to control your opponent.
I've also seen people with a different type of belt from the standard judo-type belt - one in particular who's spent several years in Japan - his belt seems to taper and is tied quite differently, but I've never been told that my belt was tied "wrong."

They work loose. It seems to matter to Aikido people - I seem to recall the judo folks treated it as a minor inconvenience.

Is there a web site somewhere with "how to tie an obi so it won't work loose" video? Will have a look at youtube and report back.

Ok - found one. tried it - seems to work...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksKl1ptKUV8
W
I use that knot. It doesn't work loose if done well, trust me
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Old 12-29-2009, 09:03 PM   #42
Kevin Leavitt
 
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Re: Does the hakama help your training?

I wear a wide Iaito obi for Aikido and wrap and secure it in a traditional way under hakama.

For judo/jiu jitsu...I wear a regular judo style obi with just a square knot that comes undone all the time. Frankly I like the fact that it comes undone. That way in competition it can't readily be used against me and when we are resetting, it gives me a break while I tie it again. So, I personally think it is advantageous to have it come undone.

In practice we usually just throw them to the side until we are done fighting and then we secure them again.

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Old 12-29-2009, 10:15 PM   #43
Janet Rosen
 
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Re: Does the hakama help your training?

Quote:
Kevin Leavitt wrote: View Post
Frankly I like the fact that it comes undone. That way in competition it can't readily be used against me and when we are resetting, it gives me a break while I tie it again.
At high intensity seminars or training if I was very short of breath, even if my belt was fine I'd pretend it needed retying in order to bow to my partner, slowly walk to the edge of the mat, fiddle with the belt, slowly walk back......

Janet Rosen
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Old 12-29-2009, 11:54 PM   #44
Walter Martindale
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Re: Does the hakama help your training?

Quote:
Janet Rosen wrote: View Post
At high intensity seminars or training if I was very short of breath, even if my belt was fine I'd pretend it needed retying in order to bow to my partner, slowly walk to the edge of the mat, fiddle with the belt, slowly walk back......
See? Another practical application of a belt working loose...
(Me too - old age sucks but it's better than stopping altogether.)
Walter
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Old 01-02-2010, 04:03 AM   #45
Mannix Moya
 
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Re: Does the hakama help your training?

i don't think so, but its a nice reminder of aikido's traditions
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