Atemi focus and intensity

Sho dojo, North Florida Aikikai had the wonderful pleasure of hosting George Ledyard Sensei the weekend of March 24, 2006. Ledyard Sensei gave of us years of material to work on during his visit, far too many things to mention here in this short thread. One thing I would like to ask anyone who cares to opine concerns specific work you may participate in during practice at your dojo to enhance posture and intent in delivering atemi, especially by newer, less seasoned members of your dojo. The result we are looking for concerns increasing the martial intent of atemi and not using it as means to merely begin taking ukemi. Any drills or teaching techniques you have found to be effective would be greatly appreciated. I appreciate your input, and our entire dojo offers our sincerest thanks to Ledyard Sensei for a fantastic experience; if you have the means to see this teacher I highly recommend it!

Eric. D. Lingswiler

Yes, Ledyard Sensei is always insightful and inspiring. i had had the pleasure of enjoying his training and conversation several times.

Training in atemi, IMHO, a must if we are to keep this art alive. Most of the people I train with have previous martial art experience, so we pretty well bash away. We do take the time to show correct punching, some more karate style, others of us more boxing. In showing the technique, we also show the correct form of attack. Many of us also will correct students while training. They all seem to appreciate it.

Eric Lingswiler wrote: Any drills or teaching techniques you have found to be effective would be greatly appreciated.

I usually start people with a "straight-arm" and let them hit a bag or target on a wall a lot. They start with the arm/hand extended so that it is touching the target, just like they are "stiff-arming" it, but with no tension. Then they squench down and back a few inches by slightly bending the knees and bowing the back a little. Then they straighten into the target by straigthen the knees and back. No upper body is used except to transmit the power from the lower body. It's a good start to learning how to punch using the power of the lower body and it allows smaller-framed people (like women) to quickly learn to hit most people unbelievably hard.

First the palm, later a fist, and later a punch that involves starting from a retracted position. As they begin to get it right, they start timing it so that the momentum of the body is added.

It's not the ultimate punch, but it's powerful and it's within the logical framework that they can later use to develop the extremely powerful punches.

Chops, like shomen uchi or Yokomen add a little bit of the body weight to the hand, but they're more complex to be done really powerfully, IMO.

FWIW

Mike

Thank you Mike.

You're welcome. Here's some good atemi to use for inspirations:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxxebP0u31g

I get my students to practice shomenuchi and yokomenuchi by breaking beach rocks with those strikes. They certainly learn quickly how to do it right.

Rock

OK this has nothing to do with this thread (sorry!!), but I have noticed that Lynn Seiser always writes IMHO and I have no idea what it means. It's killing me. Could anyone tell me please, please, please what it means?? Thank you!!!

IMHO= Is my hat on?






Sorry Lucy and my apologies Sensei Seiser, it is 2:30 am and I should be asleep.

Lucy Smith wrote: OK this has nothing to do with this thread (sorry!!), but I have noticed that Lynn Seiser always writes IMHO and I have no idea what it means. It's killing me. Could anyone tell me please, please, please what it means?? Thank you!!!

Lucy,

it is a FLA ( Four Letter Abbreviation )
IMHO = In My Humble Opinion
which in some cases actually means IMNSHO ( In My Not So Humble Opinion )
This is not the case with Lynn, but it's always worth reading carefully what comes after the predicate.

regards,
Mark

Look here, Lucy:

http://www.assessmentpsychology.com/...etglossary.htm

David Skaggs wrote: my apologies Sensei Seiser

No problem with taking things personally or seriously.

BTW (by the way), as a simple perpetual student of martial arts, its perhaps Sempai (senior student or in my case senior citizen), not Sensei. I only share the journey, not teach it.

Great abbreviation resource Mike, thanks.