Welcome to AikiWeb Aikido Information
AikiWeb: The Source for Aikido Information
AikiWeb's principal purpose is to serve the Internet community as a repository and dissemination point for aikido information.

Sections
home
aikido articles
columns

Discussions
forums
aikiblogs

Databases
dojo search
seminars
image gallery
supplies
links directory

Reviews
book reviews
video reviews
dvd reviews
equip. reviews

News
submit
archive

Miscellaneous
newsletter
rss feeds
polls
about

Follow us on



Home > AikiWeb Aikido Forums
Go Back   AikiWeb Aikido Forums > General

Hello and thank you for visiting AikiWeb, the world's most active online Aikido community! This site is home to over 22,000 aikido practitioners from around the world and covers a wide range of aikido topics including techniques, philosophy, history, humor, beginner issues, the marketplace, and more.

If you wish to join in the discussions or use the other advanced features available, you will need to register first. Registration is absolutely free and takes only a few minutes to complete so sign up today!

Reply
 
Thread Tools
Old 04-06-2012, 09:50 AM   #76
dalen7
 
dalen7's Avatar
Dojo: Karcag Aikido Club
Location: Karcag
Join Date: Jun 2007
Posts: 750
Hungary
Offline
Re: Fitness needed for Aikido [Help Requested]

Quote:
Graham Jenkins wrote: View Post
Marcelo Garcia repeatedly gave Eddie Bravo - the master of the rubber guard - the position; and repeatedly escaped it.
One note as this is about 'fitness'

Marcelo Garcia is 29...
Eddie Bravo is 41...

Not sure how old you are, but Im at 40s door and Im nothing like what I was in my late 20s.
The fact that he had the stamina to hang with him speaks volumes... do a count and see how many people over 40 hang with the younger guys.

[No, we get dvds called BJJ for over 40... emphasizing the difference - and the reason to stay fit and flexi]

Peace

Dalen

dAlen [day•lynn]
dum spiro spero - {While I have breathe - I have hope}

Art
http://www.lightofinfinity.org

Philosophical
http://dalen7.wordpress.com
  Reply With Quote
Old 04-07-2012, 09:57 AM   #77
Alberto_Italiano
Join Date: Dec 2009
Posts: 296
Offline
Re: Fitness needed for Aikido [Help Requested]

Quote:
Zoe Toth wrote: View Post
Hello all,

We had a Sensei yesterday teach us Ukemi for the whole 2 hour training period. It was amazing- and very level specific- so I found myself finally getting in a high breakfall practice that I wanted to do for months. The second class did something similar for half the time and then went back to regular technique practice for the other hour.

With my first summer seminar just 10 weeks away, I'm slightly worried now. Two full days of training is starting to sound...daunting. Especially as I sit here slightly sore from yesterday's work out.

This has raised three questions for me:

1. How fit does one has to be to do Aikido? We have practitioners here in their 30s with simply amazingly muscled bodies and then on the flip side other folks who are in theirs 60s/70s and still doing it. The question here is does the first type of person have the ability to access more of Aikido than the later.

2. How fit do you have to be to do a full day of Aikido? I assume you have to pace yourself and not spend all your energy at once. I also know all the techniques are not going to require a breakfall to survive. Good ukemi would help greatly here as well.

3. What type of fitness is needed for Aikido? At the higher levels (ie black belts doing randori) I can see the need for anaerobic capacity. But most of the time I'd guess aerobic. Is this correct?

Thanks,
Zoë S. Toth
Whatever. You should think of fitness because you enjoy sports, without any particular goal. Everything helps.

If indeed you want an advice, my two cents go for skipping rope. You should get able to make 10 rounds of three minutes, with one minute of pause. That's about 40 minutes on the whole.

I use a wrist watch with a countodwn alarm: i set it to 4 minutes, when it is at less 3 i start skipping, when it rings it should have autorestart, you check it until from 4 it goes again to less 3 minutes, and you start again the next round of skipping.

The reason for this is that you would get able to dance on your feet. You have no idea what sense of an advantage it may give to you knowing you can keep dancing around, and not run out of breath whilst your adversary is spent in one minute or two. Then you begin.
ps if your adversary is not spent in two or three minutes (in a real situation you will tell he feels spent inded from this even more than from his breathing: he will start lowering his neck and shoulders, as if slightly bending, while he looks at you a lil bit like a frustrated puppy), call Houston: we have a problem... (that is: you're in for a regular beating - so, be heroic: aaaaaaaaway on your heels!)

Last edited by Alberto_Italiano : 04-07-2012 at 10:04 AM.
  Reply With Quote
Old 04-09-2012, 08:30 AM   #78
Gorgeous George
Join Date: Sep 2009
Posts: 464
United Kingdom
Offline
Re: Fitness needed for Aikido [Help Requested]

Quote:
Dalen Johnson wrote: View Post
One note as this is about 'fitness'

Marcelo Garcia is 29...
Eddie Bravo is 41...

Not sure how old you are, but Im at 40s door and Im nothing like what I was in my late 20s.
The fact that he had the stamina to hang with him speaks volumes... do a count and see how many people over 40 hang with the younger guys.

[No, we get dvds called BJJ for over 40... emphasizing the difference - and the reason to stay fit and flexi]

Peace

Dalen
I don't think the age is of any significance.
For example, Marcelo Garcia has a teacher who is much older, and not as fit; however, they still roll, and his teacher will still be able to keep up; Saulo Ribeiro, in his book, even talks about sparring with Helio Gracie - in his nineties - while he himself was young, and a world champion, and Helio was able to defend himself against the submission; he also talks about sparring with a much older Rickson Gracie, and getting tapped by him, repeatedly.

What is going on in all these cases, and in the Garcia/Bravo video, is that everybody is taking the element of fitness out of the equation, and creating an equal playing field: technique Vs technique: that's how you learn in BJJ.
The fact that Eddie Bravo is gassing, is testament to poor technique: he repeatedly uses brute strength to try and contain Marcelo; that's bad BJJ, and bad aikido.
I well recall Koichi Tohei making the point that if you rely on tension/strength, then you will ultimately tire, and be unable to resist - and that's why you need to relax, and use technique, whether you do BJJ, or aikido.

'If you think, you're late. If you're late, you muscle. If you muscle, you tire; and if you tire, you die'

- Saulo Ribeiro
  Reply With Quote
Old 04-15-2012, 09:05 PM   #79
Walter Martindale
Location: Edmonton, AB
Join Date: Jun 2006
Posts: 802
Canada
Offline
Re: Fitness needed for Aikido [Help Requested]

Well, I don't have a lot more time for this. The "tensegrity" stuff is current, sure, but it's in the "popular" press. It's a really minor part of transmission of force from muscle to movement or stabilisation.

I had a nice hour long chat with a professor of spine biomechanics at the university of Waterloo. He consults for international olympic sports federations, for some MMA equipment manufacturers, and for some MMA competitors. There's a confidentiality agreement he enters into with the sport feds and the competitors that prevents him from telling the world who he's consulting for.

Essentially, the upshot of the discussion was that the whole "fascia" and "tensegrity" thing isn't really anything to get all fired up about.

Fitness required for Aikido - depends. Do you want to teach a few techniques and then go around and correct techniques, or do you want to be active, robust, tough, and strong enough to actually do something when some young buck wants to take your head off? There are lots of examples of young bucks taking old 'no touch' sensei apart, and frankly I'm not at all interested in going up against any of them - maybe 30 years ago... Nah, not even then.

Get as fit as you can - run, run up and down hills, run up and down stairs. Carry your friend(s) up hills or stairs. Practice LOTS of aikido with LOTS of ukemi. Swim, ride a bike, learn how to balance a racing shell and row a single for 2 hours a day. It's just like getting to Carnegie Hall... Practice, Practice, Practice. You get fit by practicing, you get skilled by practicing, and if you do supplementary training, you get fitness from (say) continuous work that isn't interrupted by minutes of sitting in seiza while a sensei babbles on about how to do something when he could have got you going with four demonstrations - or three...

Gotta go.
W
  Reply With Quote
Old 04-16-2012, 06:54 AM   #80
Kevin Leavitt
 
Kevin Leavitt's Avatar
Dojo: Team Combat USA
Location: Olympia, Washington
Join Date: Jul 2002
Posts: 4,376
United_States
Offline
Re: Fitness needed for Aikido [Help Requested]

Nice post Walter. I can relate to the seiza stuff for sure!

  Reply With Quote
Old 04-16-2012, 07:20 AM   #81
Walter Martindale
Location: Edmonton, AB
Join Date: Jun 2006
Posts: 802
Canada
Offline
Re: Fitness needed for Aikido [Help Requested]

Quote:
Kevin Leavitt wrote: View Post
Nice post Walter. I can relate to the seiza stuff for sure!
experience:
sensei mumbles, teaches, demonstrates, mumbles towards floor, demonstrates, beats up uke for a couple of minutes.

(while mumbling about what he's doing - whoopie - he ALMOST speaks loud enough to get through the tinnitus generated by range practices in the days before hearing protection and YEARS of sitting next to outboard motors...)

releases dojo to practice.
Partner 1 tries move 4x
Partner 2 (frequently me) gets into second attempt to try move.
Sensei claps hands and we're all back in seiza

lather
rinse
repeat
MADDENING
Knees no longer young, ankles, too...
Cheers,
W
  Reply With Quote

Reply


Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)
 
Thread Tools

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

vB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off


All times are GMT -6. The time now is 03:01 PM.



vBulletin Copyright © 2000-2024 Jelsoft Enterprises Limited
----------
Copyright 1997-2024 AikiWeb and its Authors, All Rights Reserved.
----------
For questions and comments about this website:
Send E-mail
plainlaid-picaresque outchasing-protistan explicantia-altarage seaford-stellionate