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Old 10-12-2017, 08:00 AM   #1
Peter Boylan
Join Date: Aug 2001
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Aikido As An Everyday Activity

Aikido is a special activity, clearly. We have special places to practice, special clothes to wear for practice. We have special rituals to mark off training time from normal time. It shouldn't be a separate from our regular lives though. I wrote this about it, http://budobum.blogspot.com/2017/10/...-activity.html. My question is, what do you do to make your aikido a part of your everyday life?

Peter Boylan
Mugendo Budogu LLC
Budo Books, Videos, Equipment from Japan
http://www.budogu.com
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Old 10-12-2017, 08:33 AM   #2
MRoh
Location: Düsseldorf
Join Date: Apr 2013
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Germany
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Re: Aikido As An Everyday Activity

Quote:
Peter Boylan wrote: View Post
My question is, what do you do to make your aikido a part of your everyday life?
In budo, there is no alternative to training .
So, one should try to train every day.

In an interview my teacher was asked which message he had for the aikido-community. After thinking a while, he said very earnest: If you have time, you should train.
It is the only way to understand.
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Old 10-12-2017, 10:31 AM   #3
Peter Boylan
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Re: Aikido As An Everyday Activity

Quote:
Markus Rohde wrote: View Post
In budo, there is no alternative to training .
So, one should try to train every day.

In an interview my teacher was asked which message he had for the aikido-community. After thinking a while, he said very earnest: If you have time, you should train.
It is the only way to understand.
I'm thinking specifically of budo as part of your everyday life outside of the time specifically set aside for "training." How do you make it a part of the other 23 hours of the day?

Peter Boylan
Mugendo Budogu LLC
Budo Books, Videos, Equipment from Japan
http://www.budogu.com
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Old 10-12-2017, 12:09 PM   #4
Hilary
Dojo: Torrey Pines Aiki Kai
Location: San Diego
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Re: Aikido As An Everyday Activity

I do some explicit solo training both from Seishin Aikido and Sangenkai, though not enough. More and more I have adapted elements of this into my daily life. I open doors and move objects using body mechanics rather than pulling with my arms, I lift my legs going up stairs by rolling my dantian, I try to lift my arms using my back muscles. I do dantian rolls while driving watching tv or sitting at my desk. I do tendon and fascia isometrics while idle, I am constantly creating spirals in my body and expressing them out my limbs. I parry and gently redirect people and things on collision courses when stepping out of the way is not an option.

There is not enough time, for most people, in modern life to train, so the training must expand into daily activities. Aikido is movement, I move with aiki as often as I can. I do it enough that I find myself doing it absent mindedly and spontaneously. I am forever rotating my forearms against both movable and immovable objects. I eat drink and stand with weight underside. People foolish enough to inquire get to feel my dantian move in 10 directions and must suffer my long-winded explanations. My wife thinks its icky.
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Old 10-16-2017, 07:24 AM   #5
RickMatz
Dojo: Tenbu Dojo, Wixom MI
Location: Commerce Twp, MI
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Re: Aikido As An Everyday Activity

Aikido became a part of my everyday life yesterday.

I was running in a half marathon and the course crossed an old brick paved road which wasn't in great shape. It was quite uneven.

I tripped and took a fall. I did a forward roll, ended up on my feet and kept running!
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Old 10-16-2017, 07:30 AM   #6
Dothemo
Dojo: Canberra
Location: Canberra
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Re: Aikido As An Everyday Activity

Rick I love those rl ukemi stories!

I use my training everyday to remind me to diet now. If I don't practice mindfulness in eating, I'll never lose weight and get past white and yellow belt. My style demands results and if you can't do the action, you can't grade (for example, koho ukemi - https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zdhzobPsnUg having a big 'keg' stifles momentum to roll back up.) .

Last edited by Dothemo : 10-16-2017 at 07:36 AM.
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Old 10-16-2017, 12:31 PM   #7
ninjedi
 
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Re: Aikido As An Everyday Activity

"In all forms of strategy, it is necessary to maintain the combat stance in everyday life and to make your everyday stance your combat stance. You must research this well."
-- Miyamoto Musashi
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Old 10-17-2017, 08:10 AM   #8
MRoh
Location: Düsseldorf
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Re: Aikido As An Everyday Activity

Quote:
Peter Boylan wrote: View Post
I'm thinking specifically of budo as part of your everyday life outside of the time specifically set aside for "training." How do you make it a part of the other 23 hours of the day?
Training never was 1 hour a day. There were times when I spent 6 hours a day (depending on the time table, but 20 hours per week on average) on the mat, the rest of the day was reserved for earning some money, eating, recovery, meditation an so on.
Today I am on the mat 2-3 hours per day.
Doing solo exercises besides training in the dojo was always very normal.
But what Budo in daily life means is not easy to answer.
For me it is important just to live, not to see enemies behind every corner, or to be in the state of readyness for action 24 hours a day. Aikido is not a Budo for war.
I think Budo is a state of being, and I like what you write in your blog.
It is hard work to keep this state of being, until it becomes ones nature.
But Budo also is a special way of training, to bring body and mind into a special condition, and to be able to do very special things, so training on the mat is essential.
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Old 10-18-2017, 02:37 PM   #9
Janet Rosen
 
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Re: Aikido As An Everyday Activity

Doing solo internal exercises at home + some weapons kata when body and weather cooperate....
Teaching seniors both how to have better balance and how to fall safely in order to reduce risk of falls and injuries, using things from aikido, systema, pilates, and tai chi as well as my nursing knowledge....
Reminding myself that in life as in the dojo, my balance or center may be momentarily taken but it is up to ME to bring my system back into harmony.

Janet Rosen
http://www.zanshinart.com
"peace will enter when hate is gone"--percy mayfield
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Old 10-23-2017, 07:22 AM   #10
Thomas Christaller
Dojo: Zentrum fuer Bewegung & Lebenskunst/Bonn
Location: Bonn, Germany
Join Date: Jul 2009
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Germany
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Re: Aikido As An Everyday Activity

This is exactly what I am doing! Great to know that at least one other Aïkido-ka doesn’t care about what others think about taking Taisabaki while waiting for the bus. But I was inspired by my teacher, Nobuyuki Watanabe. Many years ago I complained that I am unable to train as much as in my younger age (with less work and responsibilities). He smoked his cigarette and after a while he said to me: “Thomas, this long lasts your life†using his pointing fingers to show my lifetime. “And how much time can you be in the dojo? That long? (Using his left thumb to demonstrate that small amount of time in comparison to my whole life) or that long? (Moving it a few millimeters to the right) What are you doing in the rest of your time?†Since then I move as I am in the dojo and in the DŌJŌ like I move outside of it. No difference. Nothing special.
Quote:
Hilary Heinmets wrote: View Post
I do some explicit solo training both from Seishin Aikido and Sangenkai, though not enough. More and more I have adapted elements of this into my daily life. I open doors and move objects using body mechanics rather than pulling with my arms, I lift my legs going up stairs by rolling my dantian, I try to lift my arms using my back muscles. I do dantian rolls while driving watching tv or sitting at my desk. I do tendon and fascia isometrics while idle, I am constantly creating spirals in my body and expressing them out my limbs. I parry and gently redirect people and things on collision courses when stepping out of the way is not an option.

There is not enough time, for most people, in modern life to train, so the training must expand into daily activities. Aikido is movement, I move with aiki as often as I can. I do it enough that I find myself doing it absent mindedly and spontaneously. I am forever rotating my forearms against both movable and immovable objects. I eat drink and stand with weight underside. People foolish enough to inquire get to feel my dantian move in 10 directions and must suffer my long-winded explanations. My wife thinks its icky.
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Old 11-06-2017, 08:47 AM   #11
Dastak
Dojo: Madani's School of Judo
Join Date: Oct 2016
Posts: 6
Iran
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Re: Aikido As An Everyday Activity

There is alot to say around this topic. I personally try to maintain my balance, good posture, zanshin, mindfulness, etc... during my daily activities like walking, driving, eating & so on; while others may realize the difference of my daily body movements (like the way i walk which is close to ashi-sabaki: ayumi-ashi, tsugi-ashi, ... while trying to be alert about possible movements of people around me).
Sometimes i do some aiki-taiso in the way moving to another room, just because i enjoy doing the dance-like form of them & they won't last longer than a few seconds.
I've unconsciously used ukemi when falling from a tree & from strais as well.
Afterall, i'd like to put enough emphasis on the "-DO" part of my "AI-KI-DO" which reveals itself to me as a constant path of purification of mind and body in development, like replacing useless habits with good ones, trying to get to know myself better when under pressure & trying to apply the aiki principles to my decison-making processes.
I always ask myself: "How can I be a better member of the world society?".

Masakatsu Agatsu
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Old 11-06-2017, 08:13 PM   #12
Rupert Atkinson
 
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Re: Aikido As An Everyday Activity

Quote:
Rick Matz wrote: View Post
Aikido became a part of my everyday life yesterday.

I was running in a half marathon and the course crossed an old brick paved road which wasn't in great shape. It was quite uneven.

I tripped and took a fall. I did a forward roll, ended up on my feet and kept running!
Nah - for that to happen ... it had to have been part of you life already :-)

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Old 11-06-2017, 10:33 PM   #13
mathewjgano
 
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Dojo: Tsubaki Kannagara Jinja Aikidojo; Himeji Shodokan Dojo
Location: Renton
Join Date: Feb 2005
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Re: Aikido As An Everyday Activity

Quote:
Peter Boylan wrote: View Post
My question is, what do you do to make your aikido a part of your everyday life?
Try to hold onto its principles constantly. I fail more often than not. Maybe I'll get better.

Gambarimashyo!
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