solo exersies - tai sabaki

Hi, do any of you have suggestions for exercises or drills that I can do at home alone, without a partner, in improving my tai sabaki skills? What do you do (or did when you started out) to sharpen irimi and tenakn skills (in particular)? Thanks.

I highly recommend finding a yoshinkan instructor and having them teach you the basic movements practised there. You may also find these basic movements in some of Shioda Kancho's books (Dynamic Aikido, Total Aikido) as well as in the Yoshinkan Training Manual by Inoue Sensei.

These movements focus on how to move your body in ways which almost any style of aikido might use. One or two might not apply to your particular style, but I'm sure most would have some value. Some examples might be:

After class (or finishing) exercise 1 and 2 for shihonage omote and ura

Cross step in body change for iriminage and sokumen iriminage (kokyunage)

elbow power one and two for irimi and off-balancing in many techniques

If aiki ken and jo are practised where you train, I also recomend pratising those at home.

Ron Tisdale

If the Yoshinkan isn't your bag, you can do the Aiki-Taiso exercises developed by Koichi Tohei Sensei to develop mind/body coordination and to teach your body the basic movements found in Aikido waza.

weapons kata

Bronson

Hello there Kieun. Exercises that I always run through at home when I've got time are changing posture from left to right, tai sabaki (varying distance covered) and Irimi. Other good though maybe more controversial exercises are press ups on the backs of the wrists. These build strength and flexibilty in the wrists and also develop the spirit. When training on your own, try to to train with the mindset that you always have an opponent. This will bring your solo training to life.

All the best with your training.

Jason T