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Old 10-12-2001, 07:57 AM   #1
L. Camejo
 
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Dojo: Ontario Martial Arts
Location: Mississauga, Ontario
Join Date: Aug 2001
Posts: 1,423
Canada
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Training, Form, Effectiveness and Resistance

Hi Aiki folks,

After reading a few threads on this site and reflecting on my own practice, I have an observation.

From the beginning of my Aikido training, my Sensei really emphasised certain elements of maintaining one's posture, head position, leg position etc when executing and especially finishing techniques, mainly to keep one's stability.

I often wondered why we had to be so precise in our body awareness and had a hard time with it, until he explained it to me during an execution of kotegaeshi.

He came with a mune tsuki and I did tenkan kotegaeshi, however, as I did the wrist twist, my back was not completely staight. On falling, instead of doing ukemi he held on to the back of my gi and in a second I was on the ground and in a judo pin.

He then explained that maintaining one's posture in technique went a long way to keeping one's balance in the event that uke reacted abnormally or in a self defence scenario, the person decided to hold on to you while going down.

We did the same technique again with that modification and the force of his weight falling was more than he could maintain with the grip of one hand, and he had no choice but to do ukemi. This is only one example of the importance of posture and body alignment to proper execution of technique under resistance.

My question is, do any of you in other styles have this sort of over-emphasis on maintaining posture at the end of a technique, and if so, how is it taught/executed/practiced on the mat? And for which scenarios?

Arigato Gozaimasu
L.C.

--Mushin Mugamae - No Mind No Posture. He who is possessed by nothing possesses everything.--
http://www.tntaikido.org
http://www.mushinkan.ca
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Old 10-12-2001, 09:36 AM   #2
JPT
Dojo: trad
Location: UK
Join Date: Apr 2001
Posts: 69
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Yes your instructor is right a balanced posture makes it very hard for uke to pull tori over. However being off balance does not always benefit uke. For example:- let us say that you are off balance leaning forward & your uke reaches up to the front of your gi to pull you down. In this situation it is possible to inflict a rather painful knee strike on uke. Blend with their attack (i.e. let them pull you towards themself) drop your center & knees first, crash down on top of them.
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Old 10-12-2001, 12:33 PM   #3
michaelkvance
Dojo: Aikido Center of Los Angeles
Location: Montrose, CA
Join Date: Jul 2001
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I remember a few funny things from when I started aikido. One was "relax, just relax" , and the other one was "if you can learn to maintain your posture at all times, you've learned the secret of aikido."

While this is a pleasant little over-simplification, it's something I continuously try to monitor in my practice, and certainly our instructors admonish us when we fail to do so. ("Back straight, don't lean, heel on the mat, straighten your leg.")

m.
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Old 10-14-2001, 10:44 AM   #4
Chocolateuke
Dojo: Muhu Dojo
Location: Middle of nowhere in California 14 miles from Buellton
Join Date: Jun 2000
Posts: 238
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Cool

hey how do you get all the different smily faces CA?? I can only do this one .

anyhow, what affiliation are you in Camejo?? I am in Yoshinkan and we are all over stressing importance of a good strong base and poster. yes there are times you need to bend when uke tries to pull you down but it is a good idea to start well balenced and centered so you have a better chance ecicuting a suseccful throw. but my sensi says "relax your arms but be sure they are strong."

:0

Dallas Adolphsen
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Old 10-15-2001, 07:58 PM   #5
L. Camejo
 
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Dojo: Ontario Martial Arts
Location: Mississauga, Ontario
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Affiliation

Quote:
Originally posted by Chocolateuke anyhow, what affiliation are you in Camejo?? I am in Yoshinkan and we are all over stressing importance of a good strong base and poster. yes there are times you need to bend when uke tries to pull you down but it is a good idea to start well balenced and centered so you have a better chance ecicuting a suseccful throw. but my sensi says "relax your arms but be sure they are strong."
My affiliation is Shodokan (aka Tomiki) and I agree perfectly with your sensei's view on relaxed strength.

I constantly tend to find myself saying "back straight, shoulders square, knee bent, hips low" to the beginners in my class, which is how I too had learned (more or less). So I started this thread to find out if anybody else placed such emphasis on the details of body positioning, or if they just practiced techniques over and over and allowed people to get it right whenever (or if ever) they got it.

In my view, a good foundation is pivotal to good technique. When teaching self defence variants of technique I often point this out, as people tend to bend their back trying to get "more power" into their technique, but this also tends to make them very unstable and easy to topple.

With my more senior students I tend to test their posture for pins like ikkyo and stuff by trying really hard to get up or destroy their balance by trying to grab hold of a leg (medium resistance of course).

Am I being paranoid??? I hope not... guess it comes from too many experiences in Judo ne waza after doing bad Aikido techique

Imagine that, doing bad Aikido techique in the early days actually helped to improve my Judo ne waza... how scary

Comments anyone???
L.C.

--Mushin Mugamae - No Mind No Posture. He who is possessed by nothing possesses everything.--
http://www.tntaikido.org
http://www.mushinkan.ca
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