Aikido and Climbing

Does anyone else enjoy rock climbing? I absolutely love it.

I have started to notice similarities between climbing and aikido (as strange as that may sound) like for example, its easier to climb if your hips are close into the wall, a lot of your movement has to start at the hips when you are climbing to make it stable.

When belaying (holding the rope for a climber) I found I'm more stable when i take up gidari hamnai, I can take falls off much heavier people that way.

Its strange how many things can be helped by Aikido and MA's in general isn't it.

Nikyo is very similar to climbing cracks. The level of concentration and relaxation needed for climbin and aikido is also very similar. Breath control really comes into play (for me anyway) on harder climbs (5.9 US and up, sorry don't know aussie ratings).

Mark

The wall I climb at uses uk/French ratings. how high up the scale is 5.9? is it very high. the uk rates from 4a-9c at three intervals each (i.e 4a 4b 4c 5a 5b 5c etc.) i just did a 6c yesterday so im pretty happy with myself. BUt that took a lot of breathing control too, not to get too stuck on each breath as you climb, and breathing normally as you go, when it takes 10 mins to climb the wall you can easily get tired if you hold on to breaths.

This is similar to randori in my opinion

And you need excellent ukemi for those long falls, too!

Steve Mullen wrote: The wall I climb at uses uk/French ratings. how high up the scale is 5.9? .... This is similar to randori in my opinion

http://www.abc-of-rockclimbing.com/w...binggrades.asp for rating system comparison. About 5b in your terms. I climb mostly outside, mostly to get to the top of mountains. The randori aspects really start when birds fly over and drop rocks or goats object to your presence.

Have fun,
Mark

I actually started aikido for something to do in the winter when I couldn't climb. There's almost too many things they have in common to list.

There is also a great relationship with flow and centering in both. I remember doing some climbs where it was important to maintain a good center in order to preserve a the flow to the next hold.

Both seem to always provide great learning opportunities for the art and in life.

-C

Mark Gibbons wrote: http://www.abc-of-rockclimbing.com/w...binggrades.asp for rating system comparison. About 5b in your terms. I climb mostly outside, mostly to get to the top of mountains.

The French grades have been pretty universally accepted for bolted sport climbs in the UK now, including walls (gyms). Below 6a though, the a's b's and c's have been dropped and replaced with a "+". So the equivalent UK grade for a 5.9 bolted sport climb would be about a F5+ (the F just stands for French).

For Trad climbing the British system is a bit complicated, which leads to lots of fun debating what grade a given climb is - just try googling "three pebble slab" and you'll see what I mean. TPS is only about 30 feet high - if you printed out all the debate about its grade you could stack that higher!

A 5.9 trad climb would be somewhere around a HVS 5a though if it was a bit bold, or particularly strenuous, it might get E1 5a.

US 5.9 is roughly equivalent to Australian 17 btw.

Chart here: http://www.alpinist.com/grades/

The randori aspects really start when birds fly over and drop rocks or goats object to your presence.

Wow, what kind of birds are those?
There are birds (Fulmars) on sea cliffs here (especially in Scotland) that defend their nests by projectile vomiting horrible green stinky bile at you, but I've never heard of actual avian bombing runs.

The biggest parallel between aikido and climbing for me?
Mushin mugamae.

Sean
x

Sean Orchard wrote: Wow, what kind of birds are those? There are birds (Fulmars) on sea cliffs here (especially in Scotland) that defend their nests by projectile vomiting horrible green stinky bile at you, but I've never heard of actual avian bombing runs. The biggest parallel between aikido and climbing for me? Mushin mugamae. Sean x

Back home in Colorado (sigh..oh, how I miss it) they'll occasionally close certain climbing areas for the sake of nesting peregrine falcons or other birds of prey. Wouldn't want one of those taking exception to your presence, would you?

DAM as if this climbing stuff wasn't hard enough we have to contend with a grading system devised by 1,000 monkeys working on a 1,000 typewriters and projectile vomiting birds *thinks for a moment* what would be the accepted aiki way to deal with a projectile vomiting bird?.

Anyway, i think ill stick to indoors sport climbing for a few more months. Really getting inot bouldering recently, I used to use it just as a warm up, but im kinda hooked now.

The finger strength you get from climbing is also good for eagle/dragon claw applications in kung-fu e.g. tearing lumps of flesh off people. Have a look into this, there are some excellent grabs to vital areas which can be devestating if you have the finger strength.

Neat thread. I've only done climbing once, but only on a wall in a gym. It was a blast!

Hi Aaron... I know what you mean. I am in the UK, which is great, but I miss Colorado terribly. If the weather was good enough to climb all the time however, I wouldn't have found Aikido. So that's a plus.

The connection of Nikkyo to crack climbing is especially profound. For those of you who don't know, the hand can go in thumbs up, or thumbs down. When thumbs down (pinky finger up, obviously) you insert the hand and rotate your bent elbow down. the back of your hand and the heel part of your hand provide friction enough to pull on, even in parallel sided cracks. Incredibly steep climbs can be done this way. You pull down hard, but nikkyo doesn't seem to go "on" exactly, it is more the pain on the back of your hand that kills.

The hips coming in is also important on the steep. Anyone in the Devon area, give a shout and lets rope up!

Keith

Keith Gotschall wrote: Hi Aaron... I know what you mean. I am in the UK, which is great, but I miss Colorado terribly. If the weather was good enough to climb all the time however, I wouldn't have found Aikido. So that's a plus. The connection of Nikkyo to crack climbing is especially profound. For those of you who don't know, the hand can go in thumbs up, or thumbs down. When thumbs down (pinky finger up, obviously) you insert the hand and rotate your bent elbow down. the back of your hand and the heel part of your hand provide friction enough to pull on, even in parallel sided cracks. Incredibly steep climbs can be done this way. You pull down hard, but nikkyo doesn't seem to go "on" exactly, it is more the pain on the back of your hand that kills. The hips coming in is also important on the steep. Anyone in the Devon area, give a shout and lets rope up! Keith

I'm in the same boat--I got into Aikido out of frustration with the decrease in the quality of outdoor recreation afforded by Philadelphia as opposed to Denver...I figured if I can't climb mountains, I might as well get into something else...