White Belt Randori..

Last nights training was entirely dedicated to tanto defences, as one of the students (and a fellow white belt, and friend of mine) was mugged at knifepoint on Sunday evening, and lost her bag and belongings. Upon mentioning this to Sensei, he immediately changed the lesson to deal directly with knife defences. Superbly enjoyable and informative, and she certainly seemed a lot more comfortable with what had happened by the end of the evening.

After the session, as usual, I remained on mat and worked a little on my ukemi, and my white belt friend, and another lifelong friend of mine, a 4th Kyu, also trained a little longer.

"Randori?"

Why the heck not..

And so it was. An already exhausted me as recipient, facing another white belt, and a 4th kyu/blue.

And I'd like to think I did rather well, despite ending up in a wheezing heap after circa 40 seconds

For the most part it was simply a case of leading the attack past, and a quick clip around the ear to send them on their way, but I managed to get most of my 7th kyu test techniques in, namely a few Kokyunage's and Kotegaishi's, but for me the highlight and most surprisingly technique I managed was a grab, spin beneath (which I should know the name for, by now.. ) into a rather nice Sankyo, and ended up shielding myself with an unwilling White belt, against the 4th kyu who couldn't get at me, whilst I caught my breath

We've decided to run through Randori-esque situations after each session, not only as a means of exercising techniques, and trying our memories.. but perhaps more importantly, simply as a means of increasing, and working towards better stamina. The theory being that by the time my White Belt friend and I reach a level where Randori is required for testing, that we'll be in such fine shape, that we'll breeze through..

.. perhaps





Best,

-D.

Oh God. I hope the next time she gets mugged the outcome is the same. Personally speaking, while I think tanto dori is great fun and taught right very useful, your Aikido needs to be pretty good before you even attempt it in a real situation.

I know your sensei thought it was topical but in my opinion it is better to make sure there is a mental separation between the two. Like devote the following month rather than the next class.

Oh, absolutely. He did say that for the most part, just give them what they want if they have a knife to your throat.

I think it served as more of a confidence booster and reassurance for her, whilst as you agree, tanto work is great fun so I don't think anyone in the session complained at the change of direction.

We have a weapons course scheduled at our dojo for early July I do believe, so I'm confident there is plenty more to come on such subjects.

Best,

-Daniel.

I was also attacked by someone with a knife many years ago. The thing with aikido, is that you train your body to react instinctively. Luckily for me I survived it with only two very shallow cuts (more like scratches) - making a choice of what to do was impossible, it was just complete reaction. Maybe being held up with a knife is different since you have more time to think and are able to do different responses.

I think this illustrates what I have said in previous posts about the difference between reality and training. In reality your subconcious has to weigh up a complex situation very quickly and assess comparitive ability, risk (and possibly ethical viewpoint). In the dojo we just look at the attack.

Personally I don't think there is a right or wrong way to react in a hypothetical situation - real situations require on the spot judgement which can only be aided, but not specified, by forethought.