Multiple Attackers Drills

Tonight was the first time I got to participate in a multiple attackers excercise.

All the students formed a circle, and one stood in the middle. Whenever someone in the circle felt the desire to, they brought their arm up in shiko (sp?), knife hand, and quickly approached the person in the center, who had to evade by either simply moving, moving and blocking, or applying a technique, ideally using one attacker to block another. Approx. 2-4 people would go after nage at a time. Although I wasn't exactly spectacular, I thought it was incredible.

What I want to know is, what types of multiple attackers drills do you practice in your dojos, and what do you think of them?

We do multiple attacker exercises right from the beginning.
The first exercise is part of the warm up: all students move on a small part of the mat, actively seaching partners for a short contact, then moving on. Crashes are not allowed. What your're learning is first to see the gaps and free spaces were you can go and not to concentrate on the people and second to be the one to choose whom you deal with. This way, the surprise is on your side.
The second and third execises are part of the randori at the end of the training: two uke attack a single nage with all kinds of attacks allowed. And: two uke attack a single nage who has his/her eyes closed (no strikes or kicks, of course).
Training with two uke is very helpful to keep nage from thinking about what to do and planning the next technique because nage always has to keep moving.
And with closed eyes, you have to rely on your feeling of where the force and the flow goes.
And it is great fun, of course.

Hope that helps,
love
Anne

We do the one you mentioned for beginners. We also do the following.

''tunnel of death'' as called by our sensei. 8 men line up in 2 lines forming a tunnel. Tory walks slowly through the tunnel, and sensei walks behind. When sensei looks at someone, he/she has to attack tory. It gets very eventful. Particularly when sensei ken comes down to train. He has been allowed to bring all the conviscated weapons from lincoln police station, including clubs, chair legs, nunchaku etc etc as he has been given a permit from the main constable. He issues these out to the ukes before hand we have fun. This can also be done when ukes form a circle aound you.

We also do 2 verses 4 drills, and he explained how 2 verses 4 is often harder that 1 verses 4, as you have to worry about your companion. This was made clear when I threw the guy who was ment to be on my side. The drills we do on 'summer schools'' are endless including, Braveharte like wazas. These include about 40 aikidoka all armed with jo's and bokken's running in on each other from around 20 yards, and duelling with set attacks. All this is carried out in the local woods where the venue is held. There are sometimes some injuries but knowone minds. Sensei called it ''Hollywood waza''.

The latter things I mentioned are only practiced with higher grades.



Matt Banks

At first we practise slow randori from grabs with such techniques as tenchi-nage, irimi-nage, kokyu nage where there is a requirement for a lot of blending - it is somewhat artificial at first but develops the idea of moving off centre line and positioning.

I know people have different theories on this, for safety reasons, but I prefer people to throw the uke at other attackers - it is for the other ukes to move out of the way and stand up quickly so they don't get someone thrown on top of them.

We generally have 2 styles of randori. The line of 4 people in front, where the intension is to go to the edge (being very pro-active) and pick off that attacker, throwing them in to the others so you always keep the attackers in front of you (unless you are specifically setting the person behind you up). The other is a circle, but the principle is the same - to get out of the circle (by throwing someone from the edge inwards) and have your attackers in front of you. The point of out multiple attack is that everyone should attack you as soon as they can, and if two people can attack you at once you are doing it wrong.

When people are happy with blending I think it is actually much easier to have freestyle defence (from set attacks), this helps you control uke and is more realistic because it is difficult to force a technique on an uke who is reacting very differently to what you expect.

The best is free style attack and defence, though being able to change techniques and move quickly is essential - I've never tried randori with weapons but I expect it is immensely difficult and probably quite dangerous.

Ian

P.S. thanks for the new ideas Matt & Anne - I'll give them a try (though I have enough trouble tripping over ukes with my eyes open)!

[Edited by ian on February 20, 2001 at 06:42am]

In the Dojo i train at, we do not do much multiple attacks. Last night we did our first muli-attack. It involved tory raiseing his two arms to his side, and two ukes holding both arms and pulling them as tight as possible. Then some how the tori has to get out of it. To do this tori firstly pulls forward then studdenly runs backwards causing the tow ukes to collide in front of him. Now tori takes the right hands of the two ukes, and graps them together. Now its just a "simple" case of applying shio-nage and watch as the two ukes fall on top of each other.

We practice randori at various levels depending on the group's ability. The main focus is staying calm and relaxed (my sempai said you must be like the eye of the hurricane, remaining calm while surrounded by turmoil).

However, last night we did some exercises involving one nage being held by two ukes. The ukes would take a firm two-handed grasp on one wrist (so ukes are standing on either side of nage). Then nage applies technique to escape from both ukes.

Perhaps these are common exercises, but I was awed since I hadn't seen them yet in my limited training. Anyway, next time MIB come up on either side of me and take hold of my arms I will know what to do

The.. third execises are part of the randori at the end of the training:... two uke attack a single nage who has his/her eyes closed (no strikes or kicks, of course)....
And with closed eyes, you have to rely on your feeling of where the force and the flow goes.

Anne-

Thank you for this great idea. Last week I taught a class where we started with a few ki exercises. Then to different types of techniques involving front and rear grabs. And then finally randori with closed eyes. Overall it was very interesting. I think everyone learned a little bit more about themselves. Further, at the end of each closed eye randori we did a short regular randori, and each person noticed a difference in his or her technique and awareness level.

Thank you again.
Yours in Aikihood