Common Mistakes

Hi,

After going through quite a few books on Aikido techniques, one thing that really attracts me is when the book explains the common mistakes that people make. I often find myself making these mistakes, so such explanations have been very useful.

Thus, I have started this thread to collect everyone's thoughts on common mistakes they have seen or made.

Just to get the ball rolling... here are two common mistakes I've made:
(1) Raising my hands too high for shihonage...if my uke is kind, he will pull me backwards as a reminder
(2) Not kicking my back leg high enough when doing a high breakfall... this causes me to fall heavily on my upper body (ouch!)

Telling my teacher when he is in town to lead a seminar.

"I haven't been feeling the love latelyl"

hand, head, body and mind doen't move as a unit.

Keep the elbow and shoulder down.

Fatal one for me, which I might add i am still working on is to use upper body strength in my techniques instead of letting the technique work for itself.

I help out in our four-week Intro courses, and there are a few mistakes you can count on every single beginner class making. It seems as though the techniques have "evil twins" that everyone prefers to do, and we have to coax students away from them.

With any of the techniques that lead uke around in a circle, the evil twin is backing up while turning.

With koteoroshi, it's raising uke's hand really high while standing close to him, and then trying to push down. This one is mysteriously consistent among both adult beginners and kids up to yellow belt.

With any throw that requires you to lower your body by bending the knees, it's bowing instead.

And on forward rolls, it's letting your arm fold up. I think I have more or less gotten over the others, but this one still dogs me.

Mary Kaye

A common mistake is to stop making mistakes in the dojo, which utterly halts the learning process.

Benjamin Edelen wrote: A common mistake is to stop making mistakes in the dojo, which utterly halts the learning process.

I agree totally!! I believe that by making mistakes is the best way to learn
Tim

Mary Kuhner wrote: And on forward rolls, it's letting your arm fold up. I think I have more or less gotten over the others, but this one still dogs me.

This one dogs me too

Mine are, as pointed out by my sensei, in no particular order:

1) Stop thinking, just do it
2) Move! Don't just stand there.
3) Relax your body!
all this while doing jiyu waza.

I make so many it's hard to know where to start but I do the raising hands to high during shihonage too.

I don't fold my arm up during a forward roll but I do tend to turn my hip very slightly at the last minute so that I end up rolling at an angle.

Mistakes? Those aren't mistakes, just subtle various of the technique....

Joseph Bowen wrote: Mistakes? Those aren't mistakes, just subtle various of the technique....

Exactly, I meant to do that.

interesting thread but should be presented in positive form IMHO, like "things that should be kept in mind when practicing", anyway, here are some of mines (positive formulation ):
- keep your hands in front of you (ushiro ryote dori but many others)
- always look at your partner in the eyes
and so on

Of course, that type of thinking invites a saying of o sensei: "Never look your opponent in the eyes, or you will be captured..."

Mark Uttech wrote: Of course, that type of thinking invites a saying of o sensei: "Never look your opponent in the eyes, or you will be captured..."

This is an interesting comment. I think O-Sensei was referring to being led by tori's mind if uke looks at tori in the eye... which then allows tori to control uke and neutralize uke's attack... then again, is it a battle of minds? if you look at tori's eyes, can you then lead his mind and perform kaeshi waza?

On the other hand, Ellis Amdur in his superb video on ukemi emphasizes looking at tori when you are being projected or thrown in koshi nage - helps to keep your head off the ground... Many senseis have also emphasized looking at tori, because he is your 'enemy', so you have to keep your eyes on him, in case he makes a sudden move...

Hmmm... the plot thickens

You can look at your opponent without looking directly into their eyes. I was taught to use "soft eyes". Instead of locking on to the eyes, let your gaze relax on the general area of the eyes, or the area of the face that is below the brow.

failure is the key to sucess; each mistake teaches us something.

osensei