Mr. Ledyard below is responding in this
thread in the AikiWeb Forums
The below is Mr. Ledyard's response. Please be sure to read the original
thread for the full context.
Practice of so-called "non-traditional" attacks is quite useful and
has a necessary place in the practice of Aikido as a viable martial
art. But that isn't the main thrust of the critics of Aikido attacks,
of whom I am one. My problem is that in many dojos I see, there are NO
attacks.
I was at a seminar in which visiting Ikeda Sensei called up a shodan
to take ukemi. This young man was directed to do munetsuki but Ikeda
Sensei didn't move when the attack was made. Six inches from his chest
the young man's tsuki suddenly deflected off into space. Ikeda Sensei
directed him to really hit but after five attempts, the young man was
still unable to get himself to make contact.
This is a massive failure of training. This man has gotten up to
Yudansha Rank and can't do a tsuki. Having this person for a partner
is not just useless but actually counter productive for one's
training. Repetitive parctice of technique from attacks which are
energetically false imprints a whole range of associations which are
wrong and will prove disastrous when a real committed attack is made.
One doesn't need to get into non-traditional attacks to find out where
the problem in Aikido attacks lies. Stick with Shomenuchi,
Yokomenuchi, and Munetsuki. I consistently visit dojos in which
mid-level yudansha routinely deliver strikes to each other in training
which one would find vaguely annoying at worst if one were struck. I
have watched Randoris on Yudansha tests in which several ukes did
their level best not to strike the nage but rather held their arms out
for the necessary time to allow the nage to do the technique of his
choice. There was no need for nage to develop proper timing and
spacing as the ukes fascilitated everything for him.
If Aikido is to have any real value other than as a dance form then
things need to be seen and practiced for what they are. A shomenuchi
is a knife edge strike to the front of the head. Whether you do it off
the front foot, off the back foot, as an extension outwards (like the
Shingu folks) or as a powerful vertical downwards strike (like the ASU
folks) doesn't matter. What matters is that it is a strike and that
the uke is attempting to strike the nage. If nage is too junior to
handle a full out attack then the attck is adjusted to make it
safe. But if he makes a mistake it should still hit him; it just
doesn't hit hard enough to injure. When you get to yudansha level you
should be seeing committed and powerful attacks. If nage makes mistake
he should get hit.
Attacks in many dojos are completely lacking in intention. You can
casually move off the line of attack and the uke will dutifully strike
the spot where used to be standing. No matter how slowly you make your
entry somehow the uke never hits you. You attain O-sensei level of
ability to move around without anyone ever hitting you (as long as the
attackers are from your own dojo where this type of detrimental
practice is condoned). I consistentlly encounter people at seminars
who are shocked to find that they can't actually do the irimi movement
they thought they could. Repeatedly my hand stiops touching their
heads no matter how they try to escape. Their problem isn't that I am
somehow so much faster than anyone else they train with... it's that I
have a clear intention to strike when I strike. They'd been cruising
along in their dojos thinking that they could actually do that irimi
nage and then they find out it was all a dream.
Once again I was at a nidan test in which the person testing looked
fairly competent but was not, in my opinion, being challenged in any
way by the ukes who were all from his own dojo. At one point Saotome
Sensei called fr a new uke and a student from outside that person's
dojo stepped in. His first yokomen strike went right through this
fellow's attempted deflection and bopped him upside the head. To his
credit he was able to make the adjustment and handled the next few
committed attacks. But you could see the shock on his face when that
first "real" strike came in. It made it painfully obvious to everyone
present who cared to look that none of the previous ukes were actually
trying to do a strike.
I think that people need to make an attack be what it is. It is a
strike and the person doing it needs to think of it that way. He
should be trained to have the strongest intention to hit that safety
allows. This starts with the teacher. If the teacher accepts unreal
attacks from his ukes than the whole basis for training at the dojo is
undermined. My teachers, Ikeda Sensei and Saotome Sensei absolutely
expected you to do your level best to nail them. On those very rare
occasions when one of us would succeed you'd get a smile and a "very
good". We trained with each other the same way. In my early yudansha
days I got hit as many times as I succeeded on my entries. But as
frustrating as that was sometimes, when I pulled one off I KNEW I had
pulled one off. I didnt have to wonder if my partner had given it to
me.
In many dojos there is so little intention in the attacks that when
someone who can really attack does so, the students can not stand in
front of it and keep their centers. You can feel their energy field
collapse as you start to move forward with the strike. If you can't
hold your mind steady when the attack is delivered, then no amount of
training, no amount of technical acquisition, no amount of detailed
understanding of how a technique works will make any difference. If
your Mind goes into retreat at the instant of the attack, everything
else is over before you even make physical contact. It doesn't matter
that you know hundreds of techniques. They are simply hundreds of
techniques which you can't do.
This is the fundamental issue with Aikido training today. You take
care of this issue and adding some practice once in a while using
non-traditional attacks is just a detail in the development of the
students skills as martial artists.
George S. Ledyard
Aikido Eastside
Bellevue, WA