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[edit] Tips on Teaching Aikido
As an instructor you must focus on what you want your students to achieve. Is it self-defense? Is it transferring the complete set of technqiues within aikido? Is it to develop blending and the principles of aikido. Usually it is a balance between these, but you should review in your mind whether you are meeting these objectives.
[edit] Levels of training
Aikido can be practiced in many different ways, as it can be clearly seen by our suwariwaza, tachiwaza and hanmihandachiwaza positions. These are strange for the beginners, and should be correctly teached in order to catch the begginer attention and interest for aikido.
First, it should be clear that suwariwaza and hanmihandachi are not martial positions. Nobody would call as such a sitting position. These are made to put the practitionner in a difficult non-mobile position against a standing and mobile partner. Teaching suwariwaza should put the emphasis on keeping a centered position and to move as less as possible while doing a technique. This training helps the practitioner to practice in a stable and centered way, to move then as less as possible in tachiwaza also.
In tachiwaza we can practice in 3 differents ways too.
Go Tai - Go No Geiko (Executing a technique in a static position. The partner grips us in a strong and difficult position.)
Ju Tai -Ju No Geiko (Dynamic training. The partner still has the initiative of attack, but gives us the chance to anticipate it.The goal is to synchronize with the attack.)
Ryu Tai -Ryu No Geiko (We force the partner to attack as we wishes, giving him no initiative. By "attacking" first, we put the partner in a defensive and determined position, making it easy for us to execute the technique. Even before the adversary has attacked, he is already controled.)
This is the easiest way to train and any beginner class should start with Ryu Tai training, so the newcomer doesn't have to react on an attack, by having the initiative he puts himself in a natural and correct position to execute his first aikido technique.
[edit] Training Methods
Students often argue over the effectiveness of different methods of aikido practise. However it is not the method of practise but the student understanding what they are trying to achieve by the method of practise which is likely to have the largest influence on overall effectiveness. For example, it is possible to break down aikido methods in to 3 types.
- Hard, fast aggressive attacks and fast, dynamic responses.
- Stationary attacks (usually grabs) with uke using lots of strength.
- Smooth slow directed attacks from uke, with smooth slow response from nage.
Although clubs may train predominantly in one of these areas, each area develops certain aspects of aikido. Each of the above methods tends to produce a focus on different areas (respectively):
- timing and a beneficial psychological response to aggression.
- posture, mechanics of the technique and to illustrate the ability to use little force against strength.
- developing responsiveness to ukes movement, the ability to blend, and the ability to move dynamically from one technique to another.
Although the ideal of aikido is to train all of these aspects simultaneously, it is unlikely that a student can focus on all of these at the same time. As in any other technically demanding activity such as football or swimming, for rapid progression and a high level of achievement it is usually necessary to break down the training; However it is also necessary to recombine these seperate elements!
When you seperate the different elements, you may find it helpful to explain to your students what the purpose of this particular method of training is (e.g. for blending). This can reduce the incidence of ukes using inappropriate force or for students thinking that this technique or another is ineffective or unrealistic. The focus will instead be on learning a certain aspect.
[edit] Focus on learning rather than teaching
Effective teaching is not about dictating information and students passively absorbing this information. Different students will learn in different ways and will absorb different aspects of aikido at different rates! Although each class can't be hand tailored to every student, watch the students carefully and determine in general where they are lacking. Teaching and teaching methods will thus evolve and change as your students change.
For students with particular difficulties you can't seem to solve, it is often useful to use a higher grade to assist teaching them as the higher grade may understand the difficulties more (due to more recent experience of these difficulties or due to a different approach to explanaitions).
Therefore, you may go to the lesson with a rough plan of what you are going to do, but rarely will you stick to it if you are listening to your students.
