Monday, August 24, 2009
Aikido is one of the oldest form of martial arts. Founded by Morihei Ueshiba, aikido came about through the studies of many different kinds of traditional martial arts. In fact, is often perceived as a form of exercise or a dance because of some of its forms. It is also viewed by some quarters as some form of martial mesmerism. Aikido is even confused with Daito Ryu Aikijutsu, it is different in its essence. Still, its founder... Read Full Story
Regarding Sensei Zoran Stojanovski's fourth question about karate vs. aikido ; Sensei Zoran asked, Whether a good aikidoka is able to free of strong squeeze from a strong man, when the difference in weight is 40 or more kilos? My instructors used to tell me that if you do it right, you can't even tell if the opponent is strong or weak - aikido is that effective at negating the opponent's strength. I had a hard time believing it, but over the years I have worked with several students, each of... Read Full Story
Photo courtesy of TCM Hitchhiker
This month the theme has been atemiwaza - the role of striking techniques in aikido and judo. I got side-tracked a little bit with a family vacation and didn't post all the ideas I had outlined for this month, but that just gives me more follow-up material for later articles. Also, I sort of got side-tracked onto shomenate as a specific example of atemiwaza, but that's okay. Shomenate is rightfully the basis of all the atemiwaza, which can be seen as the... Read Full Story
The umbrella organization for my aikido dojo (American Tomiki Aikido Association) held its semi-annual seminar/clinic this past weekend. It was, in name, the Spring Seminar delayed by several months by all sorts of things. 6 dojos and 5 cities were represented by the attendees. We had: Nick Lowry's Windsong Dojo (Oklahoma City), Frankie Canant's Kumayama Dojo (Bessemer, Alabama), Tim Cleghorn's Clear Creek Dojo (Houston), Jeff Duncan's Full Circle Dojo (Killeen, Tx), two folks from West... Read Full Story
As I've mentioned in a couple of recent posts, Tomiki atemiwaza is not really like most karate atemi. Aikido atemi can be seen as more of a whole-body push than a strike. One interesting thing about pushing against the opponent is it gives you two possible actions. Take shomenate, for instance. In shomenate you typically evade inside and push uke down backward by pressing under his chin or on his face. But another interesting and useful action of shomenate is to push yourself backward... Read Full Story
Theories get you thinking. Sweat gets you results.
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Patrick Parker is a Christian, husband, father, martial arts teacher, Program Director for a Cardiac Rehab, and a Ph.D. Contact: mokurendojo@gmail.com or phone 601.248.7282 木蓮
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Photo courtesy of Justin Lowery You know, people are frequently complaining that aikido sucks because it's not this , or because it's not that . I can't count the times that I've been told that aikido sucks for self defense. I have written more than a handful of articles defending aikido as a pragmatic martial discipline and as an effective self-defense . Then it struck me, none of these folks that I've ever heard complaining about the viability of aikido have ever cited any actual... Read Full Story
Rick posed a question in a comment yesterday - basically along the lines of, "Why do aiki/judo look different if they are the same thing?" There are several reasons that they really are the same thing but they end up looking different in practice. I want to consider three... They tend to approach power and strength from different sides. They both approach a common ideal - maximally efficient/appropriate use of power. But the aiki guys tend to approach that ideal from the use-no-strength side... Read Full Story
This is really remarkable. In an interview published at Aikido Journal , Past Doshu Kisshomaru Ueshiba gives an opinion and some extra details about a legendary meeting between Jigoro Kano and Morihei Ueshiba: ...Jigoro Kano, the founder of Kodokan Judo, paid a visit to the Mejiro dojo in October 1930. Kano, a cosmopolitan, English-speaking intellectual, was in most respects the diametrical opposite of the old-fashioned mystic Morihei, but he too was dazzled by Morihei’s techniques. ‘ This... Read Full Story
Photo courtesy of Invunche Zanshin is not just a thing for tori. Uke is learning aikido too, and ukemi provides a fine exercise for improving zanshin. For example... in junana hon kata , each time tori throws uke, tori should end up moving away near tori's head. Uke, keeping in mind (zanshin) the potential for tori in this position to kick uke in the head with impunity, turns to place his feet between tori and himself, effectively placing tori in a loose, open guard. From here, uke will at... Read Full Story
