Celebrating New Years With a Bar Fight

The likelihood of ever having to deal with a trained fighter is near nil, unless you are the aggressor, so I love to watch a bar fight, which is the kind of encounter which is more likely.  This is in England...

Happy New Year!

Now there are three players in this scene.  The one in the blue shirt, throwing the punch on the left, we'll call Uke.  The one on the right, the target of the punch, we'll call Nage.  The one in the middle, attempting to extricate himself, we'll call...  2015.

If 2015 was not in the picture, this would be a classic case of Nage to just close the distance, Uke is off balance winding up for a haymaker punch.  When the distance was closed, if Uke is still standing, just a series of kendo half-steps driving Uke backwards until his balance is off and then disengage.  The mates would arrest Uke  (and I mean in the sense of "cool his jets.")  But that is the least likely, and I am assuming no 2015, the positions would be more ideal.

Nage is already blocking, which is a mistake. Indeed his weight is more back and on one leg.  It's likely that punch sailed through, caught Nage in the face at say 80% power (given Nage's blocking left arm), and sent him staggering back, at which time the assorted mates would have arrested Uke.  Nage gets bloodied and bruised.

With 2015 in the way, there was no chance of tenkan or irimi against Uke.

Unlikely, but a good move given Nage's position and since 2015 was still around, would be for Nage to shift his right leg and arm, sweep up 2015's momentum, and spin him into Uke, in a tenkan-like move.  At once Nage would be creating distance as he improved his position, getting some good out of 2015, and give the mates a chance to arrest Uke.

Alternatively: Uke is mad, and while we don't have a video we can assume that since Nage assumed a defensive mode*, no threat to Uke, Uke readjusted given the wan arm defense. In the time 2015 slipped away, Uke would bring up his left leg parallel to the right and deliver a solid haymaker with right hand and leg working together.

A. Nage at that point might slide in and offer a kokyunage, when Uke is at about 20% power.  Uke would fairly gently fall back.

B. Nage might leave his face-target exposed (aikido style) long enough to shift his legs, bring up is right hand under Uke's elbow, and as Nage's left hand and foot slid back in time with the punch, Nage's left hand clamps on the wrist, the right on the elbow, and then Kendo-style, executes a sword cut down and to Nage's left and side.  Ouch!

At this point Nage could let go and let the mates intervene, or pin Uke.  I like pinning miscreants because you will not do any damage (aikido pins anyway) and you can't get such real life pin opportunities on the mats.  People get ticked off on the mats if you deliver actual pain compliance pins. They assume given the pain, there must be damage, so there is little actual pain compliance practice on the mats.

And as an aside, to do actual damage is to unleash a biological defense in Uke, in which dopamine (C8H11NO2) and its friends courses into the blood stream and turns Uke into superman.  It is not pain triggered, but damage triggered.  To break joints and smash noses is to strengthen your opponent, not degrade his fighting capability.  You have a better chance of letting pain compliance suffice if you do not break anything on Uke.  He'll experience amazing pain, But not get the dopamine rush, since there is no damage.

*An irony of Aikido as as purely defensive art, it has no defensive positions.  As ju-dan Tohei Sensei used to say "positive non-fighting".  Reading a book and ready for an attack are exactly the same.

Happy 2016!

Feel Free To Email This To Three Friends.

Joe Rogan on Aikido

Here is a sincerely perplexed fellow criticizing aikido as it is often presented:



Rogan's question is a good one, where is a video of effective aikido?  The vids of O Sensei waving his arms and people falling down are not credible.  Rogan notes a NCAA D1 wrestler would wipe that old man out.  No doubt.  But O Sensei did not build his reputation as an 80 year old man.  He rarely taught after say fifty years old, meaning 1935, more the occasional coaching, and demonstration of principles.

Rogan credits a judo tenth dan (in a video shown in a simultaneous window) showing credible counters to judoka in their prime.  But any of those guys could have also taken the 80 year old judo tenth dan, as could any NCAA D1 wrestler, and O Sensei could have as well at 80 years shown the judo counters as well as the spry 80- year old judo man.  The judo man is showing judo principles, the aikido man showing aikido principles.  (Aikido is an original mixed martial art, blending kendo, judo, jiu jitsu, etc. O sensei had mastered judo before forming his own art.)

Rogan is stating the obvious: martial arts is not some magic thing, where an 80 year old master must be effective against a NCAA D1 wrestler.  And then when some deluded fellow believes that, Rogan denigrates the art.  How about simply cautioning the deluded fellow?  Such delusions can end badly.



You'll note the fellow here has a dojo of deluded students.  Yes, O Sensei waves his arms and people fall down.  O Sensei was making the point that if you are not fighting, you can win. The idiot above actually tried to fight an MMA guy.  How is not fighting and fighting the same thing?  It is not. If students are self-deluding, that is not the master's problem.  If a "master" is self-deluded, that is also not a problem, for an MMA man, although you will note, initially, even the MMA bought the delusion, briefly.  And by the way, if O Sensei could take on a D1 NCAA wrestler, he would have, and taped it.  He was not delusional.

The test of a system depending on how it deals with a D1 NCAA wrestler is a false test anyway.  What weight class?  Within D1 NCAA the weights are divided since since a contest between bantam and middle is inherently unfair.  Next, to train enough to get to compete in NCAA takes discipline and dedication.  Many wash out.   In too many years of playing at martial arts, I am yet to see an accomplished fighter of any stripe initiating aggression.  The people I see initiating may be big and strong and fast, even crazy, but never disciplined.  Any discipline can be the deciding advantage in a contest.  The test is against the no-holds-barred, open-class attack.  Even MMA forbids that.

Muhammed Ali was not delusional when he fought Foremen in 1974. Ali developed a tactic to keep from losing, let alone killed.  He did not fight, but let Foreman fight the ring ropes.  After Foreman tired out, Ali went in for the knock out.

Pacquiao fought Mayweather, and Pacquiao was defeated, although controversially.  In any event, it is fair to say Mayweather won by not fighting, or in the measure Mayweather refrained from fighting Pacquiao, Mayweather got the edge.   (Incidentally, Pacquiao also used rope-a-dope in a fight once to win against a superior boxer.)

Aikido is unique in martial arts for making this paradoxical point, as Tohei called it, positive non-fighting (negative non-fighting is to run away). NCAA D1 wrestlers experience what many judo competitors note, that beautiful throw took no force on the part of the winner, the opponent's force brought him down when met with the timing and body positioning of the winner. A throw forever in the highlight reels. Aikido as a martial art studies exactly that.  No more, no less.  Every art esteems it, Aikido specializes in it.  In every martial art there is someone working on this concept.  O Sensei when he was a young badass, decided to concentrate on this.  Where is the video of effective aikido?

Here is O Sensei at 52 years old, in 1935.  This is the kind of aikido I learned, and although it looks suspiciously compliant, the uke are defending their limbs from nasty pain should they counter or resist.  O Sensei is not moving to win, he is moving to de-escalate.  Having the wind knocked out of you, or hitting the ground hard can dampen ardor. What is not shown is aikido against a NCAA D 1 wrestler, O sensei would move very differently.  And a 52 year old v a 22 year old would be messy.  (Also, in Japan Japanese students tend to "all fall down" as a sign of respect when not thrown...  I've seen the same kinds of things outside of Japan where one or two get knocked down, and the others do not fall for formality sake.  They make a master earn his throw.)



Like Pacquiao and Ali, O Sensei would adjust his tactic.  He would neither box a boxer nor wrestle a wrestler.  Three things, 1. both arts require both sides fight or the non-fighting side gets points off to the degree of losing the match.  2. All non-aikido systems have rules, while aikido does not.  No one trains to defend against what is not allowed.  Expect an aikidoist to make moves the other practitioner has never practiced against.  3. Both arts have clearly defined moves, expect the aikidoist to study the counters employed in the other sport.  When a NCAA D1 wrestler goes for another's legs, rarely does it work out, for the counter.  What makes one think an aikidoist will not employ the same counter?

Let's look at a 50% weight advantage vs aikido's chief instructor, circa 1955 (The aikidoka is Tohei Sensei, aikido chief instructor, with whom I have trained, and the instructor of my first three teachers):



The earnestness is demonstrated by the fact the challenger has torn Tohei Sensei's clothes, and apparently Tohei Sensei reckoned he might get taken if he did not choke his opponent out, which he does.  I see various points at which Tohei might have thrown the opponent with an tomoe-nage, but if you don't know how to hard fall out of that, you might get seriously injured if not killed.

I have practiced all over the world and sparred with people trained in plenty of other styles.  That just happens in 45 plus years of practicing assiduously.  I've sparred with an air force judo man who was a training partner in Colorado for the USA Olympic judo team.  I trained with a secret serviceman and surprised him.   Tae kwon do, and so on.  Never was anyone out to win, but to learn.

As a student of the legendary Bernie Lau I was taught to make arrests, and have effected about a dozen of them over the years, and plenty of face-offs that did not lead to me arresting the other party.  Here is another point often missed in these discussions.  Never once have I encountered anyone in a conflict that had any martial arts training.  I don't think there is a single club that will train someone essentially criminal, no instructor will tolerate such presence.  While most resisted, none were effective, because they simply had no idea what was happening or what to do about it.  Their resistance just brought them more pain, and clearly, I had not even begun to fight.  At the same time, if I ever tried to arrest a true psychopath, who could care less what was happening to him, and intent on killing me, well, then, my number came up, and I die.  It's the life I chose.

The reason we have NCAA vs NCAA because there it does get down to the man.  There is a closed system for competing within which there is another system for comparing and scoring. Aikido Vs whatever does not tell us much of anything.

But aren't there a lot of aikidoists who believe (like Rogan's guest) that the master could wave his arms and people fall down?  Sure.  Delusion sells.  I've been in those dojo's.  I am not welcome.  But I have practiced all over the world and you can find enough people everywhere that study aikido as a martial art.

Senator and Judo champion Ben Nighthorse credits judo with keeping him out of trouble, but then training for the Olympics does tend to mop up all of one's time.  His only regret is judo can sure beat up the body, leaving one with lifelong injuries, acute with old age.  It is no coincidence that most of the old aikidoists come over from judo, where they gave up the combat and injury to work on that rare exquisite perfect throw.



Aikido has more than its share of delusionals, but so what?  If you want an effective non-fighting martial art, there is aikido.  Mr. Rogan needs to nuance his criticism a bit more.

Aikido, practiced as a martial art, by a conscientious objector, looks like the above.  I will come at you with a view to pacifying you, you will not get up after I deal with you.  I won't kill you, and I'll work not to injure you, but if you do get up, I am coming at you again.  I can say truthfully there is nothing I enjoy more than dealing with violence.  Never am I happier or more alive.

Feel Free To Email This To Three Friends.

Bernie Lau and Aikido Efficacy

Bernie Lau was leaving a mutually esteemed Chinese restaurant last night as I was coming in with a Congolese priest stationed in Seattle and a daughter in from Paris.  The restaurant allows double parking in their lot by patrons so you can sit and order and then the staff will come get you if a properly parked patron desires to leave by the path you have blocked by double parking.  Sometimes they have a runner who facilitates all of this for tips, a situation that is responsive and sensible, with rules made up on the fly.  Anarchy in action.

As Bernie, my daughter and the priest chatted amiably in French,  I moved the car to best position.  Bernie looks good, and is still travelling far and wide.  As he was just leaving, we said our good-byes, and inside the restaurant the priest was intrigued by the fellow he had just met, so I apprised the priest of Bernie's background.

For the purposes of this blog, I'll add this about Lau Sensei:

When I started aikido in 1971, there were about 30 regulars at a club that had a 4th degree and a 3rd degree as instructors, the late Hirata Yoshihiko Sensei and Lau Sensei. Both had been direct students of Tohei sensei, the 10th degree chief instructor of aikido.  I was able to practice as uke when Tohei sensei visited a couple of times, and since Seattle was a regular stop-over for USA-Japan flights, we had a steady progression of top aikidoists visiting, Imaizumi one of the most memorable.  Pound for pound, I don’t think you could find more aikido instruction talent per student outside of Tokyo.  And then, circa 1974, Tohei sensei sent Kashiwaya Koichi, an aggressive and fresh san dan, to teach in Seattle too.

Bernie Lau as a police officer began his transformation from one of the original students of aikido 1954 in Hawaii under Tohei sensei.  Lau Sensei gained his first two black belts from O sensei, and his 3rd and 4th from the Ni Dai Dosshu.  Lau Sensei’s style was  crisp, efficient,  and matched his size and build. He taught a half dozen of us high school students Tuesdays and Thursdays after school in the early 1970s, before he went to work on the police night shift.

As he did more and more police work, he began to change his style. How come he changed his style?  As he puts it, aikido does not work.

Very, very true.  Depending on the context.

In his work as a policeman, he found aikido doesn’t work if you use it to initiate violence against someone who is no threat to you.  But police officers must initiate violence against people who are no threat to them.  Police must make arrests upon people who are not fighting, but are not cooperating.  People who refuse to turn around and put their hands behind their back.  In these instances police must use aggressive force.  All the more so for people who resist being forced around.

But aikido has no techniques that employ aggressive force. Aikido is unique as a martial art, it is nonviolent, it has no techniques for initiating aggression.  In aikido we use the aggressive force of the attacker, like in judo.  But as opposed to judo, we initiate no aggressive moves.

Aikido does not work if you wish to use your power to defeat someone else.

Aikido does not work if your opponent is merely resisting, if your opponent is not combative, not aggressive.

Aikido does not work if your opponent is merely noncooperative.

Aikido only works when someone is initiating a forceful attack upon you.  Since aikido is focussed on dealing only with forceful attacks, it is pretty useless if you plan to initiate force and defeat an opponent.

Aikido is not for police work.

On the other hand, since the aikido is limited to dealing with any any all attacks in any and all forms, in the measure the opponent offers force, aikido is superior to all other martial arts as a defensive martial art.

If someone is not initiating violence, why fight, let alone use aikido?  Otherwise you’d be using aikido to attack, and aikido is pretty useless as a means for that.

On the other hand, aikido, since it uses the opponent’s force, is pitch perfect condign response to an attacked initiated by an aggressor. This is necessary to be a martial art, it is sufficient to be a martial art.  I leave it to other martial artists to include in their contexts the problem of defeating someone who is not initiating violence, and includes using one's own power or force.

As a conscientious objector I can neither initiate force nor bring my own power into defeating anyone.  At the same time, I have effected about a dozen arrests in the last four decades (most recently a hit and run absconder who tried to escape on foot.)  In this instance, his attempt to use force to get past me earned him  pin up against the wall, with his feet back and spread (as I said, one of my first instructors was Bernie Lau, a cop.)  He was uncooperative, but not violent, so we both stopped there.  When he stops using force, I stop acting.  As he relaxes his body, I relax the tension of the pin.  As he tests the pin under relaxation, I ramped up the pin so experiences force feedback.  (Aikido is fairly unique in the pins hurt only if the bad guy tries to get away; also the pins are actually beneficial, they promote a healthy stretch, as opposed to arm bars which break bones and joints.)

If I ever had to exchange blows with someone, I am pretty sure I’d get hurt.  On the other hand to answer a bum’s rush with tomoe nage takes little extra energy from me to execute, but can be quite devastating when the attackers face hits the sidewalk, body upside down, at the velocity the attacker brought, for lack of training on how to roll out of a throw.  Ouch. 

To legally effect an arrest (in most jurisdictions), you must place your hand on the person you are arresting while stating they are under arrest (largely so the prisoner cannot later claim he did not know you were referring to him.)  In aikido, you always get close enough to place a hand on someone, which allows you to deflect a close-quarters attack if they violently disagree with being arrested.  Only about 1/2 the times have I had to get physical when making an arrest, and oddly, the more serious the crimes, the less likely the resistance. (the rapist, kidnapper and burglars all gave up without resistance.  (Not sure if that holds true in general, and if so, how come?)

In Bernie's Change of Heart story, as he tells it, aikido did not work when he in plainclothes he tried to use it to initiate violence against someone who was not resisting, let alone offering violence.  When the drunk lumber jack in Bernie's story failed to respond to aikido applied as an offensive tactic, Bernie switched to his considerable training in shotokan karate, a style he had studied assiduously, and began attacking the lumberjack with those striking techniques.  No effect there either.  The lumberjack simply proceeded to his car to drive off, whereupon Bernie in desperation tore off the antenna, which pissed of the lumberjack, and brought him back out to deal with Bernie.  By this time dozens of police officers arrived to answer the officer assistance call, and proceeded to beat down the lumberjack with good old fashioned police work, the night stick shampoo.

Another aspect of the case is Bernie had felt so bad about the turn of events that he quietly disposed of the evidence of the lumberjack drinking, and the lumberjack won  $65000 lawsuit against the city for police brutality.

So the whole truth is, no martial art worked on this lunberjack, and certainly not aikido as an offensive art.   Aikido never was intended for the purpose of violence against someone who was not resisting let alone offering violence  If your context includes initiating violence, or attacking nonviolent offenders, then truly aikido sucks.  But as the original mixed martial art (kendo, judo, jiu jitsu, ki-ai breathing) and stripped of offensive techniques, it is a superior self defense system.

Feel Free To Email This To Three Friends.

Imaizumi on O Sensei

I recall this visit well...

In spring 1972, Koichi Tohei Sensei ordered me to go to California for about three months to spread ki principles and aikido ...  After three months, on June 18, I left Los Angeles for Seattle. This was a vacation for me to visit Yoshihiko Hirata Sensei, then Chief Instructor of the Northwest Aikido Federation, who was a friend of mine from Japan. We became friends in January 1965 and he recommended that I join the Tempukai in Kokokuji, Tokyo. I left Seattle on June 23, again passing through Honolulu. After a week's stay at the Hawaii Aikikai Hombu Dojo, I left for Japan arriving on June 30. This was a wonderful trip for me.

I was teaching the childrens' classes from 6-7pm three days a week, and Imaizumi Sensei was teaching one night during this visit.  He sat seiza among the children and delighted them with his expert and gentle throwing.

From that same interview, here is an interesting observation:

As Kisshomaru Ueshiba Sensei handled all daily matters both inside and outside the dojo, the role of O-Sensei ... only concern was the future of aikido under the Ueshiba family as he was the kind of man who would follow the old ways. O-Sensei would often refer to the art as "Ueshiba-ke-no-aikido," that is, Ueshiba family aikido. In the same way that the Shinkage-ryu or Itto-ryu sword schools belonged to the Yagyu and Ono family, O-Sensei believed that aikido should belong to the Ueshiba family as he himself was its founder. So O-Sensei believed that the Hombu Dojo should be controlled by the Ueshiba family. I think that Kisshomaru Ueshiba Sensei, as the founder's son, and O-Sensei's grandson Moriteru Ueshiba have firm control over the daily matters of the Aikikai in accordance with the wishes of the founder.

Feel Free To Email This To Three Friends.

Joe Thambu Shihan

Looks like the best working aikidoka out there…



I've never met Thambu, but we started within the same year, and back then we practiced with yoshinkan style aikidoists in Seattle, and the techniques were exactly the same.  The Yoshinkan had a bit more formality and worked on the precision of their moves, where Tohei Sensei, the chief instructor for O Sensei, was more jazzy about execution and empahsized principles.

I'll tell you why Thambu Shihan is the best working aikidoist out there, he actually practices.  Show me a shihan than spends this much time hands on and being thrown himself.  People who have been teaching for 20 years stopped practicing 20 years ago.  Thambu clearly has kept practicing.

Nothing wrong in retiring from practice and concentrate on coaching and running a dojo, I am glad people do it.  But Thambu shows what you get when you keep practicing.



Warms my heart, great stuff.  You see in some videos very good aikido but very much choreographed.  It is clear to me here ukes are feeling the pain and so compelled to move naturally.

Someone asked how come aikido people fold as soon as the technique is applied.  We fold so we can fall and get up and practice again.  If we resisted (countered) nage will counter-counter and the race is on for someone to throw someone.  This is legit, but people do get hurt as the energy and innovation escalates.

And aikido has no rules that limit harm like wrestling, MMA, judo, karate and boxing have.  We have principles, and thou shalt not kill, but far more options.  That aikido roll itself, unique to aikido, is a powerful weapon (and underutilized in aikido for it).

So when is Thambu Shihan coming to USA?

Feel Free To Email This To Three Friends.

Wink on Jesus and Nonviolence And Aikido

There is always someone bigger, stronger and faster than you.  You can try to punch it out with your superior, and hope to win, but it is unlikely.

On the other hand, you can go right at your opponent who is superior and invite a strike by crossing through the strike zone before there is a connection (or draw back beyond the strike zone, and then move in).  Either way, where your opponent had a 100% concentration of power and skill directed to your injury, you are now shoulder to shoulder with your opponent.

At this point you opponent is now down to about 50% of his capability, and you are up some given advantage since you are so close.  Who knows what is next, but the job of a martial artist is to engage immediately.  But at this point, you are shoulder to shoulder facing the same way, your opponent no longer has the initiative, and you have demonstrated you are not afraid.  The world is completely different for your opponent from just three seconds ago.  You are no longer targeted victim, you are a survivor of an attack, and you have the authority to make a creative response.

In another post I said:

It's that turn the other cheek thing, with what I suspect was it's original form, a sense of "game on."

There seems to be a natural affinity between the teachings of Jesus and aikido as a martial art, at least as exegeticized by Walter Wink.  Indeed, at one point in his book Jesus and Nonviolence, A Third Way he makes passing reference to dealing with force as in aikido.

Wink gets to three examples Jesus gives on dealing with unjust force.

1. Turn the other cheek.  Apparently the example is so specific (if struck on the right cheek) to be clearly an example of a slap a master may give a slave or other inferior in which responding may very well get you killed.  To offer other cheek, is to invite the superior to slap you as they would fight an equal (and be profoundly punished if they so disturbed the peace by hitting an equal.)  In response to being slapped, you merely present yourself as equal.  As Wink notes, you may get flogged for that, but the point is made.  It may also get you no longer slapped as in the true meaning of meek, power under control can be unnerving for masters.  The alternative, to cower under a masters slap, changes nothing, indeed reinforces the evil.  To turn the other cheek destabilizes the evil, and who knows what is next?

2. Go the extra mile.  Roman soldiers were allowed to impress passers by into service to carry their loads, but as this was a rather unpopular event, they were strictly forbidden to make anyone carry a load more than a mile.  It was humiliating aside from being unpleasant, and rather reinforced servitude of all Rome had conquered.  So extend the trip voluntarily?  Yes!  How destabilizing.  Walk the first mile quiet as an involuntary servant, and then when that is over, offer to carry the load as a friend.  The soldier at once would be astonished, then fearful that you were setting him up for punishment, the tables are reversed, he is at a disadvantage.  He very well may want your offered help, but must be careful not be seen breaking the rules.  In any event, the evil is destabilized, and who knows what is next?

3. Give up your cloak when being sued.  This had to do with the injustice of taking pledges on loans, and having to pledge your clothes (talk about down and out!) and being shown no mercy by your benefactor.  A loan is a charitable event in monotheistic ethics, but even the just rules can be abused.  So when your benefactor is squeezing you for your coat, you give up your clothes too.  What happens is the "benefactor" is exposed for his hardness, and you are making the rather sober decision to admit being at rock bottom which is a good place from which to rebuild.  In any event, the evil is destabilized, and who knows what is next?

The only effective power in the world is moral authority.  There are plenty of other kinds of power, but none of it effective.  There is Roman power.  There is authority, as in author, in which the situation you have created allows you to write what is next.  Aikido as a martial art is like that, you position yourself as an equal, not subject to their power, and you are then able to write what happens next, like an author, and authority.  You earned it.

Jesus and Nonviolence: A Third Way (Facets)



Feel Free To Email This To Three Friends.

Training With Adrenalin

When the fear hits you and your reflexes explode and your pores open to suck in as much oxygen to burn as possible in support of your lungs doing the same, and the hi-performance adrenalin come pouring into your system, you see the untrained flailing about, swinging wildly, tripping, doing as much injury to self as others.

A part of training is to work at that level.  Get to the point where the adrenalin is flowing and you can maintain your moves and balance.  Let the adrenalin be a matter of joy, not fear, where you are doing your best work because of the threat, not out of control because of the threat.

I listened to Chrissie Hynd talk about playing to the guy doing the goofy dance on the balcony or the other musicians watching them play closely, that is the shared joy of it all.  All violent encounters need to be met with all that power and joy brought to the idea of "game on!"


Feel Free To Email This To Three Friends.

Taninzugake

This is far less technical than attitude…  he makes lots off mistakes, shoulders high, leaning too far back, but his attitude wins.

He not only has the opponents worried, he has the 500 people in the room defeated.  At 1:55 he let the let guy come to him…  should have gotten away form the crowd by going to the last guy…

Aikido as a martial art…


I hear you… so where are my videos…?

Feel Free To Email This To Three Friends.

I Am Atemi

Bernie Lau often quotes OSensei as saying aikido is 80% atemi.  I'd like to see a citation, because I doubt it.  It is either a bad translation or apocryphal.  Aikido comes from kendo, and even the kendo dudes say striking is 1/3rd of kendo (the sword has three business sides to be used in equal measure).

Of course atemi is a settled part of aikido, but how does a conscientious objector practice atemi-free aikido?  How to have a martial art in which there is not atemi?

As I was listening to John Kanetomi instruct on atemi this morning, he noted that you have to "sell" the strike, convince the opponent he will get hit, even if you do not.  That is one way.  There is another that I like, and that is to be the atemi.

You must make your opponent believe they will connect, hit you.  So there is a strike, but it is their strike.  And the more energy with which they strike, the harder they fall.  Now, a good atemi saps energy from the opponent, part of the point, and to not zap energy first with atemi is to assure the opponent hits the ground all the harder. And since few know how to fall or roll properly, the fact is atemi-less aikido may in fact be more dangerous for the opponent.

To avoid this, you practice after throwing to not let go, pulling in, and hard slamming your opponent to save the opponent from injury or death.    It will hurt very much, and disincline an opponent for another ride.  Aikido without atemi.

You are not sapping their energy at the beginning when they are attacking you and you are striking them, you are sapping their energy at the end when you are saving them.  If you strike an opponent, you use up some of your energy.  If your opponent hits the ground, the rotation of the earth will sap the energy of the attacker.  When an opponent meets the energy of the earth's rotation, he realizes there is a whole lot more where that came from.

Feel Free To Email This To Three Friends.

Shoji Seki Sensei, 8th Dan

More aikido as a martial art, this sensei has that Tohei hop and extension you do not see taught very often...  very nice stuff...

 

Feel Free To Email This To Three Friends.

Offense V Defense

One can see plainly enough that offense needs room and defense prefers constriction.  Think of the castle, where resources are concentrated for defense.  In boxing the attacker left jab jab right punch while circling the defender.  The defender is "keeping his hands up" to protect his head.  An attacker will circle around while a defender will back up against a wall.

In judo the easiest place to defend from is on the ground, on your back.

Aikido as a martial art continues to confound:  it is in defending where the room is needed and where an attack, an atemi, that all is constricted, but for the briefest moment.  While the attacker is preparing, we are moving into position.  Although almost all aikido practice starts from a static position, almost all self-defense should be from a dynamic position.

Aikido uses the opponents power, usually to either unwind the force and redirect, or merely redirect.  This takes room, more room usually than the attacker is using.

As to atemi, in response to an attack,  it is usually one focussed strike within an overall movement.


Feel Free To Email This To Three Friends.

Technique 22 and Udeosae

Jim Graves out of LA is showing some aikido as a martial art.  You rarely see this taught... the whole video is good but check out the technique to which I refer out 7:05...



Good on him.

Feel Free To Email This To Three Friends.

Game On

I've diagrammed a feedback loop in confronting physical aggression, to help me explain certain thinking.  "Game on" refers to the attitude of experiencing any threat as "game on" just as in practice.

Aikido is a martial art, but it is not terribly interested in "winning."  As long as there is an attack coming, the game is on.  When it stops, the game ends.  Reason the game ends:

1. The attacker is satisfied, and stops.

   a. He is uninterested in resistance.

   b. He is pinned and cannot move.

   c. He is unconscious or dead, inadvertently (it was his energy with which he attacked.)

   d. Other.

2.  You are unconscious or dead.

Could happen of course, and if so, well, your number was up.

Feel Free To Email This To Three Friends.

Kashiwaya In Seattle

This is circa 1973 or 1974, 306 South Main in Seattle, a bowling alley converted into a dojo... C T Takahashi Building.

Kashiwaya Sensei was a newly arrived sandan, to join Hirata Sensei and Lau Sensei in building that aikido nation in Seattle...  Kashiwaya sensei ran the childrens class and I was his assistant instructor.

At 56 seconds, Kashiwaya sensei performs ushiro tori kokyu nage, one of the eight basics, for which there is no other video available as far as I know.  It is not taught anymore anywhere (except by me) as far as I know, and I suspect because it is an extremely difficult throw to get right.

I like it because aikido came from kendo, and to get ushiro tori kokyu nage, the move is exactly the same as is necessary to get the first move taught in kendo right, the sho men cut.


The main uke in this is a fellow named Glenn Olson... man those were the days...

Kashiwaya sensei is still at it...


Feel Free To Email This To Three Friends.

Tamura Nobuyoshi Sensei

Check out San Dai Doshu experiencing de ja vu in the form of his grandfather's heir as far as skill, and  the move at 55 seconds....



I've seen very many of these harder style aikidoists in fringe-Europe locations.... Malta, Bulgaria, Tunis...  maybe that is where the aikido as a martial art will reside.


Feel Free To Email This To Three Friends.

Aikido as a Martial Art

In judo and kendo, there is no pulling punches.  You go all out. In k arate and gung fu, you pull the punches while training.

In kendo and boxing, no pulling punches, but there is protective equipment for training (and they do not use real swords in kendo).

In MMA, they pull punches in training, and there are rules, so it is not really all-in fighting.

Jiu jitsu is all in, no protective equipment.

So judo, aikido and jiu jitsu are common in no "pulling punches" and no protective equipment.

Are there any other martial arts that can make that claim?

The paradox is by having no punches to speak of, within the limits of the art, one is free to go all out.  Aikido excels beyond the others inasmuch as no matter how much you bring to a throw, it will not be lethal, or even cause permanent damage.  (The fall may kill the attacker, but that is another problem.)

For example, an arm-bar is common to all three arts, but only aikido bends the elbow as part of the arm-bar.  Here again, paradoxically, a bar on bent arm hurts more but does little or no damage.

http://www.stenudd.com/aikido/nikyo.htm

A broken elbow releases a super dose of endorphins and adrenaline into the injured system, making your opponent with a broken arm even more dangerous.  Ask a combat vet about fighting injured people.

Feel Free To Email This To Three Friends.

Aikido Tactics

Offense needs room, defense can be in a tight place.

When someone is attacking you, they need room to move and position themselves for the very risky prospect of doing you harm.  This is why in defending yourself, you best friend is to quickly close in and not give the opponent time or space to optimize an attack.   One rarely considered and counterintuitive move when in danger is to wheel around on your pursuers and close the distance.  Whatever they hoped to do is now compromised.  You bring your defense into a tight place upon the attackers.

Sometimes it is best not to counter attack, because attacks take space, but stay on the defensive.

Think of a home invasion scenario where you might be inclined to push attackers back outside where you'll defend yourself.  May be better to let them in, in to a tight hallway where their options are limited.

When in a scrape, how much space do you have?  So, attack or defend?

Feel Free To Email This To Three Friends.

Get Thee to Vladivostok

This looks like the good old days...



Look at the blue belts practicing in the background... USA sandan should look so good.

 

It seems this fellow is the one responsible for Russian aikido excellence.

 

He was O Sensei's last uchideshi...

 Vladivostok here I come!

 Feel Free To Email This To Three Friends.

Making Aikido Martial

I've been hearing a curious phrase lately, "To make it martial..."

It seems people equate martial arts and striking of some sort, or some necessarily destructive event.  The speaker will be showing an move which may or may not be aikido, but in any event, as a codicil I will hear something along the lines of "To make it martial you strike here..." or some such.  How odd.

What makes it martial is if it is of a system that deals with mars, war, uninvited aggression.  Certainly martial arts systems universally involved striking of some sort, but only aikido is viable without any strikes.  I certainly never use atemi in practice, and cannot imagine using it in a real conflict.    I've made over a half-dozen arrests without ever using atemi.  

In fact, I never even bother to block.  One trains like crazy to just go straight at them, without any blocking, and that is necessary and sufficient. Sure, you get hit. Getting hit is rarely catastrophic, and often necessary to de-escalate.   Recently I got slapped to de-escalate a very tense situation.  A fight was shaping up between two people, fists were clenched, and by getting slapped I owned the response, by rights it was mine.  What was funny is the "good guy" who wanted to fight all of a sudden did not feel so sure (the slap was lightening fast) he would win.  The guy who slapped was astonished I was not phased, he no longer was so sure I would be any fun. I was still standing and not bothered.  Obviously his secret weapon, speed, was not impressive. He left.

Indeed striking, and aggression is indeed critical to, I believe, almost all martial arts.  All arts that have contests take points off for failure to strike.  Kendo, judo, karate, even boxing and wrestling will cost you the match of you do not try to hit or take down your opponent.    Indeed, the best defense in sparring with these various systems is to never initiate force.  I was taking some remedial aikido classes in a judo dojo in California (to work on koshi-nage) when a junior instructor contemptuously directed his favorite student to trash me.  I just held my ground, weight underside, extend ki, the Tohei Sensei secret weapon, all that.  Had I tried to throw him, I would have been sunk.  The enraged instructor broke my sternum after that.  Sigh.  Some people take it so seriously.

My first bokken lesson in aikido involved how to make chudan impregnable.  Bam! went the parry and strike.  Extend ki and the bokken returns before the attacker can get in.  If your opponent raises his bokken, his movement up invites your movement straight in.  Man is that fun!  But you'll never win a kendo match.

And that is it, who needs to win?  All fighting is pointless, so get to the point as soon as possible, which is pointlessness of the conflict.

I heard a kendo master in a seminar explain the ken has three fighting sides, the blade and the two sides.  He said that kendo should follow that, one cut for two blocks.  That is, two in three moves should be non-lethal.  This matches boxing, with its 2 jabs, one punch standard.  In all martial arts, the non-lethal actions are as much of the art as the lethal ones.   To speak in terms of "to make it martial, here is a strike" is to betray an ignorance of at least 2/3rds of the martial aspect of the art.

Why aikido is unique among martial arts and appropriate to the conscientious objector is that the two non-lethal moves are enough to effect a de-escalation and positive non-fighting.  Whereas a kendoka in six moves will have 2 lethal and 4 non-lethal moves, it is possible in aikido to have six, all non-lethal moves.  Both are martial arts, both made non-lethal moves. Both made six moves.  Just the kendo man made four and the aikido made made six non-lethal moves.  Aikido is unique in as much as it is martial and can be completely non-lethal.

And to make things weird, Shin Shin Toitsu Aikido, of which I am a life member, according to the late Tohei Sensei (although I have not been a follower of that art) actually has tournaments.  Go figure.  In my case it gets even weirder.  I happen to hold a very advanced rank in Lau Sensei's Icho Ryu aikijutsu style, a very hard style lethal martial art, for which the Chief Instructor, Neil Yamamoto, will gladly confirm to anyone who asks, that I haven't the slightest idea what is involved in that system.   Although Yamamoto Sensei and I knock back a few once in a while, I would not dare enter one of his classes.  But then, neither would...  well, never mind.  In any event, Yamamoto Sensei is the best thing that ever happened to Icho Ryu.

For me, it is enough to keep practicing the aikido eight basics, fall down, get up, fall down, get up...  just like life, as a conscientious objector.

Feel Free To Email This To Three Friends.

Aikido Styles and Music

Aikido ju-dan and Hombu Chief Instructor Tohei Koichi is the fountainhead of the majority of all aikido practitioners in the world for the simple reason he taught people how to teach aikido.

There are other styles of aikido, such as yoshinkan, which were developed by Tohei sensei sempai Terada, so it is aikido, but parallel.  His style is widespread because it is a good style.

There are many styles that developed under Tohei Sensei, such as Yamada of New York, Chiba of San Diego, Murayama of Kokikai and Kobayashi of LA.  It is all aikido but an analogy with music might explain some differences.

There is the music as it is written and the note as played and the timing.  After that each artist will style it anyway he likes.  For example, John Lennon was unique for rushing the front end of the note, not singing on the center of the note, but on the front.  Jimi Hendrix and Prince are well within the note, but jazzily are all over it, here and there.  Bruce Springsteen is phenomenal in his ability to keep his band on dead center.  Dean Martin advanced his "happy drunk" schtick by working the trailing end of the note.  Randy Newman keeps it tight and small.  Boys choirs fill each note from end to end, top to bottom.

Yamada Sensei has a precise, tight hard style, which tends to be right on, and very much in control.  Kobayashi Sensei taught "into nage's range of effectiveness (close to nage's hara) where nage is strong and uke is weak..." which he called One Circle but was viewed technically as "small circle."

Take a throw like shiho nage.  It is executed when your nage's "one point" is lateral with uke's.  This can be executed early, mid, late or full.  Kobayashi would be early, by taking uke down even before the spin if finished, small circle style.  Mid might be Yoshinkan style, where the arm is spread out and back, just at the point where shiho nage often goes wrong, yoshinkan centers all weight at the barred arm.  If you do not go up and over, your arm will break.  One learns to do awesome high trajectory hard falls in yoshinkan.

Yamada sensei would head straight through with tight control and send people sailing backwards.  The Tohei style is to go large and end up in total control looking into the ear of the uke.  The take down from here is devastating.  There is no stronger uke takedown by nage.  Tohei Sensei taught a full open style, but if you slo-mo his videos, he did everything.

There are more styles, but the point is most come from Tohei, they are all aikido, and all simply styles.  At any given point with any given partner, any given style may be employed.  It is good people develop these styles and codify them, keep them alive, so one can draw on them in a pinch.  Learn them all.

Feel Free To Email This To Three Friends.