August 21, 2024
What’s Happenin’
● Lehrman Shihan will teach class Wednesday, September 11, 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm. Visitors are welcome.
● Hakama class – Sunday, September 30, 11:00 am taught by Sensei Jay. A dojo meeting will follow. This is mandatory for all instructors and a fun class.
● Labor Day – We will be closed Monday, September 2.
● Lehrman Shihan will be teaching Saturday, October 26 at Aikido North Jersey
● Lehrman Shihan Seminar at Portsmouth Aikido, Saturday, October 12-13.
● Aaron Case Sensei, a close friend of ASNJ, will be teaching a seminar in Aikido of Amherst November 2. Sensei Jay and Javier will be going yet only one will return(!).
● We will have Kyu Tests in the Fall. That date will be announced when we figure it out. 😊
Labor Day
We are closed on Monday September 2nd. I guess that covers it.
Why do we name a day ‘Labor’ and tell everyone not to work?
Wood I?
No, it’s not a typo (I have great editors), we are talking about dendrology. Commonly known as the Study of Trees. We are up in Maine, some business, some pleasure, but always preparing for the upcoming long winters. Took down a bunch of trees and now are prepared for the inevitable cold weather, to transform nature’s fuel to heat our home: firewood.
What does this have to do with Aikido? I am glad you asked. I have discovered if you want to develop a powerful boken (or katana) cut, then you need correct technique and build up your necessary muscles? Then split wood. A lot. With an axe. Looks a lot like swinging a boken. I did about a half of a cord last trip. You can not split wood with a 5-to-8-pound tool for very long if you use only upper body strength. You need to relax your arms and use your body. Sound familiar? Splitting wood is a great teacher. And more is better, especially in the winter.
Practice makes perfect. Need a way to practice? I am happy to help. I am so benevolent, so giving, so gracious, that I offer any student who wants to better their sword cuts is welcome to come up to my place in Maine to split all the wood you want. I will even lend you an axe. or maul. Remember, more is better. I will even let you work on your leg strength by stacking it.
You know, just to help you out. I am that kind of guy. Like the The Giving Tree.
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Training Wheels
When learning Aikido, we often begin as a sort of two person kata. Ukes are trained to do specific attacks, follow the nage and take specific ukemi (falls). As nages, we learn specific forms and footwork to receive the attack and to create various throws and pins. It is never boring, as we have tons of combinations, with tons of variations, omote, ora, soto, deshi and so on. We learn to move smoothly, to move balanced, to follow, and to take beautiful falls. We do this in a safe environment called a dojo. These two person movements can be fast, dynamic, and quite beautiful to watch. But what is the goal? To look beautiful? In the ‘real’ world (I put that in quotes as to not piss off any Buddhists: Is it all an illusion?), will someone attacking us do so according to the specific attacks, will they follow our movements, and will they take beautiful ukemi? Will that actually happen? I am pretty comfortable saying “Nah.”
Aikido kata is a wonderful practice but at some point, I hope you learn to let go of what you know and discover what you do not. Remember to embrace Beginner’s Mind. Explore the unknown outside of a two person kata. Aikido is much more than that. At some point, it should develop and allow you to explore and discover the importance of the unknown … not be safe. You will need to take the training wheels off and let go of the kata and discover the unknown.
Your uke’s attack cannot define your technique, you define uke’s attack. The attack should not be decided by uke (this is way too important to leave it in your attacker’s hands). Uke’s decision is that they want to hurt you. Yes, you heard me, if uke decides the attack, aikido is kata.
In real life, if you are attacked, it is usually someone rushing you, to grab or tackle you or, someone swinging wildly (unfortunately, I am speaking from experience, both in unstructured events and formal sparring). People attack when they are angry and that often means losing control. You will only be attacked in a very clear, defined set of attacks if you are in a movie or by someone with a lot of training. And something I have learned, trained martial artists almost never want to fight. They understand the stakes are high. (Come on, you could get hurt! Walk away.)
In this series of classes, we started with uke attacking in no particular form, no structure, no kata. Uke would run at nage and try to take them down. We did this slowly. When you first take the training wheels off, you don’t go full speed, you go slowly usually with a mom or dad holding onto the seat running along helping (Or in my case, my older sister directing my bike down a hill telling me I would be fine. A dojo should be a safe place. Start slow. (I don’t want to test our insurance.) During the rush, nage shapes uke’s attack. You, as nage, can shape the attack into shomen, mortetori or even oshiro, etc. We create this shape by two things: extension and a precise placement of your extension or your mind. You have a good full extension with a good, clean, solid hamni. Your hamni is a stance that is used to extend, and the stance is directional. Your feet point to uke. On purpose.
We tested this in class. I had the students do a quick experiment with different stances (a horse stance, a natural stance and, of course, hamni) and try the technique and observe uke’s reaction. How did uke react to your extension and did they create the desired shape? For everyone, with a good clean hamni, uke experienced their extension and formed the desired shape. It didn’t work for the other stances. Cool, huh?
Now onto placement. This is something you learn (hopefully) if you practice Kendo, Jodo or any type of formal weapons fighting. If you swing your right hand diagonally down, aimed at the outside edge of uke’s right eye, they will defensively raise their right hand to block and make the shape of shomen. Now you are set for ikkyo, (or any other technique, I just like ikkyo) every time. Not only does uke react with shomen, but they are also leaning back, off balance, reacting to your extension. Just move through the rest of the technique as they are already off balance by your extension and shape. The most amazing person I have ever seen doing this is Paul Manogue. Check out his sword classes.
If you swing the same arm (your right) horizontally to the point where their neck meets their shoulder, they grab your arm with their right hand moving their body forward. Now you have uke starting oshiro. Step back, drop your arm, and let their momentum bring them around. If you stand in hanmi squarely with your arms open like you are reaching out, inviting uke for a hug, and extend from your belly (yes, you can extend from any part of your body, extension is from your mind), you get tski. Moretetori: swing your forearm right at their face at an angle. Starting to make sense? Every attack is a reaction to a shape. Nage shapes the attack, sets the stage and decides uke’s attack (this is all outlined in Sun Tsu ‘Art of War’, suggested reading for every martial artist). It requires extension (by using hamni) and the precise placement of your attention.
Randori Without the Wheels
Continuing with this idea in my class, we explored randori. It works the same. Randori should never be five against one. It should be one on one, then one on one, then one on one, etc. Extend, shape, throw, repeat. (One difference is in randori, you are expanding, not just extending. But that is a different article. I think this one is long enough.) You decide how you engage uke, not them. The last thing you, the nage, wants in randori is for the ukes to decide on when they attack. That is five against one…. And that one is you.
Just like you shaped the attack for uke, in randori you do so with each uke, all of them, just one at a time (Like speed dating without the baggage?). You move uke to uke in a path of a circle. They always form all or part of a circle and you want to be along the circumference, never in the center. Just follow the circle. A weak randori is waiting for the ukes to attack you, then it is five against one with you in the center of the circle. This is when you see nage being ‘defensive.’ You decide each uke with either uchi (inside) or soto (outside) to line up the next person like a billiard player does with each pool shot.
To sum it up, every encounter or relationship in the Aikido model centers around the actions of nage, not uke. You do this with your extension, which comes from a good hamni and shaped by where you focus that extension. Take your training wheels off and let go of your kata. That is why we have randori. Not to look cool (though it does), but to help discover the unknown. Just don’t ask my sister to help teach you.
--Jay Tall
Sensei, Aikido Schools of NJ
“A good stance and posture reflect a proper state of mind.”
-- Morehei Ueshiba, the Founder of Aikido
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