Got my 5th kyu!

[Aikironin21]

Thanks everyone!

Yes, I've set a black belt goal because that will be the day I will have learned the basics, unfortunately i'm not sure if i'll be able to study with my Maestro because, if everything goes as planned, i'll pursue a diplomatic carrier.

So i'm actually focusing on shorter-term goals like:

1) Getting that cursed Yonkyou to work on those with bough-thick arms.
2) Managing to finally SEE incoming strikes from my Nidan Karateka senpai.
3) Overcome my dear old leg injuries.
4) Having fun. The most important of these goals IMHO.


EDIT: @Colin: we'll probably have a demonstration during a break in a dance exhibition so you're quite right actually!

I never set a black belt goal till recently. I trained to learn a few techniques for my job that I could literally master. I didn't necessarily strive to become a master of Aikido, but I liked sankyo and nikyo and made it my personal mission to learn them inside and out. Now, even when wrestling with my cousins, who wrestle, I can always depend on one or the other to get out of a situation I don't like. I trained for over ten years before testing for 5th kyu. That was after I started thinking of what I would do after retirement from State Service.

Now I am at 3rd kyu, and aim to earn Shodan before my four year old turns ten. I am due to retire about eighteen years from now, and hope to be a second or third dan by then. On top of that I aim to earn teaching credentials in Kajukembo and Muay Thai as well. I start back in Kajukembo next month.

All that being said, I think you're right in having short term goals like with yonkyo. That's how train now. I pick one technique and make it my pet. Like before it was sankyo, then nikyo. Now It's shionage.

[Evilenzo]

Thank you very much for the advice, I hadn't yet figured out that the priority should be on pinning rather than on hitting the nerve, i'll work on it!

Also, I'll try bending the hand while working on the right position of the feet. So many details...

[daishi]

Good point. Many think causing pain is the goal in pinning techniques. Too bad some people can either take the pain, or are so freaked out by it, they flip around and get away. Actual physiological pinning someone to the ground is the goal, as you stated.

Anyway, congrats on your test! I am glad it was difficult. Aikido is a "do" art...one training its adherents for life study vice a bugei, which trains people for practical combat. With that, the lack of combat, one should train very hard and strenusouly...beyond the physical...in order to better the person you are. So, again, its good to hear of difficult training and testing vice the 'oft too common lax dojo. Congrats again.

[Evilenzo]

Thak you daishi!
Our training is not as hard as a, say, Muay Thai one, although it's gradually increasing. For example, when we train with punches, we gradually increase speed over time. When i'm uke they punch me at almost full speed and in time full speed will be achieved.

I know that straight karate punches are often unrealistic, but at least we increase power and resistance, something very rare in other dojo, try other kinds of punches, kicks and tecniques wich have been removed from the ufficial curriculum.

[daishi]

I would hope everyone's goal is to achieve a black belt, as that signifies one as a committed student to their art.

In Yoshinkan aikido, yonkyo (we call it yonkajo) focuses on controlling the shoulder/back through the person's elbow by keeping that elbow in front, and past, their shoulder...using the elbow like a pointer. We actually treat it quite like sankyo, and even do what you would call a tenkan version of yonkyo. I've found that if you simply position your hand in the correct manner, for the best control, of uke's wrist you will naturally fall on that nerve.

[Zerstörer90]

I know that straight karate punches are often unrealistic, but at least we increase power and resistance, something very rare in other dojo, try other kinds of punches, kicks and tecniques wich have been removed from the ufficial curriculum.

I've been told (and had some limited experience on my own) that as you practice more and more with resisting uke, you begin to think of attacks in directional angles relative to nage, rather than thinking "oh left hook, left haymaker, left roundhouse" you would see it all as coming from the yokomen direction. Anything coming centerline to centerline would be from the tsuki or shomen direction, depending on whether it is thrusting or dropping, and so on.

I think this is a key component to aikido, because it allows you to have answers for any attacks from a direction. From there I'm sure it's a matter of fine tuning your timing and rhythm, and working out the details of your throws.

[Aikironin21]

I've been told (and had some limited experience on my own) that as you practice more and more with resisting uke, you begin to think of attacks in directional angles relative to nage, rather than thinking "oh left hook, left haymaker, left roundhouse" you would see it all as coming from the yokomen direction. Anything coming centerline to centerline would be from the tsuki or shomen direction, depending on whether it is thrusting or dropping, and so on.

I think this is a key component to aikido, because it allows you to have answers for any attacks from a direction. From there I'm sure it's a matter of fine tuning your timing and rhythm, and working out the details of your throws.

I agree. Once you start seeing "attacks" for their incoming force and direction, you learn that what are most important are the blends and entries. If you enter and blend successfully you have fulfilled the primary goal of protecting yourself. After blending and entry, you look for techniques. When I have used Aikido techniques on the job I never had a technique in mind in which I would use.

One of the worst things you can do, in my opinion, is sell yourself on a particular technique, or look for a specific type of attack. I think this is true not just in Aikido, but all systems. If you pass up pork chop after pork chop, waiting for a rib-eye steak to come, you may very well go hungry. A bad strategy when those pork chops can knock you out.

[daishi]

I've heard this theory throughout my time training. Its a theory that makes sense, but will catch a lot of flak from non-aikidoka, especially on this website. There is a reason for that. While its a logical concept, to think of munetsuki (or whatever you call it), as a representation of any type of middle body thrusting strike is a good theory. But its also really imporant to practice these yokomenuchi = haymaker/hook theories. We practice kihon in a very structured way. This is to learn techniques that have a high level of technical difficulty and maintain a safe environment. Even "going dynamic," as we call it, where we do attacks and techniques at full speed is not quite the same as uncooperative striking. If you are looking for practicality in technique, something a little more similar to randori is what aikido manifests as...even though a lot of randori is dumbed down. When implimented for practicality, I feel aikido looks quite different than the way we typically practice. Though I also feel our kihon training is critically important....and the goal of training goes beyond self-defense or figthing ability. Ya know, just my opinion though.

'Blending and entry' are great starting points and critical to aikido...but its also fun to try it when your trianing partner is not throwing out a punch and leaving it out there. In my ryu, we often initiate with attacks in order to get uke off balance or bring up a blocking hand so it can be manipulated...or we move in fast, using something like a triangle block seen in many DT or self defense-type seminars. But that's all physical. The biggest benifit aikido has given me goes beyond that. I would use the term "spiritual," but that doesn't translate too well into english, many people get the wrong idea with the way I use that word. While I have used actual aikido techniques outside the dojo, I've found MY TRAINING has been most effective on deployments with the military. And I don't mean to suggest I've done kokyu nage to the Tban...but the mentality, and spiritual forging, derived from consistent and difficult training invites growth in a student...overcoming hardships, introspection, really finding out what kind of person you are, what your limitations are, and having that sen-sei there to push you beyond that...that's where I've derived the most value and strength. Back to the physical techniques: I've found aikido's techs to be pretty hard to pull off, and believe it was a martial art intended to be trained continously by its adherents....vice three times a week for a couple hours a day. I also think thats why there is so much conflict between martial artists....the budo are intended for personal growth, but most places either don't aknowledge that, or just play lip service to it. Whereas MMA, and MT, and the rest are learning about fighting skills. Certainly personal growth can be acquired through these other training methodologies, its just that the budo were created in a post-war Japan, where warrior arts were modified to train non-warriors, but give the same personal and spiritual benefits. A generic saying we have is that growth can only come through doing hard things. That, I feel, is the primus of my training. But that's just me, and I ramble....

[Evilenzo]

You're not rambling and you are right.

You are also right about Aikido being for people who can trin continuosly. As i'm sure you know Aikido was designed, at start, as a sort master class for blackbelts in other MAs...

I had answered your previous posts but the site went down, i'll write again soon

[Tom Kagan]

Getting a kyu grade is like being in being in a school recital: No one cares except your parents, and even they are secretly pleading for something to shut you up so they can stop feigning interest.