And it was great...
We had our annual Kangeiko (winter training) in Judo today. In the afternoon, an Aikido sensei came in and taught for a few hours and I had a blast.
We started off talking about Aikido and history, philosophy, etc. Then we went through some of the basic excersizes and warmups and went right into ikkyo. Then we started working on shiho nage and from there to irimi nage. The instructor did a fantastic job of demonstrating the connection between Aikido and the sword arts.
The nage and arm bars were things I've seen many times, but the footwork, transitions, entries, execution, were all very different stylisticly and interesting. I particularly liked a couple of versions of irimi nage. Let's face it, Aikido people tend to be a bit more "granola", and he seemed to be no exception, he was talking so much about blending, harmony, etc and just lightly moving uke around and then all of a sudden he say something like, "Don't move" or "Trust me". And if you so much as blinked you missed it, he would just slam them to the ground so fast and precisely, it was great to see.
After that we did a bit of weapons work, some aikiken and jo. Again, interesting footwork and theories, still tying into the empty-handed techniques. He would be moving slowly and gracefully demonstrating and then all of a sudden, again, "Don't move" and the weapon would be flying around his opponent just barely missing each time.
Very cool stuff, I've seen a lot of Aikido and watched a class or two, but I've never actually had an Aikido instructor showing me techniques and had a chance to work them. It was good fun and definitely something I'd like to train in if I ever had the time. But I think I've been a little too tainted with the judo and jujutsu methods of moving...
Good stuff, nonetheless...just thought I'd share
We had our annual Kangeiko (winter training) in Judo today. In the afternoon, an Aikido sensei came in and taught for a few hours and I had a blast.
We started off talking about Aikido and history, philosophy, etc. Then we went through some of the basic excersizes and warmups and went right into ikkyo. Then we started working on shiho nage and from there to irimi nage. The instructor did a fantastic job of demonstrating the connection between Aikido and the sword arts.
The nage and arm bars were things I've seen many times, but the footwork, transitions, entries, execution, were all very different stylisticly and interesting. I particularly liked a couple of versions of irimi nage. Let's face it, Aikido people tend to be a bit more "granola", and he seemed to be no exception, he was talking so much about blending, harmony, etc and just lightly moving uke around and then all of a sudden he say something like, "Don't move" or "Trust me". And if you so much as blinked you missed it, he would just slam them to the ground so fast and precisely, it was great to see.
After that we did a bit of weapons work, some aikiken and jo. Again, interesting footwork and theories, still tying into the empty-handed techniques. He would be moving slowly and gracefully demonstrating and then all of a sudden, again, "Don't move" and the weapon would be flying around his opponent just barely missing each time.
Very cool stuff, I've seen a lot of Aikido and watched a class or two, but I've never actually had an Aikido instructor showing me techniques and had a chance to work them. It was good fun and definitely something I'd like to train in if I ever had the time. But I think I've been a little too tainted with the judo and jujutsu methods of moving...
Good stuff, nonetheless...just thought I'd share
