principle in sentence

Jenna

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My youngest student at present was born in the '70's. I seem to attract a more...mature crowd. Everyone is between 40 and 55. I keep saying I need some 20- and 30-year-olds, so we have someone who can take the hard falls without clicking (the sound of all our knees when we stand).
Wait.. you NGA lads are not with the atemi choreographed to the sound of music? We time atemi, shikko and suwari waza to the theme from Calamity Jane like toe crack, ankle crack, knee crack, hip crack away, hip crack away hip crack awaaaaaaayyyyy.. Yep.. I am running a seminar :p
 

Gerry Seymour

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One of the principles I have been taught which I find to always be effective is this: "A person's unbalance is the same as a weight." I always try to steal my opponent's balance. Even a minor disruption makes strikes, throws, blocks, etc, more effective. Take their balance in a big way, they fall down. Take it in a small way, it interrupts their flow in ways they cannot react to quickly enough.

Basic test; punch a willing uke. Now pull his arm towards you slightly with your free hand and punch again. Same power, same speed. Let him tell you which hurt more.
And it applies in the inverse, as well. Let a willing partner punch you. Now pull his arm (in a way that unbalances even moderately), and tell him which one hurt more. One of the things my students hear from me often is, "Take his structure (meaning unbalance him) before you do that."
 

Bill Mattocks

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And it applies in the inverse, as well. Let a willing partner punch you. Now pull his arm (in a way that unbalances even moderately), and tell him which one hurt more. One of the things my students hear from me often is, "Take his structure (meaning unbalance him) before you do that."

You're awesome, buddy. I hope I can work out with you someday. :)
 

Kung Fu Wang

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I have heard the following "principle in sentence" quite often.

1. If you want to take, you have to give first.
2. If you think about speed/power, that's not your true speed/power.
3. 1 is better than 1,2. 1,2 is better than 1,2,3.
4. Get both if you can, otherwise get 1 first and get the other afterward.
5. If you come, I'll let you come. If you go, I won't let you go.
6. If you punch, I'll run you down. If you kick, I'll run you down. If you do nothing, I'll still run you down.
7. To be kind to your enemy is to be cruel to yourself.
8. I neither yield nor resist, I change angle.
9. In the ring/mat, you will act like a tiger and try to eat your opponent alive. Off the ring/mat, you will act like a sheep, the nicest person on earth.
10. Any technique that you can apply in fighting, that's high level skill. Any technique that you can only demo, that's low level skill.
11. ...
 
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Reedone816

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And it applies in the inverse, as well. Let a willing partner punch you. Now pull his arm (in a way that unbalances even moderately), and tell him which one hurt more. One of the things my students hear from me often is, "Take his structure (meaning unbalance him) before you do that."
There is a position when we exploits human nature to save themselves, we disrupt the balance a bit, so the opponent about to fall down, but makes the opponent still trying to balance oneself/survive, then strike, to shift the unbalanceness to another point, then strike.
Rinse and repeat to infinity if we can maintain the status quo...
That is the first thing we being taught.

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Reedone816

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We do that with some techniques, as well. Competing principles that complement each other.

By the way, the bolded part matches up with one of my principles: "Strike in the void."
I don't know if it is related, but we being taught that living being all over one body has full state and empty state and those places constantly shifting along by being alive. That is what we are learning, to spot or artificially create the empty state position and strike there.


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JP3

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I thought I'd replied, but I guess it didn't take...

Things I say all the time n class, which I call "Principles," and are generally delivered in sentence form, as that's how I talk....

Let's see. Some of these are from Tomiki aikido, some from Thai-boxing, some from judo, a couple out of my time in BJJ.

Stand up straight. Bend over and you are giving yourself to the other guy, and that's no good. Unless you're that giving of a person.

Get your hands up And get out of the way. At the same time, not in order.

Play in the button-hole. (This one neds translation for people who don't know what I'm saying, repeating actually. It means keep your hands in front of your center, and at your own shoulder level, in a sort of button-hole in the space in front of you. Move you to evade, try to move your arms less.

You keep your rules. Make the other guy break his. You win.

Go around uke, don't try to drag uke around you. Yeah, buddy, I know you outweigh her by 200 pounds, this means you, too. That's just weightlifting.

Keep your center under theirs... well, until it's time to drop it on them. You'll know when.

Same hand, same foot.

Rotation Is Power. And I mean, lots of power. Learn to feel it. (Do a bit of Daito-ryu work)

And so on...
 

Gerry Seymour

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I thought I'd replied, but I guess it didn't take...

Things I say all the time n class, which I call "Principles," and are generally delivered in sentence form, as that's how I talk....

Let's see. Some of these are from Tomiki aikido, some from Thai-boxing, some from judo, a couple out of my time in BJJ.

Stand up straight. Bend over and you are giving yourself to the other guy, and that's no good. Unless you're that giving of a person.

Get your hands up And get out of the way. At the same time, not in order.

Play in the button-hole. (This one neds translation for people who don't know what I'm saying, repeating actually. It means keep your hands in front of your center, and at your own shoulder level, in a sort of button-hole in the space in front of you. Move you to evade, try to move your arms less.

You keep your rules. Make the other guy break his. You win.

Go around uke, don't try to drag uke around you. Yeah, buddy, I know you outweigh her by 200 pounds, this means you, too. That's just weightlifting.

Keep your center under theirs... well, until it's time to drop it on them. You'll know when.

Same hand, same foot.

Rotation Is Power. And I mean, lots of power. Learn to feel it. (Do a bit of Daito-ryu work)

And so on...
Definitely stealing a couple of those, JP.
 
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JP3

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Definitely stealing a couple of those, JP.
Can't steal what's given away. So, take that with ya.

I've got more, of course. We'e got a running pair of jokes in our school, which we brought from my instructor's school, and he got it from his (Sensei Geis).

The first one is: Hey, aikido is simple, not easy. All you have to do is... and then we sort of mime the dropping of a set of blinds, and on each blind is one of those principle sayings. It's been going on so lohng that whoever you're saying it to just finishes the joke with "All at the same time."

There's another joke, which is a pair of sentences. I've threatened for the last 10 years or so to get a pair of signs, to hang opposite each other on the mat space.

One says, "Does this look familiar?" The other says, "Have you seen this before?"

As I said, Simple, not easy. Lots of things in life are simple, not easy. Dunk a basket ball. Simple. Definitely not easy for most folks.
 
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Reedone816

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I thought I'd replied, but I guess it didn't take...

Things I say all the time n class, which I call "Principles," and are generally delivered in sentence form, as that's how I talk....

Let's see. Some of these are from Tomiki aikido, some from Thai-boxing, some from judo, a couple out of my time in BJJ.

Stand up straight. Bend over and you are giving yourself to the other guy, and that's no good. Unless you're that giving of a person.

Get your hands up And get out of the way. At the same time, not in order.

Play in the button-hole. (This one neds translation for people who don't know what I'm saying, repeating actually. It means keep your hands in front of your center, and at your own shoulder level, in a sort of button-hole in the space in front of you. Move you to evade, try to move your arms less.

You keep your rules. Make the other guy break his. You win.

Go around uke, don't try to drag uke around you. Yeah, buddy, I know you outweigh her by 200 pounds, this means you, too. That's just weightlifting.

Keep your center under theirs... well, until it's time to drop it on them. You'll know when.

Same hand, same foot.

Rotation Is Power. And I mean, lots of power. Learn to feel it. (Do a bit of Daito-ryu work)

And so on...
Yup i got two warning about your post, the one is when you quote, and it seems a bug that that one is not posted.
As for the principles, those are good advices. Just like simple is not equal easy, the real question should be how to make it easy.
Like to comment on rotation, similar with what we define it as spiral movement, from big to small or small to big. Some times it just a small spiral movement of our finger/wrist, put in the right moment it can diffuse and/or enforce.
We don't have concept of center, but we were taught to have low stance in early years, still balanced shoulder and keep elbow close to the inside.

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Reedone816

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You can do but you don't want to do is different from you want to do but you can't do.
The first one is about control, while the second one is about expectation.
Sometimes when we training it won't translate as we wanted it in sparring, or it works on one but won't work on others.
That was why our late master always encourage us to try with as many type of people as possible.

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Gerry Seymour

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Can't steal what's given away. So, take that with ya.

I've got more, of course. We'e got a running pair of jokes in our school, which we brought from my instructor's school, and he got it from his (Sensei Geis).

The first one is: Hey, aikido is simple, not easy. All you have to do is... and then we sort of mime the dropping of a set of blinds, and on each blind is one of those principle sayings. It's been going on so lohng that whoever you're saying it to just finishes the joke with "All at the same time."

There's another joke, which is a pair of sentences. I've threatened for the last 10 years or so to get a pair of signs, to hang opposite each other on the mat space.

One says, "Does this look familiar?" The other says, "Have you seen this before?"

As I said, Simple, not easy. Lots of things in life are simple, not easy. Dunk a basket ball. Simple. Definitely not easy for most folks.
It sounds like there's some similar atmosphere between our groups, JP. A common sequence sequence for me (starting back when I was teaching at my instructor's dojo):
  • (Give some specific corrections to a student, including hand and leg positioning and the transition that got them there.)
  • Student repeats the technique with the corrections, sort of.
  • "That's better. Now bend your knees, breathe, and relax."
  • "What? I have to breathe, too?"
This has happened enough with my wife that I usually only get to "That's better. Now..." and she'll finish it.
 

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