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Many
thanks to Doug Edwards for giving MI Magazine
readers the chance to read this insightful
articles and thank you also to Jason at
the Reading Zenshin Aikido Club. You can
find out more about the club by visiting
there website at www.aikido-reading.co.uk
On a training night a few weeks ago I was
performing a kote gaeshi on Feathers. I
applied the technique with perhaps 70% power
and heard him yelp and fall to the ground
in a heap holding his wrist.
felt really bad because I had nearly caused
him a wrist injury, the last thing I'd want
to be responsible for is anybody to miss
training because of my carelessness. I was
also disappointed in my own lack of ability
to identify that we were not blending, and
that I was too focused on my own technique
to look after my uke.
"Not good enough Edwards. Try harder
next time, deduct 12 house points and see
me after class!"
"Hai Sensei!" :-)
However, when it was my turn again, I told
Feathers how I thought our previous effort
could be improved upon, and I'm pleased
to report that his fall was much better
and was not such a painful experience for
him. But, looking around the mat at that
time I noticed all of you were repeating
Feathers' problem. It was what happened
that night that inspired me to pen this
article (thanks Feathers!).
Many of our club students have now been
training in Aikido for about two years,
and as a result are advancing well through
the grades, many recently achieving 3rd
kyu (green belt) status: Congratulations
to all those that successfully passed your
grading in November (and to Steve Nester
for his awarded 4th kyu, orange belt).
This article is primarily for the benefit
of those green belts and proficient orange
belts. By no intention of my own it also
just happens to naturally follow on from
my previous article, 'UKEMI', from early
2004. I know this sequel has been a long
time coming, but I wanted to be sure you
were ready for it in order to reap the benefits
and put into practice its content.
However, that is not to say beginners may
not benefit. Try incorporating some of the
theory into your training now, and then
it will be easier to apply as your aikido
develops.
Becoming more proficient in Aikido does
not mean you should only be more confident
of neutralizing an attack, or feel more
comfortable swinging your 'sticks' around.
Part of the green belt syllabus is 'high-grade
fall'.
At your level, the more you train with advanced
grades, whether within our club or with
aikidoka from other clubs (on seminars and
courses) the more it will be expected of
you to take high-grade falls.
Obviously, some students feel more comfortable,
are braver (or to re-phrase that, perhaps
lacking a few more brain cells then most
:-) ) or just bounce more than others.
The form and technique for taking a high-grade
fall is, for all of you green belts (and
some orange belts), by now fairly straightforward
and you perform them quite well during our
ukemi practice/warm up. The next stage,
and it is a difficult one, is to apply that
practice to take a fall from a technique.
In order to take high falls effectively
and without injury, you must learn to be
a good uke. To be a good uke is under-rated,
and is rarely taught, but it can be a great
help in improving your aikido.
These are what I consider the fundamental
ingredients of being able to accept a powerful
technique from an advanced aikidoka, to
be a good uke and to take a successful high-grade
fall:
i. Blend
ii. Postition
iii.Relax
iv.Breath
v. Trust
I'll tackle each of them individually:
i. Blend I
touched on this in my previous article,
and it is very important to incorporate
into your aikido. If you do not blend well,
your aikido will evolve much more slowly
than that of a uke that does blend well.
As some of you may have read, heard or,
as a complete novice (Louise) saw at our
club and commented following training: Sensei
John was demonstrating techniques using
me as uke: "It was lovely to watch
Sensei John as he performed those techniques
on you, you moved so smoothly together,
it looked very much like dancing."
Louise hit the nail right on the head -
Aikido is just like dancing. There is even
a superb book with a similar title. Blending
begins as soon as you and your partner bow
to each other prior to training. 'Key' into
each other's psyche, spirit and body language.
Take all of your partner's body into view
with a soft focus; it will help you detect
any small movement by uke or tori, the moment
it is made. As your uke initiates the move
by attacking (e.g. tsuki, yokomenuchi),
or tori initiates by drawing you out (e.g.
shomenuchi), you should both move and blend
as one. Do not resist. If you feel that
you are going to lose your balance, correct
it to stay on balance. If you do not make
that correction you will be off balance
(e.g. stretched beyond your own center of
gravity, bent over, balancing on one leg
etc). Why should your partner bother trying
to complete the technique when all he need
do is lightly push you more off balance
to make you fall to the ground? Let's face
it; if this were to happen in a real situation
out of the dojo, would you want to complete
the technique when it isn't necessary? In
the dojo we complete the technique for our
mutual practice and benefit, i.e. for us
to practice our ukemi, practice the movement
of the technique, to blend and to enjoy
training in the spirit of aikido. So, as
your partner (tori) leads: you follow; as
he advances: you retreat; as he leads you
to your left: adjust your balance to your
left, and so on. If you look at all the
'good ukes' out there, you will find they
follow their tori by taking small steps.
It enables one to turn or change direction
easier and to maintain balance.
If you follow by taking big steps, you will,
as sure as I sit here in Hong Kong typing
this, sipping a wee dram of Bushmills Irish
whiskey while my wife and daughter watch
some Chinese kung fu soap on TV: LOSE YOUR
BALANCE! I kid you not! Being big in stature
is no excuse either: Watch Sensei Pete,
he is an excellent example of a good uke.
Blending however does not mean moving before
you are led, entering the technique to take
a fall before it has been applied, falling
at the slightest touch. That was the main
reason why I did not train when I worked
abroad, the attack from many of my ukes
(some of them Dan grades) was not sincere,
and sometimes they would ukemi out of techniques
before I had even applied them. It felt
as if I was not achieving anything, and
I could not for the life of me see how it
was going to help my aikido develop and
evolve.
If
you blend well it will really help and set
you up for...
ii. Postition
The problem I discovered during that training
session with Feathers was that, as I applied
the kote gaeshi my uke was out of position.
This was partly my fault because I lost concentration
and left him behind, and partly his fault
for not keeping up, or not blending. Because
of this his arm was very nearly straight,
making a high-grade fall nearly impossible
to achieve. When we practice high fall at
the beginning or end of a class, how many
of you throw yourselves over a nearly straight
arm? It is really difficult, if not impossible
without hurting yourself, so for the purposes
of this article we shall say it would be none
of you.
So, to get into the correct position:
• Keep your arm relaxed and bent at the
elbow.
• Try to keep a feeling of tucking your
elbow into your body, or keeping your elbow
as close to your body as possible.
• Face the direction in which you are
going to be thrown. If you can help it, especially
with kote gaeshi, do not enter the fall sideways
on (some people feel this is the natural thing
to do).
If
you follow these points your body will naturally
be closer to your partner's and it will be
within his dynamic sphere, resulting in you
both becoming a single body of blended movement.
Arguably
the most challenging technique for most people
to take a high fall from is shihonage (others
do not like tenchinage as you cannot see where
you are going, another is jujinage as you
cannot free your arms to help break your fall).
Shihonage is a beautiful technique, but the
fall from it appears daunting because the
technique is applied at what appears to be
shoulder height. For the inexperienced the
thought of taking a high-grade from it would
be "Bloody hell! How can I throw myself
over my arm when it's up here?"
In actual fact the projection of the technique
commences at shoulder height, but there is
no reason to fall at that point. Your arm
will reach a stage where it can no longer
take the leverage on the elbow joint, that
point will be at about abdomen level (just
like the finish of a bokken 1st suburi), it
is also the moment you must enter into the
high-grade fall. Therefore, the fall is taken
towards the end of the cut/technique.
I
remember on a seminar many years ago, Sensei
Ray Gardiner (then a blue belt) as Sensei
Sargeant's uke, taking high fall from shihonage.
It was beautiful to watch. When I paid more
attention I realized that Ray got so close
to Sensei before the throw, that his free
hand/arm seemed to go behind Sensei's back
to effectively hug him just before being thrown.
This action effectively brought Ray into Sensei's
dynamic sphere, rather than being on the periphery
of his sphere where we would be trying to
race around Sensei's body to keep up with
the technique.
Since then I've followed Sensei Ray's form,
and it has never failed me. For kote gaeshi
my free hand frequently grasps or makes contact
with my partners forearm to help me turn to
face the direction of the projection. I've
noticed Sanya's hand sometimes makes an audible
slap against Sensei Sargeant's back as she
blends to take ukemi from his kote gaeshi.
It can't be helped owing to the power Sensei
is using, but it also demonstrates she is
blending well to face the direction of the
projection or fall.
When
taking a fall from iriminage, try to wrap
your leading arm (the one closest to your
partner) around tori's shoulder from below
his armpit. This will help your hips to twist
and prevent your head from hitting the mat
before your body. It also assists in preventing
you from landing flat on your back and possibly
winding yourself.
iii. Relax Once
you have achieved 3rd kyu status, you shall
begin to feel and realize that relaxation
plays a primary role as part of your development,
as a result your aikido will become more effortless
and much more satisfying. You have no chance
of blending well or taking a painless high-grade
fall unless you are relaxed.
If your body and mind are relaxed, you will
automatically blend better and therefore get
into position quicker. If you wish to be sincere
in your attacks (and you should at this stage
in your development), be strong but do not
use upper body strength.
Confused? Read on. For static attacks:
Grip
firmly primarily using your little and ring
fingers (as you should when holding the weapons),
hands and (as little as possible) your forearm
muscles. Try to leave your biceps and shoulders
relaxed, this will then allow your upper body
to move freely.
For dynamic attacks (e.g. tsuki, yokomenuchi)
make your hand tense at the point of contact,
do not make your complete arm tense. If boxers
and karateka fought with stiff arms it would
be like Pinocchio having a bundle with Captain
Scarlett: Wooden (no pun intended) and with
no fluidity.
If you think about it, this is also true in
a practical situation. An attacker is not
thinking of punching once and finishing that
strike with a stiff arm, he will be relaxed
just after having delivered his punch and
making ready his follow up punch.
What we aikidoka aim to master is how to neutralise
that first punch so that the second punch
cannot be delivered.
Other advantages of being relaxed are that
the falls are not painful (or at least only
a little bone jarring); as long as you have
stamina you should be able to keep taking
the punishment, getting up and returning for
more (a word of warning though, high-grade
falls are very tiring). Immobilizations are
less painful too, you will find through relaxing
your complete body, your joints will become
more flexible and less painful.
iv.
Breath
Breathing out helps you to relax. Admittedly,
if you want to grip something strongly you
will initially breathe out. But once the grip
has taken hold you will find that you can
relax and maintain the strength of grip by
using the lower arm muscles and hand/fingers
only.
Because of the dynamic nature of aikido, as
uke it is difficult to maintain physical strength
throughout a technique. As soon as we think
about maintaining our balance, we relax to
allow our bodies to move. Strength should
only be used when instructed by your sensei
(or requested by your partner) during kihon
practice.
Never, never, never hold your breath during
a technique, while taking a fall or while
an immobilization/pin is being applied
v.
Trust As uke, what is the most
daunting thought that enters your head when
training free style kokyunage or jiyu waza?
I would edge my bets that you all find the
most daunting part of being uke is attacking
and not knowing what technique is going to
be applied, or how it is going to be applied
(e.g. soft or full power; projection; pin;
omote; ura; a henka; is an atemi going to
be used etc).
I realize that in the middle range of grades
to remain relaxed can be very difficult, you
want to prepare yourself for the fall because
you do not want to get hurt. In order for
you to avoid getting hurt, you try to read
what technique is going to be executed and
you prepare your mind and body for what you
believe is coming.
The fault with this is that many aikido techniques
are similar at one point or another within
their movement. This is what makes aikido
unique, adaptable and very nearly infinitely
variable: GREAT! Unfortunately it also makes
anticipating or reading the technique very
difficult.
Don't
worry; I am sure most of us advanced grades
can testify to having been the same at some
stage in our training.
As
difficult as it is, you must trust your tori
(unless of course he/she is inexperienced
and does not know what to do) and allow your
mind and body to relax and become a void.
I recommend that when your partner signals
which attack they want, give it with 100%
sincerity.
Tori asks for ryote kata dori: don't go for
him half heartedly, dawdling with arms wide
open, what are you going to do, hug him? Go
grab his shoulders as if you want to pin him
to the wall. He asks for a tsuki: punch straight
at him and take no prisoners.
A sincere attack gives your tori something
to work with and worry about. If there is
no threat why bother evading the attack, completing
the technique?
Because at your grades you are now performing
your techniques with more enthusiasm and power,
it is dangerous for both you and your partner
not to be sincere in your attacks.
If uke's attack is too strong or too fast,
ask them to ease off or slow down. Allow the
strength and speed of the attack to progressively
increase as your ability and confidence improves.
Uke can remain sincere even though his attack
is weaker/slower.
If, as uke or tori you feel you cannot trust
your partner, ease off on the enthusiasm gas
and take a ukemi rather than a high-grade
fall, slow down while executing the technique
to allow yourself some thinking space to analyse,
'feel' the technique or spot ways in which
you can polish your technique.
Well, that about wraps it up. Have I waffled
on or what?
Sorry
all, but to convey all the thoughts I have
in my head onto one or two sheets of A4
is just not possible. I hope these words
of guidance help you on the path to becoming
a better uke, and hence improving your aikido.
One
last word of advice: Always, always respect
your uke and tori, and maintain awareness
of all the other aikidoka around you.
As
most of you are young in comparison to me,
do not be deceived into thinking your stamina
is limitless. Fatigue is dangerous. If you
have been taking a lot of falls there will
come a time when your body cannot keep pace
with your spirit and enthusiasm. Listen to
your body and curtail your enthusiasm accordingly.
Slow down or take a rest.
Far too many injuries are picked up in aikido,
mainly by the middle grades through over enthusiasm.
If you see there is not enough room to fall,
stop your partner and wait until there is
room, try changing orientation to throw in
a different direction.
After all, if you do pick up an injury it
could be a while before you can train again.
You may find it difficult to get back onto
the 'aikido bus' and continue your journey
from the same stop you were forced, through
injury, to get off at!
Enjoy your training; I'll see you on the mat
soon. If you want any help or advice, don't
hesitate to ask Sensei Pete or John, or any
of the senior grades.
Copyright
© 2005, Doug
Edwards
(January
2005)
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