Next Tuesday

I incorrectly informed everyone that there would be no class next week. Sorry I got my dates mixed. There is a class on the 3rd April and no class on the 10th April.
Hope to see everyone there next week.

More movement

Class number two came and went. Still good numbers, I assume that I am doing something right. Although, there were definitely some faces missing who were there last week.

We continued the theme of encouraging movement under pressure. This time it was through use of the jo (big stick). I thought this would be less intimitading than the bokken as the standard attack is more of a poke than a swing. As it turned out the ease with which you could adjust your attack to ensure that it impaled the defender was just too much for most of the class. This meant that what would have been a set of good movement drills from nice straight, smooth, clear attacks turned into a bit of a shambles of movement with people being caught left right and centre. Of course this emphasized again the importance of good movement but perhaps didn't actually give most people much opportunity to learn from the experience.

We then looked at some strong grip aikido, where the defender allows the attacker to grab strongly and clamp down, for want of a better description. This means that the attacker has no momentum for the defender to use as we often aim to do in aikido. In reality people don't actually come up to you, grab you and then stand there strongly. They usually have some kind of goal, like taking your head off or removing personal items from you. But this situation does give food for thought when considering the angles and use of the body that benefits the more fluid movements to which we are more used.

Modestas proved to be a valuable tool in this practice as his immense grip prevented all but the most accurate movement from even beginning. I always find with this kind of work that at first you feel completely trapped and unable to move, especially if the attacker is doing their job properly. It is at this point where getting all excited, fighting their strength or trying to trick them with fast movements is pointless. Most effective from a learning point of view is to slow down, relax and think. What we noticed was that in most cases the first thing to do is move your feet. This gives a change of angle that allows more freedom of motion and often leads nicely into the technique. It is important that the attacker does hold strongly because it is very tempting to force a technique if you are slightly stronger than the attacker or if they are just being too nice.

The idea of moving the feet fitted in nicely with the general theme of the classes, which is movement: movement away from being struck or grabbed; movement into tactical positions to allow more effective technique; and movement to keep the mind and body relaxed, aware of potential threats and open to all possibilities.

Since we had a first timer and some students who had not been training for some time, I broke the last section of the class in two. The more experienced students had some fun randori and the others worked on their breakfalls. This worked out nicely as there was a fairly obvious split in experience.

Interestingly we have finished both classes with a period of prone relaxation. During this period I have encouraged everyone to think about what we have done during the session. This is the one area where I have received lots of positive feedback so expect to see that happening alot in my classes.

Survived First Class

So the first class came and went. Eight brave souls turned up and we had a great time.

We got the bokken out and used them to practice movement - the extended reach and harder edge of the wood encourages more avoidance and awareness. It was noticeable how quickly people lost their posture and self control. Even with only a single attacker striking slowly and straight, shomen, it was not long before people were leaning around and forgetting to move their feet.

When we introduced a second attacker it became overwhelming. Some people found themselves stuck in a spot. Some moved but only enough to avoid the swipe of the first strike, the lack of movement left them open to the second attacker. Others moved well but found that moving between the attackers was a risky option as it gave the next attacker an easy route through therefore putting defender under more pressure. That being said, going round the outside all the time, tended to cause a bit of circle running where the attackers seemed to be happily stationary in the middle while the defender exhausted themselves running round and round. A compromise between going round the outside and cutting through the middle, with an awareness of the risk, seemed to be a reasonable strategy. Of course, if the defender was allowed to do more than just avoid then they have more options and this simple strategy needs to be modified but at least it provided a starting point for discussion.

I wanted the bokken avoidance to provide the majority of the aerobic activity of the class but as it was really quite hard to avoid without getting overwhelmed we weren't able to increase the pace to a level that would really get people's blood moving. In the end it was more of a mental and emotional workout.

We played also with some techniques that showed the connection between the techniques of empty handed and sword based aikido. I find that the sword helps with posture, particularly keeping centre: it is difficult to let your arms drift out if they are attached to a sword. We also looked at how the movements in tandoku undo related to sword movement. For me, the most important is the last of the tandoku undo where there is a one hundred and eighty degree turn, which I related to a kaeshi men deflection followed by a turn and cut.

I forgot to take my camera along so no pictures but will certainly put some up after next week's lesson. Thanks to all those who turned up. I am interested in any feedback from those who were there.

Tuesday Nights

So it is official - it must be it says so on the front page of www.londonaikido.com - the Tuesday classes are starting soon. That means I will be regularly teaching classes at the dojo. I am excited to see if a) anybody turns up and b) whether they continue to turn up.

The class officially starts on the 17th April with a ten week beginner course working through the basic syllabus for 6th Kyu (white belt). For reasons better left to committee bureacrats our style starts at red belt and you have to grade to get a white belt. It is a shame that dogis tend not to be sold with red belts rather than white ones but there you go.

For those who can't wait till then I will be running a few classes for current members in March to iron out any logistical wrinkles (like can I remember the combination for the door) before the beginners turn up. The first of these teaser sessions will begin on 20th March, i.e. two weeks on Tuesday.

Although the sessions are set to start at 20.30 please realise that I am not as inclined as Tony to put all the mats out on my own. Please turn up well in advance of 20.30 to help with this task. If I am left to do it my self the warm ups are going to be pretty demanding!

I hope if that hasn't put you off then I hope that you will support this new night at the dojo and enjoy the extra opportunity to practice.

Remember it is important to have fun as well as make progress.