How to Improve as an Aikidoka

Source: http://www.nanzan.hu/

I have set as a goal to myself about a year ago, to always practice with a beginner's mindset. This is particularly important when you practice on bigger training seminars. This weekend I had the opportunity to train on the training seminar held in Budapest by Kuribayashi Takanori, 7 dan Hombu Shihan.

Here are three basic ideas that he emphasized:

1. Never Train Automatically
2. Move
3. Don't Train Selfishly

Never Train Automatically

You should not execute the technique automatically, just because you learned that it should be done in a specific way. Challenge each and every motion. Get to understand and then let go of the logic of the movements. But for that to happen first you have to understand why and how you step in the irmi, why and how you move your body in order to take uke’s balance for example. On the uke side, don’t take ukemi just because you know what movement is coming next. Wait for the tori to make you take the ukemi. Whenever I attend such training seminars I always feel like I am a beginner. Sometimes I felt a bit guilty of not having enough routine and stupid for not understanding how a technique works exactly. But when Kuribayashi Sensei underlined training with a beginner's mindset as a positive trait, I gained faith in it again. One should get rid of old habits and adapt to what is being shown there and then. Only this will improve your technique.

Move

Movement is important in aikido. Don’t be like a golf player, stiffly hitting the ball with the rocket without barely any muscle moving. Be like a baseball player, move around, adapt. Lower your posture. Especially for westerners who are not used to seiza, lowering their center is something they have to consciously build into their practice. As you lower, pay attention to move into the right point to execute the technique. Don’t get stuck at a certain point, always move along and develop.

Don’t Train Selfishly

Look around, pay attention to others. Train in a way that both of the training partners are learning something in the process.

He made several other points also, but these are the main ones that came into my mind. The seminar ended with the Dan examination, which I followed with great interest. We had to sit in seiza and sometimes in agura because this is one of the important skills of the aikidoka.

I hope this small article was helpful for both beginners and advanced people practicing aikido. Please also check my article from last year about last year's Kuribayashi Seminar here.

Meet the Kokyunages

One or two weeks ago, I was confused about what kokyunage really is. Sensei seemed to call kokyunage so many techniques that were so different from each other. When I asked how I could recognize a kokyunage, he answered there were two basic kokyunages which he also showed me shortly. The rest of it is advanced, more complex techniques... even secret techniques! I stared at him with a blank face. This put all the other techniques into a new light also. If there were so many kokyunages, there were for sure a whole bunch of shihonages or say tenchinages I figured. While my mind was doing this considerations, my body was performing some odd and absconse kokyunages. Summer camp is getting closer and closer. In August the perspective of another exam is coming closer and closer. But I am not ready, yet.  I lack a lot of basic knowledge that I need to rehearse and get fixed in my mind.

• the 10 steps
• breathing meditation
• jo katas

When will I be able to do all these without messing up? I guess I need this summer camp to make all this happen. I will ask my fave senpai to help in the preparations. If I persevere there is still a hope for me to improve. I do want to get better. It is no longer about surviving the ukemi (except for koshinage, maybe :P). Now it is more about me getting closer and closer to what aikido means. Sometimes we chat with my favorite senpai about aikido and also life in general. We are sort of dreaming to have a dojo. A nice one, not this rented mess where we are training now. 

Weapon Techniques

Beauty and Aikido ©

In the picture you can see lame me, hit on the head with a jo...well not really hit. Senpai was trying to remind me that I was not moving aside. We were doing the 4th jo kata I think, and I could not decide quick enough how and in which direction to move on. I bet you also found yourself in similar situations when you blacked out and were not really sure how to move on in a technique. In my case, I think it is because I cannot really get myself to concentrate. I should be working on that. If you have any tips, do let me know. I am that type of aikidoka who trains, in the hope that some time soon something (besides a jo) will remain in my head. I can see so many other people in the dojo who concentrate and learn everything so fast, that I am ashamed of my attitude. Sometimes it is so hard for me to focus on the fact that this is a school of teaching and that I should be more persevering in actually learning what is being taught...

Not all aikido dojos practice weapon techniques. Ours is a traditional dojo, so we tend to do quite some techniques with weapons also. Our Friday trainings are centered around the training with the jo, bokken and tanto. As I did not always have the chance to join the Friday training I am still legging behind on this chapter.

Let me sum up the benefits of the weapon techniques:

1. Trains  your muscles

Well...after a set of  50+ shomenuchis with the bokken or swirling around your jo, you will sure have worked on the muscles of your arms. I have also read that weapon techniques are supposed to help you perfect your bare hand techniques. For me, weapon techniques also help me get the stress out there with the kyai and clear my mind.

2. Helps develop good coordination of movements and concentration

You need to concentrate on what you are doing with the weapon, how you hold it, swirl it, what steps you make.You need to connect the given movement or set of movements with its name and be able to perform it whenever Sensei requests you to do so. Most of the time you have to do it together with the others and on top of that at the same time with them, so that you are synchronized. 

3. Advantage in case of street fight

Most probably, nobody is really likely to attack you with a sword or wooden sword (bokken) let alone with the end of a broomstick (jo like thing). What about the tanto? The tanto is the imitation of a small knife. I find that the techniques we learn for disarming a tanto attack can be really useful if you master them well enough. It can help you disarm an attacker coming at you witha knife or with any sharp object.

Can you think of other benefits? Do you have weapon trainings at your dojo?

Last but not least, stay tuned for the Aiki giveaway on my blog. Sneak peak into what I will be giving away in the Aikido Package. Hope you join!

Shaolin patch against muscle pain

My blog is soon turning one years old, so please join the celebration with me next week.

Update: This post became a really hot topic on reddit where I also posted it. Check the conversation thread here!

Blogging Year 2011- Conclusions

Dear Readers

This has been my first year of blogging and as the end of the year approaches, I decided to draw a line and evaluate my posts. As this is a fairly young but rather ambitious project of mine, I am looking forward with a lot of positivity to 2012 and hope to create even more valuable posts that will engage you, my dear readers. I also hope to get more feedback for the posts I am writing in 2012.

I have cathegorized my post in two groups: Most Read Posts and Post with Most Feedback.

1. Most Read Posts

I got most of the views for the Inspiring Quotes by Steven Segal post. I guess everyone needs some inpiration from time to time and if it comes from role models as Steven Segal, then it is even more interesting.

Then a Beauty post follows closely about some swatches I made from my one and only Dior Pallet I really price a lot.

Third is another Beauty related post, with the Cosmetic Calculator. I hope it helped you all be safe about the cosmetics products you use.

I decided to include this post also as forth, again a Beauty related one. I was showing you how Half Moon Nails are done with some O.P.I nail poishes. 

 2. Posts with Most Feedback

 In another cathegory I would like to review the post with the largest amount of engagement through commenting. I know that this is not much, but for me each and every comment from you meant a lot.

First in line is my post about a Haul that I put together after shoping with Joy Magazine Cupons:

Second in line is an interview with Anne Marie, that got also rather popular and got four comments. But it is not the number but the quality of the comments that made me so happy. So see the whole story click here. I hope this was as inspirational for all the aikidoka out there as it is for me.

Another post where readers felt like commenting was the "Waiting for Winter" nails, that you complimented as being cute. Thanks!

 Last but not least, this Review about some Yves Rocher products has engaged you also to comment. Hope you found the review useful!

This all being said, I wish you a Happy New Year and hope to have you as a visitor on my blog in 2012 also!

 

Thoughts from French Female Aikidoka: Sandra Aikidoka

I have found some interviews with French female Aikidoka on  the Youtube channel of AikidoFFAAA: Sylvia, Sandra, Florence and Jacqueline. These fit really well into my series revealing thoughts from female aikidoka. In this post I am sharing the interview with Sandra. She is a French aikidoka, so I am trying my best to translate her thoughts from the interview into English hereunder. She has an interesting way of formulating her thoughts that is quite difficult to render into Enlgish, but I tried my best. What I did to make the phrases more understandable was to split them into sentences. Her way of rendering her thoughts is much more cascading and continuous, but it could have lead to funny phrases in English. So here it is:

At the first training I saw the first technique. The next day I bought a kimono and I assiduously began to follow the aikido  courses. 

We would always make use of the power of the partner without using our own force. In comparison with men, I have the feeling that women have an advantage because aikido requests suppleness, agility, rapidity. We are not using the muscles of the arms and of the shoulders but the hips. It is true that a woman has a natural advantage at that level because they are built up to be able to bare a child so there is a natural endowment and power. 

It is not about learning a technique but learning the placement, the steps and how to put yourself in a safe position when facing another person. We always have stressful days, we run all day long and are irritated but when the aikido course starts it is as if we would evacuate all that, as if a really positive and serene energy that would flow all through our body, putting you to calm and ease. One has an incredible energy after the course. As for myself I know that I am more productive at work after the training then before. I am aware of the fact that the people who knew me before I started practicing aikido and who see me now five years later don´t recognize me. I used to be really anxious and stressed out I was afraid I would be late or not able to finish this or that task. It is true that I am a much more balanced person. I used to be really timid and reserved, used to have difficulty to relate to others, but aikido has helped me a lot. In fact practicing aikido is working with someone; we cannot practice alone. I have accquired a lot of serenity and confidence in myself, something I did not have before. It is true that the way one practices aikido is a question of existing in the world. With my weight I could not imagine how I would be able to face someone who has 90 to 95 kgs. But then I realized there was a possibility to lead him without being confronted with him, something that I also verified in my daily life. It is true that it is a martial art, but it educates me to have a certain lifestyle also.

Interview with Lia Suzuki Sensei

Lia Suzuki began training aikido in 1982. Through her first teacher, the renowned William Gleason Sensei, 6th dan, she was introduced to the distinctive aikido of the late Yamaguchi Seigo Shihan, 9th dan and one of his most accomplished students,Takeda Yoshinobu Shihan, 8th dan. At present she is 6th dan aikidoka and the Executive Director for an Aikido Nonprofit: Aikido Kenkyukai Santa Barbara. She is a really charismatic personality with a lot of experience to share. I think this interview is really inspiring to listen to. This is the list of question that I used as guideline for the interview:

First of all the name betrays that you have a Japanese husband. Is that right? 

When did you start aikido and why?

Tell us about your time in Japan. Did you go through any cultural shock?

Tell us about the dojo in Santa Barbara.

Does non-profit mean that  the aikidoka do not pay any fees?

What is aikido for you?

What is the benefit of aikido?

How can the non-aikido public be educated? 

How could one make people understand that we are not just slaming each other?

Help aikido throughout the world, tell us more about this vision.

Do you consider it is important to show female aikidoka other female role models or you don’t care about gender in aikido?

And it goes on with Part 2

And the final Part 3

 To support AKSB with a donation click here:

For 2011

For 2012

*Technical tip for those who want to record a similar interview 

I recorded it with a VodBurner trial which created huge files. A one hour conversation occupied in raw 25 giga (this side and other side). The converted media file version is 14 giga, which I later had to compress and edit with AVS Video Editor because I did not like the VodBurner editing features.