Techniques continued

You also have techniques for defending yourself from strangulation or if your hair is grabbed. The techniques used in aikido are designed to either project or pin your opponent thus neutralising them and their attack. They are most effective when relaxed and applied with little strength but with your ki flowing freely and you move with your centre (hara) with your mind still and free.

With this in mind we mention defence from weapons, which could be from a knife, sword, stick or staff (jo) or even a gun and these attacks could be from the front or from behind. In respect to the gun, if someone were going to shoot you they would shoot first and ask questions later to coin a phrase. What I mean is that they hold the gun to you and while they talk you have moved and applied one of many techniques.

Techniques are made with weapons too, if someone holds your sword arm or hand using ki and technique you can free yourself and render your opponent helpless. There are various kata’s that are performed with sword and or staff, I’ll go into these later it is all part of learning Aikido. But please remember Aikido is not just physical and if you decide to learn it you will find this out. Aikido can be hard and painful but is very rewarding.

Techiniques

When you learn Aikido you warm up performing stretching exercises, breathing exercises, break-falls etc. It is important to make sure that your body and mind is in a ready state for practice to avoid injury to yourself and others.

There are thousands of techniques in Aikido, (some say “infinite” as Aikido is personal to each and everyone). The techniques are split up into unarmed and armed, where you would practice in pairs or groups. To give you some understanding of just how many techniques there are, you have approx 9 basic applications or throws. These are then practiced in unarmed training, where you have different stances - one is where both of you have the same hand offered or oblique stance where opposite hands are offered. From here you would take the wrist where all 9 techniques would be applied, both left and right hand. Or the sleeve, lapels or the back of the collar, then you have a striking attacks from punching to stomach or head, chop to the head or neck, these are just the attacks with one hand. These are learnt both standing and kneeling. Then you have two hands on one, again from wrist, sleeve, lapels and shoulders also shoulders and neck from behind. So you can see the amount of techniques are building. As I’ve said in earlier posts Aikido is a Japanese art and as is custom a lot of time was spent on your knees, so you had to have a way to defend yourself or your Shogun from attack.

What is Aikido?

Morihei Ueshiba (pronounced oo-eh-shiba) created Aikido as to be a new system of budo (the way of the warrior).

The name Aikido means the way (do) of harmonising (ai) the spirit (ki) . Ueshiba was born in Japan at a time when martial arts were still taught by the masters of the old tradition. He studied with many of these old masters, where he learned his swordsmanship and various unarmed forms of self defence. As his studies progressed he found himself growing into a deeply religious person. Which led him to envisage this new form of budo that would provide a basis for both spiritual and physical growth for any who wished to learn Aikido.

In Aikido we think of the word ki to mean the creative life spirit or force of the universe and ones own life-energy. Ueshiba wrote that true budo is the way of great harmony and love for all beings and with these words you can see that he meant Aikido to be far more than just a method for self defence. “I want considerate people to listen to the voice of Aikido, it is not for correcting other but for correcting your own mind."

Aikido

Hi All

Why I have chosen to talk about Aikido.

I first started to learn Aikido in 1968/9, I was only a young boy then. I stumbled across it to tell you the Truth, I wasn't looking, I didn't have a driving passion to do it. We just found each other.
Aikido wasn't well known then in the U.K. and not practiced by many, the club I found had a small dojo (practice hall) and was near to where I lived in Cardiff. I was lucky! This club had quite a large class both for adults and children, I joined and started then to enjoy it so much that I continue, even to today. The Chief instructor (Sensei) was Colin Pike and he was taught by Chiba Sensei who was then head of the Association. He taught Traditional Aikido then which could be quite taxing for the students. He still teaches and has his dojo in the U.S.A but travels to the UK and Europe often to take summer schools. There are now estimated to be approximately 1.5 million people learning Aikido today around the world and the art is evolving as it grows.
Aikido has helped me in so many ways, it taught me respect, it gave me away to vent my frustrations and curb my anger, (which as a child was then a big problem). Also it taught me discipline, gave me confidence, how to look after myself and I made many friendships too, some of which have lasted over thirty years.