I have the distinct disadvantage that my face is precisely level with my son’s elbow while guarding him playing basketball. In a two-on-one game, he passed me, boxed out his younger brother and while doing so, swung an elbow squarely into my chin. Fortunately for me it was aligned to drive my jaw nearly straight back, at only a slight angle so now the left side of my jaw hurts more and that ear still rings.
Pain hurts. But it’s not really that debilitating. It’s just pain. I didn’t stop despite it being a good hit. In these games, I try to give my older boy some challenge, so I have to play dirty ball. He is far better, bigger, faster, and stronger than I am. So I have to get low, check his moves, and brace for impact. It’s not pretty and I foul him horribly. But he just bangs me out of the way.
These blacktop games have been a great reminder. Being hit is really the only way to learn how to take one; to learn how to roll with the punches.
I have taken more damage during quarantine than I do training Aikido. I take charges, shoulders to the chest, elbows to the jaw, and strikes to the arms in these scrappy games. It has been a grounding experience, bringing me back to some fundamental lessons. Pain is a teacher and learning to work through it is a critical skill to learn.
In Aikido we emphasize care for our partners. And that is right. We each give one another the gift of our bodies to use for the mutual benefit of skill development. That is a precious gift and not one to be abused. Nevertheless, recognize that accidents happen and that in rigorous training they are inevitable. Nothing to fear, just acknowledge the risk. (You signed that waiver. Did you read it?)
The risk of physical harm is an opportunity to learn deep lessons. Pain hurts, but it isn’t going to stop you. Learn to master pain, use it to your advantage in the moment. Do not let it stop your actions.
Competitive martial arts, especially ones that involve sparring, condition their practitioners to give and receive blows. Aikido does not afford its players that opportunity. We learn to take a hit primarily through falling. Full body impact on the mat is good conditioning, don’t get me wrong. But it’s not the same as being hit. There is a psychological component that adds insult to injury. They hit you! The first time it happens, it’s hard not to take it personally. It can raise emotions that can work against you; lead you to rash actions, or worse, make you cringe in fear of the next blow.
Cross-training in striking arts is one way to fill the skill gap. Mark Hatmaker has sound advice on cross-training:
Where conditioning may draw on multi-sport activities that bear little resemblance to the target sport, drilling must be fine-tuned to reflect what the sport entails, not what we want it to be, not what we wish it to be, not what we surmise it to be, not what this or that authority says it is but what it actually is. We must scrutinize each drill to see whether it correlates with the game in question — if not, we may be wasting precious conditioning and drilling time
So be careful. Time is a scarce resource. And I warn you, punching arts are not directly applicable to Aikido; see them for what they are. But I also believe them complimentary arts. Therefore, I studied Okinawan Kenpo for a few years to augment my Aikido.
Pugilistic excellence is not the goal of Aikido. Nevertheless, I contend it remains a critical skill to learn in order to be well-rounded. Kumite is the fastest way to condition yourself against being surprised by the shock of getting hit. Or simply play scrappy basketball with your teenagers.
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Recognizing and exploiting human frailty is sound combat strategy. Violence has molded human physiology. First published in Biological Reviews, June 2014, “Protective buttressing of the hominin face,” suggests that the masculine features of the skull are protective adaptations to strengthen the typical targets.
Biologist David Carrier and physician Michael Morgan, from the University of Utah, compared earlier studies’ measurements of the skulls of apes to those of australopith and modern humans. They found the largest increases in bone density were in parts of the skull that fracture most often in fights among modern humans, primarily the brow, mandible and cheekbone.
These areas of the skull also show the starkest size differences between males and females in both australopiths and humans. They theorize the proper explanation for the differences is not dietary (since males and females eat the same food), but rather because males are more likely to fight and suffer facial injuries.
Protective Arts 