RETURN TO THE MAT – MARCH 2021

March 1, 2021, the first Monday class after almost a full year off the Aikido mat. Restrictions are still in place – masked, no-contact training – which makes for a challenging teaching and learning environment. Aikido is an energetic art: we need to touch each other to understand how to ‘blend’ with the intentional forceContinue reading “RETURN TO THE MAT – MARCH 2021”

DISARMS

There are of course doubters. Typically those who doubt the efficacity of any given disarm are well-prepared to anticipate the technique. In short, they know the trick and therefore know how to defeat it. This is a false dichotomy because “disarms are accidental if not incidental.” Disarm techniques are taught because one must know whatContinue reading “DISARMS”

PROGRESSIVE ATTACKS – SINAWALI

This covid-constrained summer of 2020, Master Keating published Comtech Developmental Training, Vol. 1, Sinawali which is an explication of the solo drills that cultivate development, the “IBB Progression.” There are eight drill patterns best learned by using double sticks: BBB III BBI IBB BII IIB BIB IBI (I)nward and (B)ackhand strikes Each pattern is aContinue reading “PROGRESSIVE ATTACKS – SINAWALI”