“There are no primary attacks in a knife fight.” This is an important reminder for Aikidoka who are habituated to the one-hit one-kill training mentality. In a knife fight attacks can be gambits, ploys, set-ups to elicit responses. Boxers must contend with similar complex encounters. Stratagems of deception and non-linear methods of attack are not Aikido’s forte. Aikido’s premise narrows theContinue reading “TACTICS – BEYOND THE ONE HIT KILL”
Tag Archives: Cooper
OODA LOOP
I was introduced to John Boyd’s OODA loop when taking a defensive fire-arm class. Boyd was a successful fighter pilot in the Korean War – he also had an analytic bent and distilled his experiences in a series of briefings. Boyd never wrote down his ideas about the OODA Loop in a formal paper; he onlyContinue reading “OODA LOOP”
ON THE IMPORTANCE OF WINNING
Part of the kuden – the oral history – of Aikido revolves around a story that during the US occupation of Japan some of O’Sensei’s students would test their progress through a practical application of the art – i.e., they would get into fights – (Sadateru) Arikawa comes to mind. O’Sensei would admonish them thatContinue reading “ON THE IMPORTANCE OF WINNING”