Testing for shodan requires demonstrating weapon take-away techniques against tanto, jo, and bokken. Simplify the phrasing and the concept we are discussing is disarms. Here is the secret: all empty hand techniques in Aikido are disarms. You have been doing nothing but disarms since your first ikkyo omote. Aikido is not an unarmed art. IContinue reading “SWORD TAKE-AWAY: Tachidori”
Tag Archives: gokyo
HUMAN FRAILTY
The human body has numerous design flaws. Poor eyesight (40% of Europeans and 75% of Asians need corrective lenses), an optic blind spot, choking remains a problem (air and food enter via the same tube), etc.; simply stated, humans could be better engineered. But our big brains and the division of labor allowed us to become theContinue reading “HUMAN FRAILTY”
IKKYO IS MAKIOTOSHI
This morning we started with bokken. Standard shomen cut suburi to free the shoulders, then slide-cut to incorporate footwork (ashi-sabaki). From solo suburi to shomen uchi as a paired exercise. Shidachi gives gedan no kamai to invite uchidachi to strike.[1] Uchidachi strikes at the available opening: shomen. Shidachi receives with a cross block with a slight forward advanceContinue reading “IKKYO IS MAKIOTOSHI”
Protective Arts 