Gyaku hanmi katate dori ashi sabaki. I use the static encounter as a starting point because it safely teaches powerful concepts. Aikido’s focus on connection is important to feel as a bodily (somatic) connection with your partner. From the moment uke grasps nage’s hand, nage must sink (break plane, dropping the center) in order to capture theContinue reading “USHIRO TENKAN”
Tag Archives: irimi-nage
PUNCH TO THE FACE
A punch to the face is what Mulligan sensei called a high affect encounter – jodan tsuki scares most people. Jodan and jodan tsuki are both covered in earlier posts. This morning presented the classic Karate punch, meaning the fist is twisted at the final contact and the elbow is turned point out, forearm parallelContinue reading “PUNCH TO THE FACE”
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”