FLEXIBLE WEAPONS

Brian Pike of Silat Suffian Bela Diri provided an introduction to the scarf as a flexible weapon. Equipment first Flexible weapons as a generic category can include a wide variety of everyday objects – most of which were once readily available objects or farming tools, such as the latigo (whip), chains, rope, and daily dressContinue reading “FLEXIBLE WEAPONS”

ENTRIES

Closing Skills as described in an earlier post challenges the idea that Aikido is a defensive art. Aikido is not a defensive art because you cannot prevail by defending. Rather we use ABD to place the aggressor in a disadvantageous position – we draw the attack so as to be ahead of the aggressor’s OODA loop. What weContinue reading “ENTRIES”

SWORD TAKE-AWAY: Tachidori

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”