Tag Archives: Sinawali

KNIFE TRAPPING

In the past several articles, I have argued that Aikido’s strength and aesthetic lies not merely in technique, but in deportment: the cultivation of calm, structural integrity, and presence under pressure (shizentai). I have also raised concerns about how knives are addressed within Aikido training, our treatment of tanto-dori is under-developed given the realities ofContinue reading “KNIFE TRAPPING”

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”

TOMAHAWK

James Fenimore Cooper’s Leatherstocking Tales (1823-1841) is a five-part series comprised of The Deerslayer, The Last of the Mohicans, The Pathfinder, The Pioneers, and The Praire. (Mark Twain has a nicely acerbic essay on Cooper’s literary offenses.) In the Last of the Mohicans (1992) movie, Col. Munro’s younger daughter Alice, grows weary on the escortedContinue reading “TOMAHAWK”