Health Update
Hi folks, Some of the regular readers have been asking when the next blog post will be coming out. I normally publish on a monthly schedule but that’s slid a little this year. The simple reason is that my health declined significantly over the last few months. I’ve had four respiratory illnesses since Easter, the last of them being a strain of Covid. These have left me struggling with Post Viral Fatigue. So I’m taking a few months to rest and recover and when my health returns I’ll be back…
If You Want Effective Aikido, Uke Must Attack The Nage
There is a fundamental aspect of aikido that is seldom discussed and often ignored. Uke should attack the nage. This is something that rarely happens in aikido. If you look at the countless hours of online footage you’ll realise that most uke do not attack the nage. Intriguingly, Tomiki aikido represents an almost universal departure from this. An uke from the shodokan style definitely attacks the nage. The rest of us though, we have work to do. The Job of Uke There are several important aspects to uke’s job. The…
A New Aikido Grading System In Action
Long time readers of this blog may recall some posts that highlighted issues with the way gradings are conducted. Notably, that they are an opinion poll of judges, and that there are no genuine measures to determine what level someone is training at. This post is going to introduce a new system for grading that resolves this issue. The Problem It’s possible that some sensei do have very specific grading criteria. If they do though, they’re either kept by the individual, or not used at an organisational level. Thanks to…
How To Deal With The Idea That Aikido Is Worthless?
Last week a Redditor on the r/martialarts sub posed a question to the group. They wanted to know, “How to feel about your chosen martial art being considered worthless?” Their chosen martial art is taekwondo, but the same question is frequently presented by aikidoka. It’s an issue that affects many that start training in aikido. It’s especially true when they start to interact with other martial artists who are not aikidoka. Statements like ‘aikido is useless’, are not that uncommon. The question then becomes, how do we deal with that?…
No Attack In Aikido? The First Principle Says Otherwise
There is an elephant in the room that is so large it isn’t simply a case of nobody talking about it. It’s so big that somehow most people don’t even notice it. At this point, the elephant is the room. It relates to a simple concept that you hear about aikido all the time. Namely, there is no attack in aikido. This has become a fundamental part of the art. There is even a quote from O Sensei about this in the Art of Peace as translated by John Stevens:…
Sometimes The Words Are All Wrong
Hi folks, there is no blog post for November. I have spent several weeks trying to get something written and have had to abandon several efforts. Sometimes the words just don’t flow in the right way. My apologies to the regular readers, normal service will resume in December. Until then, keep training. Thanks for your ongoing support, Ricky.
Quotes That Need To Die #5
This time our quote that needs to die is, “There are no rules in aikido”. While there are many incorrect quotes about aikido, some are worse than others. This particular quote is a prime example of why you should never trust what someone says without checking it for yourself.* At the very least, you should give some thought to what they are telling you, and consider a slightly wider picture of things. Origins It’s not the easiest to determine where this quote began it’s life. It’s heard in dojo all…
One Thing You’ve Never Seen In An Aikido Dojo
There are many things that you can expect to see in an aikido dojo depending on its focus. You might have training in meditation, break falls, joint locks, weapon classes, and so on. There is one thing though, that is strangely absent from an aikido dojo. You just don’t see it anywhere, not even in the thousands of hours of video footage available online. While many people will tell you aikido is missing several key elements, very few notice this missing aspect. What is missing then? Somewhat surprisingly, it’s aikido.…
Aikido Is 90% Atemi – Revisited
The idea that “aikido is 90% atemi” is a persistent one. There’s even a post on this site suggesting that this is the most misunderstood quote in aikido. In this post, we’re going to revisit it, and consider a new point of view. One that may make it the most accurate aikido quote in existence. The previous blog entry argued that this quote wasn’t referring to atemi as striking. Rather, it was referring to a ‘hitting body’. That’s the ability to hit the opponent with any part of your body…
What Makes A Good Training Session? – Part 8
Evaluated As Soon As Possible Every once in a while the question, “What makes a good sensei?” comes up for discussion. There are many valid answers for this question but this post is going to take a different approach to the standard responses. This month will conclude the series looking at what makes a good training session. Since the sensei runs the session, a good training session requires a good sensei. The inference being that if you do these things then you will improve as a sensei. This post will…