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…
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.
Why it’s important to train with stiff uke
There is something that most aikidoka hate to do. It can’t be avoided but most people do try to get out of it. Training with a stiff uke. A large number of people just do not like to do it. Understanding why is not difficult at all either. In contrast to a flowing uke, training with stiff ukes is never really fun. It’s hard to make them move, techniques don’t flow, everything becomes gummed up and clunky. Training with a stiff uke is the worst. The problem with this view…
You must remain calm and never poke your uke’s brain
For this months topic we’re going to take a look at one of the more advanced concepts of aikido. This is likely to be much more of a style relevant subject though all aikidoka should strive to remain calm. Some styles for instance seem to go out of their way to ignore this subject but almost everyone’s aikido can be improved by taking this idea to heart and applying it to their technique. This idea is that you really shouldn’t disturb the mental processes of your uke. For the purposes of…