Martial Arts

[FullAuto]

So, more training under my belt ("Finally got one in Fat Bastard size for you." My instructor helpfully commented after I made do with a Skinny Dying Bastard size belt for a while) and no dislocations. Which is nice.

 

I've only just realised that I did my knee on Wednesday night in randori (a kind of sparring), and when I went on Thursday, my instructor had me up doing randori. I suppose it could be seen as being irresponsible, but this gave me a massive chunk of my confidence back, putting me in the same situation but finishing without an injury (I didn't even think about my knee). Only really just realised this, and why I'm still feeling so good about aikido. I really don't know how to thank him.

 

Injury Update

Left knee, the dislocated one, is feeling worse than the days immediately after it happened. Right knee is very sore from taking breakfalls. Left ankle is very stiff, from breakfalls (I keep over-extending it slightly when I hit the floor/get up). Left shoulder is really paining me, but only at a certain angle. I often wake up in pain, shift the shoulder slightly, and it will crack (very satisfying) and stop hurting. Fully functional, 100% strength, but it just doesn't like a certain arm position. I'm also getting twinges inside my hips (hip flexors?) so I think I need to work on those muscles a little. Right wrist has developed a little clicky bit.

 

Romance Update

My heart has gone all gooey inside and she's off with a knee injury! She's also off on holiday soon. My gooey heart will go on, etc. I still find her captivating, I just see her even less often now.

[Pete]

My gooey heart will go on, etc.

 

This reminded me of that abominable Celine Dion song where she rhymes "go on" with "go on" a lot. A bit like Mrs Doyle does on Father Ted but with the latter being infinitely more interesting.

 

For making me remember the Celine Dion song, you are hereby ordered to dislocate something else. For making me remember about Father Ted, I will refrain from sending the boys round

[Thorondor]

The perhaps more interesting aspect to surface from observing human test subject is that physical pain is often much less incapacitating than so-called emotional pain.

 

::

 

Puzzling question: why doesn't test subject see to providing due care of his injured preferred female?

[FullAuto]

Next grading looks like it could be difficult, as things continue to diversify and branch out, and out, and out. Now got two pages of stuff I must know, not to mention everything from previous grades.

 

https://yfrog.com/nyr0ifj

 

Another complication, although one I enjoy, is that all techniques must now be done with movement, they must be alive, they cannot be static. I like this, it feels more real to me and as I've been training mostly with green belts and up, it's what I tend to do anyway, but I'm nowhere near up to the same standard as the majority of the green belts. But then I felt like that about my previous belts too, so who knows.

 

Everybody says green belt is the hardest step, and some also add that if you make green, making black is merely a matter of time. I'm not too sure about the veracity of both claims, but the first looks likely. Two opportunities to grade, anyway, next weekend, and the last weekend in November. Next weekend seems a tad soon, but I've paid for the course and grading won't cost me anything extra, pass or fail, so I might give it a try.

 

The perhaps more interesting aspect to surface from observing human test subject is that physical pain is often much less incapacitating than so-called emotional pain.

 

::

 

Puzzling question: why doesn't test subject see to providing due care of his injured preferred female?

 

[Thorondor]

"Get fighting fit learning a foreign language! Tongue workout guaranteed with your first issue." - you could start a franchise...

 

More techniques mean more options, and more to factor in. More seasoned opponents will also add to the challenge level.

 

Regardless of that, things fundamentally still boil down to these two basic precepts:

 

- your ability to recognise a technique as it is being used against you is essential. If you know the technique, you know its objective.

- your knowledge of the most effective counter to each technique is crucial, so you can then apply it in response.

 

No matter what belt / grade we're talking about it all boils down to this dual understanding of how a technique works and how to neutralise it.

 

There's no replacement for practice - plenty of practice is necessary to make things increasingly instictive; your body, your muscles, will learn the motions until they become second nature.

 

::

 

Put in the effort, join the knowledge and I expect no belt/grade will stand in your way. If others before you have done it, so can you.

 

*gong* Class dismissed, FA San.

[FullAuto]

Domo origato, Thorondoboto.

 

She's back from injury today, and I'm stuck at work. Oh woe. And in other news, I was beginning to think I was chronic-injury-proof, but that's proving not to be the case, with various aches and pains (especially in my wrists) now commonplace.

 

A particular source of trouble seems to be my left shoulder, which now crunches nicely at times. I also pulled a muscle near my left shoulder blade which was agony for a day or two, I couldn't do anything, even breathing hurt.

[FullAuto]

Footwork. Footwork, footwork, footwork. It's the base of your stance, and of your technique, and your balance. Hilariously, my approach is almost the direct opposite to aikido's. Because I'm a bulky chap, my thinking has been to be as light as possible, because people don't expect you to float if you're a brick shithouse. Stay mobile, shift stance and position easily, move from offence to defence smoothly and quickly.

 

Now, aikido wants you 'rooted', very stable, but still mobile. The typical foot movement is almost a slide, your foot should be very close to the floor. So you're still meant to be fast and mobile, but able to firm up your stance very easily when hit, reducing how much you're knocked off balance, or able to offer an illusion of being static for an instant before moving.

 

So I'm floating as I'm accustomed and constantly being told to lower my centre, lower my weight, which I associate with being slow. Bah.

[Space Voyager]

So I'm floating as I'm accustomed and constantly being told to lower my centre, lower my weight, which I associate with being slow. Bah.

Well, it would slow you down if you went into extremes... But reasonably low centre and stable stance gives you the opportunity to move in any direction, meaning react to attacks from any direction fast. It takes some time to master but it is very worthwhile.

 

Once the kicks and punches become routine you won't even need to think about it all the time, you'll adjust your stance on the fly and keep it optimal.

[Sunflash]

I should record a friend and I having a sparring session. Sure, tis swordplay instead of martial arts, but the difference between a 'heavy' stance and a 'light' stance(I lean towards the heavy, he leans toward the light) is quite noticable even to me; yet at the same time it's not that much different.

[FullAuto]

Still a martial art! Be interesting to see.

 

I currently seem to be channelling Muhammad Ali by way of Matthew Patel in my footwork. It's a bit disturbing.

[FullAuto]

Six hours training today and tomorrow, then work then training on Monday, and I can't sleep.

 

Brilliant.

 

/bloodshot

[FullAuto]

Passed my green grading, somehow, despite the fact I was meant to be grading in November.

 

Also, Dynamic Aikido Nocquet (us) may be getting affiliated with the Aikikai, the biggest Aikido organisation.

 

Also, I might be seeing Her tonight, and she is now a black belt.

[Sunflash]

Grats FA!

 

Dunno what the affiliation will mean for you. Good things?

[FullAuto]

Thanks, Sunflash.

 

The affiliation, I don't know. I have mixed feelings, which may be accurate depending on how it goes.

 

While it opens up new possibilities, exchange programs, etc it's also worrying. I don't mind dojo etiquette (it serves a purpose and we no longer really have equivalents in the West) but the disturbing possibility of training the Japanese way (e.g. very authoritarian, no talking on the mat, etc) makes me wonder, and then there's the de-emphasis of weapons training, having to register black belts with the Aikikai, the 'cleaning up' of aikido history (a lot of the early chaps fought in WWII) and various bits and bobs I don't like.

 

Part of the problem stems from racist assumptions on both sides. The chap who started Aikido, Morihei Ueshiba, made it clear that it wasn't just for the Japanese, it was for the whole world, but sadly his successors seem to have disagreed while still outwardly agreeing. They sent out instructors in the 60s and aikido took root (e.g. more aikidoka in France these days than Japan), whereas I think the Japanese wanted it to spread, but ultimately still be reliant on Japanese instructors. They didn't want it to become independent, quite apart from the fracturing that took place after Ueshiba's death (partly his own fault, he appears to have been semi-bonkers at best) they were thrown by organisations springing up and TBH I don't think they know what to make of us, as we've grown from Andre Nocquet, one of the very few Westerners who got to train thoroughly with Ueshiba. Not to mention the Japanese reputation for being a tad racist...

 

But our problem is, a lot of us see Aikido as Japanese (arguably, Western teaching methods are better for the propagation, discussion, examination etc of techniques), we see the Japanese as just better at it, whereas I think: They're not going to send a moron. They're going to send someone who is not at too high a grade, so that if he gets shown up it's not too bad for them, but he's going to be shit-hot for his grade, so that he's up there with the best of our people of the same/similar grade, and impressive to us below. Perhaps the standard of instruction is higher on average in Japan, perhaps they train more on average, and so on, but they are not naturally better at it. Yet we give way, and adhere to their way of doing things when they visit, and when we visit them. A chap on Aikiweb, George Ledyard, mentions that when he holds a seminar featuring American chaps, attendance is very low (embarrassingly low), yet when he has Japanese instructors, the dojo is then packed to capacity. Why is this, he asks, when American instructors will be far better at actually instructing because the amount and quality of communication will be far superior, even if the level of aikido is exactly the same?

 

If we have Japanese instructors visit, and we maintain the way we do things, I'd love that. If we have them visit, and in an attempt to impress them we "Shut up and train." I think while we might impress them superficially, our aikido will suffer.

[Space Voyager]

Passed my green grading, somehow, despite the fact I was meant to be grading in November.

Damn, you're sprinting through belts... Not a month or two early, more like a year or two.

[FullAuto]

But now things must slow down.

 

I think my next grading opportunity is in March. Then another 3-6 months for the next grading to brown. Then it's at least a year (more like two) at brown, which AFAI can tell, is more demanding on average than being a first dan black belt because you are always being pushed.

[Thorondor]

Congratulations FA!

 

You've succeeded not "somehow", but due to your dedication and effort. Well done!

 

::

 

Have a nice time with your 'woman in black' tonight.

[FullAuto]

Having had the chance to watch some black belt gradings, I must admit I don't think I'll ever be that good.

 

It wasn't the kata, that's fairly simple rote memorisation. Not easy, but you can grind it into you with repetition.

 

It wasn't the randori, or the breadth of techniques on show. I know a lot of techniques, however roughly, and freeflow application isn't particularly intimidating.

 

It wasn't the live blade techniques, although they were beautifully smooth, and the disarms were indivisible from the technique (which is as it should be, I suppose, but usually you see the technique, e.g. wrist lock, leveraged to a pin, and then a disarm, as at least two discrete actions. Here, you couldn't tell where the technique stopped and the knife being removed began), because I like knife practice and perhaps I don't fear it as much as I should, I have a really keen enthusiasm for it that will drive me to improve those techniques.

 

It's the fact that I think I haven't internalised the movement style of aikido and I may not be able to at the necessary level. In the past, I've browsed through martial arts and picked and chose what I wanted, I've always been a step removed, scanning them for useful principles and never becoming absorbed in it. I think my remoteness sets a limit on my skill in any particular discipline, and it may not be something I can sort out.

 

Someone said the only thing separating the kyu grades from dan is time. But surely, I thought to myself, there is skill to consider too. I looked at people who I had been training with since I started, and thought "They're only one belt ahead." and yet I consider them much more skilful than I. Some of them have been training for years, some only a few months more than me, but I think they are much better aikidoka, not because they know more techniques (some do, some don't) or for any technical reason, but simply because they just move better, they have absorbed aikido at a lower, more basic level. It's not about thought, it's simply how they move now.

[Thorondor]

(...) but I think they are much better aikidoka, not because they know more techniques (some do, some don't) or for any technical reason, but simply because they just move better (...)

 

Though it doesn't strike me as a particularly easy concept to grasp (and so stated, somewhat difficult to reach for), being in "harmony" seems to be crucial to the better mastery of your movements.

 

Translating, I think confidence, coupled with relaxation that comes from such confidence (and 'reading' your opponents) are what's at the heart of matters here and the key to this natural flow we see achieved.

 

::

 

Master thyself first if you want to master your foe.

 

[FullAuto]

And on a lighter note, from a while ago: IN THE FACE.

 

Not only is it an ace picture, but:

 

"We didn't expect anything like what you have witnessed to occur," said WTF secretary general Yang Jin-suk.

 

How appropriate, for an organisation with that acronym.

[Thorondor]

That bloke sure has a temper. Fortunately, a representative from another affiliation intervenes to end matters...

 

https://s3-ec.buzzfed.com/static/enhanced/web04/2011/10/24/13/enhanced-buzz-32096-1319476045-33.jpg

 

::

 

"Mind your manners, punk - you really don't want to see me get rabid!"

[FullAuto]

Been invited to the advanced class on Tuesday nights. I may vomit.

 

No idea what's going on, as it usually takes weeks to get invited (there is a considerable waiting list, which is no guarantee). I suspect they need cannon fodder.

[Thorondor]

It seems your value and your day-to-day progress has been duly recognised.

 

This could be a chance for you to:

 

a) greatly improve in skill/ability, proving to yourself that you _can_ achieve more

b) end up in a wheel chair

 

::

 

c) run! (It's a set-up; the 'woman in black' wants you closer to her more often!)

[FullAuto]

Definitely B. This has happened on extremely short notice. And apparently the class is packed, and there's a waiting list, so they don't need to make up the numbers.

[Pete]

Could still be C. Check that there's more than just her going to the advanced classes - not that it's a problem if there isn't!