“A weekend session with Matt Hill is a definite must for anyone who wants to call themselves a martial artist and who wants to explore the infinite ways of Takemusu“ – Mats Stromgren

The course in Sweden was  a joy as always.  Warm friendly people and honest, fun, sincere training.  Add to this some very nice Italian food and maybe a bit too much wine and you have the ingredients for a great weekend. 

The main themes of the course were:

• Relaxation
  • Always be looking to relax in your movements.  Real speed, power and spontaneous Takemusu can only come through calm, relaxed movement.
  • Exercises for this are the push-ups, sit-ups and squats along with continual focus on relaxation through the progression stages of both the technical and the free work.
  • Also the focus on the weight or heaviness in the hands when applying kokyu, extending and striking will help to develop this.

• Principles over Techniques
  • “There is no purpose in wanting or pursuing many techniques.  To master a technique, one needs to make each technique, one by one, his/her own.” – O’Sensei, Budo.
  • “I don’t fear the man who has done 1000 kicks once, I fear the man who has done 1 kick 1000 times.” – Bruce Lee
  • Begin with the end in mind: We should not lose sight of the fact that our aim in aikido is not to master techniques but to master the principles of Aiki through the techniques.
  • My key principles in Aikido are listed below.  We practice embodying the principles of Aikido through the techniques.  These are in no-order of priority.

1. Awase
2. Hanmi and Hitoemi
3. Non aggression
4. Posture
5. Kokyu
6. Timing
7. Relaxation
8. Leading
9. Understanding of the principle of Aiki (when pushed pull and pulled push)
10. Non resistance
11. Multi attacker awareness
12. Psychological grounding (the ability to stay balanced, focused and aware during a combat situation)

• In Aikido we have in excess of 600 techniques, variations, applications, etc.  When you add the weapons to this it takes it to around 700.  The focus of the seminar was to go deep into a small number of techniques to work on the principles rather than to gloss over many techniques shallowly.
• However, in Aiki one of the main ways in which we learn the principles is through the techniques.  These are where we find O’Sensei’s magic laid bare in the design and blueprints.  So in essence it would be fair to say – the techniques are not an end in themselves but the practice of the techniques is very important.
• Training must strive to balance practicing the principles through drills and exercises so that training stays fresh, alive, real and current (use current attacks also not just the traditional aikido ones).  This brings the principles to life in their infinite variety and allows you to make them your own.  You should not always know what attack is going to come as you will NEVER get this luxury for real.

• Takemusu Aiki  

• Takemusu Aiki – ‘Take’ means technique and ‘musu’ means to give birth.  So literally if you are practicing Takemusu Aiki you should be giving birth to techniques and this by its nature means original techniques.
• You may have heard it said that Takemusu Aiki has an infinite number of techniques.  I interpret this in that the way in which we could be attacked is infinite and therefore so is the way in which we respond using Aiki principles – creating a new technique every time.  This can then be extrapolated more easily to all manner of situations outside of combat really bringing Takemusu to life.
• We went through drills that built up the practice from basic, through awase, to ki-no-nagare to Takemusu.

• Atemi.
  • “My Aikido is 90% atemi.” O’Sensei
  • Atemi is one of the ways of dealing with an attack in Aikido:
    • Atemi
    • Avoid and escape
    • Throw
    • Pin
    • De-escalate before the attack.
    • Infinite combinations of the above.
  • Atemi is very rarely taught in Aikido, most people’s experience of it is through training in other martial arts.
  • Aikido doesn’t engage in standing toe-to-toe and trading or blocking blows.  We have to think about the attacker behind us.
  • We need to make sure that it does not interrupt the natural movement of the response or technique.
  • We need to be able to have precision in the target areas.
  • A strike is a good placement then a push – just done fast.  We did lots of exercises to practice this – push-ups on uke’s body, fist walks on uke’s body and striking uke’s body in order to find out what felt good.
  • We also need to think about the psychology of receiving a strike.  You can’t let it rock you or shake you.  This is managed through the breath, relaxing and being comfortable with being hit.  You build this by getting hit in a training environment.

• Three Levels of progression – During training be aware of the three levels of training progression and what you are looking for at each level.  To maximise your gains don’t mix the levels.  When doing kihon just do kihon, when doing awase just do awase; dont dilute.
  • Kihon – Basic level. Kihon is where the big gains lie and no matter our level we should always be doing lots of this.
    • Don’t use speed and strength.  But you do need to put effort and energy into it.
    • Look for precision.
    • Study the angles
    • Study structure – ours and our partners
    • Thoroughness
    • Accuracy
    • Precision
    • Slow, big movements
    • Correct order in the movements
    • Training is from static, so your partner moves first in the strike or grab.
  • Awase – Blending level
    • This is the level at which you check whether you know the movement at a basic level.  If you can do it slow and smooth without stopping in awase it is a good indicator that you know the technique at a kihon level.
    • Again you don’t need speed and strength.  But you do need to put effort and energy into it.
    • You are looking for fluidity from start to finish.  You don’t have the stops that you have in the basic level.
    • Smoothness
    • Big movements
    • Training is in motion, so you move at the same time as your partner moves.
  • Ki-no nagare – literally energy in motion.
    • Now you can insert speed and power  (not strength, there is a difference) – make the application of the techniques martial – big kiai’s, lots of energy.
    • Techniques wont be as precise at this level
    • Small, fast movements.
    • Morihiro sensei said ‘aite no ki o yobidasu’ Call our your partners ki or energy.  You start the interaction at this level and take command from the start.
    • Think about leading and openings – create the illusion of support and then take it away.
  • Remember that if nothing changes in your training then nothing is changing in your development.  In every practice you should look self critically at what you are doing, not just train mindlessly.

   

  • Training Focus and Goal Setting:
    • Remember to bring focus to the training.  We get what we focus on.  If our focus is on nothing, guess what we get.
    • Thought and effort, intelligently applied, will bring huge rewards in our training.

Here’s what the participants had to say about the course:

Lots of energy in a very relaxed manner – Daniel Heed

Matt is a brilliant Instructor and very inspiring to train with! – Patric Noordstrom

Good, physical training and lots of fun – Karin Keereweer

Dont be afraid! – Malou Klock Stromgren

Matt will leave you thinking about your Aikido for the rest of the year – Robin Karlson

Finding a connection between what you want and what you need – Alula Kassa

Its like taking your understanding of Aikido and adding a jetpack to it – Mikael Zall

Self defence for Aikidoka’s – Henrik Nilsson

Relax, it wont hurt! – Kaj Hanzic

The power of relaxation – Henrik Andersen

A seminar worth attending – David Gottlieb

From Kihon to Takemusu – how to practice it – Andreas Welin

It was wonderful to train with you all.  Happy training and if you have any questions please feel free to post them below.

In aiki,
Matt.