Sorry it has taken me a while to get this post up.  Firstly a big thanks to Evgeniy, Victor and Slava for thier hospitality.  Also a big thanks to Sasha and Olga for doing such a great job of showing me around thier lovely country.  It was my first time in Russia and it was an experience to treasure.  As promised here are some of the main teaching points from the seminar.  Once again sorry it is a little late.

The courses Main themes:

• Multiple attack work
  • All work must be done very slowly and with Uchi’s intent to hit uke where he is NOT where he is moving to.
  • Stage 1 – uke closes his eyes and receives strikes – learn to blend and move with the strikes and not resist them.
  • Stage 2 – without using hands uke uses hanmi to avoid strikes
  • Stage 3 – uke avoids and strikes in the same movement
  • Stage 4 – uke leads uchi into strikes and takes his balance
  • Stage 5 – try all of the above.

• Dealing with Kicks

• Dealing with straight kicks is the same as dealing with a straight punch or stab.  Come off line and enter.
• Dealing with roundhouse kicks is the same as a yokomen.  You can enter early, stay out of range or receive it circularly.
• High kicks are less effective and easier to deal with as they will be slower, weaker, easier to see and leave the attacker unbalanced.
• For low kicks use your legs to do the same as your arms would at jodan level.  Awase, receive, take balance and strike or throw.
• If you find yourself on the ground, DON’T curl up on your front in a combat situation.  Stay on your back use your legs to defend yourself against dangerous stamps and kicks, create time and space for yourself and throw and stand up in the same movement to escape.

• 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • However, it is also important 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 it your own.
• Knife work: 
  • We looked at the key elements of managing the psyche and stress of knife work.
  • As soon as a blade is pulled you have to breath and keep moving.  The easiest target to hit is a still one.
  • We practiced against slashing.  Here it is important not to calculate get in rhythm with the attacker and move past as he comes towards you.
  • Remember out of the slash and the stab, the stab is the most dangerous.
  • Don’t look at the knife – look above your partners head.  Take in the global picture.
  • Have confidence, doubt will get you cut or killed.
  • When entering be decisive, better to get cut once as you take the attacker out, than many times as you hesitate.
  • To develop kokyu you need:
• Atemi – the last of the main themes was 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.
  • 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, 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 techniques.
  • We need to be able to have precision in the target areas (muscle not bone)
  • A strike is a good placement then a push – just done fast.  We did lots of exercises to practice this – push-ups on partners body, fist walks on partners body, striking partners body etc.
  • 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 this by getting hit in a training environment.

  If any of you have any questions please feel free to post them below.  I look forward to seeing you all again.

In aiki,

Matt.