Sorry I haven't updated in a while, I've been back home in Ca. Man is it pretty.
Least ways, the big MMA fight happened while I was home and one of the dudes I was hanging out with was a big fan. I'm not much of a fan. I haven't seen very much either. From what I have seen I'm left with a question.
Why would anyone use the guard if the other guy isn't wearing a shirt. Now, I love the guard. It's my primary ground position. But, I don't get how often I've seen it used in the mma fights I've seen.
One of the main elements to how I understand the guard is the need to keep your body close to your opponents for it to be effective. I always lose when my buddies can push away and get space. They get free or they climb over a knee. In the mma stuff they just punch the guy from inside the guard. Are they effective punches? Not most, but some. They can only punch because of the space between them.
My point is that without a shirt or gi hang onto to keep everything close, the guard is very vulnerable. I almost always have a least one hand (mostly two) on the collar of the gi pulling me to him so that there isn't any space. There is nothing that is as effective at staying close that can be replicated on a shirtless duder. So, in every fight I've seen on the tv there is tons of space.
I just wonder why it seems to be the primary position fighters are looking for when it so ineffective without something to hang onto.
Thoughts?
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Tuesday, May 8, 2007
The Walk
First off, let me be honest, for the most part I hate the walk. You might know it as Tegatana. In general if find it to be boring. I believe that it has great value, I just don't like doing it all that much.
It's why I stay away from Jyodo.
Pat has a whole bit on how to do better walking on his site. I have no doubt that working dilligently on the walk will better my aikido.
Anyway, my point is something else. The man was a little fired up in class last night and pointed out that we were completely out of synic with one another while doing the walk. His point was that while the walk trains how to do the steps, its greater value is in that it teaches you to be in rhythm from the inital step of the bad guy.
With this in mind, I payed more attention to the walk then usual (that is to say I paid attention at all). What I noticed was that the walk teaches more then just being in time with someone else, it forces you to be in time without changing the length of your step. Its something unique to the kata. Well hello new intrest for me.
When you walk with someone, girlfriend, boyfriend, marching troop, to get in step, you agree to walk with the same leg velocity and to take the same size step.
So, when we work on the chain or releases, I've noticed that I end up taking the same size step as uke. Its a hard habbit to break. It feels ok because most everyone in the club is about the same height and we're going slow.
However, in life, sometimes your "working" with some one who has a drastically longer or shorter step. There's no way to take the same size step, and they're not going to try and meet you in the middle, like an occomidating uke in practice. So, you have to get in rythem with the man by having a different velocity of step so that you have the same footfalls (which is what I think the important part is).
We have to break somewhat the training of life. The key to breaking it, perhaps, is dedicated tegatana work with a partner. Crazy pete! Because you're not linked to the man, you feel less pressure to modulate step size. This frees you to emphasize hitting the footfalls while forcing yourself to take your normal step size. You walk at the pace of the counter not the speed of the counter. Way hard. It's make the walk fun again.
It's why I stay away from Jyodo.
Pat has a whole bit on how to do better walking on his site. I have no doubt that working dilligently on the walk will better my aikido.
Anyway, my point is something else. The man was a little fired up in class last night and pointed out that we were completely out of synic with one another while doing the walk. His point was that while the walk trains how to do the steps, its greater value is in that it teaches you to be in rhythm from the inital step of the bad guy.
With this in mind, I payed more attention to the walk then usual (that is to say I paid attention at all). What I noticed was that the walk teaches more then just being in time with someone else, it forces you to be in time without changing the length of your step. Its something unique to the kata. Well hello new intrest for me.
When you walk with someone, girlfriend, boyfriend, marching troop, to get in step, you agree to walk with the same leg velocity and to take the same size step.
So, when we work on the chain or releases, I've noticed that I end up taking the same size step as uke. Its a hard habbit to break. It feels ok because most everyone in the club is about the same height and we're going slow.
However, in life, sometimes your "working" with some one who has a drastically longer or shorter step. There's no way to take the same size step, and they're not going to try and meet you in the middle, like an occomidating uke in practice. So, you have to get in rythem with the man by having a different velocity of step so that you have the same footfalls (which is what I think the important part is).
We have to break somewhat the training of life. The key to breaking it, perhaps, is dedicated tegatana work with a partner. Crazy pete! Because you're not linked to the man, you feel less pressure to modulate step size. This frees you to emphasize hitting the footfalls while forcing yourself to take your normal step size. You walk at the pace of the counter not the speed of the counter. Way hard. It's make the walk fun again.
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