[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
Sep
23
[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
Aug
11
So... as some of you may remember I've been trying my hand at hand made white oak bokken. Well, I wanted to share an image of my latest bokken. I planed it by hand, sanded it, and finished it with tung oil. Here's an image, what do you all think?
Aug
11
Today I've been browsing the internet quite a bit looking at training equipment when I found a site called Ground and Pound.
Ground and Pound is a site that specializes in MMA Gear and more. They have a fairly complete selection of training equipment from MMA Fight Gloves to bite guards and MMA Fight Shorts to traditional Judo style uniforms.
What made Ground and Pound
One thing that I really appreciated in looking through the selection over at Ground and Pound was the practical nature of their items. They have things on the site that most Aikidoka never use, gloves, guards, shorts, even soap (don't worry, aikidoka do use soap, but you'd never find it on an aikido website). It's because of the physical nature of MMA and what they promote that this practical nature is passed on to the Ground and Pound website, because let's face it, MMA is a seriously hard style. You need tough, practical equipment to last through that kind of practice.
So, if you're interested, head over and see for yourself.
Ground and Pound is a site that specializes in MMA Gear and more. They have a fairly complete selection of training equipment from MMA Fight Gloves to bite guards and MMA Fight Shorts to traditional Judo style uniforms.
What made Ground and Pound
One thing that I really appreciated in looking through the selection over at Ground and Pound was the practical nature of their items. They have things on the site that most Aikidoka never use, gloves, guards, shorts, even soap (don't worry, aikidoka do use soap, but you'd never find it on an aikido website). It's because of the physical nature of MMA and what they promote that this practical nature is passed on to the Ground and Pound website, because let's face it, MMA is a seriously hard style. You need tough, practical equipment to last through that kind of practice.
So, if you're interested, head over and see for yourself.
Nov
26
Their timing was very interesting, almost as if they were parts of a clock: one alarm the 'tic' the other the 'tac'. I noticed that if I stare at them and focus on the lights they seem to blink faster. If I concentrate even more, they will seem to blink very quickly. When I cleared my mind and just looked at the street with my brain turned off (if was easy at 5.30am) they were blinking less frequently.
This was very interesting because I've just read about the perception of time in martial arts recently. I read that if you clear your mind time seems to slow down. If it slows down it means that your reaction time decreases giving you 'streched' time to react to any attack more quickly. It was nice to see this effect in reality. Otherwise the article would have been just a couple of paragraphs about the mystery of time in martial arts.
This is why old Japanese martial arts (Koryu) teach you to stare at a distant mountain instead of your opponent. Staring and focusing too hard is not good :) . It's a bit like "freezing" without any shock experience.
Some aikido masters tell you to consider this effect and behave accordingly. Since there's no mountain in the indoors dojo it would be hard to focus on it unless one wall's wallpaper shows mountain Fuji (which I think would be nice :P). Instead you should watch the whole picture and should not focus on a particular attack (e.g. shomenuchi) but a moving figure, at least as far as I understand from the article. Probably this is what we would describe as looking for the attacker's intention to attack and start a technique before the opponent moves (as we react on his intention to start).
I'll continue with my other theories and thoughts about timing in another post later. Until that you can comment on this post :).
Nov
6
If you are talking about aikido in public, probably the first reaction to pop up will be something like “oh yes that Steven Seagal stuff”. Funny though, I didn’t even now this “common sense” until I was doing aikido for about a couple of months. Well, maybe that was my luck; otherwise I would never start learning this beautiful martial art. Not because I have no respect for Seagal, of course I had also enjoyed his movies, but because I don’t really like aggression (and now we all know that was only about entertaining), it wouldn’t be the real motivation to catch up with it.
Fortunately my master Laszlo Elsner 5.dan have more sense of harmony, so after seeing my first ever training in early 1999, I got really excited about something absolutely new (for me, of course :) ), therefore I was already taking the following class in my jogging trousers and my favourite Red Bull t-shirt (you have to look cool, hah?). I remember having pain in my knees, ankles after the first fallings, but I was absolutely determined to survive J At the beginning the progression wasn’t quite easy for me, because the majority of the club was pretty beginner-guys being graded for 5th, 6th kyu, or had no grade at all. So I started to attend classes also in my masters headquarter club, where I could also practice with some guys having hakama. Soon I realized I was utterly addicted to aikido, having 5 classes a week, plus helping out in the children's classes on Saturdays and Sundays, which made it 7 trainings a week…
The reason for doing aikdo is simple: I found something that I was missing and I would really miss in my life. Not just Aikido, harmony or the universe’s energy, but friends. Friends who really made my last decade, and hopefully they will so in the following few ones :).
Fortunately my master Laszlo Elsner 5.dan have more sense of harmony, so after seeing my first ever training in early 1999, I got really excited about something absolutely new (for me, of course :) ), therefore I was already taking the following class in my jogging trousers and my favourite Red Bull t-shirt (you have to look cool, hah?). I remember having pain in my knees, ankles after the first fallings, but I was absolutely determined to survive J At the beginning the progression wasn’t quite easy for me, because the majority of the club was pretty beginner-guys being graded for 5th, 6th kyu, or had no grade at all. So I started to attend classes also in my masters headquarter club, where I could also practice with some guys having hakama. Soon I realized I was utterly addicted to aikido, having 5 classes a week, plus helping out in the children's classes on Saturdays and Sundays, which made it 7 trainings a week…
The reason for doing aikdo is simple: I found something that I was missing and I would really miss in my life. Not just Aikido, harmony or the universe’s energy, but friends. Friends who really made my last decade, and hopefully they will so in the following few ones :).
Oct
3
By Jeff Albright Sensei and Sean Hannon
"A good stance and posture reflect a proper state of mind."
- Morihei Ueshiba
When most people think of "martial arts" one of the first things that to come to mind is the idea of "self-defense." When I think of someone defending themselves I tend to think of some one contracting, closing up, or hunkering down into a defensive stance. I also think the word defense represents a reaction to fear. Fear is always a function of contraction and is often met with defensive-oriented actions such as scratching, clawing, punching and kicking. Of course, there isn't anything wrong with these actions. There may be times in life when these become necessary. At other times, like in social environments, this lashing out may not necessarily take the form of physical strikes but, instead, may manifest as unnecessary, insensitive or sometimes even rude verbal attacks, glares or gestures.
The art of Japanese Aikido is a martial art like many others. However, the organizing principle of Aikido is radically different from most. While the majority of martial arts are based on the principle of contraction, Aikido is rooted in the principle of expansion. Expansion, not contraction, is the source of Aikido's power. As a general rule, Aikido tends to be very much the opposite of what most people imagine when they think of martial arts. For example, if you think martial arts are about self-defense, then you should know that Aikido is more about self-development. If you think martial arts is about protecting, then you should know that Aikido is more about growing. If you think martial arts is about learning how to hurt people, then you should know that Aikido is more about learning how not to hurt people. If you think martial arts are about fighting, then you should know that Aikido is more about not fighting.
In Aikido, when faced with a challenge or an attack we expand, not contract. Our posture, our stance and overall physical response gets bigger, not smaller. In Aikido, we address problems, challenges and attacks not by covering our heads with our arms and curling up into a ball, but by drowning the attack with giant, expansive waves of Aikido that engulf aggressors, much like a tsunami.
The founder of Aikido, Morihei Ueshiba, was a man of small stature - not more than five foot three. However, he did not defend himself by dropping to the ground, covering his head and kicking fiercely. Instead, Osensei (or "great teacher" as we refer to him) conquered each attacker he faced by expanding his stature, energy and power; by opening up instead of closing down.
In my experience, contracting into a defensive, protective posture rarely can solve problems of any kind. That's one of many reasons why I most prefer Aikido to the many other martial arts I have trained in the past. In Aikido we learn to grow in the face of a threat, instead of crouch; to dwarf our problems and challenges by becoming more than we were before, not less. That is how we train to address challenges; by growing so much so that we actually "push out" adversity through an abundance of movement or action.
Come discover how Aikido can serve as a catalyst for tremendous growth and expansion in your life. We invite you to come try a class at our Aikido school in Castle Rock, Colorado for free.
Visit www.craikido.com to watch an Aikido video.
"A good stance and posture reflect a proper state of mind."
- Morihei Ueshiba
When most people think of "martial arts" one of the first things that to come to mind is the idea of "self-defense." When I think of someone defending themselves I tend to think of some one contracting, closing up, or hunkering down into a defensive stance. I also think the word defense represents a reaction to fear. Fear is always a function of contraction and is often met with defensive-oriented actions such as scratching, clawing, punching and kicking. Of course, there isn't anything wrong with these actions. There may be times in life when these become necessary. At other times, like in social environments, this lashing out may not necessarily take the form of physical strikes but, instead, may manifest as unnecessary, insensitive or sometimes even rude verbal attacks, glares or gestures.
The art of Japanese Aikido is a martial art like many others. However, the organizing principle of Aikido is radically different from most. While the majority of martial arts are based on the principle of contraction, Aikido is rooted in the principle of expansion. Expansion, not contraction, is the source of Aikido's power. As a general rule, Aikido tends to be very much the opposite of what most people imagine when they think of martial arts. For example, if you think martial arts are about self-defense, then you should know that Aikido is more about self-development. If you think martial arts is about protecting, then you should know that Aikido is more about growing. If you think martial arts is about learning how to hurt people, then you should know that Aikido is more about learning how not to hurt people. If you think martial arts are about fighting, then you should know that Aikido is more about not fighting.
In Aikido, when faced with a challenge or an attack we expand, not contract. Our posture, our stance and overall physical response gets bigger, not smaller. In Aikido, we address problems, challenges and attacks not by covering our heads with our arms and curling up into a ball, but by drowning the attack with giant, expansive waves of Aikido that engulf aggressors, much like a tsunami.
The founder of Aikido, Morihei Ueshiba, was a man of small stature - not more than five foot three. However, he did not defend himself by dropping to the ground, covering his head and kicking fiercely. Instead, Osensei (or "great teacher" as we refer to him) conquered each attacker he faced by expanding his stature, energy and power; by opening up instead of closing down.
In my experience, contracting into a defensive, protective posture rarely can solve problems of any kind. That's one of many reasons why I most prefer Aikido to the many other martial arts I have trained in the past. In Aikido we learn to grow in the face of a threat, instead of crouch; to dwarf our problems and challenges by becoming more than we were before, not less. That is how we train to address challenges; by growing so much so that we actually "push out" adversity through an abundance of movement or action.
Come discover how Aikido can serve as a catalyst for tremendous growth and expansion in your life. We invite you to come try a class at our Aikido school in Castle Rock, Colorado for free.
Visit www.craikido.com to watch an Aikido video.