Aikido Seminar in Toyama Part I: Ukemi

2 days.

4 featured teachers.

About 50 participants.

The main event of this seminar was a 7th dan (degree blackbelt) named Kuribayashi Takanori (栗林孝典) from the Aikikai Hombu Dojo in Tokyo. With him came Oyama Yuuji (小山雄二) a 4th dan. This seems to be the normal case for such seminars, at least in Japan: a main teacher brings one (or more) lower ranking member from their dojo. It helps for a teacher to have a familiar uke (partner) who will react properly to his techniques in order to effectively communicate with an unknown audience, gives the younger member a chance to watch and participate in such events in order to one day conduct them themself, and is usually a good model and source of information for the other participants as well.

From Toyama Prefecture, there were two teachers from Takaoka City (second largest city in Toyama Prefecture).

The seminar ran as such:

          -One hour session with Oyama Sensei
          -One hour session with Kuribayashi Sensei
          -Lunch
          -One hour session with one of the Takaoka teachers
          -One hour session with the other Takaoka teacher

On the second day, the last hour session was omitted, but the training sessions were stretched a bit longer. There was also time for a closing ceremony, which always takes a good chunk of time in Japan.

So, on with the juicy Aikido details.

Oyama Sensei was great. Young (maybe mid to late 20's, but it's hard to tell, he could have been early 30's) and full of fresh energy. He has great technique, but his focus was mainly on ukemi, the person receiving the technique. Actually, receiving the technique is not a good way to explain it, really, and Kuribayashi Sensei explained at length why it isn't. I say receiving the technique, because you usualy have two people, and one of them is predetermined to do so-and-so technique will the other person will be the body to practice with. So, that other person in a way is the practice dummy, but they are far from such. They are a living reacting skilled partner to practice a technique with. There are predetermined ukemi for particular techniques, but the uke doesn't just blindly follow through the motions. That is empty and meaningless aikido. The uke reacts to each motion from the tori (person executing the technique). If the tori does good technique and the uke reacts accordingly, then both the technique and the ukemi generally end up as they are supposed to. One cannot do the technique without the other, and the success of the technique depends upon both members.

When we practice, think about, and visit seminars about aikido, it is easy to often get stuck on just doing the technique from the tori side of things, but if the ukemi isn't correct, then there is nothing. Working with somebody who doesn't do the proper ukemi is probably the most frustrating thing in aikido. It's really not about being good at ukemi as much as doing it right. I suppose if you're good at ukemi, you can move faster, deal with more successful technique from the tori, and the ukemi may be less painful ... but that's really not important. That is something that happens after you learn to do it correctly, and spend a lot of quality time practicing. What's important is initially doing it correctly.

Ukemi is actually really simple if you follow the proper steps. Some of those specific steps I remember Oyama Sensei talking about were:

1.) When you are being thrown back and bend one leg to fall in that direction and eventually slap (breakfall) on the ground ... one should not just fall straight onto their back because our neck will whiplash and the back of the head will hit the ground, which is very very bad as this may result in concussions, uncosciousness, death, etc. Instead of falling straight back, one should fall on their side, reducing risk of head and neck injury, enabling a proper break-fall, and enabling one to do a high fall if necessary.

2.) When you are lowered, one should do their best not to bend their back, but bend their knees instead. This is in order to keep one's balance through the movement of being unbalanced. One's back won't be perfectly straight through technique, but it ends up being diagonal (45 degree angle with the floor) instead of flat (parallel) with the floor. This should be natural and easy. It's like picking up something off the ground. If you just bend with your waist, it puts a lot of tension on your muscles and puts you off balance. Also, if you're holding hands and walking with someone much smaller with you, if you bend your waist, it's uncomfortable and tough on the muscles and joints. If you bend your knees you reduce a lot of that unnecessary tension. Of course, it's a strange picture, and one wouldn't walk in such a way holding hands with someone that much smaller, but then again we also wouldn't choose to be thrown by someone in the real world as we are doing with ukemi. Ukemi is not a permanent situation, but a way to move through adversity and regain balance.

3.) When doing iriminage, in order to keep the back straight and bend the knees, it's OK and recommended to put your inside hand down to brace against the floor for a brief moment before you stand again. Also, one should look inside towards your partner who is throwing you. If you look to the outside, you are putting yourself further off-balance than you already are. It's like walking straight ahead of you, but turning your head and looking directly to the side. It's uncomfortable and will make you walk in the direction of your head. One should turn their head in the direction they are going, which is to the inside towards your partner in iriminage.

4.) MOST IMPORTANTLY! So so so very very very much importantly ... when you grip your partner's wrist, arm, whatever, in a technique, one must maintain the grip with the whole of their hand, or more specifically, the center of their palm. By grabbing your partner's hand, you are connecting with them, and you want to connect with them as much as possible in order to have good technique. I say this MOST IMPORTANTLY because it's soooo basic to technique, and it's something most people I've encountered don't do. This is what I'm talking about with frustrating partner's who don't do proper ukemi. The purpose of aikido techniques is to unbalance your opponent, and you can only unbalance your opponent is if they give a real committed attack. Most of the time, the partner grabs your wrist, you move to unbalance them, and they don't get unbalanced because they are not connecting with you. At that point, everything else is worthless.

The really shocking part about all of this is the fact that people don't do it no matter how many times they are told. Even in seminars like this, when everyone is looking and supposedly listening to the one teacher who is telling them to do this very simple and easy thing ... people still don't do it. Why? WHY?! Didn't you come here to learn something? Apparently not. You came here to just play with yourself. Might as well go home and masturbate.

Whoa! Sorry about that, but it's true. The last seminar in Toyama where a sensei from Tokyo came, the same thing was said, and immediately after, even sensei's from Toyama didn't do this simple thing. They merely went through the technique as usual and smiled and did nothing. This is the most frustrating thing in aikido for sure.

OK. So, ukemi is so super important in aikido, if you don't do that right, everything else is nothing. It's the most basic part of the art, but apparently a part that doesn't usually get enough attention.

This is a source of various issues with aikido in Toyama. It's political stuff between the different teachers here, and at a very basic level it is an issue with technique, or more appropriately ukemi. I don't want to spend much time on this issue, and so I will make it as brief as possible, but it needs to be said to understand basic things in aikido, and my particular situation.

When my current sensei was a lowly 2nd dan, he came to Toyama and looked for dojos to train at. He found the main one in Toyama City and began training. Though the teacher was much higher rank, maybe 5th dan, my sensei felt his technique was much better. The teacher couldn't do successful technique, because he couldn't do ukemi properly. Training was a huge waste of time, and the teacher didn't seem to recognize his own faults or desire to improve them, so my teacher started making trips to the Kobayashi Hombu Dojo in Tokyo to train. There he found what he was looking for, and started running his own classes in eastern Toyama.

The schools around Toyama, mainly the largest one in Toyama City, wants to organize a Toyama Aikido Federation. The hombu dojo in Tokyo also feels this way. By making a federation, aikido-ka around the prefecture, and throughout the country, and world I suppose, can unite under accepted levels of technique and better connect to practice. This is a good thing. However, in the way it is being conducted, my Sensei doesn't care to participate. The process requires a lot of talking, meeting, and aikido un-related business that would need to fit into an already busy enough schedule of working, living, and training. That's not so bad (though actually unbearable in a lot of ways, maybe), but the part is who this federation is with. In my Sensei's eyes, it's with a bunch of unskilled "teachers" who want to make Toyama special through beauracracy. My Sensei doesn't care to train with them, and all of this seems like a waste of time. However, the Hombu Dojo in Tokyo does seem to be encouraging this kind of activity in Toyama, and if they're going to keep sending teachers here, that kind of thing will be a requirement, it seems.

To be honest, I really only hear the side stories here and there, and even of that don't understand it completely, both linguistically and politically, but I think my impressions are pretty accurate. Honestly, I sympathize with my Sensei on this. Our dojo is doing just fine. Whether or not the federation is made, we still train well, and visit/receive other teachers from around the country.

Well, all this is necessary to the discussion, but has taxed me and probably you as well, so let's leave it at that for now. What did we learn?

Oyama Sensei was awesome and I learned a lot about ukemi, both its particulars and overall importance.

Dojo politics are lame. Just train effectively and have fun. That's what we're all there to do anyway right? Anything else, and I'll go learn about tea ceremony or calligraphy.

Check in next time for details on Kuribayashi Sensei's teachings and the rest of the seminar.

Ukemi & Push-Hands

In aikido I am very consciously striving to become better at ukemi by reacting to movements appropriately. This can be extremely difficult because each partner and each technique will be different, and so you must react appropriately, naturally, immediately. What I mean by "appropriately" is that you must follow your partners lead without beating them to it (moving to where you're supposed to be before your partner does anything), but doing so without giving excessive resistance. While doing ukemi, if you do nothing, then the particular technique you're partner is doing is probably lost and would require a different technique altogether. If you resist everything your partner does, then that could change the technique as well, or make it very difficult for your partner to learn to do the target technique. For those who criticize aikido as being too scripted to be considered a practical martial art (including myself a while back), some one truly proficient should be able to execute a working technique under any circumstance, but that takes far more skill than I have, and could also seriously injure the partner. The best two adjectives I can think of to describe appropriate ukemi are "full" and "alive." If you do nothing in your ukemi, the technique your partner is trying to do is empty and probably won't work. But, if you ukemi appropriately then the technique is alive and constantly changes reacting to the movements of your partner. SO, appropriate ukemi is very important, and I'm trying to learn how to do it.

Yesterday while I was watching a Tai Chi Chuan "push-hands" video on youtube, I had a bit of an "Ah-Ha!" moment related to the nature of ukemi.

When two people are doing competetive push-hands, they remain in contact the whole time maintaining movement that is "full" and "alive". Appropriate, natural, immediate ukemi, and you never even had to tell them about this term "ukemi"! (Well, those terms would describe highly skilled push hands probably). When doing push-hands, if one person stops everything and does nothing, then they get pushed over very simply. Because no one does this, push-hands is always full because the person is always trying to not get pushed over. This is "full" technique. Also, each partner is reacting to each other competitively so the technique is alive because at any second something is changing. In this way, any physical competition that includes two people who make contact are naturally doing some kind of ukemi(?) I think it is just especially evident in push hands because it focuses on concepts of "non-resistence" and "flowing" over "antagonistic" movements.

Have I gone too far? Is ukemi incorporated into any physical competition that includes two people that make contact with each other?

In trying to be good aikidoka, perhaps we can apply ukemi to the activities and relationships of our daily lives. Is it possible to have a life that is "full" and "alive"? Is it possible to have a life that is not "full" and "alive"? Do you have relationships with people who do nothing when interacting with you? Do you have relationships with people who constantly resist everything you attempt. These can be very annoying qualities in a relationship ... and by doing bad ukemi I am subjecting my fellow aikidoka to this everytime we practice together! It's a wonder they keep inviting me back to class! I sure hope I start performing appropriate ukemi soon.

Lesson 17: Breathing Works

Last post I commented that I found myself not breathing while being the uke (person being thrown) in aikido, and I thought that it was hampering my ability. So last night at class, I focused on breathing out during my rolls, and they became 100% better. In fact, it wasn't just during rolls, but also all throughout being an uke when I'm being spun around, or having a wrist lock applied; breathing through all of them helps.

Actually last weekend I went to a barbecue with a bunch of other aikido people in my class, who in turn brought a lot of their friends. We ended up swimming out to the giant concrete tetrapods that dominate so many of Japan's beaches, and pulled oysters off of them with crowbars and then barbecued them. My first couple tries were miserable at getting the oysters. Of course you have to hold your breath, but I found two different ways of doing this. The first way I tried, which was my own brilliant and not well-thought-out idea, was just taking a huge gulp of air and holding it through as I dove down. The second way which my aikido buddy turned me on to, was breathing out through your nose slowly and constantly as you dive down. The differences found were, that when I tried Option 1, I couldn't hold my breath very long, and I ended up maddeningly swinging at the oysters in frustration to get them off the concrete. Also, I would stay fixed on one oyster for a long period of time if I couldn't get it off, and repeatedly failed worse and worse at each try. With Option 2, I could hold my breath for much longer, be much more calm, and either effortlessly pop the oysters off the concrete, or at least go find another one that would be so easy. My experience with these two differences are truly as sharp as I have written them, and am amazed at the differing results from these two ways of not breathing in.

Another highlight of the barbecue was talking to someone who used to train in aikido with my sensei, but after five years and a blackbelt, he had moved on. I couldn't understand exactly why, but it sounded a bit emotional/political; unfortunate but maybe necessary reasons for many ended martial relationships. Lately, he had been practicing aiki-jujutsu instead; the more aggressive origin of much of aikido. We talked about many things, but the most interesting point was when he was demonstrating his idea of breath and ki (Japanese term for breath or energy). He got into a stance and told me to punch him in the chest. Of course I did it fairly lightly at first, and of course he told me to punch harder. He was showing me that when he held his breath at the time of impact, his body would absorb all of the impact as a stiff structure, he would be put off-balance, and it would hurt. But, when he exhaled and projected his ki from his center outwards at the moment of impact, the impact itself would be sent through and out of his body. Breath, ki, and chi demonstrations in the martial arts run the gamut from unbelievable to convincing, and this is something I've read about extensively (and will admit am somewhat inclined towards such phenomenon in the martial arts), and this experience really helped me understand and legitimize the power of breath in physical contact.

Whether its rolling, being spun around, thrown, diving for oysters, or being punched in the chest, all of which are affected by breathing.

Perhaps international travel is affected by breathing as well. I will test this out starting next Monday when I fly from Japan back to my homeland in the northwestern United States for a bit of a summer vacation. (In case you were wondering, Japanese high school teachers take their summer vacations using their limited paid-leave workdays. I have been told that this was only true starting a few years ago. Before that, they were given a couple weeks of summer holiday like any normal person/country. Perhaps I'm biased, but those are the facts.)

So, Gaijin is signing out, and will return in a couple weeks, hopefully refreshed and even more enthusiastic about exploring the many ways of being an uke (person being thrown).

Lesson 5: Love to Ukemi

For the past week, I've been in what you could generally call a frustrated mood. Just a constant hum of discontent, and I honestly see no clear reason why. I miss my girlfriend, school is boring, I had a really good time this last weekend. Maybe it's in the moon or something. I've been doing all the right things all week and being good, but it's only slightly waned. I've started reading a few aikido books, as well as information on uchi-deshi situations, which is where students live at a dojo with other students and a teacher for maximum aikido practice time. This has made me painfully envious. Here I am in Japan, and all I can squeeze out are two practices, while people living within hundreds of miles of my old home are practicing 7 days a week with highly ranked teachers! I have an eerie feeling my time is limited in Japan, and it's time to get down to it.

For now I train two nights a week, but they will be the fullest two nights I can possibly experience. Most black belts put much attention to folding their hakama (part of the aikido uniform for black belts), so I have started doing the same with my gi and white belt. One or two other students are always there before me, so I'll show up a bit earlier. But the real way to take advantage of the time is to love your ukemi! When two people practice aikido, one is the tori (the one who throws the opponent) and the other is the uke (the one who is thrown). Ukemi is rolling, and should be done when you are the uke. I know that the uke has just as important of a job as the tori and blah blah blah ... but despite my knowledge, I have found myself blanking out or just "rolling" through the fall without paying attention. Now, I am spending much more focus on what is happening when I am the uke, and performing an effective roll. One of the senior students mentioned to me I needed to make my ukemi farther to escape better, and I noticed that I had been somewhat lazily performing them, and not keeping my eyes for a next attack. This small part has changed my aikido greatly. I am loving ukemi. All of my unwarranted frustration just enables me to look more sharply into being thrown. LOVE TO UKEMI!

My sensei and two other senior members who are there everytime love doing aikido way too much to only do it two days a week, I can just see it. So I finally, very subtley and discretely, went up to the one student who I talk with the most (and may go hiking with soon) and said, "You know, practice has been great, and I love these two days a week we come here to practice, but ummmm, I wish there was some other oppurtunity to get some more time in. I practice by myself often, but if there was some other way to practice more with people, I just think it would be more fun. ... Do you practice more?"

He quickly and honestly replied that he does in fact do aikido with the sensei and a couple other students in the next town over on Wednesday and Saturday nights. I said, "Oh, wow, cool. I'm so jealous." He mentioned that maybe it would be hard to get there by bike, as he knows that's how I usually get around. I said, "Not really." The discussion moved to hiking. I thought about pecking again more on the extra training topic, but if it's one thing I intuit, its that Japanese sensei do not like being bugged about this kind of stuff like extra training or testing, especially from gaijin... though surely they could appreciate honest enthusiasm. Perhaps they can smell fresh young meat to be thrown around, and if nothing else, they could use someone for repeated ukemi ... and since I LOVE UKEMI now, what could be better?

We'll see. Wish me luck.