Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Some Dai San thoughts

I have been working through some of the problems of the Tomiki Koryu Dai San kata lately. I will try to make Wilkinson Sensei (my internet kata enthusiast friend) happy and practice them more regularly. The Koryu Dai San is a large 2 person collection of techniques.

To be honest I am not always the biggest fan nor advocate of the rigid and overly structured kata system. There are hundreds of redundant techniques piled haphazardly together in this gargantuan system.

But not to keep my students from being exposed to the katas, we have been digesting various pieces from time to time. I am beginning to find a new relationship with the higher kata of the Tomiki system. They remind me of chess puzzles. In chess they have puzzles that are the last few moves of a game. They take the skills you have, and allow you to exercise them in a particular context. Thus, the theory might be that it exercises the mind to play effectively in more circumstances and with differing patterns. Ok I buy it. They may not be the meat and potatoes of the system, but they may be a useful game to play.

To add one stipulation though, I do find that I change the techniques around my ideal of what aikido should be. , but I will fix all the bad ideas as I go. Isn't that the way it should be? (I can already hear the strict kata buffs groaning and gnashing their teeth.)

Saturday, October 16, 2010

Sanctum Sanctorum

While I know Grad School has seriously damaged my budo blog, I have decided to stretch myself even thinner and have a casual side blog project called Sanctum Sanctorum. It will be a warehouse of images, videos and esoterica that expresses my sweet tooth for the bizarre. I hope to see ya'll there.

Sanctum Sanctorum

Differing connections through weapons

I feel that the usual Aikido weapons ciriculum is somewhat lacking. There is the Jo and Bokken. Sometimes the tanto is used, bit only to be taken away.

In the history of Aikido we see OSensei exploring and using a variety of implements. I know he studied spear, jo and sword. He has been pictured using fans. I read he even explored the naginata upon request. I think modern players can expand greatly upon his work.

So here at the Dragon's Orb blog I would like to suggest budoka start exploring different weapons and different connections through objects. Last week I posted a lovely randori with escrima men with sticks. At my dojo we can been using hula hoops, ropes, knives, double sticks, wakizashis and sai lately.

Today I have a short film with my favorite Silat teacher, Guru Maul. His scarf work is worthy of some deep study.


Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Dr Lee Ah Loi promoted to 8th dan.

According to facebook friend Shaun Hoddy, the Japan Aikido Association has promoted Dr Lee Ah Loi Shihan to 8th Dan.





Aikido Journal

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Honorary Aikido Master

Some people get stuck watching the same art all the time. I think this a a grievous error. The world is full of brilliant artists.

I found this guy doing some wonderful Aiki. His name is GM Canete and he practices eskrima.

Saturday, October 9, 2010

Another Competitive Style - HaitenKai Aikido

Tomiki Aikido is often known as the black sheep of the aikido world due to it's focus on competition in training in some of it's branches of the family tree. Apparently there is another society out of Japan incorporating a rougher shiai model into their training. HaitenKai Aikido.

As with most of the styles obsessed with victory and control, the results get rough and a little unaiki in my opinion. But who am I to judge.