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Archive Results for ' Technique'

26Jan/096

Effective Teacher/Sifu/Sensei

Everyone tends to question whether certain Martial Arts are truly effective or not, but the biggest problem isn’t whether the Martial Art is effective or not. It is whether the Sensei, who will be teaching you, is effective or not. I’m simply going to use the word Sensei as the representation for teacher, Sifu, etc for the rest of this article.

It’s one of those things where it doesn’t matter if someone has or hasn’t told you about them, you simply know that they are a great and effective teacher. They may teach the same content as everyone else, but the way they teach it, the methods they choose to use to demonstrate things, etc all add to together in unison and it no longer matters what anyone else says about that person because you now have your own well opinionated outlook on that person and their teaching methods. It’s a wonderful thing when it happens. Too bad it doesn’t happen more often. However, I got lucky, and over this past weekend I got to have this experience again. I’m not going to mention a name, because I don’t know that persons views on having it listed, so I’ll stray away from that since it really shouldn’t matter anyway. All I will say is that the Sensei is a woman.

The class began like normal, with around 10-15 people having attended, where we would stretch our muscles and ligaments as to not injure them later on. But as class further progressed, I noticed when practicing various things, that she made the class feel quite at ease, at least for me. I no longer cared what the others were doing next to me, because I was fixed on doing the things she said to the best of my ability. I’ll admit, Aikido is a big change for me, so I’m definitely a beginner all over again in a lot of areas and to be honest, I love it.

Later on, we were divided into basically two groups: the more advanced and the newcomers. The class was a beginner class but many higher ranked students attend to work on the fundamentals( and have fun ). When we got to the point where we were working in pairs, attempting to perform the technique she had just showed us, Sensei would come around and correct us. It wasn’t the fact that Sensei corrected us, it was the way she did it. Sensei made it very easy to understand and break down each movement into pieces. At one point, Sensei was demonstrating the move on me for my practice partner(nage) to see how he should put me(uke) down in a pin. The flow of her movements took me down effortlessly(on her part of course ). When Sensei got me into the pin, she was able to demonstrate the slight difference of not having your knees close enough to the uke’s shoulders and the result of that difference AKA me auto-flinching in response to the sudden torque generated. I may not have much Aikido experience, but I’ve had enough Martial Arts background training to notice when someone is effortlessly performing techniques.

Obviously, you can’t really describe all that well how, what, and why that Sensei is so great at teaching, because you just have to be there to experience it for yourself. But, for those who have had the chance to train with people that make you feel like this, you’ll understand what I mean. It’s not what they teach, it’s how they teach it.

Tagged as: Aikido, effective, sensei, sifu, teacher, Technique 6 Comments

19Jan/090

First Aikido Class

This past Saturday, I went to my first Aikido class at a place called Aikido of Cincinnati. I found it to be quite enjoyable and can’t wait to go back again. I was planning on going on Sunday as well, considering they have classes then also, but I wound up getting sick so I couldn’t make it.

I’m usually quite busy during the week days, so I doubt if I’ll be able to make it very often during those days but I’ll be able to attend every Saturday and Sunday(as long as I don’t get sick again ). The great thing is that I can attend multiple classes in the same day, so I’ll probably get a few classes in on the same day. I know it won’t count towards the testing requirements because of the way they count days for the USAF, but that’s not what is important to me anyway. I’m doing this to increase progress in myself, not in rank.

Anyway, because this class was pretty early(9:15 AM, on a Saturday), there was only me and two other students. The Sensei was very helpful in getting me caught up on some of the basics. The thing is that because I have practiced other Martial Arts I can catch on quickly when they show me how to do something, it’s just I’ve never done a lot of the things they do in Aikido. Plus, remembering the names is going to take me some time, but I’m sure it’ll come to be after I continue to do them again and again.

I can’t remember everything we practiced, and some of the things I do remember I don’t really remember the names for them , so I’ll just list what I do remember. We took turns practicing Shomenuchi Iriminage, since there was three of us. The Sensei was critqueing what we were doing as he watched us. He’d tell us to pause and then he’d point out a few things and correct us. We also practiced a Katatetori technique and a Ryotetori technique. I can’t remember which one’s we practiced. All that I remember is that when we were doing the Ryotetori technique, we would do sit falls instead.

Even though I haven’t got my rolls yet, I’ve already started practicing them at home. To be honest, rolling and breakfalls is one of my weakest points. I mean, I can do them, but I definitely don’t feel comfortable doing them, or rather I don’t feel like I am doing them good enough. As a last note, if you haven’t seen their dojo before, it’s very nice.

Tagged as: Aikido, breakfall, class, roll, Technique No Comments

3Dec/080

Mixed Martial Arts – Day Nine and Ten

Last Friday and Saturday we had practice, because a lot of times our schedules all change and so we don’t necessarily always have it on the same day. Plus, everyone had off both Friday and Saturday because it was the Holiday weekend.

On Friday, we all went over to my instructors house, which was the first time any of us had ever been there. He happens to have a decent size basement which he has setup mostly as a training room. He’s got a couple punching bags hanging from the ceiling, a couple of mats, and then a good amount of various work out and training equipment. From what he, and his wife, told us, he has been accumulating all of this equipment over a long period of time.

After everyone finally arrived(I got there a bit early accidentally ), we decided to get started. We worked on the bags quite a lot. Since we normally train out at a park with focus mitts and large pads, it was a bit different. We did rotations where he’d time us and we’d go “all out” on whatever task he gave each of us, for 30 seconds, before we’d stop and rest for just a short moment. Then we’d shift and trade positions with someone else, and do the same thing but with a different task this time. The tasks roughly included things like only using your legs and kicking as fast as you can with various kicks but not thinking about it just “doing”, working on only the speed of your hands by reaction(again, by just doing), and throwing as many various combinations in a row(with hands and legs) as fast as you can with as much power as you can.

On Saturday, one of my friends who can’t normally attend to the normal classes, because he has work, was able to come out and get a feel as to exactly how we work. Because we had just had a rough class the day before, we decided to take it light which allowed my friend to keep up with us a lot easier. Our instructor focused a bit on him to get his form and technique more in order, since he simply has to say “do this…” and we usually know how to do it already and can work on it alone. By the end of the session, my friends kicks on his right leg were starting to get some form to them, but his left still has a ways to go, but so does mine.

The technique of my kicks is getting better and it will only increase with more and more consistent practice. I generally know how my kicks should be, I just need to get them to that point. One step at a time, I suppose..