In order to effectively strike, uke must raise up. You will feel uke’s rising actions.
As uke raises up, pull your knees to your chest. Make sure you set your toes in the mat.
When uke is up jump forward with great enthusiasm, as if you were a frog. Well, don’t do it very hard with your partner. This particular technique often lands uke on the back of their head.
by Kitty Sullivan Learn to use gravity and structure to assist with effective aikido kuzushi / off-balance As long as you are not floating around in space, you are probably attached to a very large spherical body. Therefore you are fortunate enough to utilize its very own gravity when being attacked by another human. Getting…
by Nick Lowry So much of what we do, if we do it well, is a matter of feel. Sensitivity, touch, and full body presence. Actions and reflexes all finely tuned to sensations. Lightness in the hands, like holding a baby or petting a cat or lighter, allows for high grade sensitivity with minimal interference…
by Nick Lowry DOJO is the way place. All the stuff we practice in a DO-jo — the aiki do and ju do and jo do and karate do and ken do and iai do and all the rest, are all just pointers to the DO– different lamps lighting the way. As we train in…
by Nick Lowry Simple ink on paper, three figures in a line. Circle. Square. Triangle. Terry Dobson once asked O Sensei to tell him what the circle, square, and triangle meant in aikido.The master told him to figure it out for himself.I love that. It’s Beautiful. This is how zen koans work. The answers you…
Kyle Sloan When you set out learning Judo, you think about doing a throw and set about to make that happen. This is well, fine and good. This is how we all do things for a long time. At some point though, you have to step up to the next level. You’re about to leave…
The idea is to take a piece of foam about 2 inches square and tape it to a fixed object at eye level. I’ve also seen this done with a piece of tape being the targe on a fixed object. Begin in tsune-no-kamae It does take a little practice to consistently hit the target dead…