[MyAikido] Basic Attacks

The lessons reminded me of why I stayed away from Aikido at first. But despite my misgivings about sparring with guys at close counters, in reality... most attacks do happen at close counters, and female bodies are usually not strong enough to counter-attack or defend themselves against physically strong intent from men without any martial arts skill. (my sentence sounds weird.. hmmm, ma ii ka)

Thankfully, my sparring partner in the class was a girl. But because it's a girl, I couldn't do shomen properly for fear of hurting her since I'm still very unskilful. I hope to ASAP be good enough to spar properly. Unlike Karate, Aikido immediately puts us in a battle mode practice (this week was only my 2nd class). I had to attend months of Karate class before I was made to spar against somebody.

I learnt 3 attacks and Sensei taught me two types of moves against them: omote (inside) and ura (outside). The first attack taught was shomen. The omote move I learnt is this:



I couldn't find ura.... however, if you watch the slo-mo ura move in this video, what I learnt was only upto 0:51. By watching Tissier-sensei, I found that the footwork will be different according to where we move next... and look at his hands, they hardly form a claw or fist and instead always be open and ready to act for the next move. The way he charts every step is like a go player. Saikou desu.

Sugi wa, yokomen desu. For the omote... I found this video (part 1 of 6). He even talked a bit about the history of Aikido. What I learnt was only upto 3:16, but here I found that the blocking left hand (for a left hand attack) can be in a position to throw someone off-balance.



I couldn't find the ura move but I think the one he showed at 3:14 in this one is it, right?

I wasn't able to learn much on tsuki coz class ended before I could practice further. Maybe I get to learn more next week.

Sensei said:

• We attack to distract, not to hurt. I like that. It appeals to my non-violent nature.
• It's all about the way we move. Do not get into the habit of memorizing which foot goes with which hand coz there are too many variations that memorization is impossible.