How Big of a Fella are You?

I had a pretty good Aikido revival the other day.  Got a lot of things to soak in and think about.  And if I'm thinking about them then ill write about them.  The thing that has running around my Okie mind since then is some big muscular Tae Kwan Do guys who were also Aikido students.    The thing that impressed me the most was their ability to instantly resist.  My take is that they fire off their muscles so much in their sparring that they can send signals really quick.

I have to say that because of dealing with resistance I have pretty much diverged from the Geis Model.  I've started looking at the more hard headed shodokan stuff.  Sometimes I think we can look at things to the point where we bend over and insert our head up our own asses.  The only cure for that is to take our heads out and look at something else.

The first problem of head in assitis is that we don't ask the simple question of:

 How Big of a Fella are You?

I had an epiphany about speed, timing, and Tae kwan do guys.  These guys lift their feet off the ground a lot and actually try to touch their toes with another guys head.  After years of doing this they become pretty quick to react.  That toe to head motion is a big motion, kind of like a guy swinging a sword.  Which goes along with my feeling that Tomiki Aikido is related conceptually to classical weapon budo.  It's a creature of time and space concepts, as much as it is non-resistance and off-balance principles.

So the second question is especially for folks who deal in joint locks.  And that one is:

How quick can you resist? 

My two favorite types of training partner are guys who know more judo than aikido and stiff guys who want to resist just about every damn thing you do.  This is because they are full of surprises.  The Shodokan model pretty much assumes that folks will resist what ever you try to do.  

The Geis Model tries to teach this through a chaining system that has been intellectualized into a massive wall covering flow chart.  But like I've said before if you do some hard heaqded randori you will see the chaining in the 17 in a very organic way. It probably won't have that somber "looks great in a hakama" quality to it, but its there.  The kihara chains are very artificial and the times that someone has walked me through some of them, I find instinctual stuff between the chains. Forgive my french, but I think they are stupid.  Especially after giving in to the hard headed Randori model.  

But to be slightly diplomatic, I want to say that  a lot of my criticism of the Geis Model lies in my own footfall dyslexia.  The Geis model has a lot of judo footfall sensitivity to it that I just dont get  Anybody who works with me can tell right a way, I cant read feet very well. If someone reads along with me I'm fine and I understand it. But myself I dont do so great. 

It almost got to the point where I almost quit over it, but like most dyslexics I have to find other angles of understanding. 

One of these angles of understanding is a simpler standard of kuzushi.  Basically the first building block is unstacking the shoulders.  That is separating the shoulders from the base of the feet.  

Lets look at the Shodokan Kihon waza.  And I'll try to write out my thoughts here. I'm going to say here that I dont know shit about shodokan or their interpretations.   But my thoughts here just come from my Geis line Dyslexia.  And some of it has to do with the feet.  These guys practice kihon from the static which I think muddies the issue about as much a highly presumptive cross arm balance break in the Geis non kihara / non-delusional 17.  Both takes cant explain fully what is actually needed to kick these techniques off.  But looking at both systems together gives some insight.

Anyway, The first idea is that you are outgunned.  You have a big guy, who is quick to resist.  And by resisting the big guy can begin to overwhelm you.  It's the same relationship between the Jo and the sword in Jodo.

Atemi waza should be seen as the glue that holds the entire 17 kata together in its application.  The Geis line folks see the eye threat as just an element of execution of certain techniques.  Here, as in Jodo, the eye threat/head shot is ever present.  What this does is force the ukes posture into the back corner.

1. shomen ate:   This technique is basically Implicated in Tegatana dosa(shodokan style).  You start with 2 movements.  A shomenuchi or a shomentsuki.   The shomenuchi either provokes a defensive movement(like in Koryu Dai Ichi #1 or invites someone to break maai.  Shomen tsuki is best applied when someone reacts by stepping backward, like after they miss. But it also regulates offline movement. basically, you start a shomentsuki and figure you are going to get the short end of the deal and step off line.  The timing is when your hand hits your center your feet engage with a side to side unsoku  Anyway, shomenate lives when your shomenuchi provokes an entry and you have to deflect the entry out of the center.  It also operates off of the side to side unsoku evasion.  that is the quickest evasion.  
2.  The thing about Aigamate is that operates off of a side to side evasion, with the shomentsuki rather than shomen uchi timing. It also introduces the first article of resistance which is a hineri twist of the arm.  A guy resists and you step through and pop him.  This atemi figures heavy into oshi taoshi which is the primary elbow technique on which all others spring forth from.
3. Gyakugamae ate:  The shodokan line assumes this is from a relationship in which no balance has been broken.   Theoretically you are aiming at the temple.  It assumes you will get a head turn reaction, a postural evasion to the back corner.  once you have entered you can  lay your arm on the chest area and further compress the spine and step through with your entire body.  This technique functions well with Eric Pearsons Johnny Appletree technique.  
4.  Gedan ate:  this is where the uke doesnt sway or posturally evade but instead stands his ground and chooses to throw his hands up instead.  It does key off of a legitimate temple smash and is very similar to the provocation principle in Tegatana Dosa.  It can be seen as a simple low entry body smash.  It seems like I never get this one in practice, but I could post 32 different videos from Jolly Old England showing 12 year olds doing this all day long.
5.  Ushiro Ate is very similar in concept of Aigamae Ate.  It keys off a resisted Gaeshi twist.  like a #2 release movement, a mae otoshi, shiho nage set up.  Its pretty simple to execute.  

The thing about how these atemi waza relate well to each other, and they relate well to timing, footwork, and resistance.  I think that you are living in cloud kookooland if your primary concern right out of the gate is non resistance/breaking balance.  Your primary concern is always to avoid being hit, and cover distance in and out.  1-2 assume side to side evasions or front corner evasions.  3-4 assume back corner evasions.  This set also separate/ unstack the shoulders backwards.  They also introduce dealing with two primary resistances, hineri and gaeshi and how to deal with them.

They basic rule of Timing is the further up the arm you go, the more ground you have to cover.  This means you have to move quicker and more directly the closer to core you have to go.   The type of Randori that the Geis line teaches really has to do with tekubi waza and balance breaking, because these are down the arm where they can lend them selves to slower more subtle movements.  I have seen folks mess with other folks with their finger tips at this distance

Atemi waza usually come up in Geis line Randori because you are overly concerned about what is happening to your wrists.  But when you deal with big folks who can resist your wrist techniques, you have make them more concerned with issues of breaking maai.

6. Oshi taoshi deals with one issue which is an extension past maai with a footstep.  What separates this from Gyaku gamae ate is that the extension leaves the Ukes shoulders a little unstacked where the Gyakugamae ate assumes no unstacking even though it could happen.  The next movement is a backwards tsugi ashi with a hineri twist at the arm.  If there is a fight here Aigamae ate is the proposed solution other wise the technique completes.  I have found using two hands here works alot better against a stiff person, rather than assuming you'll get this off a cross armed balance break.  (Like I said, against big fellas balance breaking should be the last thing not the first thing.  Nobody said it had to come first. 

7.  Ude  Gaeshi--  This is a counter movement to the first.  In the Geis line their is an assumption that folks resist when their arm is in a total state of tsukuri and push out from there, and loops their hand into a high circle.  Almost like a drunk on an icy sidewalk.  The Shodokan Line assumes that what the Uke is resisting is his elbow being drawn away from his body by the Oshi Taoshi attempt.  He resists by recovering at his shoulders( re stacking his posture) and dropping  the elbow.  In effect he's resisting with his upper body and not his feet.   The elbow is manipulated down/following Ukes own movement in conjuction with sliding your hips past the Ukes.  This spine locks him almost in the same way as the atemi waza except with a different trick of the trade. The hands more or less cut past his shoulders to make the fall happen. 

These two techniques illustrate the push/pull principles of aikido.   The lesson here is what you get at the depth of the wrist and how The Uke chooses to resist.

8.  Hiki Taoshi --  This the Technique in the Geisline that makes me think of copious amounts of Dojo Koolaid being swallowed.  After messing with it for a few years it seems like it passes up three good techniques and settles on a very shitty one.  It also assumes that the Uke is drunk on a frozen sidewalk.  Anyway, The shodokan version basically takes us back to the resistance in the last technique except instead of standing still and pulling, he takes a step to follow the separation of his elbow from his center.  Basically he steps into the pull of the oshi taoshi.  And you may have a lot more shoulder unstacking going on.

9.  ude hineri--  Basically you didnt get him down on the last technique he resists by dropping his ass.

I hope you are picking up a move/don't move pattern in the 17 here. Also you have variance in the the direction that the shoulders unstack and the degree.  You have three forwards and one back.  Two from a push and step, and two from a non move/pull resistance.

10.  Wakigatame in the shodokan has a lot of safety valves in place.  Because of the higher speed randori.  It works well with the cross arm balance break, or a grab in the #3 release motion.  My thoughts are since it doesnt seem to key off of an evasion, it may trigger off a grab/ extension from static.  Here lately, Ive had to stop Randori for a second to explain why this effing hurts at higher speed and the safety valves built around it.   The shuffle steps and the function of the farsided pinning arm are apart of the safety valves.

Anyway, My point here is to not only expect resistance, but also expect a certain speed of resistance.  Big guys can overwhelm once they resist.  Also, dont apply the principle of Non-resistance unless you understand the advantage it gives you, otherwise you'll be overwhelmed by a big guy.  If you watch the Japanese Kihon you should make crossing maai the equivalent of sticking your hand into a woodchipper.   Balance breaking shouldn't be the primary concern with big guys. Because a failed balance break is just a grab that has to rely on strength.  Big guys resist strenght pretty damn good.  Make big guys worry about the woodchipper.  But becoming a woodchipper is a matter of Maai, space and time.