Training up to the Timing

I'm about to embark on a new project, technology and partner(s) willing to learn the Japanese Tomiki way of looking at things. It may take a while.  What it boils down to is a deeper study of Timing.

That means Tanto Randori.   I already know the limitations of Tanto Randori.  It looks like two judo players with a hip throw phobia.  But the Tanto lets you play with dodging shit, keeps you light on your feet.  It should be taken as an exercise of maai and Timing. And when you do get close to doing something in Junanahon it must be like college cheerleaders showing up on the front porch selling cookies. 

Sometimes I think The Junanhon/ Randori no kata should be renamed "things that will never actually happen in randori no kata".  Because I'm sure somewhere there are college cheerleaders who are roaming around looking to sell cookies. But not in this neighborhood, and not to this guy. 

The Sato Toshu Randori is what really interests me.  Its atemi waza driven.  The atemi waza become the Tanto.  The rules get rid of the hip throw phobia problem with the 3 second rule.  It provides the same maai/timing practice as the Tanto.  And it looks right, as far as the competitive model goes.  So that maybe something to look into. 

I'm talking out of my ass here, because I haven't done either one. There is nobody around right now to jump into that particular pool.  And I may be an ignorant Okie, but you Train up to a timing.  You don't simply walk into the dojo and say, "okay boys its full tilt from here on out."    That's just preparing for the dumbass Olympics.

 I used to think that what the Geis folks do is Judo influenced, even writing a lot of posts about it.  But like anything else, I'm wrong more than I'm right.  The Geis Folks are almost all cross trained in Judo.  So they have an inner voice that says, " that would never work against a Judo player."   So what they did was narrow the movement patterns to essentially be judo proof.  What this means is they take really deliberate small steps.  The footwork is probably Judo influenced more than anything.  The good Judo players dont sell a damn thing, and are poker players by nature.

But the arm motions the Geis-line does are very early tomiki big.  Tomiki even made the arm movements smaller over time. But the big arm motions are what we got and what we continue to train.  We got what we got when we got it, and kept doing it.  After that Common Sense started dictating a lot of things.

The other thing about the Geis Line Yon kata, or what the Shodokan folks call Nage no kata omote/ura.  The Geis line focuses a lot on execution of techniques off of a recovery step,or a body rise.  I'm pretty sure this is from the 8-14 in Yon kata, or the Nage No Kata ura.  They take this principle and restructured nearly everything in the Tomiki Curriculum around it.  It's kind of like what Brazillian Jujitsu has done with Judo.  It has taken a small slice of principle and reconstructed the Tomiki movements around it.

Another thing is Randori.  You could say we dont do it.  We have an exercise that we call Randori for the lack of better term, but it is done with deliberate timing.  Matching timing and movement. A go no sen randori. because people have to be sensitive to the loss and  recovery movements   In other forms of Tomiki Randori, the premuim is hitting the guy before he gets the notion to try something, or after he did something.   Thats that proverbial,   sen sen no sen, and sen.  Thats the standard take on Randori.  If you have a go no sen guy trying to work with a sen sen no sen guy its an exercise in futility.  

Another thing is when you do Go no Sen where the speed is a mutual agreement you can train "unsafe" techniques.   Most Geis Guys think Competitive Randori is a stupid idea because most of their techniques arent safe at high speeds.  The slow and methodical has turned the 17 and related techniques  back into pre-war aikijujitsu. A good example is kote mawashi/ nikkyo. Most Geis line guys learn this technique in Randori.  I went to a Akikai seminar and found out that my take on nikkyo was a lot better than theirs.  Because I knew the conditions and mechanics of it.  Never gave a shit about nikkyo since.   


This training to the timing difference is basically what you see between the Japanese lines and the Geis Line.  Geis line trains almost exclusively Go no Sen.  There is always a match.  The Japanese do the hit early, and hit after the dodge.  That is the difference between the 17 kata performed in Kihon mode( static) and with a Tanto.  

The kihon mode is,  for the sake of talking out of my ass argument, hit early, you use both hands in concert from a good distance and angle to manipulate a guys structure. There is a very direct relation ship between the unsoku movements and techniques. And there are a lot of A/B this or that ideas.  I think there is a lot of what they call hando no kuzushi implied.   You prepare one way and then go the other if you need to.  

Its actually hard to do after years of matching timing.  I find myself tipping off balance when I try to manipulate a guys arm.  Which I think is a very primary lesson of the kihon mode.

Tanto based 17 is you have to get offline first.  Thats the third timing.  You get offline and grab some arm real estate from a good angle.  There isnt any feeling out.  In fact feeling out is pretty damn stupid at this point.  There needs to be some decisive techniques from this point and the whole menu isnt available.  Its probably " I got your ass atemi waza", served with a side of lucky ass kansetsu waza.   I dont know the Japanese Budo term.  But its loosely translated as , "Holy Shit that actually worked."   It goes with the Sun Tzu adage that victory can be known, but not made. 

Any sort of matching timing impies some sort of balance break to kick techniques off.  And that's what I'm used to doing.  The problem is that most unsoku movements deal with tanto timing or kihon timing.  Matching timing foot work goes where ever it needs to.  So there are a lot of times where the Tegatana/Unsoku movements are irrelevant except as a balance and posture thing.   

Anyway, the real difference between Tomiki Aikido schools is what Timing do you train.  The Koryu kata are filled with different timings.  San kata has them all.  Any grab is matching timing.  The weapon taking stuff is just like a tanto 17.  There is even that one move against a Tanto where you grab his arm before he even thinks of pulling  the damn knife.  It looks like something Farrah Fawcett would do on Charlies Angels.  There isnt a lot of hit first ideas because they are all cats ass simple so why have a whole kata devoted to it, with the exception of maybe Go kata.