Mas Problemas con Tejazushi part II

I've been studying this clip a lot.  I mentioned in part I, that our 17 kata assumes that 2 guys are walking toward each other, one trys a shomenate and the other attempts a tejazushi.  These dudes in the kata walk towards each other and the other guy stops in extension and the other guy does a technique.  The off balancing is implied.  In Texhomiki the actual kuzushi is attempted in some way. 

Anyway, My question was where in the hell did Tejazushi come from?  

Some one posted that it was an adaptation of  a Judo move.  In the early years of Tomiki Aikido, you can pretty much say that the style was more or less propagated rather than directly transmitted step by step to foreign students.  Most, if not all. of these students were, go figure, Judo Guys.   I can say that in comparison to Japanese direct transmission styles Texhomiki could be called "patchy".  Martial Arts instructors tend to teach what they can explain well and demonstrate.  Its not that big of a leap to suppose that an competent Judo instructor could adequately fill in the blanks where needed and make it work. 



When I first watched Aikido Kyogi,  I noticed that the walking had gotten a kendo, almost karate look to it.   I also noticed that there was no diagonal X stepping.  That showed up later when Ohba was trying to hit Tomiki with a bokken.  It was meant to be an evasion step.  The first walking step was a tsugi ashi concept backwards and forwards.  the X stepping was implied and shown later in a separate exercise. (heres a clip of some dude doing non- x stepping footwork)

So when did tsugi ashi, get replaced with the X stepping?    I have heard many Texhomiki folks say that the X stepping in the walking is related to Tejazushi. 

So this is my question:  where did the X stepping come from? and when did change from an evasion concept to an offbalance concept? 

I have also wondered where in the hell that 2nd walking movement kicks in.  Its used in the above clip in , #8 and # 9.  The forward X step is used in #10, wakegatame and in Ushiro ate.  In fact, all the techniques have a strong correlation to some sort of walking step. The angular stepping on the atemi waza, I would say correlate to the chalice step.  Shomenate is an abbreviated chalice stepping angle and so is Aigamae ate.  gyuku gamae ate/gedan are  shortened chalice steps backwards (if you are doing Tegatana dosa with no x steps). completion/kake steps seem to correlate with tsugi ashi .

In fact, I would venture to say that anything that appears to be an x stepping concept is actually a chalice stepping concept.  When you look at Japanese school Tegatana Dosa there is no actual X step.  Its a tsugi ashi, the X is implied in the chalice step.  

I'm going to qualify my following remarks with my I'm just a Shodan admonishment.  Folks, I really think that Tejazushi makes the walking kata almost pointless.  Sure, I'm basing this on one clip and 4 years of having that not so fresh feeling about tejaszushi.  And here lately, Ive tried staying way the hell out, on the edges, and trying real damn hard not to do a tejazushi and Ive actually gotten a little better in Randori.  I could have had a lucky night, who the hell knows.  One thing I do know is that judo guys and tai chi guys tend to eat my lunch because I'm constantly trying to "X" in with a tejazushi movement.  

Anyway, when did the Tsugi ashi get replaced with the X stepping?   Was Tejazushi the culprit?  Somebody weigh in on this. Also, are the walking kata and the tejazushi 17 even related animals anymore? 

Mas Problemas con Tejazushi, part 1

I've read a whole helluva a lot on Aikido and some Old Timers say that you don't clash with the other guy.   That is, two guys running into each other and trying to one up each other either in the strength or speed department.  I've been at this for 4 real short years and while I occasionally say something halfway interesting on this dipshit blog( my throwaway post on Taichi and Tomiki has the most hits), I gotta give myself a C average in Aikido.  I think my problem is with clashing with people.  And Right now I'm looking at our notion of Tejazushi( that's the crosshand stepping forward/diagonal offbalance that seems to only exist in the Texhomiki Aikido world.   I've watched a lot of Tomiki stuff on the You Tube and I havent seen too many other people do an off balance quite like ours.

It leaves me wondering where in the hell it came from and whose idea was it.

I've been trying real hard to lighten up lately; My approach to martial arts has always been a scared shitless, knock the shit out of the other guy mindset.  And it just aint working that well.   I think guys like me should naturally learn to back up and rotate around the edges of conflict instead of going in. The simple reason is that if you get the drop on someone enough to execute a Tejazushi offbalance then why not start beating the shit out of em instead of waiting for the rise/fall reorientation?

Another thing I've been thinking on lately is the Psychological aspects/contexts  behind our techniques.   I've seen plenty and heard plenty about how tejazushi offbalance assumes that both guys are walking toward each other.  I call this mutual kick ass mode.  If I want to be like Morty then shouldnt I stand there and try to deescalate the situation.  Even Aikido Bad Ass Shoji Nishio says you dont even try stop the other guy.  Just let the guy come.  My Tetsuro Nariyama Randori book says that one of the main principles is non-resistance, and the notion of walking towards a guy who wants to kick my ass seems to violate this one.

Anyway, If you watch the Shoji Nishio stuff on YT and you read and look at what Nariyama has on the YT, I think their notion of non-resistance means getting offline.  Both say you should step off line at about a 30 degree angle.  They say its related to the sword.  I have to say that our Tejazushi concepts dont illustrate this real well, if at all.  I think its another animal altogether.

Here's clip i've been studying here lately.  It's a Fish and Chips group that I believe may be of the lee ah loi branch.  I say this because of the windup aigamae ate, I think she has that in her book.  anyway, I could be wrong.

Anyway,  We all know about Maai.  That space where things seem to work or they don't.  It's been called maintaining Maai, or controlling Maai.  I like to think of it as respecting Maai.  When you practice with a fake knife it makes you respect the edge/radius and point of an attack.  Doing tejazushi against a knife seems like  a real dipshit thing to do.  If you notice that shomenate gets off line by about 30 degrees and Aigamae Ate does as well once the guy puts his hand on the elbow.  ( I also like this variation because it foreshadows oshi numero 6.) 

I always have had a problem with Aigamae Ate.  It seems like a dumb technique. It presupposes that Uke is an idiot thats going to float arounds and turn right into you.  If you put it in in a non resistance/ get off line 30 degrees frame it makes a lot of sense.  Its  pairs up with shomenate in this sense.  One evades one way, the other evades the other.

Another thing about Tomiki aikido is natural stances. We dont stand in the standard hamni of other Aikido styles, we move into it.   Hamni should be called a 30 degree position.  Our Walking Kata embodies the often said concept of " Small in the Large" .  We do a lot of chalice steps and within those chalice steps is a 30 degree position.   These arent textbook akikai hamni, but they underlie the principle of the hamni stance which is the angle of evasion/position of counterattack.

Tejazushi seems to be a concept apart from non-resistance/evasion principle.  Its something unique.  I've heard it called a sheering effect, and I wonder if more traditional schools have a similar sheering principle at work.  I think its unique to Texhomiki Aikido, but I could be wrong.  Anybody, who knows about the history of Tejazushi( Cross-arm offbalancing)  I'd like to hear from you.   

Untangling The Releases( reaction mechanics vs action mechanics)

I'd say that learning and repeating the releases is probably 70% of  the game of Aikido.  Every Aikido branch does them, although they may not classify them the way Tomiki folks do, and even among Tomiki branches there is a variety of handgrabbing basics.  Texhomiki schools tend to classify them into 8 actions and really there are only 4.  5 through 8 are extensions of the first four.  I think they teach two different concepts.  Reaction mechanics vs Action mechanics.  They need to be taught with variety and experimentation.  There is no textbook. 

                                                                                                                            

First off, why are they called releases?  The common sense explanation is if you can keep from being grabbed then do so.  Rule of thumb #1 is get your hand back.  The other day I had an epiphany about martial arts when I watched a Koryu Dai San performed by Hideo Ohba.  His version was a lot simpler,rougher around the edges, and had alot more Atemi concepts.  My thinking is that the Old Timer martial artists in Japan knew that techniques were going to be performed under emotional pissed off/scared shitless circumstances.  They are based off of reaction mechanics.It's a myth that a person can do this shit in a zen like trance.  The core reaction mechanics are get off line(get your ass out of the way), get your hand/bodypart back, and/or hit the guy.  Run like hell is also a core concept.  The reaction mechanics wave into action mechanics. 

Anyway, most of aikido functions once you have returned to an emotionally collected state where you can recognize what is going on.  Most plans go to shit once someone punches you in the face.  If a martial art doesnt have a way to bridge the gap between scared shitless/pissed off reactions into techniques from a collected action state of mind, then I'd have to say that your martial art is a waste of time.  Like I said in another post, Its not fun to live in perpetual self defense mode.  I'd prefer not too. It's a paranoid, angry way to live.  But repetition of non-bullshit  simple techniques seems  keep a guy in a healthy state of mind.    I'm talking about easy to explain, easy to practice techniques.  I'm not talking about dojo koolaid.                           

   Nick talks alot about matching footfalls.  That's something that I'd say comes from a collected Action state of mind. Ask me again in a few years.  It's a very high level skill that gets taught maybe too early to fully appreciate.  I have never been able to make much sense of the other guys feet.  Right now, four years in, I'm trying to lighten up, and quit arm wrestling.  I have also started to look at my shoulders and hips.  That thing Nick talks about in release #3 about locking the shoulders.  I'm just now trying to deal with that.  Here lately I've been trying to sort out what reactions naturally put a guy on the front foot and what puts him on the backfoot.  I think our Tejazushi crossarm offbalance gets in the way of alot of natural reactions.  We throw a guy off then wait for him to stand up or turn into a technique.   I see a lot more reaction mechanic offbalances in other schools 17.  Backing up off balances have been highly underrated, as well as simply dropping the hips.  I see two hands on the  ukes arm as a reaction.  You see a lot of the shodokan/English schools do that.  Tomiki was a two hand guy himself.  

                

You ever seen how release #1 and #2 operate as a unit.  Try doing #2 first.  Its the most natural one.  Then let Uke pull and swing up and around to #1.  Do the same with 3-4.   pulling away and turning are a scared shitless response.  natural as an eyeblink.  pushing and stepping around are more of an Action idea.   You could say its Yin/yang to impress the chicks. 

 

 I like watching this Lady.  She's an Iwama ryu person.  Morty was one of those connected to the natural world shinto dudes.  Iwama is country side Aikido.  Akikai is city folk aikido. My dipshit theory is Morty's aikido reflected his enviroment.  Anyway,They initially train from static.  no footfalls.  There are times when I feel that Texhomiki trys to showcase too damn much principle into eight releases. Iwama ryu working from static  is pretty simple.  Its reflects my scared shitless natural reaction mechanic theory. A deer in head lights. static.  The rest is when you are collected enough to see things coming.  Action state.

This is the biggest Nariyama freebie on Youtube.  skip to about 50 minutes in and you see his notion of getting offline and hitting back.  Getting offline is a rule of thumb.  It works against a swing and a grab.  Getting offline should be as natural as blinking your eye.  If you dont get your head chopped off, then you get a turn.  You either flinch left or flinch right.  Reaction state.

Getting offline tends to straighten out an ukes arm.  You can call that kuzushi if you want, but there are other things that crop up.  Collected state aikido operates off of grip, and hand change.  Have you ever noticed the ratcheting effect, the more you change grips the worse it gets for the other guy.  Apparently Tomiki had a 19 kata that ran parallel to the 17.  there are two standard grips.  natural and reverse.  They are represented as the palm up, palm down in the releases.  Hand change, grip change. releases are a two sided affair.  You can release a guy into another grip. release him into a technique. These are collected mechanics.   Grip change usually occurs when arm is extended out, swinging low, or swinging high.  Thats an action state.   

This guy isnt exactly saying it, but it's there.  You ever had that #3 release discovery that when you change hands and grip and you dumbass yourself into kote mawashi/nikkyo territory? 

Another thing I want to talk about that comes from first order scared shitless/pissed off reaction mechanics. Is maai.  That delicate space between dipshit and safety.  Some call it maintaing Maai.  I call it respecting maai.  It maybe the first action mechanic that you can learn.   Maybe reaction mechanics can  be classifyed as, getting out of the way, getting your "hand" back, hitting the guy.  Everything else, respecting maai, gripping, throwing, jointlocking, pinning, comes from the action state of mind.  I suppose you could get attacked by a guy and flinch yourself into sleeper holding the guy.  But I think we are taken more seriously when we look at reaction/action.  Offbalances may be actions to you, but they are reactions to me.  Maybe its because I'm just a dipshit OKIE.    

Killing the Koryu to Save the Koryu

The problem with Koryu Kata is that there is not window of opportunity to put the time in to teach/learn them on a regular basis. Here's a hypothetical problem:  If  1 in 10 students make it to shodan, then it takes a 100 students and 2 years to make 10 koryu ready shodan.   From there you have to figure on your Black Out rate. If they " Black Out"  which means they quit upon getting shodan that means you have 1 or 2 shodans out of the 100 original students.  These shodans would spend most of their dojo time working with lower level beginning Ukes.  No wonder we seldom advance further than 35 basic techniques, with The Koryu being just a vehicle for promotion instead of mastery.  No wonder we only do 2 koryu.   


I think that its time someone in the Tomiki World grew a pair of pedagogical nuts and started teaching the Koryu  movements.  You noticed that I said movements and not Kata.  What I'm proposing is looking koryu kata across all six kata, and putting movements into related sets.    I guess you could call them new kata if you had the balls.  But you could call them sets and avoid a lot of arguments.


The most obvious set  of koryu is the suwari waza, or sit on your knees techniques.


If your knees can handle it get on them and use them.  It's taken me four years to get a basic comfort level with knee work.   Western folks should expect to suck at suwari, and suck for a long time.

Anyway,  we have Ichi kata suwari waza.  These probably provide the most basic concepts, but all suwari are basic by nature.  .    The first thing I noticed is that  suwari techniques feel exceptionally strong and effective.   My hypothesis is that this trains an kinesthetic expectation of all other techniques.   

the first minute of this clip has 5 very important movements, ideas, concepts. I've wrote about these before, and I think they provide a different perspective of aikido apart from the 17 and releases.There are eight here in San Kata.  Seems to be a lot of Atemi concepts woven into Old Boys version that I havent seen over here in Texhoma country.  I dig it.  Its the probably the Daito Influence

  

Here are some Go movements, some are similar, but some look like they are touching on different principles or concepts.

  

Here are some Roku movements, it looks like suwari release techniques.

So there may be 12-20 Suwari waza once you sift out for redundancy, if there is redundancy which I'm not so sure there is.  I think we need to look at the Koryu as a whole, and start classifying the techniques into sets.  It's worth doing.  Nick Lowry has mentioned a lot about keiko and Renshu.  That's shut up and do it versus talk a lot, do a little.  We might as well use these concepts as instructional guides too.  Renshu=reps.  Keiko= familiarity

Here's a talking out of my ass curriculum  /ranking proposal.(remember I'm a 400 hour shodan so take this with a grain of bullshit)  Remember ranking was originally used for matching purposes.  It came from that Japanese checkers game GO.  Non-competitive Aikido folks should use the ranking for instructional/training purposes.  You could still have your rank demonstrations, but the rank means what you work on with dojo time, and how you should approach your training.   

Rank 1-   Ukemi_renshu
                 Walking part A(renshu)
                   Walking part B (keiko) 
                 releases 1-4 renshu
                                5-8 keiko
                 17- (1-5) renshu
                         (6-10) keiko
                    Koryu set 1 (part A) keiko

Rank 2
                ukemi_renshu
                 Walking (renshu)
                 releases 1-8
                 17- (1-10) renshu
                         (11-17) keiko
                    Koryu set 1 renshu
                    Koryu set 2 part A keiko

Rank 3
              ukemi_renshu
                 Walking (renshu)
                 releases 1-8 renshu
                 17- (1-17) renshu
                   B10 (1-5) keiko
                    Koryu set 1-2 renshu
                    Koryu set 3 part A keiko

Rank 4  
                 ukemi_renshu
                 Walking (renshu)
                 releases 1-8 renshu
                 17- (1-17) renshu
                   B10 (1-10) renshu
                    Koryu set 1-3 renshu
                    Koryu set 4 part A keiko   


You can see the pattern I'm talking about.   It's about about dojo work.  Its about putting the Koryu kata back into our Aikido practice.   It's just cool shit, folks.  And people shouldn't have to wait for years to fiddle with it.  I think that the 17 and releases should be taught as quickly as possible in order for people to have a Physical Vocabulary for understanding  the Koryu.  Yeah, certain things will look and feel a lot shittier for a while, but its got to look and feel shitty before it gets better. 


              
                     


  

Budo: An Okie's translation

Aikido works best once you've taken the trash out.  The old timers call it an empty mind. Competition, trying to win seems to gather the trash.  Same thing with trying not to lose.   People like to compete because it gives them a measuring stick of how good they are. Its a room full of fake boobs.  There is a difference between how good you are in relation to some phony  measuring sticks and standards and how good you are in relation to the deep shit life drops on you.

Competition has the notion of  external enemies.  Survival has the notion of  weathering bad situations independent of people.       

I've been trying to take the trash out here lately.  Trying to put my self in that state of mind where I have no external enemies, no assholes to deal with. The biggest asshole is me, or more specifically all the ignorant ass notions I have in my mind.   You don't have to be a Morty Youshiba to understand this shit.  Ever had so much on your mind that you ran a red light? Maybe because you were dealing with the inner asshole.  

I don't know what budo is.  It's a old timey Japanese concept.  You had to be old timey and Japanese to fully understand it.  The way Indians used to have 50 different ways to say brown, or the Eskimos 50 different ways to say snow, or the pacific islanders had 50 different ways to describe the ocean waves.    

An empty mind isnt the same as not giving a shit.  I havent been so scared that Ive taken a dump in my pants, but that's the common knowledge about fear in relation to shit.  I suppose that the term "not giving a shit" means "holding your shit together."   That when faced with a  dangerous situation not shitting your pants seems to be the standard measure of preliminary success. 

One old timer said don't blink.  Another old timer said go ahead and blink, its natural.  Not blinking means suppression of natural actions.  I don't think that an empty mind has anything about suppressing emotions.  Emotional responses are like blinking.  I don't think that martial arts training keeps you from being scared shitless.   It just allows you to treat being scared shitless like blinking.  Same thing with getting pissed off.

  Looking to box things up into explainable actions: the walking, the releases, the 17, the big 10 makes for a good story. A cause and effect.  But it eventually becomes  potential  trash that needs to be taken out.  Failure in randori amounts to holding on to the wrong response, holding on to the trash.  That's dealing with the internal asshole, the guy standing in front of you has nothing to do with it.    
Kata is a box.  A box fills up.  You keep it or you throw it out, in relation to the deep shit life throws at you. 

I think Iaido is the purest martial art there is.  It's all kata.  If you were ever in deep shit and happened to have a sword in your hand, I think you'd know what to throw out and what to keep.  Most of Iaido is dealing with the inner asshole, the guy who just has to have his way.  It take's this dude a minute and a half to draw his sword.  All the proper sitting, and skirt tucking, is squaring away the inner asshole.  There is more non sword shit, than sword shit.  I think that's budo.   Bujutsu, or being an effective asshole, tends to have more sword shit.  Its more about the winning. 

Texhomiki , Tejazushi, and Strategy of Movement( an Okie-do ramble)

I write a lot about the atemi/ self defense part of aikido, and I dont want to come off as one of those guys.    I'd say That about 15% to 20% of my aikido thinking is self defense, but I think that self defense based martial arts training instruction takes a lot of the long term enjoyment out of the study.  To be one of those guys, you have to be always "on."   There is a lot of fear and paranoia with self defense issues, and its just not fun to go there on a regular basis.  A lot of my aikido is light exercise and stress relief and not to sound like Morty too much, I think that the best way to "connect" with the world is through physical movement.

Jack calls Aikido the strategy of movement.  With the strategy of movement there lies the realm slowness and softness, and tactile perception, balance perception.  In my other posts I call this the footfalls and cottonballs approach.  self defense wise, its sketchy.  But when you think with a self defense mind set its all sketchy.  You don't know who is gonna jump you, when, how many, and what have you.  You approach things with a scattered outlook.  Scattered isnt a fun way to live.  The strategy of movement isnt scattered.

I think that most soft martial arts have a problem with atemi, or unconnected disruptive force.  It lends it self to a seeing mentality.  looking for openings.  instead of feeling for openings or oppurtunities.  there are balance and extension issues that don't jive well with the aikido.  A seeing mindset is a different mindset than a feeling mindset.

Also, soft martial arts work along a system of actions/reactions.  It has been called a Tori/Uke relationship but I think this becomes abstract to a point.  A matter of philosophy.  I think we are behind the curve a bit in aikido in general, however  Texas/Oklahoma Tomiki Aikido (yeah, I said Texas and Oklahoma) has bridged the gap somewhat.  Aikido has been called fake because people dont understand the system of actions/ reactions and really, compared to other soft arts, it just isnt there on a concrete, instructional level.  The problem is literally placement of the hands.  In judo, you have hands on the jacket somewhere both hands engaged action reaction is taught explicitly  In tai chi, you have push hands, two hands engaged and its really the same as judo.  Kung Fu sticky hands; the same deal.   Goju ryu karate has kake, which is a form of sticky hands.   Aikido tries to have disconnected softness.  It has the grabbing of hands, but mostly its a disconnected artform.  Tomiki called it separated judo, but to keep it separated he used the Tanto. 

Anyway, the separated nature of aikido makes it unique.  I hate the word connection, but I think here its a valuable descriptor.  It's connecting with softness.  Instead of a strike, its an off balance movement that terminates in a throw, or pin of some sort.  It is kind of like Jodo, an interplay between sword mechanical themes, and stick mechanical themes, but not quite.

Here is what Tomiki Aikido has turned into with out Tanto Randori.   I can't say that my execution of this Kata, is the same, but I have been instructed on the concepts of principles and I can look at it and understand what is going on here.  Its very circular and wavelike.  Don't let the Hakama's or the cool looking dojo fool you.  This is an American translation of Tomiki Aikido, and I think its a damn fine version.  It's from the Windsong Dojo in Oklahoma.  This is Texhomiki Aikido.

Here is a traditional version From England.  I  dig it.  Looking at it raises questions, however about some of the things Texhomiki Aikido does.  Let's just take it technique by technique. 

1.  shomenate.  This is about how I have been taught to do it.  pretty simple.  The Windsong guys do a late timing version.   In Texas and Oklahoma we have a Kata called the Owaza Ju Pon, that is very circular and  I think it may have had an influence on the movement, but I may be talking out of my shodan ass here.

2. aigamae ate.  I dig the English version.  I've seen the daito ryu thing where tori controls uke's elbow and gives him the middle knuckle "eff U" to the short ribs before finishing a technique, and I now see this as a related idea.  Its almost seems like a failure response to a #6 ikkyo.  I think the version we do in texas/oklahoma is very dependent on a Uke that reorients strongly.  I asked Jack about the goofy wind up, and he said simply, its in the case that your hand slips off.  also, we see a suggestion of our Texas signature off balance-Tejazushi. (nobody has bothered to put a term to our stepping forward offbalance, so I'm calling it Tejazushi.)

3.   Gyaku gamae ate-   here is a offbalance that we sort of discount, because it seems limited in a self defense framework.  but I wish I worked on it more.  I think it may help a guy with the footfalls and feeling offbalance.  we lose a vehicle for soft connection.  sometimes instructing from a self defense perspective muddles things.  If you ever slow danced in canvas pajamas judo style to feel footfalls and balance then you should have time to do this.  tomiki did this, and tomiki wasnt an idiot.  The Texhomiki version goes to the face, and has a spinelocking variant. 

4. Gedan Ate--the same--except I think Texhomiki features a superior fit-Tsukiri.  

5.  Ushiro--Both are about the same. 

6.  Oshi Ikkyo--  The english version has the back up kuzushi and then cycles the balance shift into the technique, again I think the back up kuzushi is a good cycling idea.  The Tejazushi version appears to work off a cycle and a reorientation by Uke. 

7.  Texhomiki features a pin

8, 9, 10.  My take is this is where tejazushi comes from.  you notice the offbalance toward the same back corner in the English Kata.   People call em butterfly catches.  Tejazushi is a onewing butterfly. 

17.  notice the hand flick to get the rise.  hmm where have I seen that before?   

Anyway, while The English kata seems more staccato but it features some different kuzushi ideas.  I think we limit our kuzushi options when we muddle the strategy of movement with self defense notions and  scattering. 

 

Technical Drift from Reality (Dojo Unicorns)

I dig Rory Miller.  I read a book by the guy named, "Meditations on Violence" A couple of years ago.  I'm rereading it  here lately   To nutshell it: It's about examining reality vs fiction.  It's about classroom/dojo realities and practices vs reality as Miller has experienced it.  Here's a clip on the guy.


He talks about a guy who sees a Rhino in Africa tells a story about it. As more people share the story the Rhino turns into a Unicorn with all the made up effed up notions that come with a Unicorn.

You may notice in the vid that he shows a guy throwing a Kote gaeshi wrist throw against a knife, then he shows how knife attacks really happen.   One's a Unicorn but with a lot of classroom/dojo reality mixed in(that is, all the angles and moves are technically right).  The other two attacks are straight up Rhino.

I mention this stuff because the other night at class we did some knife randori.  It wasn't  Miller realistic but it was very beneficial and I hope we can get a steady diet of it.  It just makes the aikido more aikido if you know what I mean.  The principles/rules of thumbs we learn just pop out a lot more.   I'm not going to stop doing it because it isn't sociopath realistic.  It helps you find stuff and raise questions.  That's the point of practice. I think that if you are highly skeptical about the martial art that you study, then the self defense aspects of good, not so good, and stupid reveal them selves over time.  Don't get  Cocky or delusional.

If you read what you can about Tommy Key and Tommy Key's students , Tommy put the Tanto Knife randori in after Toshu hand Randori.  According to what I understand,  Tommy was having trouble with things becoming a judo match.  He put the knife in as distance regulator, to keep two guys off of each other, and make sure that an extended arm was always in the equation.  It didn't  have anything to do with handling real knife attacks, even though by doing it you maybe come more aware of issues pertaining to knifes(unless you are living in cloud KooKooLand with the Unicorns).


Anyway, my take is that Tommy wasn't putting knife notions out there, he was putting separated judo notions out there.  One of his early scoring systems he lifted from volleyball.  He wasn't trying to model reality, but more importantly he wasn't deluded into thinking he was.  But there were some things he was doing that seem alot more Rhino than Unicorn.  lets look at the the kyogi vid some more.                                                                                        
                                                                                                 

         

Tommy does a lot of  two handed stuff.  He latches on alot with both hands.  His movement doesn't look  akikai smooth, but it looks right. A lot of folks say that he's old, but he doesnt have the typical bad judo knees(which means he knew how to move without wrecking his knees), and he wasn't a chicken mcnugget eating fat hakama wearer.  He moves.  He moves. He moves.  Did I happen to mention that he moves?   Also, look at his Kote gaeshi and compare it to the unicorn in the miller clip.  What alot of people miss is that a lot of what Tommy was teaching was based off of avoidance. We call it stepping off line, but I think Tommy made more of it. Alot of his techniques are based on which way you avoid.  I say this because in his walking kata, he's getting the hell out of the way.  He gets Ohba to try to whack him with a stick. And jumps the hell out of the way.

Tommy models 4 kote gaeshi, 2 avoiding to the outside, 2 avoiding to the inside.  He latches on with two hands and doesnt do anything real fancy.  But for an old guy he sure makes the point of showing that you get the hell out of the way on kote gaeshi.   Tommy had three principles he worked with. First was the natural posture, second, non-resistance.  Third, breaking balance.  Non-resistance was his way of saying, "get the hell out of the way."   It's a tanto/ spear/sword based principle, not an airy fairy hakama hippy principle. 

Anyway,  I had so much fun doing knife randori the other evening I got thinking about the Tomiki way of doing things and I also started looking at my Tomiki books that I previously deemed a little bit too much on the sport aikido side of things.  One is called "Aikido Randori" by  Tetsuro Nariyama.  I got looking at it and I thought there are a lot of good things in here that just sort of have been lost, excluded, or ignored.  Some pretty simple rhino shit about how to grab a guys arm and toss him.  A lot of two handed stuff, no Ki discussions, no Hakamas. 

Going back to the Rhino/unicorn Ideas from Miller.  Miller says something along the lines that when you teach/practice martial arts there is a cultural assumption that you are an expert on violence and violent people. ( I aint)  What has typically happened is that every style has the equivalent of a patient zero in the medical realm, the source of a technical outbreak of ideas, specific or general that helped them out of deep shit (what type of deepshit depends on the time and place). They put ideas out there and they start to degrade over time. They start out very rhino and become more and more unicorn.  In Tommy Key aikido we have a person who wasn't a Patient Zero, he was a judo guy who never stopped learning. He was very realistic ideas about 3 things:  natural postures, non-resistance, and breaking balance in a controlled environment.  If these things happen to help defend yourself then that's a positive side effect.  But that was never the original intent of  a majority Tommys ideas. .  My advice is don't try to be an expert on violence and violent people, and more importantly don't try to be a hakama hippy and a violence expert at the same time.  Don't invent more unicorns.