Training camp, Veszprem, Day 4

The aikidoka start to look a bit worn due to the intense heat and the tiring nights in the second dojo (pub). We keep going though with not much less enthusiasm.

This training was my favourite so far. Although we always practiced these things in Fujita Shihan's seminars, I wasn't at a level then that would have allowed me to understand his teachings. As Elsner sensei explained, though, some of the information arrived at my head as some kind of enlightment. He showed and explained the same principles so clearly. But let's see what the techniques were:

This training was about uchi tenkan. When stepping uchi tenkan, positions are still very important: the defender should take up the exact same position as the attacker. We started practicing this step from gyakuhanmi katatedori (mirrored stance, grab a wrist). First we practiced stepping in (not irimi!) and the rest of the techniques were built on this. The first proper technique, that we did by starting as I described, was kokyunage. Then we changed the attack to yokomenuchi (angled cut) and jodan tsuki (punch towards the head). It was interesting to see that, independently from the type of attack, the defender had to do the same series of movements and the attacker was thrown the same way. After the initial step-in, we also stepped tenkan after a while. There is one thing that we heared from Sensei that I consider very important: when stepping in, and then when cutting, the head of the attacker should be kept in control, it was to be in an off-balance position, otherwise the balance is kept and the defender won't be able to throw the attacker. Moreover, the defender can even get into a dangerous situation in which his head is reachable by an attacking fist :).

Coming back to the step-in (or entering), when we step tenkan and throw the attacker off balance, and aihanmi position is created where the attacker should be off-balance. From this position, if we step the already well practiced uchi irimi step, the omote versions of all techniques can be done. Because of this, we practiced a number of techniques from previous trainings in the camp (katame waze, shihonage, etc.) If we combine the step-in with a soto tenkan step, it will be the ura versions of techniques that will be easy to start. Using these principles we practiced several techniques both from yokomenuchi and jodan tsuki (iriminage, kotegaeshi, shihonage, etc.). I hope to show some of these in an upcoming video.

The next training should be about ushiro waza (techniques when attacked from behind). I'm looking forward to another small enlightment.

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