Trainings before a grading

The following post is highly connected to the e-book about Aikido Grading Basics we have just released into the public.
The last couple of trainings before a grading are usually more focused than the others. This doesn't mean the others are not focused, it just means that the focus is on something else. In a normal training, we explore various attack types, particular techniques, a certain step, a certain beginning or something similar. In the trainings before gradings, however, we often practice the techniques which are in the syllabus, not so much their variations. We focus on the basic forms of techniques and not so much on how they can be combined with other movements, for example.

Just before our recent grading day, Karesz went to Hungary for a week to, apart from other things to arrange, train and learn in his old dojo. The last Sunday and Wednesday trainings hence got taken by the current senior students, Szabi and me. Szabi took the longer class as he is more experienced in aikido than me, and I took the Wednesday class because I love teaching (and not only aikido).

The Sunday class

The Sunday recipe was quite structured and straightforward: 4th kyu techniques, more or less in the order we have in our printed syllabus. Instead of simply going through the techniques, however, Szabi managed to connect them, and made the whole training logical. We didn't get as much sweat as usual (at least I didn't) but I felt that the way he explained things and asked us to practice was just right and useful for the upcoming grading. The class that is usually 1.5 hours long or a bit longer became 2 and a bit but noone protested against the overtime. There were still some techniques and attacks we didn't have time for, but we agreed that I would try to cover those in the Wednesday class.

The Wednesday class

Now I'm going to write about the Wednesday class. This description is longer than the previous because I'm also including why I did things the way I did and how I saw my ideas working.

I usually have a lot of ideas about what I want others to grasp, what principles I want to practice, and I tend to borrow exercises I saw or read about somewhere else. I like connection exercises in which we either don't do any particular aikido techniques or we do them in a connection focused way. These are the ideas my Wimbledon Kids Aikido classes are based on: none of the trainings are the same, and I always come up with new games to try, in addition to practicing the old ones (together with techniques) which worked the previous times.

Back to the adult class, we started the Wednesday training with a meditation focusing on one particular exercise for breathing: push your belt with your belly when breathing out (easy) and push your belt with your belly when breathing in (not so easy at first). I read about this method in books and websites and had tried it myself, tried it in the Wimbledon Kids Aikido Class (kids need distraction otherwise they start laughing and pushing the others while trying to meditate) and now I tried it in the Wednesday class. I'll gather feedback about it later as I forgot to talk about this with others after class.

I also used an unusual connection exercise as a first warm up exercise (unusual in our dojo, at least). I asked people to stand up and face their partners, then to put their palms together (so my left palm to your right palm, and my right with your left). One of them was the leader, and wherever his/her hand moved it had to be followed by the other's hands. Losing touch when being 'pulled' or resisting when being pushed was to be avoided, thus forcing connection and harmony. For example, one could move one hand up and the other down, or draw circles inwards with both hands, perhaps 'ask' the other to 'sit down' by moving both hands up and then moving them downwards palms facing down. You could also move around in the room but I forgot to tell and show this well in the demonstration part, so not many people did move much despite my telling them later that they were allowed to walk on the mat.

From this point in the training, we went back to standard aikido techniques. I had examined the syllabus before the training and counted how many people were practicing for which grades, and I tried to select techniques and attacks accordingly. In the beginning we did simple ikkyos as they are to be demonstrated at every level on Sunday. I considered this as a kind of warm up. Then we moved on to shihonage and kotegaeshi as these are needed for 6th kyu and for the other grades as well. Still part of the warm up, I asked people to practice rolling backwards from shihonage, and forward from kotegaeshi.

At some point in the training I divided the class into two groups. One group consisted of four people going for 4th and 3rd kyu (3:1 ratio) and another group consisted of a 6th kyu candidate, two 5th kyus and Szabi as helper. Everyone could choose a partner from their own group. Since Szabi was dealing with the 6th and 5th kyus, I didn't need to divide my attention so much and I could help the 4th and 3rd kyu group. We practiced techniques at various difficulty levels: sometimes it was the same technique for both groups only the attack was different (e.g. aihanmi vs. shomenuchi iriminage). Sometimes the attack and the techniques were both different as I wanted advanced people to practice techniques that are not requirements for 6th and 5th kyu.

When there was about 20 minutes left I changed the approach of the training. Instead of telling and showing what to do I simply let them do what they 'wanted'. When it's only the attack that is specified it is called jiyuwaza. I call it the 'whatever you like' exercise. For example, I say 'shomenuchi jiyuwaza' and that means the attack is shomenuchi and you should respond with whatever technique you can or want to do.

Naturally, 6th and 5th kyus are not expected to do this as their levels are not as high yet, so I modified the jiyuwaza rules for them: the attack was aihanmi katatedori but uke always had to say which technique they wanted to take ukemi from. For example, I approach you, grab your wrist and say 'kotegaeshi' or 'ikkyo'. You need to remember what this name refers to and do it. In ikkyo, you can do ura or omote, so there is a bit of challenge in terms of choice as well. Apart from making jiyuwaza easier, my aim was to help people memorise the names of the techniques. Especially for 6th kyu candidates (6th kyu is awarded on passing our very first test) it is quite a challenge to memorise the names and be able to connect the names with required movements (own example; see further details in our new e-book about Aikido Grading Basics). I hope I did some good with this exercise. They could memorise at least three technique names: kotegaeshi, shihonage and ikkyo, and Szabi was always there if help was needed.

I had a very interesting experience with the proper jiyuwaza for 4th and 3rd kyus. As we don't practice jiyuwaza in regular trainings, it was quite a challenge for them at first. I instructed them to do any technique from shomenuchi, and that I would count (ichi, ni, san, shi, etc.). The first round of 10-10 (10 as uke, 10 as tori) was quite unstructured. They started with one step and then moved to the step of another technique, or struggled with taking the other down, and they always tried to do the most complicated ones. I probably have some part in the latter as we had practiced the relatively complicated versions just before that, so I think they did them because those were the 'fresh' techniques. Then I asked them to sit down and think a bit about jiyuwaza. I told them a couple of hints to make it more structured, for example, if you do ikkyo omote first you might want to try ikkyo omote to the other side next so you have time to think about what other technique you are going to do next. I silently counted to ten and we had another 10-10 round. This was much more structured, less struggle-like, so there was an apparent improvement.

After the jiyuwaza versions, I instructed both groups to practice gyakuhanmi katatedori (mirrored stance) kokyunage (breath throw). The trick here was that there are a number of versions you can do, and for higher grades you are expected to demonstrate a range of kokyunages. Armand had been particularly worried about having to do this exercise in his grading so I included it in the training. I demonstrated four versions of kokyunage. A simple backstep version, a tenkan and throw version, an uchikaitennage-based version, and an ikkyo-based version. I told them they could do these or other versions they know, in any order, and that they did't need to do all of them if they didn't want to. Then I said hajime and observed. It was very funny and interesting to see what the 4th and 3rd kyu group who had just been told to do structured jiyuwaza did. They were suddenly so structured that they quickly memorised these four kokyunage versions and did all four of them in the same order I had just showed. I don't think they will have any problems with this in their grading. I smiled and I was happy that I seemed to have played a part in making them use their minds as well. They smiled at the end of the class and one of them told me how useful this aspect of practice was.

I came home very happy that evening.