Aikido Stance- what's so special
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- Опубліковано 4 жов 2024
- In this video I talk about the way we stand in Aikido, and how it's not at all mystical- despite the common idea that it is a very particular stance.
Music by: Nickk Dropkick
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As usual your approach helps to get a Cristal clear understanding about why we do such weird things in aikido !
* Roppo no kamae. I used to teach a variety of stances. When i took a basic pistol safety course the instructor said that I should use the "weaver" or "isosceles". Know I understand why they teach new people to stand in certain stances. I stress less on specific stances as your body should naturally know where to place themselves. "You've been walking on those things for most of your life and now some old bearded balding fat guy (me) is gonna tell you different"; quote from many of my classes.
Great video. I thought the point of the stance was that you can spin 180 degrees with very little footwork, which makes it good if you're surrounded.
Yes that does make perfect sense. Pretty cool.😎
Thanks for your support!
Is Josh going to have his own spin off series one day?
Likely.
Also, OSensei said to do aikido you must first stand on the floating bridge of heaven, ame no ukihashi. If you can’t do that I think it’s ok to stand on the floor for now.
For we mortals, it is best.
"The struggle is real," LOL. My aiki-jargon is almost as bad and rusty as my actual aikido, but I think I've also heard the phrase "ten stance"? Did I imagine that? Or was it some weird local thing in that particular club?
Hmmm, I'm not sure what 'ten-stance' would be. There are many names for this- I dislike calling it Hanmi because I think that name is best used for relative position. Thanks for commenting!
@@ChuShinTani I should probably not be digging myself in deeper without doing some better research, but if I'm remembering correctly I _think_ the rationale was that the near-perpendicular feet position was like the kanji (or _a_ kanji) for the number ten. But I might have garbled that too! And thanks for the reply!
There is no kamae in AiKiDo - Shoji Nishio ;-)
Nishio Shoji was a very smart man.
Many others of his generation have repeated this, although if you look at his films and his book, he advocates for a kendo/iaido stance with both feet pointed forward.
@@jamesfrankiewicz5768 once you engage, not before ;-)
@@jamesfrankiewicz5768 I studied his AiKiDo 16 years ;-) It's been a while since I've read his book, but I seem to remember that it starts with him showing an open no kamae posture as the starting point when facing others.
I don't know if it's because I walk with my toes slightly turned out or what, but the stance in aikido has always felt very natural to me. Does this make my aikido better? Who knows? I just keep coming and trying to learn. :)
I find the "older" position of the feet brings more power from the hip and also less stress on the knees, but what I have learned from Nishios footwork gives better Irimi and reach (including atemi). FWIW.
I also using foot slightly turned out. I dunno it feels more natural.
Dear teacher I wonder why not use a bokken to help explain the stance?? Would it had made 🤔 more sense to use a jo or bokken??
I think showing it as a weapon stance further adds to the complexity. The reason you stand that way with a sword is because you move faster forward and backwards that way- same answer less complexity.
Thanks for your comments!
@@ChuShinTani please pardon me I did not know it would make it more complicated
aikido stance comes from kenjutsu, it makes PERFECT sense to use a boken and also helps explain the movements of the body, the hands, the feet. in fact, "the boken" is a crucial detail...
@@JustMe-vz3wd I think it does make sense and does explain it...
... but I think I kinda agree with Christopher that it adds to the complexity for new students. The 'it's all very simple, just think of how we'd do this with a sword!' is definitely lateral thinking when we're about to do something _without_ the sword...
Tomiki always stated "Mushin Mugamae" meaning no stance... Thats what it means, no stance... Tomiki's Shodokan symbol is to move in 8 different directions according to circumstance and the attack from a jigotai position meaning just standing ... The "stance" is fundamental in all martial arts and is nothing special... Thats why he devised the exercise of "Unsoku" or basic foot movement to make things simple to understand... How not to be there when attacked and being at the best possible angles of entry to attack and defend simultaneously... Have a good day Chris... ua-cam.com/video/7hC2VhT6qkw/v-deo.html&ab_channel=TonyWagstaffe
Tomiki Kenji was a very smart man.
@@ChuShinTani He was Chris, and very underestimated... Seen as a "heretic" to those with closed minds... 😏
The Yoshinkan kamae is overly complex and a pain to explain. It's very particular and restrictive.
I think that if HANMI means HALF BODY, you are not in hanmi in reference to your partner, in the way how you present it.
Also for ROPPO, it is not just a stance from my point of view.
This is oversimplified, without the richness that terms like HANMI and ROPPO can give.
At this point, we could even leave them out.
My interpretation of 半身 (hanmi) is that you are not standing square to the person in front of you, thus half of your body is in front of half of their body. I'm not the only person who uses this interpretation, and there are many who hold opposing interpretations. Who's correct- that's for you to decide.
However I feel that using hanmi as a relative position instead of an isolated position gives more clarity to why getting to hanmi is a major goal and distinguishing roppo no kamae as the position that happens when you step makes more clear what is happening in movement.
There are many things left out of this video- I could probably make twenty videos on kamae and still leave volumes unexplored.
@@ChuShinTani I've interpreted the "half-body" translation as related to angle of the line connecting the hip joints to the line connecting the shoulder joints or to the line of attack. It's with the hip offset by about 45° either (with the shoulders mostly square to the line of attack). Compare to hitoemi, where both the shoulders and hips are inline, or most of the other popular stances in other Japanese budo (kendo, iaido, judo, karate) where the hips and shoulders are usually square (or close to square) to the line of attack. There's a few strains of karate that use a stance pretty much the same as Aikido's classic hanmi, with some called it "hanmi-dachi" and other "sankaku-dachi" (triangle standing).
Now, I'm not convinced that roppo no kamae actually refers to the body position, despite John Steven's translation of Ueshiba's book "Budo" which replaced "roppo no kamae" with "hanmi" (Stan Pranin called that one out in one of his many Aikido Journal articles). It could just as easily refer to a balanced, ready, and mobile state, non-specific to body position.
Yes, in my approach this is not how I talk about it.
@@ChuShinTani yes, now it is more clear and makes much more sense.
But you may agree, that if you could make 20 more videos, it means that there is much which could be explored.
I thought you were able to resume everything in one single and longer video :)
@@ChuShinTani I see that it allows your lead hand, the one with the tool or implement closer to the target and more distance between Uke and Tori. I refrain from using the "W" (weapon) words as some get bothered by it.