Northern Wind

A question came up the other today about the difference between the words "tenkan" and "tenkai" which I think gets confused at times. As far as I understand it... Tenkan 転換 breaks down as: 転 suddenly, quickly   換 change, alter, substitute and together 転換 as convert or divert You might think of it as changing direction suddenly, or diverting uke's energy. In aikido, it refers to a turning movement (tenkan ashi), usually 180 degrees: Tenkai 転回, however, breaks down like this: 転 suddenly, quickly 回 turn, rotate, revolve and together 転回 as revolution or rotation In much of the aikido world, it refers to a form of movement, what we commonly call a "hip switch", where you turn 180 degrees but without moving our feet (we do it in the Walking Kata, but there it's called "ude goshi gaeshi" or arm-hip reversal, which frankly is probably more clear): Both tenkan and tenkai are part of what's called tai sabaki or ...

I'm a graphic designer by trade, so occasionally I get the uncontrollable urge to redesign various bits of info pertinent to budo when I get a spare moment. Here's a reference chart of "kyusho" or vital points taken from Pascel Krieger's seminal book on Shindo Muso Ryu Jodo, "The Way of the Stick."  Feel free to use this JPEG however you like. If you prefer a scaleable PDF, you can download it here .

I will be the first to admit that it's often a lot easier to refer to a technique or kata by it's corresponding number. "Number 3" is just easier and comfortable for an non-Japanese speaker to say than "Gyakugamae ate", and it's also a lot easier to remember. But if you have fallen into that habit, I would urge you to take some time and learn the Japanese terminology. Not only that, but do a little research on it, because frankly, the translations we've heard throughout our training are not always all that accurate. Take the judo throw seoi nage , for example. If you're like me, you've probably heard it translated as a "shoulder throw." But if you look it up, you'll find something a bit different. (FYI, the translation source I was most commonly is Denshi Jisho , supplemented by Google , Babylon and others like that.) 背負 It actually means something more along the lines of "to carry on one's back". No...

I've been getting so much out of watching this guy. This is a nice example of just pure "aiki": no focus on any specific technique, no competition, not randori just yet, but what's often referred to as jiyu waza , just.... aiki. (It clocks in at almost 20 minutes, but for me, worth it.)

Maybe someone out there with a little experience and/or a more in-depth knowledge of Japanese can help me straighten out some names. I'm having a hard time pinning down one term. The basic, rolling breakfall we do is most often called " zempo kaiten ukemi ". Which makes sense, since from what I can tell "zempo" is "front or forward" and "kaiten" is basically "rotation" or rolling. What I'm trying to nail down is the fall you do to the front, but there's no rolling. You basically kick your legs out from under you (backwards), land first on your forearms, then chest, then legs, sort of doing a breakdancing type or "worm" movement until you're laying face down, flat on the ground. This is one of the few images I could find of it: A few rare instances, I find it called " mae ukemi " which makes sense, as "mae" seems to mean "front or fore", but the confusing thing is a LOT of sites use...

In a previous post, I talked about practicing a few variations on the basic rolling breakfall, or zempo kaiten ukemi . I described them as best as I could (as I do with everything I talk about here), but many times, it's hard to picture a visual thing when reading about it. And I've been wanting to start recording video of various things I've been tinkering with, but have never gotten around to it. Today, however, I finally gave it a shot. I had intended to record all of the drills I described in that post, but my dumb camera kept flaking out on me. I've never used it to record video before, so I'm not sure what the problem is. (I have no other media on it and it has a 2 gig card in it, but it would keep stopping in the middle of recording to say "Busy, please wait," and then when a picture came back on the view finder, it wasn't recording anymore.) So, either I'm going to find out from friends what the deal is, or I'll try my wife's camera...

I've been struggling to try and squeeze a little sitting meditation into my life, and haven't been very successful. My life is fairly jam-packed, as it happens (I'm sure that's most people's excuse). I have too many interests and hobbies, it seems. In the past, I had entertained the idea of adding it to the routine of our morning classes, but feared I would be the only one truly interested in it (although the others would probably be too polite to say they weren't interested in it). And then, lo and behold, someone else actually suggested it! My friend and fellow budoka, Scott, happens to have had a little experience with it and he wanted to know if we could do a little seated meditation in aikido. Well, sure, I said! Now, most traditional budo classes start right off the bat with a little mokuso (meditation), but he suggested doing it after the ukemi practice and just before the Walking kata (tegatana no kata). Since some have described the Walk as a form of...

Learned another interesting term, courtesy of fellow budoka/blogger Pat Parker (the definition comes from a handful of sources): Shikaku : Literally, the "dead angle" or dead corner, or the vulnerable angle. Position relative to one's partner where it is difficult for them to continue to attack, and from which it is relatively easy to control one's partner's balance and movement. The first phase of an aikido technique is often to establish shikaku . Pat, then, takes the term a bit further to refer to those place where uke can't quite see what tori is up to, such as with shomen ate. Well, just read how he explains it . It's interesting to me how it might relate to judo as well. I haven't given it a lot of thought, so while I can't think of a specific example other than the fact that, when grappling with guys who know what they're doing, you very rarely see the choke or the arm bar coming. Hmmm....

This from Wikipedia: Shidoin (指導員:しどういん) is a Japanese title, often used in budo. The word means instructor and is usually used to designate an official intermediate level instructor within an organization. A senior instructor would have the title Shihan . Various budo arts and organizations have different requirements for the usage of the title, but in general it corresponds to 4th or 5th Dan. Some organizations also have the more junior title Fuku Shidoin which corresponds to assistant instructor. These titles are often separate from the dan rankings and are much more specific than the more general sensei . The titles Fuku Shidoin, Shidoin and Shihan roughly correspond to the titles Renshi , Kyoshi and Hanshi , respectively, used by other martial arts organizations. The Aikikai adopted this instructor designation system in the 1970s, around the time of the creation of the International Aikido Federation.

So, what more advice could I give the aspiring ukemi artist? Step 3 Do a lot of it (I mean a LOT) I know I've said it before, but the main obstacle standing in the way of great ukemi is good ol' fashioned fear. Our Subconscious Mind is afraid of hitting the ground because it thinks it will get hurt. The only way to change it's opinion on the matter is to convince it—through bazillions of repetitions—that it's okay to fall. I've also gone into the benefits of a crash pad , but as far as I'm concerned, I can't emphasize it enough. As a brown belt, I would spend the ukemi time during class alone with a crash pad. I would start on one side, roll, get up, and roll back the other way, over and over, until it was time for the class to move on. By then, my legs were so rubbery, I could barely stand. 15 years later, I still use the crash pad. Get the basic, fundamental rolling breakfall thoroughly ingrained. All the other versions—the flippy air falls, guruma falls,...

Okay, more terms I didn't know. (How long have I been doing this stuff? And I still don't know these things? I feel like I need to take some sort of GED exam, study a text book day and night and pass a test to catch up). Jiyu waza From what I understand, this refers to a sort of middle step between kata and randori, which I knew always existed, I just didn't have a name for it. The rolls of uke and tori are agreed upon beforehand, and uke is usually compliant. Despite being a "freestyle" sort of exercise, I mostly do jiyu waza with some sort of limit, i.e. limited types of attack (only releases, or only shomen ate, etc.), or in some cases, limited to variations of just one technique. It's a wonderful training method that I'd like to do more of, actually. Randori (Literally: taking/grasping chaos ) Whereas kata resides at one end of the spectrum where everything is known (we know who uke is, what the attack will be, which hand, and what the technique will b...

Part of my never-ending budo education comes in the form of terminology. Sometimes it's a word for something I was already aware of, but just didn't have a Japanese name for, and sometimes a new word opens me up to a whole new concept that, upon closer inspection, was already there, but was not something I have ever considered directly. I try to keep a record of them here, as I encounter them, if only for my own benefit and recollection. A few recent discoveries: Onsoku Foot movements . Unsoku is a series of body movements designed to promote good posture and avoidance skills within the Tomiki system of Aikido. The first section of tegatana no kata is comprised of these sorts of movements. Hazumi Force created through motion , or the movement of one's center. Ikioi Classically, any force created through use of muscle , but I've come across many applications where very little muscle is required to cause kazushi, but the hands and/or arms are still acting independently of...

The stillness of the Kyokochi Pond at Kinkaku - ji (Golden Temple) - Kyoto It's been a while, hasn't it? Why, I can't say. At times, I seem full of ideas and thoughts; I'm bursting at the seams and anxious to share it all with someone, anyone (which is the main reason I started a blog in the first place). But then there are times, when I have nothing to say. Not that I've lost interest in budo , or that I'm sick, or being held hostage in a far-off country with no internet capabilities (although I've succumbed to all but one of those scenarios in the past). Rather, my mind is quiet, still. My eyes are open, as are my ears. My mouth, however, is shut. This morning, I had a hard time getting out of bed and dragging myself to judo (it's been hard for a couple of weeks actually). When I got to the dojo , two other yudansha were already there and suited up. For some odd reason, I decided not to even put my gi on, but instead just sat on the bench and wat...

I found another fairly in-depth glossary. http://secavian.com/Aikido/Glossary.aspx

A quick note about something I learned regarding whether to write "senpai" or "sempai". This from Wikipedia: ...Senpai is often seen romanized as "sempai" because it is pronounced that way (the Japanese "n" (ん) is pronounced as "m" when it comes before bilabials, such as "p").

I've heard several terms for this little sub-set of holds, but not all of them were the original Japanese name. All of these are based around one of the fundamental hold downs of osaekomi waza (pinning techniques), kesa gatame , or "scarf hold". The first, most basic form can also be called hon kesa gatame (hon meaning "main" or "basic/normal/regular"). Oddly enough, I had a hard time finding a decent picture of it online (everyone seems to favor one of the variations). Then there's what I've mostly heard of as the "envelope" but which is technically kuzure kase gatame . I most often hear kuzure translated as "broken" but most online dictionaries translate it as "crumbling" or "collapsing", which makes me wonder if this hold was originally thought of as a lesser form of the hold, as in "the world is falling apart and this is the best hold you can manage"? Hmm . Anyway, here's what i...

Renraku waza Basically, it means combination techniques, or flowing from one thing to the next. I've also seen it as renzoku waza , which seems to be a clearer term according to the Denshi Jisho online Japanese dictionary . Henka waza Variations of a given technique.

I recently happened upon a few new words that I thought were kind of interesting: Dohai I'd heard of kohai and sempai or course (someone who is your junior or senior, respectively), but what if someone is your exact same level? Well, he'd be your dohai . Shucho embu Public demonstration of a martial art. I've participated in a few, but never knew it had a name! Jiyu-renshu "Free practice" where one may move around, training with various folks with no formal "lesson." We'll do this in our school periodically, and it's a nice change of pace. Godo-geiko Practice session where two or more dojos get together to share an informal practice. We've always just called these "play days", but now I have something "official" to call it (even if I'm the only one!) Shido-geiko To train through teaching. Ever realize you knew something only when you tried to teach it someone else? Or even learn something entirely new? That's one...