So at what stage does uke learn to defend these attacks?.Or the other guy learns to counter that defence?So that you develop a layered approach to sell defence.
So to go to a wrestling scenario. I double leg. You sprawl. I switch to single. You get a leg out. I switch to knee tap and get the takedown.
Uke is the attacker ... Tori in Judo or Nage (in aikido) thrower, defender.
Uke is learning the defense by
receiving the defense.
The word Uke means "receive" or commonly defined: one who takes the fall.
A more nuanced translation is "one who gains knowledge through suffering"
Uke (literally "one who receives", [and the thrown one] ) and nage (the thrower) have a very special relationship.
Unlike many martial artists who competes with an opponent and trains against an opponent, traditionally the aikidoka trains with a partner who simulates an attacker.
There is no competition in aikido, no pitting of one person against another. Instead, each partner is half of a whole, each having equal responsibility for the learning experience.
The uke exists to enhance the learning of the partner.
Yes, he or she is learning a number of things that are specific to that role. But in essence his primary role is to act as the check and balance on the partner's developing skills and to provide constant feedback to the partner.
Half of one's training is in the role of uke. If you are doing something different in each role, your body simply gets confused about what it should be doing.
Sometimes you are the yin... other times the yang.
Uke and nage should be doing exactly the same thing in terms of principle so that training in each role is still creating enhanced martial skills.
Somehow this got really distorted in modern Aikido.
Aikido so often these days is all about a nage striving to execute incredibly complex techniques against an uke who attacks like a martially handicapped person.
This fundamentally limits the level of the practice to something extremely basic regardless of the years of effort put in. Very sad.
What is wanted is to have a nage who can execute technique against an opponent who is using the same principles that he is using.
From the practice perspective this is precisely when the training gets worth the while.
Ukes should be taught from the very start how to attack properly. This is
too often not the case.
Since one of the fundamental principles of Aikido is "kuzushi on contact", ukes should be taught how to grab in such a way that they can break the balance of the nage just with the grab itself, which is what an Akidoka should be trying to do if he grabbed a real life agressor.
Nage should be allowed to try to strike the uke when he grabs. If uke's grab doesn't allow him to defend against a punch or kick from nage, it isn't being done properly.
But much of what I see these days are examples of the attacker simply giving up right in the middle of his attack and it is terrible.
The Uke's job is to keep the attack continuous until it is brought under control by the nage. This is how uke gives feedback to nage.
Once one is past the beginner level of the art, if one leaves an opening anywhere in one's technique he should either be struck instantly or reversed.
In beginner practice, one should point out the openings but leave out the reversals simply because if a senior keeps reversing a technique the beginner never actually gets to do it and one doesn't ever learn to do something by
not doing it over and over.
But about the notion that the uke takes falls.
The fall is simply how the uke keeps himself or herself safe when nage gets kuzushi.
Uke provides feedback to the partner.
That is the role of uke. It takes the form of maintaining ones balance when the nage doesn't get kuzushi properly.
It takes the form of striking the nage when he or she is presents an opening. But they need not be all out punches.
In training the objective for the uki was simply tap the nage on the head to let him know he was open to a punch.
An uki didn't have to punch his lights out to let him know. Within Randori and in general, traditionally akido isnt a fight or competition... it is communication.
Its been said by masters in Aikido is 90% strikes, and that was corrected to say 100% strikes. Instead of each and every punch, there was a substitute made in their places.
This was summed up up in Saotome Sensei's statement: "Every throw you do in Aikido is a strike or strikes that you CHOOSE not to do."
I would say Aikido is 10 percent atemi plus 90 percent atemi.
Saotome Sensei frequently said that if you
knew the other guy would not, or could not strike you, ALL techniques were stoppable.
This is what it means when someone says the proverb "Aikido is 90% atemi". Atemi is implicit in every movement Aikido does.
It is uke's job as part of his training not to put nage in the position of having to make the atemi strikes explicit from either person's role.
Back to aikido being an art that shamelessly snatches from martial arts....
Saotome Sensei is firmly on record over 40 years saying that: "
Aikido has no "style". "
Saotome Sensei will do a class that looks like the softest T'ai Chi and then do a class that looks like the hardest karate.
He can throw you with a classic judo throw and he can send you flying with barely a touch.
It's ALL Aikido as far as he is concerened.
At its heart, Aikido is like most other Japanese martial arts in that it is imbued with "sword mentality".
One cut, one death is the model for Japanese sword and it influences all the other arts.
In karate, Funakoshi always said "one punch, one death". In Aikido it gets changed a bit by becoming Kuzushi on contact
(contained in the phrase Katsu hayabi, sometimes translated as instant victory).
The Aikidoka wins in the instant he came into contact (and that can actually be before the physical touch) then in that
instant that moment in time he chose to manifest the technique in a way that is creative rather than destructive.
But he had that one moment when he could have destroyed the opponent.
If that moment wasn't there, the rest was just wishful thinking and the Aikido is just a dance.
