First off, let me say one thing; a load of the terminology I use in this guide such as 'active/passive balancing' and the next two following terms were made up by me on the damned spot. There really is no big 'dictionary of aikido terms', I just use these terms to be able to reference you people better to them and be able to talk about them easier. By no means are any of these terms - perhaps only remotely - part of the average aikidoer's weltgeist (his ideals of certain terms' meanings). Anyways, the following is for the average
Blue belt and up,
- although via normal methods most people will learn this in their late brown belt levels. So if you're a brown/black belt, I suggest you read this. A blue belt, however, has all of the skills required to be able to learn the following. The requirments for you to read the following is ; understanding of balance, both active and passive (check chapter before this one for that), and how your joints move your character (something only experience can teach properly). If you've got both, then read on.
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I'm going to now take you on a journey through the murky lands of uncertainity - it is impossible for me, at this stage, to list every move possible. There are simply too many situations in aikido for me to be able to list every single "reversal/counterattack" and "evasion". Those two terms I will explain in detail, naturally, but I can only give several examples for them - I encourge you, as a rising aikido player, to apply the two concepts I'm about to give you on your own moves, and they will be damned effective. So without any further ado, let's begin;
Evasion - What is it? What are the principles of it? Examples?
In most aikido games at your level you'll be faced with the full frontal force of your enemy - and with your skills up to this point you will attempt to clash his force with you force - and hopefully overpower your enemy. Attempting to simply overpower your enemy has proven you well for your last matches - it is a very effective and easy tactic. However, one day, one match, you're bound to fail to outpower your foe. From here you will attempt to do passive balancing (look up the chapter before this one if you don't know what passive balancing is) and then attempt to overpower him again, if you're good.
However...
This is not always the quickest and safest way to win. If you do passive balancing at this point then you'll most likely be close to the borders of the dojo (the box with the insta dq zone outside of it even for feet/hands) and thus in severe disadvantage. You can turn this to your advantage - more on that later with the reversals, but for now;
Maybe you could've prevented this situation in the first place? What if, say, your enemy were to be pushing you with all of his force, and then suddendly, you step to the side, duck underneath him, or jump over him, and then he'd find himself using all of his force against the thin air instead of you? The same thing would happen as it would in a real life battle - your foe will very quickly move his body towards the ground unless he has a very firm balance, which is unlikely if he's pushing that madly at you (because he wants to do passive balancing on your body - with no enemy body to balance on, he will need to suddendly balance by himself).
Protip #1: While it's technically possible to use the evasion technique by jumping over the enemy, you'd need a crap load of foward motion and a huge jump to achieve those sort of results. I don't recommend trying to this as anything but a last resort - because it's simply more likely for the enemy to be able to push you out of the ring easier if you launch yourself into the air like that - it is very unlikely that they'll lose their 'control' over you, unless, like I said, put a crap load of foward motion into your jump. I've warned you - side stepping and ducking (
Protip #2: Try relaxing your knees and contracting your hips if you're still on the ground for a simple 'duck') are both much easier and much more effective.
I call this move "evasion" but, like I explained before, I doubt this move has a real term, so it's made up on the spot. A recap: to use evasion, step out of the way of the incoming enemy force in order to use the enemy force against them. Attached is a reply called 'very risky' or something to such an extent to show you how the move works. It's a real aikido match that I played some time ago, it consists me of evading a person's attempt to lift kick me out of the dojo (use a kick to lift me and then to push me out into the insta-dq floor) and then waiting for the force to make the person land into the dojo (with very little help from my use of weight). Go check it out
Then there's also the concept of 'partial evasion'. The idea of partial evasion is not to actually send the enemy flying into the dojo - it's far more defensive. In partial evasion you slightly step to the side, or duck down just a little, so that
some of the enemy force goes wasted - and some of that force hits you. This way you can greatly reduce how strong your enemy pushes you - until he readjusts, which will take a couple of turns. During this time you can use apply your own force in a form of active balancing and as an intention to overpower your enemy much more easily. Partial evasion is a much easier technique than full blown evasion, since the force you need to put out to the side/to the ground is much lower. In the "ladies first" replay that I've attached micho almost completely neglects my foward force by using partial evasion at the start in conjection with a strong passive balance. The move I used is ussually quite powerful and pushes people away like hell xd
Protip #3: I find that partially evading lift kicks (which simply involves dodging the kick itself, but letting the arms of the enemy still trying to lift you) will very quickly result in your enemy being sent upwards - this is a very reliable counter to lift kicks. You are on the ground, your enemy on the air, all that is left is to either smash him into the ground or lift him out of the dojo. If the lift kick had more frontal force - on the otherhand - then there's a high likely hood that your enemy will go to the ground in a 180 degree spin - head where feet used to be.
Protip #4: Remeber, that your feet aren't the only way to postion yourself. Also use your upper body, espically the shoulders and elbows, to manipulate your postion as relative to the enemy when attempting to do an evasion.
Protip #5: A thing which is not very commonly known among blue/brown belts is that there is one joint which is stronger than the hips, the shoulders, and the knees combined. I speak of the glutes, if you do balancing, you will commonly find yourself facing sideways to your enemy. Perfect chance to use your glutes to lift them and/or do active balancing. "ladies first" is a (rather bad) example of this - micho use one of his glutes in attempt to push me out of the dojo.
Protip #6: Perhaps there other ways to shift an enemy's force... shifting their center of weight with your arms... applying small bits of force to them in certain places... (foreshadowing my next two (semi-final) chapters xd)
Quicktips:
- Try to predict what your enemy is going to do - this way you can plan your passive/active ballancing better and allow for defense.
- Use your elbows when manpulating your enemy. Seriousally, these things can move your enemy just as strongly as the shoulders and pecs. They also allow you to absorb a load of force coming towards you if properly postioned.
- If you're having questions on an opener - don't worry, openers matter quite little in aikido, just keep on your feet (or one foot) and simply change your opener based on what the other person is doing.
- Don't be afraid to ungrab/grab stuff in the middle of a match!
- Never give up, there are so many last second wins in aikido, you can do them as well.
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First page of this guide
http://forum.toribash.com/showpost.p...98&postcount=1
Previous section - covers balancing, for green belts/early blue belts;
http://forum.toribash.com/showpost.p...6&postcount=12
Last edited by Deprived_OLD; Sep 17, 2009 at 10:56 AM.
