DropKick:

Ever got Dismembered by a kick? Couldn't get out of a hold? Want to know more?

I know I have, and now its time to show you how to become better. As we all know there are professionals and beginners at aikido. Beginners often lift you or "shovel" you, this can be extremely annoying and you think its all over, but what if i told you it wasn't. There are also times where more advanced players "suplex" you out of the ring, this is also hard to counter, but not anymore read on.


Often times when suplexing, the opponent will use your momentum to move you in a direction. When you kick and lean forward or if they yank you forwards they move close to the floor and get you off your feet. When angled correct they lift their arms and fling you over them, backwards. To counter this there are a few ways. First you want to, when they first lift their arms, raise your arms to and try to drive all your weight at them this causes to much for on the hips, and makes them touch the floor. For example:

However, we all know there are much more complex suplexes that’ll kick your ass if you just stand there. SO!

Countering an Advanced Suplex

You have two ways to counter an advanced suplex, you want to use a shmevcrunch. (in dedication to shmevin). This way is putting your weight to the ground. Not in the same sense as the beginner. This doesn’t DQ them this just saves your ass. When you see them leaning back ready to suplex you (using your momentum to throw you over them) you want to raise your shoulders, extend your elbows, wrists, contract your pecs, contract your hips, contract your knees, and maybe your abs. This will put you to the floor and basically destroy the suplex. However, you can also let go with one of the hands if you control the grab. That’ll stop it, or half stop it.


I know you want to counter shovels badly, so now I will explain. When being shoveled you want to give up, i know the feeling, but don't. Because now there is a way to win. Shovelers will try to grab your core (chest,lumber,abs) protect those areas. If you get the shoveler to grab your hands you can counter much easier than if they have your core. When you see a first turn opener shovel, you want to contract your knees, hips. and lower shoulders and get close to the ground. This will allow you to plant your feet and suplex them over you, or for you to counter-lift their lift. When they raise their shoulders, you want to extend your hips and try to achieve a low center gravity with a firm plant on the ground. You can 1. Raise your shoulders so the momentum of the lift does nothing, or lower them and let them lift you a little, and go for a suplex near the edge of the ring. Try to touch the floor as soon as possible when being lifted, like i said it helps. Once your footing is established, if you arms aren't already raised, raise them. If unsuccessful, stick your legs at a 90-100 degree angle. (feet towards opponent) this will help because when you are low enough right near the out of bounds extend your hips and twisting your body sometimes helps. try to at least get one foot on the ground *which is why rotating your chest and lumbar helps). Once you get a single foot on the ground, lift your shoulders, and twist again. This usually puts you in a better position. IF however, you don't succeed in planting a foot, try to move your legs out of the way, and pull his hand out of bounds and DQ it. (see replay at bottom labeled AikidoShovelCounter for an example of this)


Next off are kicks, Kicks are very common on toribash. They are used by anyone White belt to elite belt and this will not change. So I will help you become more prepared for these kicks. Kicks are usually ment for lifting or dismembering and the dismembering is usually targetted to hip lumbar and both pecs. All the force from the kick when impacting a single joint will dismember it, so this is why you must disperse the shock. By getting the kick to loose power by hitting your elbow then your shoulder and then your pec, you're garauntee'd no dismemberment. To do this, you want to involve lowering your shoulder contracting your elbow, and extending your pec. This at least 98% of the time saves you from dismemberments. Now after you stopped the kick, you have a few options.
1. Lift them straight up into the air and out of the ring
2. Throw a counter kick
3. go for a leg grab

if you choose option number one, lift your shoulders and shift your weight forwards, and use every shovel tactic you know to keep them in the air. if # two, opposite your movements, example: extend left hip but contract right, hold left knee, relax/contract right one. If you can aim your counter-kick towards their glutes you have a chance of breaking their leg off. This is basically an automatic win. to get more force into your counter-kick lower your shoulders, this will thrust your knee upwards. to aim your kick, simply use your glutes and pecs. However, if you go for the leg grab you want expose your head, but the upside is it allows for very minimal contraction/extension of the opponents knee. This will provide a easy opportunity to disqualify their knee or hip.

here is an example of a kick counter.



Notice how Natejas's kick impacted my lumbar, chest, torso, and pec. With all these different parts hit, I survived the kick and avoided dismemberment. I then countered the kick with a lift (see replay at bottom labeled "Kickcounter")

Additionally, kicks can also be used to lift you. To counter, you want to grab the kicking leg. This will basically completely stop the lift. Once you grab the leg, plant a foot behind you, and then push them. Or, if the positioning is right, instead of grabbing anywhere on the leg, aim for the knee. If right on the joint it will dm it, and make an easy win. You want to put all your force on the knee to increase the chances of dm. If that second turn you don't dm the knee, if your hand is on the knee joint contract your elbow and extend your wrist, then next turn extend your elbow and contract your wrist. This puts lots of strain on the knee, and might cause it dismember/fracture. If this happens you can let go and hope for luck to DQ it or try to DQ it on your own. This contract extend tactic can work for any joint. If you can't stop yourself from a lift, embrace the lift and at the last moment yank the leg under you out of bounds.

Attacking

Here is where you learn the opposite of what you were just taught. While up there ^ it was all about countering kicks shovels suplexes and more. Now lets get started shall we? First off are

The Basics and Tips

To every mod there are simple things you need to know. Relaxing provides stronger hits. Use opposite motions to also increase power and speed. Using grabs to your knowledge is one of the greatest feats of Aikido. Contracting wrists first turn and grabbing your hands, usually allows for only one grab on a hand. This means, when the opponent is suspecting it. Ungrabbing on a one grab holds allows for saving yourself from DQ, throwing the opponent off balanced and maybe causing them to DQ themselves, Try to get your hand as close to their shoulder/pec as possible, this will make them self-grab and explode with fracture or dismemberment. Using the “contract elbow extend wrist, then next turn extend elbow contract wrist” tactics are a great way to Dismember any body part or to fracture it.

1. Always know your grabs
2. Never extend a knee that is grabbed
3. Never risk it for points when you have more
4. You don’t always need the decap
5. When falling backwards, know your grabs, and see where you can let go, to save yourself
6. When near the edge, its wise to contract one knee


Shovels, Lifts, and Suplexes

Well most people consider shovels and lifts noobish and frown upon you. But that’s okay, because sometimes you need to play cheap. Shoveling/Lifting is the art of getting people off the ground and moving them out of the ring. In this section I will teach you how to lift/shovel.

To shovel, you want to grab the opponent with both hands and lower your shoulders. This will cause you to lean backwards a little which is okay, on your next turn you want to raise those shoulders and extend your hips. This gives you a firm base and rockets your opponent into the air. Using the knowledge of raising your shoulders and then extending hips is the basic idea of a shovel. Lifting is the same aspect. To bring lifting to a whole new level you can "walk lift". Once you have raised the opponent into the air, relax one knee and contract the hip. Then extend the hip next turn. This will let you move farther while still holding them in the air. This tactic is good for when you are playing aikidobigdojo and you need them move them a lot farther than normal aikido.

Suplexing is the idea of leaning back and raising your shoulders to throw your opponent over your head. Suplexing is a game of risk, you need to risk getting DQ'd while falling backwards to get a good suplex. To avoid getting DQ'd, you want to contract one knee and either relax, extend, or hold the hip. Let the opponent attack how they wish, let their momentum go right into you and knock you back. Once you're at an angle and have a contracted knee (contracted knee saves your from over pressuring your hip and hence making you DQ) raise your shoulders and if you want extend the contracted knee to jump off the ground a little (helpful for getting a little bit more distance if needed). Now, you want to relax your abs and let them fly right over you. Simple. They might try to DQ your hands, simply rotate your chest to throw them off balance.

How to Kick

Kicks come in all forms, strengths, and angles. When kicking you want to aim for a specific joint. The best joints to aim for are: hip, pec, shoulder, or elbow. You average snap kick will involve “Right chest rotate, Right lumber bend, Contract both pecs, grab both hands, contract right knee, contract right hip, extend glutes” That is your average snap kick, what you want to do next turn, is lower your shoulders and extend your knee. Lowering your shoulders increases the amount of force that goes into the kick. Remember to aim for a pec, shoulder, hip, or elbow don’t go for a group of joints or the chest. While you can occasionally get lucky and split them with your kick, it is highly unlikely. If the opponent kicks however, on your same side, if you leg is beneath theirs you have the additional option to aim for the glutes to cause a leg Dismemberment. If you want to play if risky, but get the maximum power into your kick, then contract the knee you aren’t kicking with. This will cause you to flip which will allow them to DQ you easier.

If your going the cheaper route you can kick lift. When doing this, you have 2 options:

1. Kick the opponent, then on the 3rd turn extend your hip and raise your shoulders and lift him
2. Don’t kick him, lower your hip 2nd turn and raise your shoulders

Again like show earlier in the “Shovels, Lifts and Suplexes” section, for maximum lift when needed in AikidoBigDojo use the walking technique.

If the opponent grabs your knee, just look at how open his neck is. This provides for an easy decap, simply let go with one of your hands and contract your pec to go for his neck. Once your knee is grabbed do not extend it.(unless 100% necessary) This puts tons of pressure on it and might cause a fracture or dismemberment. If you want to extend it, relax the joint and extend your hip, this way is much better.

Zooming In On the Match

While there are kicks, suplexes, lifts, shovels and the such there are minor things you deal with within the match that might just make you win. In this section you will find out about those.

Here is a recap of all those in game things that might just turn the tides and win you the match. ( tips and tricks in detail)

1. Knowing your grabs – This is a great thing to know. If you know that you can control a grab (to find out, release your grab and see if their hand grabs on or doesn’t) if it doesn’t, you control the grab. The greatness of controlling the grab is that, when you’re in trouble of DQ or if you are down by points, and feel like there isn’t another option, it turns out that if you un-grab if causes their ghost to be completely different of what it is showing, so their move often kills them. As a last resort always un-grab, you never know.

2. Using your grabs to full effect – By this I mean, using your grabs to a tactical advantage. When you are playing, and easy DQ opportunity always arises when their elbow is contracted and you have an free hand to use. With this free hand, grab the elbow. This will prohibit it from extended, and simply fall to the ground and let the elbow DQ and you’ll win. Another way of using your grabs, is to aim directly for joints. Hitting joints with a grab encourages a dismemberment or fracture. Once you grab someone’s joint and extremely easy way to end up with a Dismemberment or fracture is to use the Contract elbow, extend wrist, then next turn, extend elbow, contract wrist” tactic. This tactic is called the “force factor” (im just naming it so I can use it later on without having to repeat that) With this knowledge just about every single Dismember and fracture is 15x easier now.

3. Unneeded Hits – Unneeded hits most often occur when you have more points. You find an opportunity to hit the opponent’s head or to get some cool powerful kick to impress the ladies. YOU DON’T NEED TO! This type of action often puts you in a bad position and makes you loose. In a 100,000 TC duel, in the end no one cares how you won it, just if you did or didn’t. (well maybe they care if you lifted but that’s not the point). Sometimes you have to make a sacrifice of what you want to do, to actually what you need to do. When you are down by points, you want to slowly gain points with little hits, and if you don’t end up with enough, go for an all out risk everything hit on the last turn. However, if you are up by more than 20k points maybe even 15k points, you don’t need to risk yourself just for something you think might be cool. Play smart and Safe

4. Judging Match Frames – This is important to all saves in aikido and basically to every mod. Of course, with experience comes judgment, but there are a few other ways to tell. Just before the Ghost starts to fade is usually when the frames of the turn end. When you are attempting a save, you need this in mind, because you can’t always just extend your leg and be saved. You have to contract your knee and judge how fast its moving towards the ground to see if you should contract or extend etc. This type of knowledge helps you become a more advanced player. For example, if you’re being lifted, the best saves come from contracting one knee and keeping the other extended. You stop the momentum with the extended left, and use the contracted to jump off the line. This is performed throughout all advanced players who know what they are doing.

5. Getting Points – As we all know, your kick isn’t always the best, or maybe you don’t kick in the first place. You are presented with point situations. As an opponent, they will grab both of your hands and tripod, hence keeping you away. You have a few options at this point. You can go for a more risky tactic of contracting your elbows and wrists and trying to swing your body vertically *up and down* to try to slam into their chest. This is more of a luck thing, you are hoping for more points. If you can contract a knee to knee them in the stomach. This will give you more points for the most part. However, if you just cant move after trying to contract your ghost (if your ghost shows you it wont), you need to check your grabs. Un-grab one hand then the other then both. See if you can get one of your hands free, or at least get them off the tripod. If you manage to get one hand free, good. Wait until the next turn, then contract the elbow that the opponent is grabbing, lower your shoulders and maybe contract your pec. This will cause you to twist from your back onto your front and at them. Again, contract your knee and try to knee them in the chest area or really anywhere you can hit them.

6. Dismembering Your Opponent – Kind of similar to the above of “how to kick” the real trick is aiming for a specific joint, and using all your momentum of your swing or kick to hit it. Now you are presented with the question “omgmgmogomg I am a rookie how to I swing my body with momentum”. Well listen up, The main joints involved in a swing “slap” are you elbows, wrists, pecs, and chest. First of all you need to have an open hand, AKA a hand that isn’t being grab and is freely moving. With your Grabbed hand that is holding on to the opponent, you need to read your ghost. Try all the variables to the “slap” What I mean is contract it extend it or hold it or relax it, see what will get you closest to the joint. Contract both your pecs and if it’s a slap coming from the right to left, you want to left rotate your chest. Vise Versa. Now here is the tricky part, for maximum affect you contract the elbow of the arm you are going to hit them with. This is kind of a gauge. If the elbow contracts before hitting them that probably means something is wrong with your upper body movements. Probably being a key word, it isn’t always true. If it does change your chest roation, or make sure you pecs are contracted. However if all of that checks out, just let it relax or hold. However, if when you contract your elbow and the ghost shows your hand slamming into their body, it’s a success. Just aim with the rest of your joints, and next turn, profit. Oh did I mention you should grab your hand? There is something with the coding of Toribash that just makes it so grabbing has a higher chance of DM. If your arm is bending after your opponent so that your forearm is hitting him, contract the wrist of the hand you are hitting him with. The arm will curl up much faster with all that momentum. Just remember, aim for a joint

7. Easy Wins – Easy wins. Who doesn’t want them. Here is your information on cheapskate wins. Firstly are wrist DMs. When fighting an opponent, if you have the inside grab (your hands are inside theirs). You can the next turn, let go, contract your wrists, extend elbows, raise shoulders, and extend your pecs. You can do this process at anytime. It stretches their hands and causes them to snap off. I’ve won about 500k off doing this last second to win. This is my big secret. It’s a killer and puts you in great positioning, and gives you the option, if they lift you to DQ their hand right before you hit. Secondly, Leg grabs. They almost never fail. You have a few options with your leg grab. One is you can grab their shin (right above the foot). Then contract your elbow. This will do two things, they wont be able to contract/extend it. This will make it much easier to DQ them. Or you can risk it and grab them directly on the knee joint. If you use the force factor tactic while grabbing the knee you have a good chance of fracturing it.

Hey sweety, looks pretty cool.
You should explain more about how to counter suplexes, because well, not everyone uses that one

Thought I might poke my head in here and say that it's a nice tut.
Everything you cover is explained nicely and you've covered the major parts of playing aikido
/me thumbs up

Agh, rookie i was working on that during my car ride. I'll add it in when I get home. Shmevin does a mighty fine suplex counter

I'm not a pro at aikido, I do like this. Thanks, Cause some people like me a little bit could use this! I say great job on explaining and as Irookie said, a little more on the suplex. Other than that, Great Job.

Fuck yes!
Finaly a tut for akido : )
great tut bro.

Wrote a little more on countering advanced suplexes.

Added 5, 6, 7 at the end

"Getting Points" "Easy Wins" and "Dismembering"

Not gonna lie this is the most helpful and most thourough aikido/aikidobd tut I have found in my 2years of experience.

Fine tutorial aikido, many new players can learn from your post

errrr... this one may fit abd, but ortodox aproach to aikido is different.
i.e. suplex may be chap only if thats a forced suplex. i avoid making tutorial for aikido, since mod is quite messy and people always look for "win" rather then style, since it mean increasing your personal unnecessary risc, what make the game enjoyable.

mb some day i will make a tutorial covering aikido but heck, i'm lazy

imo the point of aikido.tbm isn't score or dm. it's a clean and neat throw. damaging is unnecesary here, but if we talking about classic aikido.

something like this
or this
common throw.rpl

abd is different mod. points, dm make sense here. thats why i dislike abd.

to be more constructive:

i disaprove ALL statements here, since it goes against my views on classic aikido.

sorry bro ;p but this is very abd oriented tut.