Suwari-Waza
(Extracted from Aikido-L)
Date: Mon, 25 Mar 2002 10:40:12 +0900
From: Peter Rehse
Subject: Re: aikido, running and knees
Just how much time do people spend on suwariwaza techniques as opposed to tachi.
Shodokan Aikido has 8 suwariwaza techniques and one hanzahandachi (which counts
I suppose) for the kyu grades and 4 more suwariwaza and 3 more hanzahandachi for
shodan but that's it - everything else is tachi. Aside from grading practice,
it is rare to see these techniques practiced during class (the non-grading part)
and we only duck walk to receive our grades or other presentation. I was
surprised by the amount of duck walking done in some Aikikai dojos - can't be
good for you.
---------------------------------------------------
Date: Sun, 24 Mar 2002 21:38:55 -0500
From: Blake Moorcroft
Subject: Re: aikido, running and knees
At last count (sifting through the handbook), we have 9 suwari waza techniques
for kyu ranks, 2 more that are hanmi-handachi...plus three types of
knee-walking. At the dan ranks, there are 7 additional suwari waza that are
kokyu ho in nature that can be called at any dan level, plus another 93 regular
techniques that must be do-able in suwari waza when you are testing for yondan.
As for when we do them, we'll get a period of time in the dojo where we'll do
kneeling techniques for a couple of weeks...it usually goes in stages as Sensei
covers a particular theme.
More later
Blake Moorcroft (Sei Bu)
---------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 25 Mar 2002 11:17:46 -0500
From: Pauliina Lievonen
Subject: Re: aikido, running and knees
Peter Rehse wrote:
>Just how much time do people spend on suwariwaza techniques as opposed
>to tachi....snip... I was
>surprised by the amount of duck walking done in some Aikikai dojos -
>can't be good for you.
Heh. I just dug out our teaching syllabus, 3rd kyu has fifteen hamni handachi
techniques, seven of those are to be done suwariwaza as well. I hadn't realised
there were so many of them, more than for any other kyu grade. Ouch. :)
BTW I think I've figured out what particular thing it is that my knees don't
like about aikido, it's not seiza or knee-walking, it's doing back rolls with
the leg tucked in, that seems to provide just the wrong kind of twist with
weight to the knee... gotta figure out some alternatives. Plus I'm beginning
to see how true it is what my Alexander teacher always says, that keeping the
hip joints as free as possible takes some stress off the knees.
kvaak
Pauliina
---------------------------------------------------
Last updated on 13 Sep 2002