Favorite Randori Drill?
Since we've been focusing on randori, I was wondering what everyone's favorite drill has been.
I'm enamored with the "Starbuck's" drill right now. I like how it keeps my conscious head out of the game.
I like "stop and go"... I believe I first heard of it from Nick at a clinic one time actually???
Hi James -- "stop and go" please say more -- i forget what i said
I may have adapted this a little but I think the idea is the same
You have one person that calls out "stop" and "go". Everyone else pairs off and starts to do slow rondori. At random times, the call person will say "stop" and everyone must freeze in the position they are in at that moment. (While in the stop position, you should take the opportunity to look at where you are, where your going, and where you could/should go next..... etc.. ) After a few seconds the call person says "go" again and the action continues. Its good to vary the frequency and duration of the "stop" periods, so no one can predict whats going to happen next.
I like it because it forces you to focus on the call persons commands, so you are forced to react at a subconscious level. But when the music stops, it gives you a chance to say.....hmmmm, I wonder what would happen if.....???? And try different things or figure out how you got yourself into a bad position, etc...
Whats the "starbucks" drill??? Empty cup drill???
The Starbuck's drill works like this. Take an empty cup, preferably styrofoam, and imagine it's a hot cup of coffee. Uke attacks you, either by grabbing your available hand or your gi, or initiating some variety of attack such as shomen-ate. Your job is to focus on not spilling that double decaf mocha latte half soy concoction.
What we've found is giving the conscious mind something to focus on really frees up the subconscious to do Aikido. It also forces you to maintain center on a very subconscious level.
Cool... we called it the empty cup drill. I liked it.... Im going to revisit it this week for fun...
I have something I have been wanting to try, but may have already been done. It is a lot like the stop and go randori drill, but a little different. Instead of a person saying stop and go, there is a metronome or drumbeat. You could vary the length of time between beats, but the tempo would be established and not change while the randori was taking place. I think it would be fun to try this with a chain or planned set of moves. In the time between the beats it would be intersting to see where my balance was and look for things like triangulation or tension.
I like going under the bridge. If uke does not go with the movement he gets into Ude-hineri or kote-gaeshi.
Did anyone mention Jim Ellison's counting drill already? Basically, he has us go reeeeal slow, and both of us count out loud "1, 2, 3..." with every step. Tori's count should be just a hair after uke's. This get tori to be behind uke slightly in time, his step slightly after uke's. The audible counting also has a way of taking your conscious mind out of it, and letting the subconscious do it's thing.
Another thing I play with to take the conscious mind out of the game is give it a job. I like to experiment with taking turns counting, but use odd or even numbers or intervals of five. Or, name colors out of the crayon box with no repeats. You have to think about what's already been named, so the conscious mind is engaged on that set of issues.