Kaze Uta Budo Kai Forum Archive

How about filming break falls from the very beginning.Starting at beginner level. When you think about the overall progression of a normal class things are done in the order of importance.First warm ups,then falls, then the walk.etc..Personally i believe that Aikido can never be understood without the ability to fall safely and without fear. But this is just my opinion and everyone knows what opinions are worth. Thanks for letting me express my very humble thoughts.

norman douglas wrote:How about filming break falls from the very beginning.Starting at beginner level. When you think about the overall progression of a normal class things are done in the order of importance.First warm ups,then falls, then the walk.etc.

We've filmed a fair dose of ukemi stuff already, located here.

Do you think it should be broken down and organized differently, say like the Koryu-dai-san & yon stuff, where it's all sequential ordered? Right now it's pretty random being some of the first stuff we published. The bad thing about the forum is that to keep things in order, the topic must be a sticky. And you have to post things in reverse order (last post first, so it will be at the bottom; newer posts are always on top).

norman douglas wrote:Personally i believe that Aikido can never be understood without the ability to fall safely and without fear. But this is just my opinion and everyone knows what opinions are worth.

I agree that Aikido & Judo both should stress ukemi first and foremost. Without good ukemi, you're going to have a much harder time learning technique.

norman douglas wrote:Thanks for letting me express my very humble thoughts.

Thanks for participating! I love feedback and sharing ideas.

Dear e-sensei,

I really appreciate your videos on "standard Judo hold downs with their respective escapes".

Would you mind go a little bit further, I mean do you some tips on how to escape from an attempt to a turnover (Tori is facing the ground on his knees and his elbows and uke is trying to apply a sankaku jime - Tori is also down on his knees). It would be great to have tips when uke is on my side, in front of me or behind me).

Please, continue you great job.

The collection is really great,i would love to see the chains

The video collection is amazing!! The guys here at the OSU club really get a kick out of me starting up my laptop and showing them how "Nick" does it! haha. We have been utilizing the vid's for the past semester (yes, when your dojo is on a college campus you have to start thinking that way) with good results. I am going to speak with the lady that runs the Colvin Center (what we call home) and it is my hope that she will let me use a projector next semester in the mat area. I am wanting to use the vid's as part of each class. The college age group responds well to YouTube Vids! haha.

Keep em coming!! 😄

First of all, thanks so much for your video library. For me, it already offers enough material for more than a lifetime of learning. I now know what hell would be like if it existed: a life without my career, my family, and this video library. Okay, I exaggerate, but just a little.

Still, my wish would be the following: a parallel set of videos to, let’s say, the 17 techniques, a set that focuses on uke’s role. Generally, what does a good uke need to do to offer genuine attacks, and specifically, what does a good uke need to do so that tori understands why she needs to respond with ude gaeshi, for example, instead of oshi taoshi. I’m suggesting a format that already exists in Nick’s book, the part where he sets up parallel texts on one page for each technique, one column for tori’s role, the other for uke’s.

A lot of what I’m wishing for can already be gleaned from the existing videos. I know. But it would be nice to have all the material on uke in one place. So often do we hear in our dojo that a good aikidoka learns so much about how and why techniques work by developing his skills as a good uke.

Thanks,
Michael Beykirch
Corning, NY

So heres another question id like to throw out here—we have just produced our first “proof of concept” test DVD -- Koryu Dai Ni – I mainly cranked it out to see what the production process and costs were like – I like the results --its all pretty do-able and affordable— We have lots of material to draw on and more new stuff cookin up for you tube all the time

So now the question becomes : What video material of ours would you most like to have in DVD format? -- Over time I think a bunch of our stuff will be available in this medium but right now I’m trying to get a feel for what is most in demand – what would be most useful and valuable to you? Also can you tell me What price is reasonable for it? What seems fair to you?

I’d like to hear from any and all -- the more points of view the better!

a series of gokyonowaza dvds with basic demonstration form and hints on how to best practice them, as well as perhaps some variants and hints on how they change in competition. I think that would be a great place to start. I think the $20-30 range would be a good price.

how about a series of judo kata dvds?

how about koryu dai ichi?

how about breaking all the suwariwaza out of the various koryunokata where they are found and doing a suwari dvd?

how about same idea for ushirowaza? knife techniques, etc...

...how about a set of junana dvds broken into the sets - one dvd for atemiwaza, one for tekubiwaza, etc... with plenty of detail, variations, training hints, etc..

how about an urawaza dvd with both the standard ideas and some of the non-standard counters?

How about a series of dvds about randori - different forms of randori, how to get started, proper mindset, hints to make better progress

how about a set of dvds on the principles that we teach instead of on specific techniques. You could show how various techniques throuout the system exemplify each particular principle.

how about a set of dvds talking about the intersection set of the domains of aikido and judo. i see this as mostly a sankata, goshinjutsu, kimenokata sort of dvd, but there is more material than this within the intersection set of those 2 arts.

how about some weapons dvds. aikiken, aikijo, tanjojutsu, hanbo, etc...

I know nothing about marketing nor about the demand for aikido DVD’s, but here’s a suggestion anyway: How about a boxed set, something, for example, that would contain all the information one needed for attaining the rank of black belt. I could imagine the following contents or something similar for aikido:

DVD 1 Introduction to and General Principles of Aikido
DVD 2 Ukemi
DVD 3 The Walk
DVD 4 Releases
DVD 5 The 17 Techniques
DVD 6 The Big 10

Such a boxed set could serve as an excellent work of reference for both students and teachers. It would provide them something clean, not overwhelming. I know little about judo and jodo (something that would interest me in addition to aikido), but perhaps boxed sets would work there, too.

As far as price, I don’t know. Something around $100 for a boxed set?

Or if you ever considered something such as a boxed set (my post above) or even individual DVD’s, you might survey your dojo and consider different presentations of the material. One possibility could be a progressive presentation based on rank:

DVD 1 Introduction and The Walk

DVD 2 Ukemi

DVD 3 Green Belt
General Principles
Releases (Tori and Uke)
1-5 of the 17 (Tori and Uke)

DVD 4 Brown Belt 3
General Principles
6-10 of the 17 (Tori and Uke)
Beginning Randori

DVD 5 Brown Belt 2
(etc.)

DVD 6 Brown Belt 1
(etc.)

DVD 7 Black Belt
(etc.)

DVD 8 Full Demonstrations
The Walk
Releases
1-17
The Big 10
Other Discussions?

Price Tag: $125?

What about a systematic study of the final locks found through the aikido kata (especially in the 17, but also the knife techniques in san kata, etc)? How are they actually meant to operate? When are they effective? What assumptions go into them? Why do they look different from the Judo hold-downs? What do other aikido folk do? (Have we misplaced yon-kyo?) Etc!