Monday, February 28, 2005

2nd Kyu in Aikido

I had my Aikido grading.

For the uninitiated, Aikido is a Japanese martial arts that uses and redirects the opponent's attacking energy back onto themselves. Aikido's techniques are very practical in real life situations and are used for disabling and/or disarming an attacker and can be quite lethal if you really intend to hurt the attacker. Aikido means "The Way of Harmony".

The grading system goes like this:
6th Kyu (n00bs)
5th Kyu (university/college n00bs start here)
4th Kyu
3rd Kyu (where I was before)
2nd Kyu (where I am now)
1st Kyu
Shodan/1st Dan
2nd Dan
3rd Dan
4th Dan (the highest rank you can get from grading, the other ranks are given as honors - current highest rank in Malaysia is my instructor, Low Sensei)
7th Dan (Steven Segal sensei)
8th Dan (Seiichi Sugano Shihan* who is the Shihan* for us)
*Shihan - a master's master


Our grading involves doing techniques as the instructors grading us tells us to do.
All this is done non-stop for both the uke(attacker) and nage(defender).
In the 5th Kyu's case, they have to do 6 techniques before they can pass. In their case, it takes roughly 15 minutes per person to finish his/her technique which means for 5th Kyu graders, they are doing techniques for 1/2 hrs non-stop.

In my case, 2nd Kyu grading has about 40++ techniques...
Lets just say, it's like running a marathon carrying 30 Kg backpacks with no water for 10km. Aikido really trains your stamina during grading. O_O
We did the techniques roughly 30-40 minutes per person. Which is about 1 hr non-stop.

I'm glad I managed to pass. Now, I'll have to prepare for 1st Kyu. :p

8 comments:

killarkai said...

any game characters that utilizes aikido? in tekken, soul calibur, mortal kombat, virtua figther, or whatever? just curious :P

hreaper said...

Not that I know of.
Aikido would not make a good beat-em-up game methinks.

You need your opponent to attack you seriously for the techniques to work effectively. If they have no intention of hurting you, then there's no point in using Aikido.

I don't think that's a good idea for a beat-em-up. You wouldn't be able to do anything until the opponent attacks and you can just end it in one attack. :p

Anonymous said...

haha..no amount of aikido is going to stop u fram being shot at in CS..but u already have plenty of stamina of all the running away from getting shot :) -JC-

Anonymous said...

Just curious, where and what style of Aikido are you practising? The Aikikai style (founded originally by Morihei Ueshiba) has a HQ here in Sri Hartamas. It is lead by shihan Jun Yamada and he is 7th dan. I am practising at the Damansara Uptown dojo which is an affiliate of Aikikai in Malaysia. Our sensei is shihan Jun Yamada but sempai Francis Wong leads the class.

-Sherman
www.Sherman3D.com

hreaper said...

I study under the Malaysian Aikido Association (MAA). We have a dojo in MMU under the Aikido Club of MMU.

I can't really tell if there's any difference in the style they are teaching and the ones practiced by Aikikai. Mind enlightening me?

Anonymous said...

Well, as far as I know, there are
two Aikikai shihans authorized to
grade (1st Dan and above) in
Malaysia, namely Shihan Jun Yamada
and Shihan Sukano. Any Aikido
associations not under either of
them is not officially
recognized by Aikikai.

In summary, if they are not
recognized by Aikikai (the
founder's association in
Japan), they can belong to
other styles of Aikido like
Yoshinkan (which seems
more famous than Aikikai
now and is widely used in
the police force because
of its "harder" style) and the
Ki Society (which focuses more on
Ki rather than self defence). Or
hey, you can even start your
own style of Aikido and call it
something else. *LOL*

Anyway, Shihan Sukano is the
Shihan for MAA (their technical
advisor so to speak) so you are
definitely still affiliated to Aikikai.

I believe Shihan Sukano is only
in Malaysia when there is a Dan
grading though. Nevertheless,
you can still grade under Shihan
Jun Yamada who is currently
residing in Malaysia - his dojo
is in Sri Hartamas.

I am practising in the Damansara
(Uptown) Aikido dojo and our
dojo is officially under
Shihan Jun Yamada although
Sempai Francis Wong leads the
class.

- Sherman
www.Sherman3D.com

Anonymous said...

Oops! I meant Shihan Sugano above.
Hehe. ^_^;;;

-Sherman
www.Sherman3D.com

Anonymous said...

Hi Guys,

Actually I same Dojo as Hreaper.

Well, I remember I keen of like Yoshinkan's style during my 5th and 4th Kyu time. I like to do the technique in a hard way. Speed and Power are the main keys in my mind. We used to bang the opponent to the floor and flip him 180 degree. And of cause, we have a lots of great seniors here and teach us the manners :D .Well, we used to have lot of fun last time, am I right, Hreaper?

And, there is an inccident changed my mind. There is a time when we trained and I "mistakenly" dislocated my friend's arm. He is not a weak guy but it just happened that I dislocated his arm during the iriminage flipping. And since that day, he not longer come to training anymore. After all we still friends, but just sometime I feel guilty to throw him so hard that time.

I not sure how you guys think about Aikido. It can be hard sometime but just we don't do it. I am considered senior(in fact I m not). And sometimes the juniors just like to challenge my techniques and want to prove they have a great power and speed. Well, I don't know. Just I feel that may be some days I can teach them the manners again :)) . Let them feel the pain when the arm is dislocated. Or perhaps bang them to the floor or let them fly like birds in the air.

Well, I don't use much force nowdays in my technique. May be I am old now. :(

Hreaper, I actually still can feel the power when training when you :> . You are great, man~ :D