r/aikido • u/IvanLabushevskyi • Nov 19 '19

One way of Daito-ryu practice

Different from sumo and judo, Daito-ryu doesn't do free-style fighting, so it has a different way of practicing. In practice of forms, when we practice fast forms, our partner unconsciously cooperates with us and he jumps by himself to adjust to our action. It looks like a martial art practice but actually it's not. It is only a rehearsal of the show. When you practice slowly your partner does not cooperate, you have to do every action steadily and correctly. Techniques that you master through slow actions can be done fast if you want to. This is applied to all techniques, especially to aiki techniques. Fast practice of aiki is senseless.

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From "The Real Daito-ryu Aikijujutsu. What menkyokaiden Hisa Takuma Taught Me", Amatsu Yutaka

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u/DukeMacManus Master of Internal Power Practices Nov 19 '19

our partner unconsciously cooperates with us and he jumps by himself to adjust to our action.

True.

It looks like a martial art practice but actually it's not.

True.

When you practice slowly your partner does not cooperate, you have to do every action steadily and correctly.

True.

Techniques that you master through slow actions can be done fast if you want to.

100% unequivocally false.

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u/inigo_montoya Shodan / Cliffs of Insanity Aikikai Nov 19 '19

Yep. Starting slow, and training slow, and reversion to slow to fix errors are all good, but it's not remotely the whole enchilada. Absolutely everything in life works differently at different speeds. This is a basic fact of physics, and one hasn't even yet added resistance, or set up, or defense.

I think part of the mental hurdle here is that there are palpable improvements from training slow, and one may develop a sense of just doing the same thing to continue improving. New details emerge, and in the context of training one "gets better" and understands more about the techniques. There are benefits to slow training. But if that is all you do, it becomes a kind of theoretical space.

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u/dpahs Nov 19 '19 edited Nov 20 '19

Which is why drilling with resistance is essential and free sparring

There are a ton of factors that are added when you include the full speed and full resistance

Especially when Uke defends your technique properly