Born Free

My Jiyuwaza sucked yesterday...

Jiyuwaza ("free flowing technique") is the closest Yoshinkan aikido gets to actual combat.
You get attacked by one or more opponents and you do techniques until they tell you to stop. The goal is to show flow, timing, distance, creativity, precision, and grace. Sounds pretty simple, right?
(Jörg is the guy in the link above - thanks mate!)

Sunday was all yokomenuchi (strike to the side of the head). I know bucket loads of responses to this attack, and even did it for my 1-kyu test. So what happened?

Not sure. Maybe I was distracted or something. But in the heat of the moment I drew a blank...and kept going back to the tried and true solutions...hijiatekokyunage and shihonage kuzushi. At least they work and I did not end up just standing there like a muppet. Bad news is when they grade you, they look for variety. In a perfect world you can apply any technique to any attack. Some of course fit better than others for particular situations.

Here are some pointers (which also make excellent drills). These should get put into muscle memory so you can fall back on them if for some reason you are not "flowing" when the time comes...

1) Inside/outside
Alternating inside the attack and outside the attack

2) Sequentials
Ikkajo, Nikajo, Sankajo, Yonkajo, Shihonage, Shomeniriminage, Sokumeniriminage, Kotegaeshi, Udegarame, Koshinage, and so on...sometimes you can lose your place, but it should at least help get you back on track.

3) Ichi/Ni
do a technique ichi and ni in sequence

4) Over/Under
capture of uke's hand from the top (nikajo, shomeniriminage, sankajo, udegarame) or the bottom (shihonage, hijiatekokyunage, sokumeniriminage)

Try them out and let me know if you get a little closer to being FREE

Osu!