Thanks Mat for giving a name to that thing I kept calling "free style kind of self-defense practice". Yep, randori it is, or at least it seems close enough to what we do. It's especially of the aikido kind that wikipedia talks about, in which "the attackers are not allowed to resist or attempt to counter the defender's techniques."
And yup, yesterday's class, only two days removed from the test, did include a good portion of it practicing randori. We concentrated first on footwork, to get out of the way, but also to position oneself to block and then counterattack and then control, with a lock. Was fun and I'm definitely looking forward to doing more of it...
We also spent some time on Cat 3 which is now the latest kata we have to make better. I do know it from start to finish, but there are tons of subtleties in it that I never saw and will have to master before it's even near being ready to present at a black belt test. That's how it is, keep training and someday you'll have learned something...
FM
About Me
- FrogMan
- I'm the proud father of 2 wonderful boys, I try my best to be an example to them and I give as much of my time to them as I can. Received the degree of Shodan in Kenpo Karate in March 2008. **Contact info: add @gmail.com to the end of my google talk handle to contact me via email.**
2 comments:
We do the same thing here.
It's freestyle, but with a rhytmn. You start slow to get the energy going, give, receive, give, receive then as you get confortable with it, you speed it up. No more than 5 or 6 exchange then we stop. The first one are really slow, but lately, they have been speeding up a lot.
It's fun and a very good educative for combat.
Randori is a long-distance push hands exercice if you've ever seen those things. Very good educatives. Or so I think. The movement you practice there are what will come out.
Aikido randori is very different, they have three or four attackers line up and then, when you defend, you have to do whatever you can to get out of it. I remember not liking that part of the classes.
Be well.
It's the subtleties that make it valuable.. yet the only way to include them is through much practice, guidance, and personal experience.
This is why I really do not believe that one can "learn to be a black belt in 20 easy video lessons".
I'm with you on this one! Keep training and someday you will have learned something..
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