Unusual Aikido techniques
From: Patricia Anne Matthews
......and then there's being uke in koshi nage when you grab a handfull of chest hair as to break the fall as they throw you,
or any technique from Mune dori when you wind the chest hair (usually only on the males - there are feminine alternatives :-)) into your grip on the lapels of their gi......tends to slow things down!
As for other unusual unbalancing techniques there is a small shodan at one of the dojo's near here who has been known to stick his tongue down uke's ear if uke is being awkward.......and there was the tiny third kyu who flattened a great ox of an uke when she accidentally inserted her fingers up his nostrils when attemptinmg tenchi nage.....
Oh, the bad habbits I am learning ;-)
From: Rocky Izumi
My daughter came up with an interesting version of shihonage when she was quite young. I went to pick her up at the childcare center when she came up to me and kicked me in the shin with the steel-toed tap shoes she was wearing. When I bent over to grab my shin, she flicked off my hat and grabbed two handfuls of hair with which she proceeded to do a shihonage. It was quite effective in that I ended up on the concrete flat on my back after flipping over her. The teachers at the childcare center thought she had killed me but I was lucky enough to have done a half-decent ukemi.
I openned my eyes from grimacing to see her looking down at my face with a smile. She told me that she had thought up that one all by herself and asked how it was. I could only grunt an OK until I got my breath back.
From: "Graham J. Watson"
One of my instructors tells a couple of stories of how to disturb ukes balance/concentration. They were both in tanto randori competitions (yes its Tomiki I'm afraid).
Anyway one time he just kissed the guy with the tanto on
the cheek and as Kevin says the reaction was most useful. The other time
he says he was trying in vain to put kote gaeshi on (I'm not sure its
exactly the same as the kote gaeshi I've heard described here because
we breakfall out of it?), anyway the guy with the tanto was saying
"no way you're gonna get that on me" and he was right to. So my instructor says to him
"Yeh you're right" but he does not let go, just relaxes a bit, and of course the guy with the tanto does the same, just enough to allow kote gaeshi to be applied.
As you may imagine this type of balance/concentration disturbance was not viewed very philosophically when the outcome was the loss of a national championship, but in the end a submission is a winning move in a tanto randori competition. And its a story that keeps us interested in those cold dark nights on the mat in the cow shed.
From: Brian Karlak
As far as unsusual ways to break ukes balance and concentration, I've always thought the sneakiest would be to slip in a quick sharp clap of the hands at a critical moment. Every martial artist is trained from day one to respond to this stimuli - uke looks up to see what sensei is going to teach next, and . . .
SLAM!!!!
From: Joseph Toman
Slightly similar, I've seen Frank Doran Sensei snap his fingers in place of an atemi. Actually, I've also seen him flip someone the bird in place of atemi, but I'm not sure that worked as well.
Tom Read Sensei's classic is to say "Rotting whale flesh" or something similar in a calm, firm, voice just as uke commits to the attack. It only works once, but uke gets this confused expression on his face that is absolutely priceless. Geez, I hope I'm not giving away secrets of the ryu. :-)
From: Steve Zimmerman
About a year ago, our Assistant Chief Instructor, Philip Nagasawa sensei, was teaching a class, he called up one of our shodans (a psychiatrist, by trade) as uke.
To demonstrate a point, he said to the shodan: "Give me an attack, any attack."
The shodan replied: "Alright...you're ugly and your mother dresses you funny!"
It took 10 minutes for the laughs to stop. Sensei loved it.
From: Chris Wyatt
Talking about funny things happening in the dojo...
I remember first learning a round house type kick that had a spin to it.Well what i didn't take into consideration was a slippery floor.
The whole class was in fits as i went airborne!!
From: Jim Baker
So it's after class one day and I'm fuffing my hakama before folding it when a student ups to me and says, "What would you do to a kick?" This is immediately followed by his toes aimed at my chest fur. I did the most Aiki thing I could think of; I tossed the hakama into his face. He went straight up into air and landed splat on his back. I lifted the hakama from his face and asked, "Are you OK?"
From: Mike Bartman
It was abut midnight, and my friends were headed home from a party in a compact car, stopped at a red light (no traffic, but they stopped anyway...funny habit huh? :^) when about half a dozen largish guys surrounded the car. The four at the back lifted the rear wheels off the ground, while the talker smiled at the driver and told him (through the 1" opening the driver had left in the window) to pass out the wallets and jewelry. The driver ignored the request, and told the talker to have his buddies put the car back on the ground. The talker grinned even wider and told the driver that if he didn't start handing over the valuables they were going to come in and get them and severely damage the occupants (or words to that effect), and that they couldn't get away (nod to the four beefy guys with the rear bumper in their hands). The driver remained calm, but repeated his request that the car be placed back on the ground, adding this time "This is your last warning! Put the car down now!" in a loud enough voice for the guys in back to hear. The talker and the guys in back just laughed.
At that point, after fair warning, the driver put it in first and burned rubber out of there. They found some blood on the rear bumper but no fingers or anything.
I doubt the idiot thieves ever tried to hold up a Subaru that way again... :^)
(and no pun intended by use of the term "hold up"... ;^)
From: HE'S ONLY GONE AND HAD HIS WEETABIX
I hope I don't get myself flamed into damnation for this!!!! :)))
On the subject of Women being reluctant when it comes to the more violent aspects in a Dojo, I can only state that in my experience Women tend to use cunning as well as strenght and technique in their fighting....
To give an example :
When I was studying Judo, a couple of years ago, There was a very attractive female student in the class and she had a very effective technique for catching her male opponents off-guard....
She would invariably wear a low-cut swimsuit or bikini top under her Gi and when sparring she would watch her opponents eyes carefully......Their gaze would inevitably fall to her cleavage and when it did, She would launch her, usually successful, attack!!!
I have seen this technique used effectively even on a 4th Dan Judoka!!!
From: Krystal Locke
Hmm, watched a guy tell someone that Judo was a wuss
art(How many times have Aikidoka heard that, too?). The judoka stuck a
finger up the guys nose and threw him koshi-nage. I thought I'd die laughing.
The courage it takes to stick your finger up someone else's nose! That
weren't no wuss...
From: Rick Clark
I was demonstrating a technique that locked both wrists and puts uki on his knees in front of you. I told the class if you get this locked on tight it is hard to get out of. My student (a young man with no shame) BIT my crotch! I was off the matt in seconds and EVERYONE in the class was on the floor with tears - the class was shot for the day. No one could keep a straight face. My face was red for quite some time:-) I learned a good lesson - with the will you can break that hold:-)
From: Ralph Ray Craig
Just this evening, I was demonstrating kokyoho and mentioned to the class that if you get stuck with your arm in the air and your ki not wanting to flow, you have a cheat available. The point of your elbow is inches above uke's sternum. Just place (don't hit!) your elbow on their sternum and drop your weight. My uke, an EMT worker, remarked that one of the tests for unconsciousness is to knuckle-rub the sternum (he also remarked that he did not want the demonstration repeated on him!)