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"The
Art of Peace" |
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Heaven & Earth
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About Heaven & Earth
What is different about Heaven & Earth - Aikido? This is a question which is asked frequently. It is a fair question and one that should be asked by someone who is contemplating starting a martial arts regime. Learning a martial art requires commitment and involves a lot of time. Before you begin training you should have a good idea of what you are getting into. It is also the responsibility of the dojo to make sure that people understand what will be expected of them. Too often people are mislead in order to get them enrolled into a class. Clear communication at the beginning prevents a lot of misunderstandings later on. Some of what makes Heaven & Earth Aikido different can be found in the Philosophy section of this site. On the philosophy page we discuss what our general thinking is and what Heaven & Earth - Aikido should stand for. On this page I would like to discuss, in more detail, the physical aspects of what one would find to be different at Heaven & Earth. Before explaining the Heaven & Earth - Aikido difference I would like to point out that we are not fanatical and safety is a primary concern during training. Students are never pushed to perform beyond their current level and limitations and it is ok to sit out if things become too intense for you. As a matter of fact participants will be encouraged to do so. As you develop yourself through training, your ability to train harder increases. Some people want a softer program then our regular Aikido classes. I do not feel that these people should be excluded from a martial arts program because they might not physically be able to keep up with a full on class. I would rather have them begin their Aikido training softer and then once they have become more physically fit or dedicated to the art they can always increase their intensity. Hence all participants are encouraged to train at their own level of intensity.
In the Heaven & Earth Aikido classes, emphasis is placed on martial training for real situations. Most of our classes will start off at a slower pace by reviewing Aikido basics and fundamentals. This includes weapons practice, basic tenkan movements and chi development exercises. As the class progresses so does the intensity. The pace continues to increase. By the end of class students have build up a nice sweat and in most cases attacking and performing techniques with full intensity. As the students level increases we encourage real attacks. For advanced students "If you do not react, you will get hit". We also practice with close in punches not advertised big open punches at the advance levels. Real "Randori" (multiple person attacks) are practiced regularly at Heaven & Earth. Aikdio always assume that there is more than one attacker and randori is a realistic way to train for this. Each class begins with some warm-ups, stretches and Chi building exercises. We then do some basic weapons training either using a Boken (wooden sword) or Jo (short staff). Some Aikido dojos do not do weapons training until students have become black belts. Other dojos do weapons at the end of class. We consider weapon training to be very important to Aikido. Most Aikido movements are based on Sword movements. At Heaven & Earth everyone practices weapons and we put them at the onset of class to prepare us for the coming bare hand techniques. Each 90 minute or more class also includes Ukemi practice. Ukemi is the art of receiving an attack. In Aikido a lot of Ukemi involves knowing how to properly fall so that you do not get hurt. In order to practice Aikido at a more intense level you must be able to fall safely. In the Ukemi portion of the class we practice many different falling and rolling techniques from a wide variety of angles and heights. When going over the basics, emphasis is placed on form and performing the technique slowly and correctly. However we do not want to become dancing Aikidoist. As the class progresses we encourage more and more reality in the attacks. Some might say at this point that our Aikido is not very pretty, but pretty is not what we are going for here. Being able to deal with a real attack is important not only from a self defense aspect but also from a training point of view. I do not believe that you will get the full spiritual benefits of Aikido if you never experience the reality of possibly being hit.
Depending on the class we might practice from a flurry of punches, kicks, and/or real punches. We practice all techniques from a variety of attacks - round punches, upper cuts, back hands, grappling attacks, etc. Variety is important at Heaven & Earth - Aikido. Another thing that is different at Heaven & Earth - Aikido is that we do not draw a black and white line between basic and advance. All students train with all techniques. For safety reasons however this is adjusted depending on an individuals level and skill. We feel that it is important to get experience with all techniques right from the very beginning. Of course new students are never expected to perform them as well and with as much detail as senior students. Become familiar with a technique and then fine tune it as you progress is what we encourage. Some training methods introduce a limited amount of techniques at each level. I feel that this is a waist of valuable training time as understanding the principles behind what makes a technique work is more important then trying to learn how to do it perfectly before moving on to another technique.
Rather then having a purely reactive response to an attack, at Heaven & Earth we want students to understand Aikido and have trained well enough to have developed the ability to have a short delay between stimulus and response. This pause is used to choose the intensity of the reaction. This is very important if we want to train to not harm our opponents. A purely reactive martial art will damage an opponent regardless of their ability to handle it. I would like our students to have enough control to be able to handle their drunken brother-in-law or a life threatening attacker. You would not want to hurt your brother-in-law. An attacker set on harming you with a weapon requires a serious response. In the randori section of the class we train as if we were being attacked seriously by more than one attacker. Students learn how to manage the attackers, divide them and then control. We make it our goal to try to have some type of randori training exercise at the end of each class. Training at Heaven & Earth - aikido can be fun but we do take our Aikido seriously and prefer not to study it as a dance. HEAVEN & EARTH AIKIDO E-MAIL: aikido@heaven-earth.com #401 Chang Chien Rd. |
