There's always a bigger fish

Just back from a four day hippie festival in Somerset and the moment that stands out for me was finding Jude, my son, wandering back towards our tent one day crying.

Jude is six. When I asked him what was up he said that he'd gotten into a fight with another boy but that the other boy was so strong. He wasn't so upset at this point, more genuinely surprised and worried. Jude practices Karate on Saturday mornings and he said that this boy was so strong he just blocked even Jude's powerful punches and then hit Jude repeatedly.

What could my little dude do?

I think he learned an important lesson, which we talked about :
There will always be someone physically stronger than you.

So we discussed options. The best is by far, do not get into a fight with anyone, big or small, but if it's unavoidable and you find yourself up against someone stronger, strong punches won't do it. You need good technique, good technique will always overcome physical strength and you need enormous spirit, good spirit will always overcome technique and strength.

Reassured that there was more than just physical strength to rely on, Jude felt better and we practiced some aikido techniques.

Rubbish Ukemi is Rubbish

In training I have a tendency to think that when I can't do a technique on a paticular partner, my aikido is rubbish. It must be, I can't perform the wrist lock! What gives?

Yet when I step back away from my own frustration I realize that I am standing behind my partner, having entered as they attack, focusing on trying to put a pin on his arm when he's stood there facing away from me.

Now from a martial perspective this is called rubbish ukemi. One should never, ever take ones eyes off one's partner for you never know what they will do. The moment you disconnect is the moment you have given up.

Standing behind someone who is not trying to turn and face you or hit you there is no need to do a technique, you walk away. Standing behind someone who knows better, they will come around as fast as they can to face you, you then take their body movement and go with it and a technique happens naturally.

Performing rubbish ukemi means you don't get stretched and worked out and you frustrate you partner if they don't know any better. Performing rubbish ukemi on the wrong person or worse still, out of habit in a proper fight, get's painful and dangerous. Someday you will meet a real dragon, and what then?

Always look at your partner.