I can see in my classes that crawling is difficult for quite a few of the children. And I was surprised how much they improved when we started to do it regularly.
With children, it's really easy. They don't need any complex explanations of crawling, most of them find a natural way just by doing it. Some of them need to remind "belly on the ground", and some need help with alternating legs.
But once they get to it, crawling enhances all their movement.
I practice all animals with the childrens. I think it's foundational. Development of coordination ability is essential at any age. But when you say it is not about conditioning I do not agree. Today's aikido has a lot of problems including a vast majority of practicioners completely out of shape. I'm referring to not only students but teachers also. It's not about being young, beautiful and fit forever, as the modern fitness industry wants to fool us, but being adequate and have a dignity as a martial artist at any age. So I invite you to extend the reflection on the teme :"Is that a problem? And what's a good way to improve? Can an improvement in physical condition make a better aikidoka?"
Daniele, thank you very much for your comment and challenge! You're right, animals and other exercises are great conditioning and can get us to very good shape in any age. And we should be in shape - for Aikido practice and for life.
What I wanted to say is that these articles deal with animal exercises with the aim of developing "basic motor skills". Once people can coordinate these animal patterns, they are fantastic for developing bones, joints or muscles and also strength, mobility, speed and endurance.
But first we should coordinate our body before we decide to "condition" the body. If we don't have basic neuro-muscular coordination and we do flexibility, strength or endurance training (or Aikido), it can be counter-productive.
Sometimes people come to our beginner classes after doing bodybuilding, endurance running or yoga for 10-20 years... and they cannot coordinate their 4 limbs in basic movement patterns. Their muscular power or flexibility is a burden for them, and their movement habits are an obstacle to their movement learning. And we have to start with them with basic coordination (ie. basic motor skills) from scratch :)
And you're right: people (also in Aikido) are sometimes "completely out of shape" (what a nice euphemism). I don't know if it's a problem (they have to decide for themselves) but I know it can be improved.
So, thank you for the idea for an article in this movement series!
... and the aspect of creating in the moment, which is a key aspect in budo training, as well as when challenged with the unexpected in daily life - e.g. slipping on an ice patch or a wet floor. This aspect grows in importance with growing age, when we all need to keep flexibility and mobility to avoid injuries. It is also not only important with variation in training to keep it fun, it imporves the learning curve not only for children but for people of all ages.
Thank you so much for your wonderful work and for sharing your experiences and reflections! Both sharing it and the reflections is inspired to are most appreciated!
Thank you very much, Martin, for sharing these experiences, explorations, reflections for discussion! Physical literacy is so important, not only in the dojo but everywhere in our daily life! Aikido is for me for life. Of course I train and teach for developping my own as well as strudents' performance in aikido, but as much for the daily life, not only now but until I and they die. I train and teach for improved ability and function in every context and as you write many are in need of improving their abilities. Our contemporary society and most common way of living among great many people do not challenge us to use, train and develop our physical performance beyond a comfortable minimum. We have flat floors, escalators and lifts which minimise the requirements on physical capacity and reflexes. I really appreciate that you stress the importance of working with the entre body. The effect of not doing that can easily be formalising of training to katas that excludes variations and explorations, not the least abilities to create in the moment, which is so important in the self Defence aspect but also when slipping on ise or on a wet floor... Children but also people of all ages flourish with variation in training, when exposed to different types of exploring and working with the body and mind. With increasing age the importance of physical literacy and keeping up mobility and flexibility certainly remain, if not increase.
Thank you so much for your inspiring work and for sharing your thoughts and reflections about it!
I can see in my classes that crawling is difficult for quite a few of the children. And I was surprised how much they improved when we started to do it regularly.
With children, it's really easy. They don't need any complex explanations of crawling, most of them find a natural way just by doing it. Some of them need to remind "belly on the ground", and some need help with alternating legs.
But once they get to it, crawling enhances all their movement.
I practice all animals with the childrens. I think it's foundational. Development of coordination ability is essential at any age. But when you say it is not about conditioning I do not agree. Today's aikido has a lot of problems including a vast majority of practicioners completely out of shape. I'm referring to not only students but teachers also. It's not about being young, beautiful and fit forever, as the modern fitness industry wants to fool us, but being adequate and have a dignity as a martial artist at any age. So I invite you to extend the reflection on the teme :"Is that a problem? And what's a good way to improve? Can an improvement in physical condition make a better aikidoka?"
Thank you for your job.
Daniele, thank you very much for your comment and challenge! You're right, animals and other exercises are great conditioning and can get us to very good shape in any age. And we should be in shape - for Aikido practice and for life.
What I wanted to say is that these articles deal with animal exercises with the aim of developing "basic motor skills". Once people can coordinate these animal patterns, they are fantastic for developing bones, joints or muscles and also strength, mobility, speed and endurance.
But first we should coordinate our body before we decide to "condition" the body. If we don't have basic neuro-muscular coordination and we do flexibility, strength or endurance training (or Aikido), it can be counter-productive.
Sometimes people come to our beginner classes after doing bodybuilding, endurance running or yoga for 10-20 years... and they cannot coordinate their 4 limbs in basic movement patterns. Their muscular power or flexibility is a burden for them, and their movement habits are an obstacle to their movement learning. And we have to start with them with basic coordination (ie. basic motor skills) from scratch :)
And you're right: people (also in Aikido) are sometimes "completely out of shape" (what a nice euphemism). I don't know if it's a problem (they have to decide for themselves) but I know it can be improved.
So, thank you for the idea for an article in this movement series!
... and the aspect of creating in the moment, which is a key aspect in budo training, as well as when challenged with the unexpected in daily life - e.g. slipping on an ice patch or a wet floor. This aspect grows in importance with growing age, when we all need to keep flexibility and mobility to avoid injuries. It is also not only important with variation in training to keep it fun, it imporves the learning curve not only for children but for people of all ages.
Thank you so much for your wonderful work and for sharing your experiences and reflections! Both sharing it and the reflections is inspired to are most appreciated!
Thank you very much, Martin, for sharing these experiences, explorations, reflections for discussion! Physical literacy is so important, not only in the dojo but everywhere in our daily life! Aikido is for me for life. Of course I train and teach for developping my own as well as strudents' performance in aikido, but as much for the daily life, not only now but until I and they die. I train and teach for improved ability and function in every context and as you write many are in need of improving their abilities. Our contemporary society and most common way of living among great many people do not challenge us to use, train and develop our physical performance beyond a comfortable minimum. We have flat floors, escalators and lifts which minimise the requirements on physical capacity and reflexes. I really appreciate that you stress the importance of working with the entre body. The effect of not doing that can easily be formalising of training to katas that excludes variations and explorations, not the least abilities to create in the moment, which is so important in the self Defence aspect but also when slipping on ise or on a wet floor... Children but also people of all ages flourish with variation in training, when exposed to different types of exploring and working with the body and mind. With increasing age the importance of physical literacy and keeping up mobility and flexibility certainly remain, if not increase.
Thank you so much for your inspiring work and for sharing your thoughts and reflections about it!
Hello Andreas!
Nice to meet you here!
Thank you for your kind words and for sharing your view. You're adding other aspects and connections to what I mentioned in the article.
I hope the texts in "Aikido: Art for Life" open our horizons and start a public discussion about such topics :)