00;00;00;00 - 00;00;12;03
Unknown
The way you take ukemi tells your training partner everything about your natural temperament. Your trust in them and whether you are actually present on the mat that day.
00;00;12;03 - 00;00;23;00
Unknown
If they are truly paying attention and quieting their mind. All of this comes through. So first of all, here's an interesting story.
00;00;23;03 - 00;00;30;03
Unknown
when I when I was living in Japan and training intensively, my back went out from about nidan and
00;00;30;03 - 00;00;33;02
Unknown
I was at the pub with, with a few of my sempai
00;00;33;02 - 00;00;53;23
Unknown
and Takayoshi sensei said, I said, yeah, man, my back is really cool. They were like, oh yeah, we haven't seen you in a couple of months. I said, yeah, my back. I've had sciatica was like radiating down my legs. It's really bad. And so I said, yeah, my back is killing me.
00;00;53;25 - 00;01;01;20
Unknown
And Takashi sensei said, well, someone with ukemi like that. Yeah, that's that's going to go straight to the back.
00;01;01;23 - 00;01;10;01
Unknown
As well. What do you mean? He goes, well, we figured you would get some back trouble the way you took ukemi.
00;01;10;04 - 00;01;34;09
Unknown
One thing I loved was like, ukemi for ikkyo. And these guys, their ikkyo was so good. All my Japanese sempai running at them full blast and bounced straight in center to center, bouncing off, ricocheting off. You know, I think I ricocheted, I don't know. But anyway, my back took so much of the shock,
00;01;34;09 - 00;01;35;13
Unknown
so I overloaded it.
00;01;35;21 - 00;01;56;11
Unknown
But anyway, the interesting thing was that they said, oh yeah, we figured you'd get some back trouble. And I said, you figured I get back to, well, why didn't you tell me? Then? Why didn't you warn me? He said, I'll never forget this. He says a person who takes ukemi like that is the type of person who won't listen to advice.
00;01;56;14 - 00;01;59;11
Unknown
Oh.
00;01;59;14 - 00;02;24;26
Unknown
Can you believe that? Oh, I'm tearing up. So they got so much information from me, just from my ukemi. And in a previous video, I was talking about how sometimes Takeda Shihan, my teacher, would come over to me during class and he'd say, okay, Lia, ryotemochi. And we could be doing like shomenuchi iriminage
00;02;24;28 - 00;02;46;22
Unknown
And he was up. Okay, grab both hands like something totally different from what we're doing in class. And he'd throw me that really sharp, spiraling kokyunage where you don't even go outward. You just flip right where you are anyway. And that was like my reset button emotionally. How did he know?
00;02;46;25 - 00;02;53;28
Unknown
And now I've noticed. Also, sometimes I can really judge that this person has had a bad day.
00;02;53;28 - 00;03;07;08
Unknown
That person has had a bad day, right? Sometimes from the ukemi, I get the sense, oh, is this person catching a cold now because they're moving slower or anything? The sweat feels different. Does that sound crazy?
00;03;07;08 - 00;03;10;14
Unknown
Anyway, so the temperament
00;03;10;14 - 00;03;12;16
Unknown
and a person's basic nature,
00;03;12;16 - 00;03;15;03
Unknown
their natural, character
00;03;15;04 - 00;03;20;29
Unknown
and then their mood for that day, all of these things come through, especially
00;03;21;00 - 00;03;38;18
Unknown
if your partner is, is really, really, experienced if they've been doing aikido a long time and they and if they've been doing aikido, working on trying to quiet their mind because then they can receive so much information, really a lot of information.
00;03;38;18 - 00;03;52;14
Unknown
So why do we care. Well we as on on this side we want to be the at least I, I think you agree. If you're watching this video, you probably do. I think we all want to be
00;03;52;14 - 00;03;54;08
Unknown
the favorite training partner
00;03;54;08 - 00;04;05;06
Unknown
of everybody in the dojo, right? Don't you want people to train with you and go like, wow, I am spent after training with that person and man, I had fun,
00;04;05;06 - 00;04;05;18
Unknown
you know?
00;04;05;18 - 00;04;14;28
Unknown
So I don't want people to like training with me because it's easy or anything. I just want good, honest connection and the
00;04;14;29 - 00;04;24;22
Unknown
appropriate intensity of the connection or heaviness for that person. That's what I'm looking for in myself.
00;04;24;22 - 00;04;29;16
Unknown
If you train like that, then one thing that you'll do is you will
00;04;29;16 - 00;04;30;05
Unknown
give
00;04;30;08 - 00;04;37;04
Unknown
Tori or Nagi the opportunity to experience the full technique.
00;04;37;04 - 00;04;39;07
Unknown
I mean that you're not falling early.
00;04;39;07 - 00;04;50;29
Unknown
You're hanging on and pushing and keeping this connection so that you don't fall until Tori actually completely follows through.
00;04;50;29 - 00;05;04;20
Unknown
So a lot of times, people fall so early that Tori never gets to actually refine the last 10% of the technique, which is oftentimes like the the most important, like the crucial time.
00;05;04;22 - 00;05;12;11
Unknown
So work on your ukemi work on being flexible yet heavy and work on maintaining that connection
00;05;12;11 - 00;05;28;02
Unknown
to the very, very, very end of the technique. And if you think that you're already doing that, just check and see. Oh, well, maybe I can go a half second long. Maybe I can maintain maintain the connection a half a second longer.
00;05;28;04 - 00;05;36;12
Unknown
Oh, maybe another half a second. You know, you might think that you're, maintaining it to the very end and you're actually not. So just check. Check in.
00;05;36;12 - 00;05;44;05
Unknown
And if you want you to come in to get really good, then you're going to have to be proactive and you're going to have to chase down the sempai.
00;05;44;06 - 00;05;51;22
Unknown
So I see in the US a lot actually Western countries a lot. kohai
00;05;51;22 - 00;05;54;03
Unknown
feels a little hesitant
00;05;54;05 - 00;05;58;28
Unknown
to go to sempai and say βOnegaishimasu.β, you have to.
00;05;59;00 - 00;06;22;00
Unknown
We used to fight over getting to Kadoya sensei first. Numata sensei, Yasu sensei Seino sensei. Those were. Those are the big guns. Takahashi sensei. Satoshi sensei. We would try to get to them before anybody else did. And sometimes I got it. And sometimes my friend would get there before me. Right? Well, then you find the next person.
00;06;22;02 - 00;06;45;23
Unknown
But be selfish. Be selfish. By the way, recently I was teaching a seminar, and everybody's already got their partner, everybody's training, and this one woman in this pair over here, she just walked away from her partner and came over and grabbed my wrist, and I was I already had a partner. She already had a partner. So don't do it that way.
00;06;45;23 - 00;07;12;22
Unknown
That's kind of rude. And I looked at her. I was so surprised. And she goes, I want to feel it from you. And so I threw her and then I went back to training with my partner. So it's actually kind of rude if you just walk away from your partner, so don't do it that way. But when the teacher shows the next technique and says those are go ahead, then boom, hightail it, hightail it to that person that you want to train with.
00;07;12;22 - 00;07;34;06
Unknown
This is just one more reason that I have this weekly video training newsletter is because people don't know these little things, not just how to do a technique, but like, well, what are the manners? So if you ever come to one of my seminars, then please, please run after the sempai train with the person that you want to train with.
00;07;34;06 - 00;07;50;08
Unknown
You got to get there before the other person gets there though. You can't bust in and say like, no, I want to. Okay, so anyway, if you do want some training tips like that, just jump on my my video training newsletter. The link is is below in the description.
00;07;50;11 - 00;08;18;23
Unknown
So another thing, when you are training, keep listening so to speak, figuratively listen. So you're listening with your body and your partner goes this way. It goes that way. Don't anticipate. Don't think to yourself, oh, this is going to be the ukemi for iriminage. no, it's first of all, just go in and connect. Go in, grab your partner's wrists or you hit them on the head, whatever.
00;08;18;23 - 00;08;45;12
Unknown
That is your job until something else happens. If you were having a conversation and somebody says, hi, Lia, and I say, Tuesday 730, that would be ridiculous. Hi Lia. Then I say, hi, how are you? This is fine. I'm looking forward to to getting together. When was it again that we're going to meet then I say Tuesday at 730.
00;08;45;14 - 00;09;05;09
Unknown
Okay, so you can't respond to a question that hasn't been asked yet. You can't comment on a statement that hasn't been made yet. So your job is to go in with the attack, connect and then see what they say, see how they move, in other words,
00;09;05;12 - 00;09;08;01
Unknown
and then let your body follow it
00;09;08;01 - 00;09;10;02
Unknown
and maintain this connection.
00;09;10;02 - 00;09;37;27
Unknown
If you'd like to train with me in person, I've got some seminars coming up, actually, just one more for the year, and that is November 20th through 22nd, and it's outside of Philadelphia in Pennsylvania. So please join us. That's actually my original dojo. My original black belts are there, so I'm really looking forward to that. And then in January at the at the beginning of January.
00;09;38;00 - 00;10;04;08
Unknown
January 8th through 10th, I'll be teaching a New Year's seminar at my home dojo in Los Angeles. And the end of January, I'll be teaching in Redlands, California, also in 2027. In March and May, I'll be going to Japan, and I'll be taking small groups with me. And then in September, I'll be going to the Netherlands and Germany and taking a small group with me.
00;10;04;10 - 00;10;41;19
Unknown
So if you'd like more information about those tours, just go to the link in the description below. Join the waitlist and you'll be notified when details become available. The first Japan tour in March will be cherry blossom viewing training, of course, and Hot springs. And then the second tour might also have some hot springs. It'll be training Kamakura, Yokohama, Tokyo area, and it's always, an exciting one for me because Kamakura is where I lived when I lived in Japan for nearly ten years.
00;10;41;21 - 00;10;50;17
Unknown
So anyway, go to the link in the description if you're interested, and all the details will become available to you. Thanks so much for tuning in. Bye bye.
