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In Aikido, the relationship of movements between attacker and defender can be separated into two types of principle. The first is the omote principle where the defender (tori) is using irimi, moving forward and coming in front of the attacker. The second principle is ura, where tori escapes uke’s attack by moving behind the attacker using tenkan or irimi tenkan circular movements. Tenkan is a move where you use your front leg to pivot round to face the other direction by sweeping your back leg round in a circular movement, keeping the foot in contact with the floor at all times. Irimi tenkan is the tenkan movement but before tenkan we move our body forward making one step with the back leg, before continuing with tenkan. In all movements in Aikido, the most important thing is to start moving with our hips. That will help us to do the whole move with our whole body and not just part of the body. Moving like this will keep our balance and we will feel confident in our movements. In Aikido we can find other types of movements. Tsugi Ashi is a move where the back leg follows the front leg maintaining the same distance. Ayumi Ashi is a move involving crossing the legs. Kaiten or tenkai is turning on our feet at the same time. In Aikido movements our feet must slide on the surface (suri ashi) of the floor. We do not lift them in the air. Tenkai is a small movement but very important for most of the techniques. We have several positions which depend on the hight of our body (i.e. standing, kneeling or mixture): Tachi waza when both uke and tori are standing, Suwari waza when both opponents are kneeling and Hanmi hantachi waza where Uke (attacker) is in a standing position and Tori is kneeling. Shikko is a move on our knees (sitting position). This way of moving comes from the traditional Japanese way of sitting – seiza. This move is known as the samurai walk. In old times, when a feudal master was in the house, everybody had to walk on their knees. Wearing weapons was forbidden for guests in the feudal master’s house, and so defence techniques in suwari waza were created. Moving on your knees is very important for exercising. Doing all the techniques in a kneeling position (suwari waza) is a harder and more effective training than doing them in standing position (tachi waza). All the basic moves described here are used in a wide range of techniques. Doing techniques well depends on good timing and a fluid connection of the moves. All movements can be used in 8 general directions (all around you) depending on the attack and on where we want to throw the attacker. For somebody who controls all 8 directions we can say he or she knows the Aikido movements.
Small School of Sturi Aikido
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