Aikido like I've never seen before

They often say that aikido is a martial art that anyone can do, whatever their age and condition. It's much rarer to actually see this put into practice. In San Leandro, I encountered such a rare occurrence.

This is John. He had a problem with his leg, so he was doing aikido sitting on a stool. Sensei fully supported him and John did a demo at kagami biraki, when I'd first arrived in California. I had the honour and good fortune to be his uke, together with Noah.

John put this demo together with the theme of "Aikido is fun". It was so much fun. Here are a few clips for you to enjoy. The first one is basic stuff, starting with weapons handling. The second one is tantodori, then kaeshiwaza. The last video is randori. By the end of that, you wouldn't believe John's leg was not up to scratch.

As John is about to give the jo to Noah, he goes into jo waza. The jowaza was not planned. Or rather, John had planned it but didn't tell us. That made the demo fun for us as well. You can also see how John needs to modify his shihonage; in the first one he makes Noah run around him rather than turning under the arm. As it should be, really - make the uke do the work!

 

At the end of the tantodori in the second clip, John amuses both us and his audience by calling in a few unsuspecting extra ukes...

 

 

Kaeshiwaza. I managed to push John off the stool doing a shomen uchi ikkyo... John was completely unflustered and executed his subsequent kaeshi with great ki.

The randori was the greatest thing ever. Make sure to watch till the end. You can hear Brett, who was filming, laughing. I've possibly never been so surprised in my life.