Aikido - Physical training

In aikido, as in virtually all Japanese martial arts, there are both physical and mental aspects of training, which are often interdependent and interrelated. The physical training in aikido is diverse, covering both general physical fitness and conditioning, as well as specific techniques.[11] Because a substantial portion of any aikido curriculum consists of throws, the first thing most students learn is how to safely fall or roll.[12] The specific techniques for attack include both strikes and grabs; the techniques for defense consist of throws and pins. After basic techniques are learned, students study freestyle defense against multiple opponents, and in certain styles, techniques with weapons.

General fitness and training

Disarming an attacker using a "sword taking" (tachi-dori) technique.Physical training goals pursued in conjunction with aikido include controlled relaxation, flexibility, and endurance, with less emphasis on weightlifting-style strength. In aikido technique, pushing or extending movements are much more common than pulling or contracting movements found in other arts, and this distinction can be applied to general fitness goals for the aikido practitioner.

Certain anaerobic fitness activities, such as weight-lifting, emphasize contractionary power, in which specific muscles or muscle groups are isolated and worked to improve tone, mass, and power. Aikido-related training instead emphasizes the use of coordinated whole-body movement and balance, more similar to yoga or pilates. For example, many dojo begin each class with warm-up exercises (準備体操, junbi taisō?), which may include stretching and breakfalls.[13]

Aikido training is based primarily on pre-arranged forms (kata), practiced by two persons together rather than freestyle practice (randori). The basic pattern is for the receiver of the technique (uke) to initiate an attack against the executor of the throw or pin (nage, also referred to as tori or shite depending on aikido style), who neutralises this attack with an aikido technique.

Both halves of the technique, that of uke and that of nage, are considered essential to aikido training. Both are studying aikido principles of blending and adaptation, applied from different sides of the technique. Nage learns to blend with and control attacking energy, while uke learns to become calm and flexible in the disadvantageous, off-balance positions in which nage places them. This "receiving" of the technique is called ukemi.[14] Uke continuously seeks to regain balance and cover vulnerabilities (e.g. an exposed side), while nage uses position and timing to keep uke off-balance and vulnerable. In more advanced training, uke will sometimes apply reversal techniques (kaeshi-waza) to regain balance and pin or throw nage.

Ukemi (受身, Ukemi?), literally meaning "receiving-body", is the term used in aikido for protective techniques, such as parries or safe falls. One of the first skills taught to students beginning aikido is how to land when thrown so as to avoid injury.[14] Familiarity with different types of breakfalls allows sincere execution of techniques that could otherwise be prohibitively dangerous. In applying a technique, it is the responsibility of nage to prevent injury to uke by employing a speed and force of application that is commensurate with their partner's proficiency in ukemi.[14] Injuries (especially those to the joints), when they do occur in aikido, are often the result of nage misjudging the ability of uke to receive the throw or pin.[15][16]