Krönika

Sat in the sofa, just finished sorting out the pictures from this years New Year seminar in aikido in Gothenburg.
As I injured my foot badly on November 29th, and hasn't trained aikido regularly since May 2011, I was a bit concerned whether I should go or not, but I knew that at least half of the classes would be weapons training, and I knew that I was going to train those classes with someone who knows exactly how bad my foot and right shoulder is so I decided to go.

When arriving and participating in the first class, I realized, to my horror that the main focus on this seminar was stance (han-mi). Han-mi is, as I noticed, not the best way to stand with my foot, but on the other hand, standing to long in any way hurts. I guess it could have been worse.

I see it interesting that almost every martial art has their own stance, and they are all convinced that their own stance is the one that's the best. You should always be careful when a teacher can not explain to you why their stance is the one you should use. Even within different martial arts where you can find movements that look the same you can find different stances, and depending on whether you have something in your hand, and what you have the stance may differ.

One can easily see if someone has been training something else, as they often slide back into what they already know. This is also the case for me. Aikido was the first martial art I was training, and even though I barely train it any more, I notice me standing in han-mi even in MMA and when I do Filipino Martial Art, and I should keep more of a boxing stance. I don't think han-mi is a poor stance, but I don't like it for quite a few reasons.

• You can't kick.
• You can't move fast sideways.

Yes, han-mi is something for a few martial arts only. It works in aikido, because we don't have to think about kicks, and attacks from the side. On the other hand, when moving fast, you never really stand in han-mi. You more end up in the way your feet tells you too. 

What I would like to try, is to see if things work, even though you stand in some other stances when doing different martial arts.

But that is a project for the future, right now, all my foot wants to do is to rest.