Funakogi Undo

Video Transcript

"After learning how to do Tenkan, and learn how to turn, it's very important to understand the use of your hips in Aikido. Everything that we do is based on hip motion; everything moves from your center. Not from your shoulders, not from your arms, not from your legs, everything moves from your center. Everything moves in conjunction. Mind and body coordination. Although that sounds kind of fancy, all it means is staying relaxed and moving from your center. Funkakogi Undo, is one of the goofiest looking exercises I think we do in Aikido. When I first started Aikido, I didn't really care for this one, because it quite honestly looks goofy. You wouldn't want to do this in a public place. Don't do it on the dance floor. With my right foot forward, my hands are going to be at my hips, my hips come forward, not so far that I can't see my toe. If I bend so far forward that I can't see my toe beneath my knee, then I'm off balance and I'm over extended. So my hips come forward, my hands shoot out right in front of me, my hips go back, the hands come straight down. The mistakes that I see, number one, are going too far forward. Number two, is when you pull your hips back sometimes I see people keep their hands in the same level. They don't dip down, they stay on the same horizontal path. And this looks more like you’re pulling than digging. Your hands should come out, and dig down. Back up and down. So it looks like this. With a count; one, two. One, two. Three, four. Another mistake I see, is people doing the hoola-dance. This is one of my pet-peeves, I can't stand this. We're not hoola-dancers, the hands don't come back and forth like this. They come out in this manner, just like this, and they stay that way. With a partner. Everything we do in Aikido is based off our hip motion, so the best way to see this one is from a grab. I can parry him, I get behind him; from here, I use my hips, I pull him straight back he just goes backwards. Instead, I want to connect with my hips and drop down. One more time in motion. So from here, one, two. That's a really good example of how you use your hips in motion."