Wado – Aspects of deception and timing.

The finer skills in martial arts.

A technical Wado karate piece, with contents including:

· Irimi.

· Shikaku.

· Strategies for wrong-footing your opponent.

· Suzuki Sensei’s diversions and illusions.

I had faced Suzuki Sensei before in such encounters and come away frustrated that I could do very little to stop him. But this time I knew what was coming, and so I was determined to watch him as closely as possible to figure out exactly what trickery was going on.

Suzuki Tatsuo Sensei.

To describe what was happening. Suzuki Sensei liked to call one of the Dan grades up to perform the paired kata with him; sometimes he would act as Uke, others he would be Tori. If Sensei was to be Uke, his opponent never stood a chance, it just seemed so fast, but it was more than just speed, there were other things going on. But for the sake of this article, I will leave that side of the equation alone and explain what happened when Suzuki Sensei was in the Tori role and how he was able to mess up Uke’s attack, even before it was fully committed. But I will reserve that little secret for further down this article.

Intro.

When I started writing this, two thoughts occurred to me; firstly, maybe everybody knows this stuff and it is ubiquitous across all martial arts? Well, there’s a good chance that it is, perhaps the knowledge is common, but has just been shunted aside as some esoteric stuff that people feel obliged to pay lip service too, all theory, but no ability to put it into action?

The second is that perhaps it’s just too obvious. Some of this same trickery occurs in other sporting activities. But, I have noticed that what I think is common knowledge, if I mention it to students, they look at me surprised and it changes their view in what they are doing.

Let me start with what I consider as the low-hanging fruit (or at least I think they are).

Irimi.

Someone once described Irimi to me as a ‘mad dash, a plunge into the centre of chaos’. A bit dramatic but sometimes you have to cook up over-exuberant imagery to get the message across.

Irimi, in simple terms means to ‘enter in’. To execute timing in a way that puts you right in the centre of where your opponent is, so that you can take him by surprise and just do your thing.

Some Aikido people I have spoken to like to own this strategy, but when pushed they will acknowledge roots that predate Aikido and take it back to the skills of So-Jutsu (spear fighting) and other weapons-based methods. Or even, with a sword, defending against an opponent whose weapon has a much longer reach – like a spear. So, to get round that advantage you need a ‘mad dash’.