AIKIBATTO, ten duo sword exercises for aikido students, by Stefan Stenudd

Aikibatto is a system of sword exercises for aikido students, consisting of ten forms (kata). It should be practiced both solo and duo. Here is the duo version. Details below:

Solo practice is preferably done with katana, the steel sword. In duo exercises, though, the wooden sword, bokken or bokuto, is the obvious choice.

The ten aikibatto kata are divided into four groups:

SHIHO – four directions. Those are mae (front), ushiro (behind), hidari (left), migi (right). Several iaido schools have these four among their basic kata, although they may look different. They usually involve nukitsuke, the draw and strike before the attacker reaches you. Notice that in hidari and migi, the attacker is thought to be hiding behind a wall.

UKE NAGASHI – receive flowingly (parry). The first one is omote and the second ura, as in the aikido front side and back side entry. Both follow up the parry with the kesagiri strike – on the right or the left side. This is a very swift technique. The parry smoothly leads to the cut with little effort.

KOTE – forearm strike. The first is chudan, striking on middle level, and the second jodan, upper level. Notice that the attacker uses a big cutting move from the right side guard (migi no waki). In the Japanese sword arts, striking the forearm is very common, since it can be done without getting uncomfortably close to the attacker. It can also be quick, since it doesn’t need much force.

HARAI – warding off (parry). This parry is done with the tsuka, the sword hilt. Notice that here the attack is tsuki, a forward thrust. In the first kata, the parry is followed by ate, a strike with the hilt, in order to get the distance needed to draw the sword. In the second kata, the counter attack is tsuki, the thrust.

The kata are done rather slowly. That’s both for clarity and for safety. With some of them, a higher speed should not be that risky, but with others it can easily lead to accidents.

The idea with aikibatto is to practice Japanese sword art basics in an aikido manner. That mainly means every technique starts with the taisabaki evasive movement.

You can read much more about the aikibatto exercises on my website. See the link below.

Uke was Lucie Arlethová.

This is a 2023 edit of this 2017 video:
   • AIKIBATTO, ten duo sword exercises fo...  

For more about aikibatto, visit my website:
https://www.stenudd.com/aikibatto/
My aikibatto book:
https://www.amazon.com/Aikibatto-Swor...

My aikido dojo is Enighet in Malmö, Sweden: https://www.aikidoenighet.se/

For more about aikido, visit my website:
https://www.stenudd.com/aikido/
My aikido books:
https://www.amazon.com/Aikido-Princip...
https://www.amazon.com/Attacks-Aikido...