“Even Frankenstein can do randori!” by Charles Warren

“Attackers may stretch out their arms like classic horror movie monsters. Nage may bypass the ‘attacks’ using whatever aikido blend seems appropriate.”

I will start by giving full credit for this drill to Frank Doran and Bob Nadeau, and tell the story Nadeau sensei told about its evolution. Way back in prehistory sometime (that is before I started training and dinosaurs roamed the earth), Frank and Bob were concerned about succeeding with multiple-person attacks. I don’t know what the specific problem was, but we can all imagine bad things happening if you DON’T succeed in that scenario. I think I recall a Marin lady under a dog pile at her shodan test once upon a time…

So, with that preamble, here we go. We all understand the standard setup for multiple-person attacks on a dan test. There is a line of attackers seated opposite the aspirant, such that the one in the middle is directly in front, and therefore the others are arranged on the flanks. But there is sufficient distance between the attackers (ukes) and the aspirant (nage) that the ukes are all about directly in front of nage.

At the signal, all rise to their feet and rush together. The ukes each attempt some relevant attack, and nage attempts some appropriate simple technique. Things go usually downhill for nage if either they go to the center of the line, try something fancy, or if they EVER back up. It is POSSIBLE to thread between two attackers, but it’s also easy to get caught. Techniques that take more than one move are a bit like backing up. The rule of thumb for backing up is that, for every retreating step, you accumulate another attacker.

So far, so good. Rules of thumb, then, are nage should go to the outside of the uke line, and always enter. There are a few variations. For instance, if the line gets strung out in closing the original distance, nage should take ukes in the order of closest first. Then the rule morphs into Musashi’s, deal with multiple attackers as though threading fish on a string.” For the ensuing engagements in the evolution of the test, that rule, along with “always advance”, becomes paramount.

Fine. At this point we have a few good rules of thumb, but we have only a full speed practice. This is where Frank and Bob come in. Their inspiration was to run the whole thing at about one-quarter speed, omitting throws and greatly simplifying attacks. I’ve usually done this with everybody starting standing at typical test distance. I keep time, that is, I count slowly, usually to four and repeat. For each count everybody may take one step. Attackers may stretch out their arms like classic horror movie monsters. Nage may bypass the “attacks” using whatever aikido blend seems appropriate. Simply avoiding the attacks with distance has a similar result to retreating. Nobody may accelerate their pace. If an uke is bypassed, they have to re-engage in the same slow pace, no quick pivots. Nor can nage do “double time” to get out of a bind. If nage gets stuck with two or more attackers, start over. If everybody is scrupulous about keeping time, the result is that nage gets a good feel for the evolution of the ukes’ group geometry, and how to set themselves up to only meet one at a time. You will see that Musashi’s rule comes out pretty quickly, almost always after each of the ukes have been bypassed once if not sooner.

A corollary of the basic rules of thumb is that, if you don’t see one or more of your attackers ahead of you, they’re behind you. When you’ve advanced and taken all of your attackers, therefore, turn around because one or more of the group will by then have recovered and re-oriented their attack. Advance to take the nearest re-attack first. In succeeding full speed iterations, the ukes will probably become more widely separated, but this will be less likely or obvious in the slow speed exercise.

At higher speed, there are a couple other fine points. It pays to throw ukes at each other so that they interfere with each other’s re-targeting. It will slow number one down if he has to go around number two, or two and three. Even at the first go, it may be possible to drop number one in the way of two and three. This won’t be as obvious at slow speed.

The big advantage of the slow speed exercise is that you can do it for hours if you want. Technical throwing skill can be developed elsewhere or in the more energetic full speed practice. Placing your attackers can be perfected at Frankenstein speed.

I’ve successfully proved it out “on the street”, one of the advantages of living and walking in San Francisco for a couple decades. As I recollect, Bob Cornman did too. In Bob’s instance, breaking up a purse snatch, it wasn’t evident at the outset who or how many the attackers were. Remember in a “real” situation, people won’t fall well, or maybe at all. But good techniques and solid atemi will still achieve the expected results.

http://www.charlesbwarren.com/