1,000 Punches

One of my teachers is a young man named Joe Stores. His martial arts background includes Boxing, Kali, Silat, Jun Fan Boxing and Muay Thai Kickboxing. Yesterday he called me up to see if I wanted to work out and I agreed. He showed up and we started on his daily routine: 1,000 punches. First we did the jab, then jab-cross, then jab-cross-hook-cross-uppercut-cross, then jab, then jab-cross to finish, totally 1,000 punches. I thought back to my training in Aikido, and it occured to me that other than my suburi, I never done 1,000 of anything in Aikido as a route drill. It was a nice change of pace. People talk about cross-training and using atemi, but no one is practicing atemi like boxers. When we sparred afterwards I noticed some things about how Aikido might work against a kickboxer/boxer. Boxers naturally retract their limbs to cover and strike in rapid succession. It would not be easy to catch an arm for an Aikido technique. While punching with total body weight fo maximum damage, he was never off balance, and the footwork and distancing he used was near expert. Also, boxers are more than used to getting hit and are rather fearless of it. It was his willingness to clinch and infight that I felt gave me the most opportune moments to safely apply Aikido techniques. When we were clinched and his limbs were safely controlled, I was able to apply kuzushi. At one point, from a clinch, I threw him in koshinage, and he caught himself with his hands, and while he was half standing, I punched him in his stomach and face a few times. It was a great time and an awesome learning experience.