Today's hottest NBA basketball team just revealed their secret to success - the basics. This season, the Golden State Warriors have a current record of 51-5 and are chasing Michael Jordan's 1996 Chicago Bulls record of 72-10. In a recent podcast, one of their players, Andrew Bogut revealed that in their training camp their coach Steve Kerr said, "We're going back to the basics." They spent a large portion of their training camp on rudimentary passing and shooting drills. The result is obvious as the Warriors have the league's best record and are poised to repeat their championship run from last year.
In the video below, watch how the Warriors spread out their opponent's defense with just their passing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHPD1HZg8-I
The fundamentals are something that Furuya Sensei often spoke about. He once said, "When you get lost or confused, you can always fall back on the basics." This is something that has always stayed with me and something that I try and instill in my own students now. Strength and speed will fade with time, but technique is something that one can always be improve upon.
What are the basics? Footwork (ashi-sabaki), body movement (tai-sabaki), posture and the basic techniques of tenkan kokyu-ho, ikkyo, nikyo, sankyo, yonkyo and some few other basic control holds and throws. Master these and one will master Aikido.
If you want to read more about the Warriors, read the inspiration for this article here: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/steve-kerr-designed-nbas-most-223710921.html