Aikido is atemi

 I last wrote 4-5 years ago, so forgive my long absence. Over the years I’ve questioned the validity of speaking so much about aikido rather than doing it. Given however my martial encounters revolve around the dojo (of which today remains in limbo thanks to COVID) alone, I didn’t think there’s really anything much to talk about.

However I was reviewing a few of my old video collection and I remarked to my wife who was watching an  embukai video, you can’t blame people for thinking that aikido is dance. The nage is definitely a good aikidoka but the demo is pretty much a dance. All of ukes attacks are of course predetermined, that’s not the problem, the issue is that nage is totally open. And for the sake of demonstrating the techniques, uke doesn’t take advantage of those openings. So it looks like a well rehearsed dance.

I explained to her about a video on Silat. I like this Silat because it resembles the one I trained in closely. The teacher demonstrated his movements, and within his movement is a pair of shield and strike. As he utilizes the movement against an attack, he performs a technique. The technique wasn’t the answer to the attack, his movement was. He didn’t complete either the shield or the strike, but midway, it transformed into the technique.

This is how aikido has to be performed I exclaimed. We shouldn’t jump to the technique, but everything starts from the atemi. As atemi meets the attack, the technique is manifest.

Newer videos of Saotome sensei are a good demonstration of this. He is never open. He is always controlling chusin, he meets uke with atemi (that’s not obvious) but perfectly cuts their chusin, and using awase and then musubi, naturally a technique is manifested.

She then says ah I got to start practicing again. And I then answered, you’re not going to like it. We don’t start with the soft and elegant looking aikido to get to that level. We start hard and strong. And through that pain, only we will get to that magical place of ephemeral and effortless aikido.