Aikido, searching the Way

The Eyes That Decieve

2012-01-15T22:47:00.000-08:00

For martial artists, the eyes has always played a major role. The method of seeing is shared in many different arts, some with different emphasis and rationale but always explainable.

There comes a stage though where to obtain perfect vision, we have to abandon the eyes we have. Musashi apparently wrote the need for a budoka to see what is there and what isn't there. I do not need to explain that the meaning is not literal here.

So what is perfect vision? Well to take it step by step, first we ask what is timing? Surely timing requires some understanding of causal relationship between uke and nage. Thus timing is all about reacting in the appropriate manner, at the appropriate speed, angle and force and at the appropriate moment. Now that is a lot of appropriate variables. Are our eyes up to it? Typically our eyes connect to the cerebral cortex before allowing for reaction by the brains logic. Studies have shown that this speed is slower than that of reaction that comes from the medula oblangata. Further studies have shown that well practiced martial artists have short circuited the reaction time by using trained reflexes triggered by the medula oblangata. And that's why we are suitably impressed at boxers who weaves around the explosive jabs, and baseball players that bats incoming 180mph balls with such skill. Using just the normal eye to cerebral cortex reaction time, these feats are impossible.

Still, bypassing the longer route is not yet Perfect vision. When perfect vision occurs, uke himself understands that nage no longer has an opening. He feels constraint to attack anywhere. Nage has complete control of uke by just seeing uke's center even without doing anything. And if uke attacks anyway, nage can move casually not at all requiring speed and reflexes to counter the attack.

To get to perfect vision, one can no longer use the eyes alone. But knowing exactly where uke's center is and starting with nage's positioning of perfect alignment to that line.

Giving and Receiving

2011-12-10T05:00:00.000-08:00

It can only be chance that it is in this month that I thought about giving and receiving in Aikido. Not that it's by any chance a new concept...

Part of the landscape of Aikido is that you need to rise above the act of wanting and doing and reacting. Not in the, let the flow of the winds guide me, laissez faire kinda way. But something like, following a path of acceptance.

Somebody said, 'pasrah' is giving up, 'rela' is acceptance. Such a simple wisdom. We are not giving up, we don't 'allow' things to go every which way. But neither do we fight tooth and nail against something. This middle path of acceptance is benign yet not passive.

In the act of receiving, we put into our minds that the energy or vibe uke provides is a gift for us and it is ours to receive. This energy could be a strike, a kiai, a grab, a kick or any number of things. But ultimately it must become ours to do as we wish.

In the act of giving, and it should always begin with this in fact, even with receiving, we give sincerely our energy to uke. Even before a single inch of movement is made, our hearts and mind have started giving. A simple way to give without depleting yourself is to give love. Love every thing around you like the world and the universe loves you. Not the person, not the name, but the essence.

If we can achieve this thoroughly, it would be very difficult to displace your center. Another person may try to attack you verbally or through his actions or inaction, but because you are perpetually in the state of unconditional giving, you would not be disturbed.

Imagine you are a glass of water and some takes a sip out of you. You'll find gradually that you become less and less. Or if someone adds ice cubes into your already full glass, you'll find that you will overflow. These are factors that affect you beyond your control. To maintain a state that cannot be disturb we must change our being from being a static cup. We must instead be something like a river or a well. By continuously giving water to everyone all the time, people taking water from you or dumping ice blocks in you will not change your state. Your volume would remain consistent.

It is in this context that I'm thinking our Aikido should be like.

Shu Ha Ri

2011-10-23T18:26:00.000-07:00

Continuing from my earlier post...

The meaning of Shu Ha Ri can easily be confused when one examines it's 3 different character on it's own instead of in context to each other. The most common misinterpretation is that Shu Ha Ri divides keiko into three distinct parts or periods.

This way of thinking advocates a student to experiment and think up of 'different' or his own interpretation of techniques and principles and even training methods. It is construed that after a certain time in shu, he now has the ability to foster Ha in his training and finally end up with a new Ri...

What Sensei explained is a bit different.

Shu Ha Ri is to completely train in the path of your teacher. To train in a way that everything is the first and the last. If you continue training the path of Shu this way, you automatically enter the state of Ha. And down the road of mastery, Ri is realized whether you try or not. You might be convinced that what you are doing is exactly what your teacher has taught you, but others will see that your Aikido is different while retaining the similar foundations.

In a way it may jive with Osensei's comment that all techniques come spontaneously and cannot be repeated. That is the way of Aiki. But in Shu Ha Ri, it is not the pursuit of 'unlimited techniques' that concerns us. In Shu Ha Ri lies the foundation that becomes the base for the essence of Aikido to latch on to.

Needless to say, if your final intent is to grow apples, then the seed being planted must be an apple seed.

Aiki Camp 2011

2011-10-23T10:21:00.000-07:00

Just came back and I've much to think about, and practice. This time around I didn't bother taking any videos at all. It's pretty useless in an Aiki context anyway. There were a lot of things I wanted to write down, but basically couldn't keep up with the flow of information coming in. So I'll try to put down what I can...

22/10

When asked, Osensei answered that Aikido comprises 2 elements - heat and light
Spiritual
Bushin

If it's just light then we'll be doing meditation only. If it's just heat, then we'll get stuck fighting. But in budo, martial and spiritual cannot be separated. The greatest power is love. While it may sound like a Whitney song, that doesn't mean it's not true. A true force of good cannot be destroyed. And the truth is, nothing is created evil.

Our purpose in aikido is to find the light in our hearts. The light originating from the Source. The reason behind our creation, to reflect His will in our actions. To think we are significant when we should picture the universe in our minds. It's vastness and our relative significance... In size we would be smaller than an electron. In impact, we would't be approaching zero. Yet mankind continuously believe that the universe revolves around us.

Thus we approach aikido the same way. To do unto others instead of just following the course of nature.

Aiki sukomi for ryo kata was a new thing I learned today. The grip we usually use is for pulling mostly. Now using sukomi, it would be easier to control the opponent.

Atari. Tai atari. Equalize the energy of the movement. There is no retreat or hesitation or doubt.

To progress to awase, use spirit atari. The body allow loosening.

Tai awase. Body shaping. But also fill the shape as a 2nd method. Then put the power in the connection as the third method. But loosen the other parts of the arm. The 3rd method eludes me at this point in time. But I think it's similar in the Hino videos where he clenched and unclenches his arm.

2nd session

Atari - there is no direction.
I'm only cutting and that's why uke's energy stops.
So if I continue to project forward spirit atari, guiding his energy or pulling his energy might be hard. (still possible I think)
Instead the feeling of acceptance is atari. Accept not just receiving. Accept is acTive. You 'switch on' atari before a confrontation. This way you manifest a connection to uke. As he contacts with you, atari powers the blending of energy. Of unifying the opposing force, becoming unity with the other. Then tying this unity up before 'doing' something is musubi. At awase level, it is still possible for uke to escape.

During musubi I frequently lose contact with uke's center. Connection center to center is still required at musubi level. Without continuous atari, awase and musubi is not possible.

Musubi with his energy... Feels like eka moves the contact point where atari contacts. He doesn't move you just that point. Also, possibly and easier method is to start with atari, awase at contact and realizing the musubi point. Before doing higher level musubi exercises, originate the movement for musubi contact with your center and affect his center.

most times we go straight to skin or try to move the contact point. But imagine anchoring his center with yours and only then move the musubi contact point.

A mistake to avoid is during static exercise to wait. Or after musubi is achieved to think. T do this naturally is to train until feeling musubi contact point becomes natural. And 2nd to move or guide or listen to contact point movement becomes automatic.

One exercise to pass through a first person into the 2nd person requires feeling him through another. A physical movement will never result in anything in that situation. If it's just transfer then perhaps momentum and spiraling can help but not passing through. That's just mind power.

In loosening and absorbing... Atari never stops. Relaxation is very important too. Center and chushin power is needed to establish power line. Then to let the movement realize itself.

Limits and Their Possibilities

2011-09-18T05:04:00.000-07:00

I think we live in a world that's afraid of losing. As much as they are afraid of losing, they are even more indignant of imposed limits. Strange considering we live by so many laws.

The problem being, we see laws most often as an injustice. Something imposed by those more powerful than us, and exploitative in that they predominantly become one sided. These are human laws of course, created by whims and fancies of rulers in the guise of benevolence and the 'I know what's good for you, because you sure the hell don't'. This line of thinking is not new and exists since the time of masters and slaves, colonization through the 'white man's burden' appeal and a slew of other motto and slogans.

This innate fear and distrust of laws and limitations then psychologically affects us and scars us and see us shrink from laws and limits. It doesn't help that we have so many motivational courses and television shows that inspire us to break such limits. But inadvertently, it would appear that there's a caveat to just who can break those limits. Heroes and heroines yes, second rate characters (i.e. you and me and cousin bob need not apply please) a resounding NO.

So whilst the carrot hangs from the string saying we can break do limitless things if only we TRY, success rates of course depends on how good looking you are, or which pedigree you come from, or some other random factor of the day. The masses get to look on with awe and enthusiasm how one person overcome the odds and defeated the bad guys.

What in the world am I talking about and how does it relate to Aikido? Well its those said limits you see. As I've mentioned there are man-made limits and there are natural limits. I will go on to define that natural limits are limits imposed on God to us. This limit is different to that of man-made limits, which is absolute in how it rules upon others, but it can be broken and it can be redrawn according to whims of the PTB (refer Anne Mccaffray on this). Whereas God limits are absolute yet has different tiers.

I believe God limits not because He wants to impose on us, but because He is benevolent. Most times those limits are absolute barriers to entry, but they can be surpassed if you reach a higher tier of understanding.

Now most will answer to this, what crock. Here's a man who can't achieve anything with his own strength and ability and is now blaming God. Actually no. I believe that limits imposed by Gods do give us targets to live by. Live within the limits and you will be happy. There shouldn't be this all encompassing greediness to see what more can I have. Yet at the same time, there are avenues that you could use to surpass some of those limits. And that's through knowledge, hardwork and sincerity. Therefore, in His eyes, everyone is an equal. They are all equally limited and they are all equally gifted. You decide who you want to be.

If I wanted to explain more about man made limits, I'd think about matrix. Its so extraordinary that such a film could be so profound in its observations. 'Human beings couldn't survive without the remote possibility that a single hero can bring them freedom' obviously reworded through memory but in essence, the Matrix which is a simulacrum of a normal life human beings have on earth was created perfect without even a hint of it being a program that is basically a virtual prison. But the AI discovered that the perfect matrix caused the human batteries to wither and die. The mind couldn't accept the perfect world. It couldn't accept the matrix as reality because it wasn't. Somehow the mind knew it was a lie, and that lie needed an outlet of escape. Not that they or every human in there would choose to escape, but enough that the knowledge of the lie is there and that should someone try, the possibility of escape would be there. Isn't that cool?

Also, limits are there sometimes in the form of our physical capability. You limit your range of motion so as not to injure yourself. You limit your power so you don't injure others. You limit movement so you can practice or isolate on areas that are weak. In so many ways, limits are really really helpful.

In our daily practice, sometimes we have our ups and downs. And surely one time or rather you wish you lived without limited capacity. You wished you could do this and that. Yet... is the time right?

Dave Lowry once wrote that his Sensei made him fumble through a Kata all summer until finally gave a simple line of advice, to shift his weight at just this point. Amazingly it allowed Dave to finally complete his Kata flawlessly. Only 1 bit of an advice that surely at some point in the future he would have found out on his own. Also, that surely could have saved him some 3 months of pointless training!

Yet... thinking about it. Would it really? Would that advice have worked 3 months ago before all that hardwork, that failure, the experience of living through it all? The knowledge was capped until he was ready. Too early it would have been useless, too late... well then it would have been too late.

In our practice, don't see limits as limitations. Think of them as beneficial steps that act as guides to our journey. Going over at the wrong time would send us to the cliff below without the necessary equipment to save us. But remember only men believe in absolute limits that are imposed. We however should live by God's rule instead.

Atari and Chushin, the Gozo Shioda demo or something like that...

2011-09-15T04:58:00.000-07:00

Well, for want of a better word I'm using Atari here for a particular training exercise. You see Gozo Shioda doing this very often. And Inoue sensei as well, following his teacher's style. Though it is impressive, it doesn't require you to have a stronger body than that of your opponent. So how is it that an apparently weaker and smaller old man can let fly an uke stronger and younger and who is charging at him at full speed?

Pic from Koshinkan Aikido Website

According to Kancho, its all about timing. I think though, its a whole lot more than that. Sensei does this type of demonstration too, however nothing too frontal. Most of the time his frontal demonstration which is similar starts from ryotedori instead. However, with uke charging against his shoulders or chest, sensei invariably always turns on his chushin. Uke always flies but not back to where he came from, instead it feels like pushing against a secret wall that turns on you and your hands got sticky glue so you can't let go until of course you find yourself falling...

Its not something you can replicate just by spinning. But I think I'm beginning to see how it works.

First off, it all begins with kamae. If you can stand in kamae with your center in advance position and you can actually move from center instead of legs then you could probably do this.

Basically its about advancing your chushin as if you are moving forwards being drawn by it but not yet quite reaching the stage where you need to move your feet. As uke touches you, your imaginary kamae is touching his centerline too (your hands are by the side in this case), turn from chushin and watch uke fly. Or at least that's what we hope would happen.

Trying to stablise your posture with your legs, you will find that when uke comes, invariably their power will snag into you and in the worst case plant your weights on your feet. The give of the body also sucks any power that you could have utilised.

Conversely, toughening up your body or meeting forward with body movement when Uke comes will usually lead to a clash of power that dries up any force you could have used.

Its not muscle power, its centerline. Its not timing, its sense, its not bracing with force, its atari.

I think that's about it...
Um yes, its not the actual Gozo Shioda's signature demo... but something like it. His demo has got to start from this one I think. But until I actually find out, I'm not gonna bet on my words.

Is Aiki body or Mind?

2011-09-02T08:08:00.000-07:00

Now, take this post the way its meant to be taken. A student pondering, not a discourse of the subject Aiki.

There have been many discussion on Aiki, its origins,what exactly is it, who has it, no he doesn't have it...etc. Throughout its history, never has such an open secret be so thoroughly explored, misinterpreted and argued more than the subject Aiki amongst its fervent worshippers... the Aikidoka's and all the Aiki Jutsu related schools of Japan.

Some have even ventured into the Chinese Martial Arts (CMA) in the hopes of finding the secret from the 'source' of Japanese martial arts, or so they say. Many books have been written, obviously, most will point that the origin of Aikido's Aiki stems from Daito Ryu, and most rightly so I suppose. Because it is an accepted fact that Osensei couldn't beat Takeda when he first encountered his teacher, even though his past opponents never presented much threat to him. It is with Takeda that Osensei's illustrious career as an undefeated warrior began.

Still, some mutterings have been heard about the origin of Daito ryu, that it found its aiki from a wondering chinese martial artist. Since Daito ryu has no shortage of amazing personage who have demonstrated Aiki before, I wonder why really do we have to dig even deeper? If the DR schools have shown remarkable consistency in churning out students with Aiki, what logic is there to go through an even more obscure path of tracing Aiki into China? Just learn from the DR guys...

Certainly, on would wonder all this. My sensei however believes that Aiki in Aikido is more refined than when it was first encountered by Osensei. On hearsay, many people who had the privileged of feeling osensei when he was alive, described amazing encounters that border on the fantastic. Certainly nothing of the sort that they believe they can get in DR right now. However, no one can discount that DR itself left 2-3 persons of note that when you hear of encounters with them, show no less in terms of great and amazing feats that left their opponents mystified.

Putting that aside however, how do we mediocre students who are not super geniuses like Osensei and his DR peers learn Aiki? Judging by the numbers, the % of success seems very very low. Unless of course there's a whole slew of Aikido teachers hiding Aiki in their sleeves.

Having been exposed to some Aiki, I find myself wondering what is it that I'm learning. Certainly there's some body elements here in the beginning. A way of thinking as well. Maybe a way of moving too. There are so many different exercises, that provide glimpses of Aiki, but never the whole picture.

I got to thinking that if it was physical and perhaps a small part of it is, how is it different then a regular physical movement. My theory that the small % of an Aiki movement could still be physical, but even that physical aspect is different then how we would normally do things. Instead of using muscles that are common, it could be we are using rarely used groups. It takes a high amount of concentration to move your body using muscles you generally aren't even aware of, but a lot of body arts share this knowledge. Pilates, Yoga and certain house jujitsu... so it could be that using the skeletal strength and uncommon muscles and moving in a smooth and coordinated fashion causes opponents to miscalculate and misinterprate nage's movements. Consequently, they lose composure or focus and get easily unbalanced. For example, in Aiki Age, I've been thinking that aside from getting our center underside against uke's center, movement of the hands is done by the lower back instead of shoulders and arms. Thus this subtle movement will be missed by ordinary minds.

Notwithstanding that, a higher stage of Aiki development would apparently do away with the physical aspect in its entirety. But for that we have training in spirit, intent, feelings and things like that. It was never never anything to do with Ki per se. We don't have sessions of meditation to cultivate Ki to be used in fights. Always, it is understood that Aiki energy is the natural universal energy that passes to every creature.

As it gets higher and higher, I believe even the mind is given a lesser role to play. And in that circumstances, we no longer move our bodies with our consciousness or earthly self, perhaps even we are moving with out 'true' self.

Anyway, I'm just thinking about that. The nice thing is, after playing around with some wing chun people I just think that more live practice in a none Aikido environment, would be more beneficial in training for Aiki. With the Aikido guys, they just have this innate pressure to conform to what is expected. But for Aiki to work, it should work on anyone and especially everyone. That I guess would be where we can find our answers. Certainly I think, you can't find much by asking your teacher all the time.

Of Silence and Contemplation

2011-08-14T04:22:00.000-07:00

It's been ages since I wrote anything here. In part because I'm still trying to understand better before I speak of a subject, but mainly because I was so busy with work. As always, with Ramadhan, I get more time to sort things out because we spend less time doing needless things.

Funnily enough, that's what Aikido training should be about. Leading towards the gradual elimination of needless things. Most people study Aikido awhile and come to various different conclusions. It doesn't help that they came in already colored by rehire expectations coming from watching all those videos out there. More often than not, they'd come to conclude that AIkido is so fake nowadays because people try to hard to follow Osensei's vision of harmony (or what they perceive as his vision). And because of that they talk about collusive aikido, about cross training, about looking for 'aiki' or 'IT' from somewhere some who...

Then there'll be the Daito ryu boys saying that Aikido is nothing but a watered down version of their budo and so on and so forth. First thing's first... Osensei said a lot of things about Aikido, but he emphasized in so many different ways that Aikido was never about the technique per se, nor is it about the movement. He almost always approached it from a relational aspect of the universe. How to fight someone who is in harmony with the universe is impossible. That Aikido begins in the heart.

Nevertheless he did condense certain techniques that he used again and again to demonstrate this art. Amongst the most often used is ikkyo and iriminage. He also said much of aikido can be taught from shihonage. Yet, they are a means to the end not the end itself. Otherwise how could you do it any better after 20 years or 50 years? The process of writing a word doesn't make a particular word any more meaningful, you can wrote gold a million times if you wish, it won't make you rich by the way. However, practice writing continuously and I'm sure one day people will praise you of your script. Perhaps you could even do calligraphy by then. For all of the beauty of your script, does it mean that you can now write tear jerking prose? Or novels that paint a picture so vivid that it colours the imagination?

Thus in that simple technique that's made up of so many different principles and mechanics and rules, what we are polishing goes beyond the application of the technique. Goes beyond the proficiency, the fluidity and the validity of the technique. You need to realize the technique's true purpose and that is to understand Aikido.

And at what stage can we begin this type of practice? It really boils down to you. Needless to say, to begin with you will need your letters and you need to learn the vocabulary, so I suspect Shodan is where you try to take your first tentative steps into the unknown.

This is the point where you can no longer answer through copying, where you have to answer through understanding. And of course, what I understand is but a piece of a million pieces and each of us may pick up different pieces in the beginning. Yet, persevere and we will complete the same picture. Some of us may take longer than others, but keep at it. For the pieces fit only in this puzzle. If we discontinue and try to pick another piece from a different puzzle, you will only end up with a weird incomplete picture in the end with many more pieces missing.

Kihon intensives: Sunday

2011-06-19T08:54:00.000-07:00

Katate shihonage. No change. Ukemi, at kuzushi, to fall back and over so the legs point into the direction of the fall. Not like the yoshinkan method.

Katate kotegaishe. 2nd method. Body escape using combination of butterfly hands and irimi movement. Also remember, as kaeshi is performed, not to transmit power into uke. As kaeshi is done, uke's power is drawn towards nage's hara too.

Katate sokumennage. Like shihonage. Bring up and draw uke to you. Touch with the other hand and enter. Careful for hijiate reversal. Remember angles and intent.

Katate sumo otoshi. Reverse palm, cut to the side and tai sabaki. Rear leg move more and control chushin. Enter all together.

Futari katatedori/morotedori. Light and easy.

Swimming and Aikido

2011-06-12T03:05:00.000-07:00

Some years back my old aikido teacher told me swimming was like aikido. Being the guy I am, I never asked him to explain.

Just now as I was doing some laps whilst holding my breath, I realized that it's quite strenuous. I wondered how all those movies about guys and girls swimming underwater avoiding bullets, bad guys, sharks and zombies could possibly do what they do for a minute or longer when even 20 secs was too long for me.

That got me thinking on how to improve my strokes. Being self taught I have no doubts that my technique is far from ideal. Plus the fact that I kept my body straight to prevent water from going into my ears was probably a factor. Then, I thought about how sometimes swimming felt so effortless that I could have swam forever. I wonder what was it that I was doing wrong.

Then I tried to move in unity. Instead if pulling my downstroke with my arms, I twisted my torso slightly. To my surprise, I wasn't breathless anymore. 20 secs was nothing. My arms no longer burned the oxygen I needed. Using the body turn didn't exert my body at all, and the laps went by easily.

So is this what he meant? Well I guess maybe. Moving your body in unison is not magic, nor is it aikido's secret. Certainly it's right there in basic aikido, we do it everyday. However, moving body in unison is not the end to it all. Knowing what part and how to move those parts in unison is equally important. Take our kihon kosanage ikkyo for example. You need to sink and move your body with your hands and get kuzushi. But just turning on your vertical axis won't get you anything but a punch to your face. There is a need to move from your hara and not the hand, but also to maintain a chain or a link from hara to your hands to your uke. Sinking, you take kuzushi only if there is a connection to uke. An easy way to start will be to sink into uke's corner but not moving forwards whilst doing it.

Other techniques need equal study and how to best move your body. And this is why kihon training is so wonderful. It allows an actual study and development period to practice moving your body in a united fashion. That us why in the first level of aikido, harmonizing with yourself, kihon is absolutely necessary.

Kata dori Menuchi ikkyo

2011-06-07T23:41:00.002-07:00

Just a short clip, but I was whiling my time away link to link and came across this one of Tamura sensei. Very interesting...

In the first iteration, nage atemi's even as uke grabs and strikes. Thus from the atemi, could even cut down the men uchi hand before going for ikkyo at the katadori hand.

In the 2nd iteration, Tamura sensei is pointing out that we should not stay to perform ikkyo on the hand, and instead to irimi before the ikkyo.

In the 3rd iteration, he was pointing out that the atemi hand is not a block for the men uchi. In this instance when you lose chushin (and uke's), uke has gained control of the attacking line.

In the 4th iteration, he sinks and controls the vertical space.

I love it!

The Yogja seminar

2011-05-27T00:42:00.000-07:00

Ah, Yogjakarta... one of my favourite place to visit in Indonesia. A very relaxed place and they really do have nice food that I recall from my first visit. I was really looking forward to this but like everything else in this world, something had to go wrong.

I couldn't really train well in the month preceding the seminar. Because of some health issues. Then I fell sick 5 days from the date and was basically a like a wet dead dog by the time I flew in. I also had to buy 2 separate flights back a day earlier to handle some work. Basically, it was like anything that could go wrong, did go wrong. Events occurred that really tested my endurance to actually go to the damn place. However, it was a commitment I had to force myself to adhere to. This was a test of will, and somehow I had to pass. Although I did go, I couldn't take much ukemi from sensei himself. So that was a major disappointment for me, but the training itself was good.

On Friday, there was a training session at the local dojo. I went to practice but in the end because the sensei was outstation, the seniors forced me to take the class. So we did some basic training in preparation for sensei's seminar. I started with the basic kamae focusing on hara and chushin development. Tenkan as an entering movement not a turning movement. Sinking hara to perform leading movements and sokumen nage. Then we did a few basic techniques like katatedori shihonage, kosadori ikkyo and tenchi nage, to look at half steps and movement from hara. The students were enthusiastic and energetic. For most, what I showed them was new to them but nothing too far from what they already know. I had a problem with only one uke who was very stable and I couldn't get kuzushi for shihonage omote. One of my weakest techniques, I was thinking that I didn't sink in chushin and perhaps I didn't apply aikiage before entering. But upon discussing with Sensei, I think the mistake was when I shift stance he felt some movement in my hands. The next problem was when I sinked, he told me to enter and displace uke's center straight away instead of vertically and then following with the irimi movement. Something to think about, but I told sensei that I saw him do what I was envisioning before. His answer was that's the next level, I have to get this right not skip it. Ah... yes we are fond of that. Changing methods when one doesn't work. In the end, we lose the opportunity to develop ourselves further by avoiding a difficult obstacle.

Sensei's class on Saturday near the Kenji outlet was interesting. Both his class and seminar the next day basically orientated around the same things. Hara, Sinking and Atari. Whilst the techniques are varied, those 3 was the core theme to it all. Fundamentally, this syllabus is actually up to 3rd kyu for our school. Yet, on occasion I do come certain uke's who I can't perform it well or immediately especially from static. But because I knew what we were looking for, this really helps with the progression of my own training. This means, its absolutely critical for us as students to train in this fashion. Not just in the dojo but with outsiders in seminars like this. Good progress can be made by applying what we know sort of like a revision against uke's who are not familiar with the material thus would not participate in a collusive manner.

One of techniques that I paid more attention to for the benefit of my uke was the irimi nage from a katadori. Although at above 3rd kyu he should be doing nagare training, I had to start him on static after a few rounds of full speed application. This is simply because having no understanding in sinking and entering instead of moving forwards, he cannot apply the technique well. For this technique uke grabs katatedori, and using our other hand we touch his forearm and sink. As the kuzushi occurs we enter his space and envelop him into iriminage. You could also do it without moving the feet, inviting him and turning kaiten and cutting his chushin as he comes across. But even so, the sinking on uke is an application of atari and hara movement/control and is used either way. If nage tries to cut the hand away or move in, uke is at liberty to stop or hit him.

A yudansha named Azhar who spent nearly 3 years in Japan with Inaba sensei led the Sunday's warmup with a hara building exercise. Looks like the sumo leg stomping exercise and is an absolute killer on the legs. It was pure torture climbing up and down the stairs on the airplanes that evening. Still, I'm wondering if its not a good idea to include this in my daily routine.

I have some vids up from yogja that you can check out.

Tembin nage

2011-05-25T00:35:00.000-07:00

Coming back from Yogja, I was a bit disappointed. First at falling sick right before flying to see sensei. 2nd because I had to reschedule to an earlier day to fly back because of work. Worst of all, for being unable to take much ukemi from sensei during the entire time.

Still, I did get sensei to show me how tembin nage is done outside of class. I wish I had time to practice this but it'll be a homework for me until he gets here in June. This is the video http://vimeo.com/24206670

Its very very different then the typical hiji ate we've all been doing. None of that grab the hand and put pressure on the elbow, shoulder, armpit whatever stuff that you get floating about. Its contact at the tembin pressure point is soft. All of a sudden you find your head being projected forwards. There is NO fulcrum being used whatsoever.

This is even different then the one Kancho showed me earlier this year. Anyway... that's all I have time for today. I'll try to write in about Yogja soon.

Udekimenage, Hijiate and Mae otoshi

2011-05-13T22:55:00.000-07:00

Hmm, normally I wouldn't talk in great detail about a particular technique. But we were talking about this technique over in Aikiweb and it was one of those techniques that done in the 'normal' way doesn't really seem practical whatsoever. However, I had previously asked Sensei about it and he mentioned that he too at one time was unconvinced of the viability of this technique.
Sensei related to us how he met with Kancho Inoue when he visited Malaysia a long time ago. He then asked Kancho how to perform this technique. Kancho asked him to hold his hand and then performed the technique. Without understanding how and without pain, sensei found himself flipped on the spot. Kancho did this 3 times and sensei still can't explain to me what he did until today.

Sensei does this technique differently now though. He uses more of tai no awase with the free hand. Thus kuzushi is happening at the core not at the hand. In fact it feels very much like you are falling over his hand thus there is no real application of force whatsoever on uke's elbow. To me mae otoshi seems pretty appropriate here.

I'll put up a video link here once I find it in my HDD somewhere.

To revisit the technique (I'm more familiar with Hijiate, but the other 2 was described to be similar techniques. In hindsight, I find mae otoshi to be more relevant to what is being practice in Aiki no Kenkyukai rather than Hijiate which eludes to hitting the elbow to effect the throw), hijiate is done when we have uke's left hand with our left hand and using our right hand to go underneath his armpit and then palm up taking kuzushi, take a right foot sliding step forward, rotate the palm down and projecting uke forward. Kuzushi is achieved by leading the left hand outwards, and locking out uke's elbow using the right arm.

Now this is where most applications will vary. I'm not an expert but what I've observed so far.
1. Typically aikikai way, in ai hanmi (say kosadori), you make an ayumi ashi movement and kaiten so now you are besides uke in a similar stance. Some nage will have grabbed uke's wrist by now, some will just lead it outwards. Next the other hand will go just above uke's elbow and stepping forwards with the back leg diagonally into uke's space, throwing with a rotating hand at the same time.
2. Some will not go beside uke, and instead moving obliquely in the direction of uke's omote proceed with the throw. (the hands are almost crossing and thus real pressure is applied on the elbows).
3. The way kancho showed me though was quite different to how sensei got thrown. He basically utilises enshin into uke's shoulder and projects the throw through uke's shoulder. Some would say, once you've applied enshin into the shoulder and uke's on his toes, you then drive him into the ground. This is quite similar to how you apply a yonkyo.
4. I've seen another method and typically this is used in shiai. Nage basically holds down onto uke's hand and brings him down with force. This is reminiscent of the unofficial 7th technique. Or a variation of nikkyo where uke's arm is straighten instead of bent. I don't know this is even accepted as a mae otoshi variant or a what, but for most it looks almost the same and I thought just to mention it anyway.

I'm sure there's many more intricate details that I've missed in this list. Its not meant to be exhaustive. All I'm doing is saying that the talks in Aikiweb raised my curiosity a bit since we seldom practice this technique. Thus I revisited it and yes, the issue of non-compliant ukes who resist by bending their elbows and posting with their legs do happen. So its not as fine and dandy as most videos of uke flying forward from such a throw are seen. I don't blame the technique however and most Aikido 'analysts' will come up with a great number of reasoning why such and such technique doesn't work. Inevitably it'll boil down to the fact that we are employing technique instead of applying Aikido principles. If you achieve control of uke's center it is unlikely that he can resist your technique. If you don't, no matter how forceful the technique is applied, uke can definitely resist or counter.

Easier said than done. And as I've mentioned the ideal form for me is to follow sensei's tai no awase and disrupt his core to effect the throw. I don't know how long it'll take for me to learn to this but in the end it'll be far more useful than were I to improve on my elbow attacking techniques.

Comfort zone

2011-04-24T00:51:00.000-07:00

No man is an island, is such an apt saying for what I'm about to say. Where men exists, so does competition thrive and rivalry grows. In sports that is fine, in Judo and Kendo you can have the shiai. Yet, in budo, there is only an end to conflict, there can be no sporting ending.

In all the days that we've trained in the dojo. When was the last time you tried to improve your tenkan? Or even your kamae? When was the last time you honestly believed that your ikkyo is capable of putting your opponent down in any given situation. Has there been any urgency in your training?

With boxers, fights can occur every two months or so. Each time both fighters will study the other fighter's videos and look for their strengths and weaknesses. They then concentrate on either improving their own standing weapons or develop an arsenal to counteract and exploit the other's weaknesses. For a boxer that continues to build himself up like this cumulatively and gradually, his strength will grow from fight to fight. For another who only builds himself to match his opponent, his career will be shortlived.

Yet, in both cases, those boxers have 'improved' themselves from their baseline. But its different for us Aikidokas. We who do not have competition and matches, we who do not have rivals, where comes our drive and where resides our goals?

Its easy to say, a belt ranking or a generalised 'improve everything' but are we really getting better? Or are we just going to the dojo, doing the same thing again and again without a thought to its development. Are our uke's testing us for weaknesses each time?

I wondered at one time not long ago, whether a technique could later become a skill. I guess it could, if we only develop it to become one. Irrespective if there's a partner to help us or not, we need to train like we are fighting the greatest threat of our lives. After all, this is not a game. There are no comfort zones, there's only death if we are slow and too sure of ourselves.

Step by Step Learning...

2011-04-18T11:00:00.000-07:00

I've been trying to incorporate more ashi sabaki practice in our classes. Its amazing how just a part of the entire whole makes such a difference. Thinking about how Osensei and Gozo Shioda always hinted at the power of the toe, I found to my surprise that the toe is in fact very much an important tool in Boxing too... It makes sense after all, you can move all you want from your center, but if your the feet that's holding you up ain't up to it, you won't be moving the way you should be moving.

So, its great after all to be able to do stuff efficiently and naturally. Still if your efficiency level is 100% of a say 10HP leg as opposed to say a 50% efficient opponent who has 100HP legs, than it doesn't take a genius to predict whose going to be coming on top.

Basic training is wonderful. It builds our bases right and it will eventually lead to greater things. Discovering that greater thing though must come from some live experience or random chance. If the teacher tells you, it ain't going to work. Kinda like the Wizards 4th rule or something. So unless you so happen to enter fights every so often that forces you to do stuff on the go, you aren't likely to tap into that greatness. Then, what does it mean in the end? To keep doing Kihon again and again on the off chance that would suddenly discover its secret benefits? In the end, its tantamount to faith. Faith in doing something good without prospect of rewards. That is the way... to go forward even though there no promises of riches at the end of the road. And in that aspect, one of the secret is revealed; development of one's spirit.

Anyway, we practiced moving forward again but this time using ayumi ashi instead of suriashi. I was trying to convey the importance of moving forwards in one continuous cutting motion, continuously expending the spirit onto the opponent. To begin the cut long before we reach striking range and to do so from the first step. It is only then that we can intrude upon their space without being hit first. If we just move and then strike, since they are prepared and we are intruding into their space, they will get the first strike. But by moving and extending our cut long before we reach their space, we have taken control of the moment.

Also, its simply amazing to see suriashi 5 when applied to the shomenuchi drill 2. It makes the whole movement simpler. The key of course is to maintain our kamae on the attacking line and letting the half step be invisible to uke. Then our movement becomes instantaneous on their attack.

Random, disordered meanderings...

2011-04-04T09:48:00.000-07:00

I was a bit happy last week when we had a gathering of seniors to practice. Culminating towards Sensei's visit this June I guess. But once a month to gather everyone is really pathetic. Not to mention of course that half the time they'll be training with the beginners in my dojo. Still I do like the fact the practice becomes more intense when the 'outsiders' come in. In a way its a treat.

Still what came after is deflating. Without going into it, I'd want to remind myself that as budoka, its expected for us to go against the odds. Sure a big part of martial strategy is to create winning strategies. Zanshin embodies that concept. The understanding of maai effectively puts that into practice. But in a situation of utter hopelessness, we do not abandon hope. We do not curl up and surrender. We sink our center, tighten the guts, calm our hearts and cut forward. Yet, to be confronted by people who wither away before even the sound of war drums can heard, is utterly mind boggling. What are they doing here in the first place? Tagging along for the fun of it?

Well enough of that. I was thinking I discovered another secret the other day. I was thinking it was possible that a method of extension is imagining your center in your hands. I thought it worked well, but on some people it just didn't happen. Maybe I got it all wrong but I'm going to keep trying it as I move along. Afterall, Sensei said that Kenji Ushiro can displace his center at will. I still don't understand that but... hey here's hoping.

Then quite recently we've been practicing hara projection more and more in class. Not the drills sensei left me because its too difficult for the beginners (actually its pretty difficult for me, so it'll be pointless for the blind leading the blind right?) so I did a variation of it... or what I would think would be a level lower to the original. Instead of a throw, nage walks whilst displacing or uprooting uke.

I think that curving the energy back and emphasising the hand to not lift or sink makes it more target orientated or simpler to do. Practice on the suriashi movements also really help when making a point. The problem with harmonising/awase is that most people become a brick wall when waiting for the strike to come. So by committing nage into a suriashi movement, slowly body unity will override individual hand movement. And hopefully hara gets trained to boot.

I'm really really losing a battle with the kids class though. I've got half the lot monkeying around and half the lot probably getting frustrated with the stuff we're doing. I think its time to do sorewaza techniques instead. Makes all the kids level and removes to much footwork confusion. But some of the kids are not going to handle seiza very well...

I closed today's class with some mumbo jumbo thought that I got whilst closing. We were sitting seiza and I kept still for a few minutes. The funny part is even as I felt the blood in my veins, the breath in my lungs and the, energy tingle in my body... I was pretty still. Yet in this calm and still situation I was anything but still. Everything seem so alive. And I was looking at the others fidgeting about, until I was a bit sorry for them. So I told them that we are human beings and that its impossible to keep still like a statue. Instead thinking about the movement in our body and being calm, we will look utterly still on the outside. Yet we remain alive inside. Its like that in Aikido doesn't it? Not too much external movement if you please, but inside or invisible to the eye, the energy flows enthusiastically.

Kobuta Shihan 11-12 March 2011

2011-03-13T08:28:00.000-07:00

The last couple of days was exciting. Attending one of Sensei's closest teacher's seminar, Kobuta Shihan. At the same time, I was quietly amazed at his composure during the teaching and his joviality and focus in the midst of a raging disaster back in Japan. Now I realise why Sensei holds this man in such high regard.

Anyway, true to form, Kobuta Shihan focused his teachings mainly on the basics. For the two days that I was able to attend, we trained in Tai Sabaki and basic ukemi.

1st Day

According to Shihan, there are 14 tai sabaki as shown by Tada Sensei. He showed us the first three today which is basic movement in most Aikido dojos. We can practice a type of variation during paired practice where after tenkan we do not follow with a kaiten but instead doing a reverse step.

We practiced movement with ryotedori. 3 Variations.
1. Movement with both hands up
2. Movement with inner hands down, like pinning using your center.
3. Movement with inner hands empty and left behind.

Movement must be done smoothly without thought to uke. Only chushin. Face forward and extend spirit.

Shihan demonstrated suikomi in attacking as uke.

He demonstrated Irimi as a cut. Irimi, reverse then cut. Irimi, kaiten then cut.
Drawing the sword and cut. Ikkyo is a cut, ura is drawing out and cut.

He showed how 30 years ago, Aikido was practice with attacks. He also talked about the sword that kills and the sword that befriends.

2nd Day

We started with kokyu and misogi. The misogi exercises were primarily to cleanse the organs, particularly the lungs. Extending the hands out and bringing it in, in various forms, using certain vocalisations to create resonant vibrations and also tapping the fingers on our chest and exhaling hard to rid ourselves of negative energy. Smiling as we do our taiso.

After that we continued on the 1st day suriashi. Starting with shizentai and then hidari hanmi and migi hanmi.
We did movement 1, which was basic movement. Movement 2A which was back leg into front and then movement forward. Movement 3A which was back leg into front and an extra long forward movement.
Movement 2B is half step and then back to front and slide forward. Movement 3B is half step and then back to front and extra long movement.

After that in hanmi position we moved in 6 directions using movement 1. Remember priority of movement is the leg closest to the direction we are heading to. Center movement is crucial.

Then we continued into applying this movement into basic techniques. Here, a lot of emphasis is placed on how uke should attack and take ukemi.

Attacking

In attacking we must understand nage's openings. Also grab attacks must have an objective and aliveness to it. Gripping and holding on hard does not make sense and does nothing for our practice. We also do not move by rote. We move because nage's movement changes our role. We do not overreact either or move into compromising positions. Always move in an escalating way.

Taking Ukemi

At first Shihan focused on taking ukemi in a relaxed and natural way. Not to look or lose your attention in Nage, but in accord with his movement. To not shift the body but to remain in relaxed posture and keep chushin as best as you can. What would start with ushiro ukemi, can later change to mae, yoko and etc. But starting with ushiro we let our body parts learn the ukemi movement and also allow for kaeshi waza.

The Techniques

Today we mostly did ushiro techniques. Nage moves in two different ways. One way is the sword stance where you walk normally. The other is the jo stance where you maintain the same hanmi all the way. At the same time, kamae is very important here. To maintain chushin, extension and spirit.

Ushiro happens because nage moves out of line and nage catches the lead hand. Nage continues his stride, and uke grabs nage in the most natural way. Either neck, back, shoulder, hand depending on the distance. At all times, uke is maintaining control and keeping safe distance.

From this ushiro ryotedori and etc position, nage can move in 4 different ways. But 90% of the time is a tenkan movement from the rear leg. Still we can practice from the front leg as well as a irimi-kaiten movement from the front or back leg instead of tenkan.

In the various techniques we did, kotegaishe, iriminage and kokyu nage, Shihan made an emphasis on Shihonage-like movement or kotegaishe-like movement. For shihonage-like movement it starts with the hand shape. As your hands goes up, you add a turn of the wrist to face inwards before moving. And as we make our taisabaki, our hands join together like a gathering motion. For kotegaishi as we bring our hands up we just cut down as usual.

Both movements however, Shihan showed a joining or meeting of power and then an expansion to complete the technique. Bringing together the power is portrayed by the touching both hands together in the middle of the technique.

During our movement, we must also move like we are holding a weapon. Cutting a line out and understanding that line as we move. You can do this by looking at the cut, instead of thinking about uke. Imagine that cut as a line being drawn on the tatami as you move along. This also plays well if use chushin to guide that cut, our taisabaki becomes more natural.

In practice, yudansha's must move before uke. He does not wait but move like there are hundreds of opponents. Cut, cut and cut. Uke reacts to this movement. Nage doesn't attack though however. Nor does he avoid or move at random. He moves and then blends with uke's reactions. He moves to create oppenings.

Besides the ushiro techniques, we also did a bit of ryotedori. Primarily shihonage. In this practice, ai hanmi for omote movements and gyaku hanmi for ura. For ura, you can do it in 2 ways. One is tenkan, bring the hands up and cut. The other is tenkan, kaiten and cut. A very slight difference if at all when you look at it, but the feeling is different.

Shihan also showed a bit of relaxed and fluid response using suriashi. Uke counters nage's first movement by trying a shihonage of his own, nage fluidly reverse steps and gets kokyunage automatically.

Closing the class, with sorewaza kokyunage, we did a few variations. From a top grab. Bring up and cut uke. A reverse hand grab i.e. from underneath and uke using structure to hold against nage, cut down and out. A side grab and pulling into center, nage drops center with empty hands and envelopes uke with suikomi and absorb into center and extending uke's hands and then use chushin to throw.

Sorry for the Lack of Recent Updates

2011-02-16T00:38:00.000-08:00

I haven't been writing much since Sensei's last visit. Then, it was the shortness of time that prevented me from adding anything new, what with driving Sensei around for classes, juggling work and family at the same time. Recently its been more than that...

Sure, more work coming in, little issues cropping up here and there to be addressed, extra classes have all contributed to my procrastination... and the fact that I have new toy to play with didn't help much either (blame the Ipad everyone). But the truth is, I'm finding it harder and harder to put anything on paper (ok, in writing) when each time I see something, I realise that I'm only seeing a small aspect of it. The truths that I thought was real, is only partly so. There is no correct way, there are only imperfections.

My training now I suppose is about getting rid of imperfections. Am I still trying to figure out how things work, definitely! But its no longer the top thing on my list. I figure if Sensei can redraw the line, and order all his students to go back to Kihon and forget about Aiki for now... who am I to argue. Yes, there will always be the inclination to try some tricks some of the time, and I guess that's the spice of Aikido. Its why I can make this thing work for me and the reason I don't need to practice Muay Thai or Krav Maga for example. Work through the injuries, illness, inflexibility and age? Please...

Still, if there's anything at all that I'm really working on right now is extending through the little fingers. It was so interesting when Joe Thambu told me to use weight underside in Kamae and how he thought it really really important. Weight underside if you look at it, really makes extending into the little finger easier to do. Yet when I first started Aikido I didn't really understand what weight underside meant. (Having only recently and vaguely come to understand what extension is all about, it doesn't really say much about me does it...). Its funny that it can take years and years before some other things come into the picture that paints clarity into some obscure thing that have left you puzzling before.

Anyway, I just wanted to write that I've been dreading writing anything more in this blog. Not so much that it'll make me look stupid for someone in the know, but afraid that I'll be giving you the readers something wrong to digest. I've reiterated before, that each time I write, its really a reflection of my understanding at that particular time. Not that it isn't without mistake even then, but as sure as wine turns to vinegar, understanding will change with time.

Ah... I thought I came upon a revelation the other day. About ateru no less... just extend through a line I thought. But then about the sudden burst of energy? How do I reconcile that bit? Until what I can do mirrors what Sensei is doing, I'll be damn if I admit I understand ateru one bit.

Joe Thambu's Restrain & Removal Seminar

2011-01-26T19:45:00.000-08:00

I was at his seminar last Sunday and it was interesting to see in addition to Aikidokas, we had people from Silat and law enforcement agencies coming in as well. Sensei Thambu is his typical humble self, not much on ceremony and ever willing to share whilst Sensei Ramlan as earnest as ever. You won't want to mess with his family because it reminds me of the TV show No Ordinary Family... you know the guy who plays the Thing in Fantastic Four? Sensei Ramlan not only looks like the guy, but his wife, his daughter, this 2 sons (that I know of) were all on the mat that day as well.

Anyway, Joe Sensei started the day with a simple demonstration of the difference between Reacting and Acting. Uke stands in front of nage and positions his finger a couple of inches away from nage's nose. He will touch nage's nose if he sees any movement from nage's hands. Nage tries to grab the finger before uke can touch him. If you try it, and you're not Bella from Twillight before she got turned into 'one of em', you'd probably be able to grab his finger even though your hands started far off from your nose compared to his. The reason is very simple and that's because your uke is not reacting to you. He's waiting for something to trigger his response, whilst you are just acting. That's why Acting is faster than Reacting.

This really translates to the street situation. Most bad guys know their potential victims, most victims don't know who the bad guys are. The faster your ability to gauge or discern a threat, the better your chances are simply because instead of reacting you can then act. But typical of LEA (Law Enforcement Agency) standards, we can't attack a bad guy just because of a potential threat not unless the threat has manifested itself. If however we go by that rule all square, we won't last in the business very long. Thus, the job of the good guy then is to turn the situation so that the bad guy has to react and this can done in an assortment of ways. Typically you can engage him by positioning yourself more dynamically instead of waiting, this can even start from a hand shake or a misdirection, but typically just interrupting the attack line and getting a superior positioning is the order of the game.

To start things off, we did the basic Yoshinkan H-tai sabaki set. This set is really great stuff. In most Aikikai schools we show the students all sort of tai sabaki movements and it takes ages for them to remember anything. But with the H, you're immediately trained to move 3 ways left and right in a matter of minutes.

After that we did several techniques throughout the day that were basically Goshin waza of the typical Aikido sets. We did 2 primary pins, one from that had us kneeling on a point on uke, and the other where we actually sat on him and controlled his arms with our legs. In both pins, a single arm free and mobility had to be present to deal with additional threats.

We also did a few come-alongs, one from a modified gokkyo, another from a reverse guillotine. Joe Sensei didn't advocate a normal choke and walking backwards unless you have a partner pulling your belt along to guide you.

After that we did some knife drills where both uke and nage are armed and doing deflect and strike drills. It wasn't as complicated as Arnis drills but was probably sufficient for those exposed to knife work for the first time. Joe Sensei really knows how to maximise the transmission of knowledge to the participants, anything more complex and it would have been a total mess. The drills we did weren't without some food for thought. In blocking we're not aiming to stop the hand, but more about diverting it from our centerline and we achieve this by creating our own path to uke with our hands, some cross attacks require redirecting into a trapping position. We're not moving much but when we do, we are to imagine a line between uke and nage's head and maintaining that distance. Joe Sensei emphasised awareness of the opponent's triangle and not his arms. For most of us that means eyeballing the shoulders. For me I prefer shoulders to feet, but Joe Sensei can look at his opponent's eyes and still get the same awareness going. That's good if you're doing enforcement a lot because minus eye contact and the other party is going to get jumpy.

We also did some chokes and pressure point compliance. Those were not too fun because some of the participants here think they need to break uke's neck. Most of those didn't know the difference between a choke and a break the other guy's windpipe. Especially with my scrawny neck, things were getting decidedly painful until I showed them the difference. This especially highlights the importance of maintaining your safety awareness in seminars. More than once I had uke's going for a real strike to the throat that would had been injurious if I hadn't reacted, it was a miracle no one had real serious injuries that day.

One thing I have to remember is using hara and chushin at all times even though its a departure from typical waza. That is probably a reminder that we've become too much a creature of habit. When it comes to kihon and nagare, sure we're using what we've learned... then when things fall out of pattern and become spontaneous, we lose control of our chushin and hara movements as well...

At the close, Joe Sensei helped check out my kamae. It was great, he didn't impose his way on me but he showed me how it could be done and what makes it work. There is a single plane from the back heel all the way to the top of our head. I told him how we were expected to move, i.e. center drops and the feet shift to compensate. He showed me his back feet pushing the body forward and in alignment. Obviously its easier to do and understand that way. Makes me wonder if that's a better proposition for our beginners.

Anyway, I love the session and have the deepest gratitude for Sensei Joe, and Sensei Ramlan for the invitation. Back in the UK, the BAB doesn't make any distinctions when it comes to the sharing of knowledge, senseis from Aikikai, Yoshinkan and Ki Society are all invited into the same event to teach and learn from each other. Ultimately this benefits all of the students and Aikido itself, and isn't it a wonder... create more harmony? Here in Malaysia, we're still a bit petty when it comes to things like this, perhaps drawn out of fear from what Hombu would do if they found out and yeah we hear stories like that all the time... but at the end of the day, are we learning Aikido from Hombu's pat on our head or from the teachers and partners who are willing to teach us and train with us?

Duty and Responsibility

2011-01-15T03:33:00.000-08:00

Sensei has just gone back. Yet the burden which is not a burden has not lighten in the slightest. In this 3 weeks that he has been here, he has taught us much. Some I have seen, some totally new. Whilst I can say that I have learned much in the time he was here, there are many things left that I have to learn. Not just the refinement of Aikido waza and tai sabaki, but also the principles and foremost.. the matters of the heart.

In Budo one requires 3 things:
1. Self Abandonment
2. Self Sacrifice
3. Duty and Responsibility

Every human being, implicit in his nature, cultivates self preservation. Even with the foreknowledge of death, we strive to continue our existence by procreation or other youth fulfilling endeavours. To embrace its opposite, or Self Abandonment is perplexing. And truly this can only be achieved if we are able to understand self sacrifice.

I've mentioned earlier about sacrifice. Perhaps long ago, people understood sacrifice. Nowadays, sacrifice is becoming more of a rarity. You sacrifice time, blood and sweat for something. Its not a trade. You are not buying something in exchange for those, you're sacrificing. It is the hope that with that sacrifice that something good would arise out of it, but its not a barter trade, or a guaranteed exchange. That's the meaning of sacrifice.

It also entails a purpose. Usually a purpose of higher calling. That's where Duty and Responsibility comes to play. We are able to perform Self Abandonment because we can begin to Sacrifice, but in order to sacrifice our purpose is carved from Duty and Responsibility.

Besides this, Sensei reminded us of Knowledge, Wisdom and Truth. Most of us have gathered to train under him seeking knowledge. But how many intend to use that knowledge with wisdom? And how many of that to seek the truth? Sensei has said that Aikido is not his ultimate aim in life. You cannot bring waza or Aiki skills to the grave, you can't leave it behind to your children to trade with, surely there is a purpose to all the hours spent training and teaching others this art? Aikido is a perfect tool to understand spirituality, but only if you understand what it is you are looking for and only if you understand the meaning of its practice. As sure as some of us are stuck in the fixed forms of religion, most Aikidoka's are stuck in their waza practice. But seeking the essence, one can begin to understand of the existence of a true path. Not just an implied 'Do'.

Before his arrival here, I have wondered at what are the steps that I have to go through to achieve his understanding. Surely I cannot start at where he is now. Should I follow on his steps through Yoshinkan, Shin Shin Toitsu, Aikikai, Daito Ryu and Kashima Ryu? Follow sensei I think to myself, yet he is showing everything and I don't understand where to begin. Luckily I did not even have to ask, because Sensei has formulated a system to practice now. Where before we did basic, intermediate and advance skills interchangeably... now we have a more basic methodology in training using our waza. From Kamae, to half to hanmi. In this very simple methodology, one can strengthen the core or the first set of principles using Kamae waza than the 2nd set of principles using half hanmi and the final set using hanmi. All the time the stances being a starting point to develop both body, ki and aiki understanding. What an amazing system! Simple but effective.

My only worry is that there's no one here to monitor my mistakes whilst training this way. It can only mean that I have to be more vigilant in my training more than ever.

Something Sensei Ramlan said last night striked a chord within me. Much as Sensei has sometimes mentioned why Kobuta sensei always taught something new to the Indonesians but only repeated what his done the year before with the Malaysians, I thought it did not apply to us. (Whilst the Indonesians will train hard in the year what has been taught before, and Kobuta Sensei could see the progress and teach them something new the following year, the Malaysians will practice during the visit and completely forget to train that way the entire year. Thus by the next visit, nothing has changed.) But I can see that we too are culpable. Maybe some of the students have failed to show what they have learned, but as Senpai's we are responsible. Maybe we ourselves have failed to improved on what has been taught to us...

For me, our responsibility foremost is to our Sensei. To learn what he has to teach, and to practice diligently. Sometimes we forget some things that has been taught, sometimes we practice wrongly and make mistakes and sometimes we misunderstood the lessons. To make it all the more difficult, we are without anyone else to guide us here. Our next responsibility is to the junior students here... to guide them as we would ourselves, but to also cultivate them individually through understanding. This is part of our training, to be sensitive and learn about feeling instead of just blundering through or being a robotic parrot.

At one point in time, I thought about stopping to write in this blog. It seems so self righteous or self indulgent to write of things that I can barely understand. For all I know my writing can lead other people astray. But I realise, that to write this down is to record my understanding at every stage and that to use the mind we have been given is our own responsibility. Thus I do my duty, let everyone do theirs.

New Year, New Way of Thinking?

2010-12-31T01:02:00.000-08:00

I haven't written for quite a long time and its not because of the lack of ideas. Rather it has been a very busy month for me and also its been a time for much contemplation.

Sensei is here now for a 3 week visit. What would be a normally intense period of training now is not only proving to be especially intense, but also in many ways critical. The sense that Sensei is imparting as much as he can in this short time with us is distressing and foreboding.

Such is life as we walk the corridor of time, it passes by us with nary a thought or pause. We either keep pace or we get left behind. There is no time to seek perfection by repetition. We have to seek perfection in what we do but we must not lose sight of our ultimate goal or destination. Nor should we glorify or get caught up with what we have gained so far. Surely you have marvelled at one time your ability to do something now has improved in leaps and bounds. Typically you will work that to perfection or have it as your signature move. This is such an example of being caught up with the little gifts life have thrown at you in your path to wisdom. Get caught up with it and you'll end up lost.

Usually I would narrate the things we have been learning day by day. For the benefit of the students here so that they can rerun it in their minds and for those who weren't able to attend for one reason or another. But much of what we have been doing here is really nothing new to what Sensei has always taught before. The methodology has changed and we are taking sabaki practice more seriously now, to augment our hara training with the physical reinforcement of sabaki. But essentially, this training and the techniques that follows are all dress up for the principles that forms the core of our curriculum.

So we have touched upon seika tanden, chushin and hara. Then sabaki with hara. Then awase with the sabaki. Good practice so far has been limited to kihon, kihon nagare and a little bit of nagare.

Sabaki has been fixed at Kamae for beginners, half kamae for 5th to 3rd kyu and hanmi for advance.

For hara training we have touched upon hara projection which is a prelude to ateru. I'm thinking funakogi undo with floating hands and hara movement + intention/atemi.

For nagare we have been looking at issen no mai. To create the moment and tsuki.

For hanmi position, for shomenuchi ikkyo we have emphasised sabaki, te awase and the ura part of the te awase exercise before using hara again to cut into ikkyo. For ura ikkyo, to use issen no mai, but with an elbow irimi and projecting a cut through but using the other hand to awase as we turn.

In iriminage we use the latter movement but this time instead of taking the shoulder we take the neck and we let him through. The 2nd iriminage we combine issen no mai, ashi sabaki, te no awase...

This has been tough. A lot of things to follow to use and to focus on, yet doing any of those while training is limiting in itself. Yet what are we to do for those who have as yet to learn how to move naturally.

Nevertheless I'm enjoying this training, revisiting the basics and the fundamentals of Aikido and learning that it is very very hard and yet so simple.

Some Random Points Floating in my Head

2010-12-12T04:14:00.000-08:00

To practice Aikido one uses his eyes, his ears and his feelings. To absorb knowledge with only one of the senses is akin to the story about 3 blind men and the elephant. Each of them holding to one part of the elephant and making their conclusion from only a single perspective. Needless to say, all of them were erroneous. So, since God's given us all these senses, we need to use it to the best of our ability.

Besides the senses, we also have a brain and mind. For most people this is what differentiates us to animals. Mind over instinct is not only useful, but necessary at times. If instinct prevails, most of us wouldn't be around today. The instinct to kill threats might include children and rivals. The instinct to hoard goods might depopulate animals and plants thus destroying the cycle of life.

But instinct too is not useless. Instinct is a tool we have less and less use for when confronted with the rational and logical world. Too much importance is placed on facts and figures, yet good instincts allow some people to make irrational decisions that ultimately lead to a better result retrospectively. However, since we have no scientific and fool proof way to develop instincts, it has been abandoned in place of strategy and protocol. If part of our training revolves around feeling and sensing, ultimately we require this instinct we have so long ago set aside. Instinct allows us to perform things that we would otherwise doubt. The trick of course is to learn from these instinctive movements and make it understandable and repeatable. Something easier said then done. And another point against instinct is that it is subjective. One person's instinct might differ with another. It is unavoidable when you train for war and armies that the soldiers must never act alone or by instinct.

I always get excited watching some of the videos of other masters doing things which are familiar to me by way of Sensei. It makes me realise that those things are still within the realm of human achievement and that he is not a random blip in humankind arising from God's sense of humour or some natural anomaly. There are countless of people who exhibit the same skills albeit at various levels of expertise, but it is identifiable. That I guess is the first step, to know of and identify.

The next step is understanding. As with each knowledge available to mankind, learning it requires specific skill sets. You can't learn maths without tools for instance. In China the abacus allowed children to learn addition, subtraction, multiplication and division all the way to logarithm calculations. Such a simple tool of beads on rods framed by a wooden block invented hundreds of years ago and doing almost as much as the most modern scientific calculator. Perhaps the skill set of the distant past for the Aiki student would be unquestioning faith, the willpower to endure, the focus to concentrate on every movement of the teacher and the drive for survival. Nowadays, we have caring teachers who try their best to translate their knowledge into something palatable to their students, books and videos. Not to mention of course the countless internet forums with their ever increasing knowledgeable masters discoursing the nuts and bolts of each Aiki skill there is.

To bring us back to the realm of acceptable ideas and achievable results, I'd like to note a few things that caught my eye and fancy this past several weeks. Foremost is the 'don't wait there like a dummy' observation that most sensei's make. This is a very important and often repeated wisdom that most people aren't aware they are skipping. It can be seen typically in randori situations when more often than naught, nage stands at the spot that they've just finished throwing an uke. But beyond movement, there is this aspect of the mind and ki. As I've mentioned before... Intent - Mind/spirit - Ki - body. So moving towards the next uke is all good when you're first starting out, but as randori gets more intense there will be no time to do that after you've thrown one or two. Most times its all we can do to avoid a charging uke before the next one grabs onto you. Thus the fault lies in the lack of tools that we are employing.

Uke is out to get nage, not just with their body (i.e. hands), but also their ki, mind and intent. Yet, nage is reacting only to the body and only using his own body to manhandle uke. 4 vs 1 is never good, multiply that with the number of ukes and you've got yourself a massacre. There are plenty of good Aikidoka out there who have good timing and skill and technique that they don't find the absence of ki, mind or intent as a handicap, at least up to a point. You can see this is true especially at a high level, nage who rely totally on their body ability get winded faster or more flustered as the randori carries on. There is only so much your body can compensate for when your opponents are utilising more tools than you.

So not waiting for uke is a good thing. Not waiting but extending ki to meet them is even better, instead of just moving to greet them physically. To practice this ability in randori of course is dumb and poor timing. You have to practice this during kihon even. And as you understand or perceive some understanding, you apply it in each practice be it ki no nagare or jiyuwaza or randori. That becomes the acid test of your understanding I suppose.
In kihon we have the luxury sometimes to practice one aspect or the other. We have the luxury to analyse. But when we practice ki no nagare or jiyuwaza, we are now given a platform to test our understanding and develop it further and away from the realm of theoretical exercise into application. Then, back to the drawing board of kihon to sharpen our knowledge and skill, and then back to free form to habituate it within ourselves.

Another thing I've seen oft repeated is nage's awareness or the lack thereof. Awareness goes to zero when uke attacks in that we become myopic to the attacking irritant. Be it a katatedori, or a strike. Our attention is drawn to the offending thing and we lose our overall awareness. Once we lose our awareness, our mind, ki and intent becomes narrowed and reactive instead of loose and all encompassing. We have now been drawn into a pitch battle. I've yet to see a general survive a war when his eye's is drawn only to the first encounter. It is the basic premise of silat to feint. Of course all martial arts have feints... but even a real attack is a feint and that has to be understood. Because how you react to a real attack dictates your next move and if the opponent is skilled this becomes a ploy where pawns are lost to win a king.

A beginner becomes so overwhelmed by the different principles in Aikido and the various techniques. Yet, it becomes more and more clear to me that the various understanding really originates from fudo genri. Really mastering fudo genri would generally ensure successful encounters with uke irrespective of form. It'll be rough, but it still be doable. Kihon genri smoothens the rough edges. It elevates us to another level, one that allows us to train with more sensitive uke's and stronger opponents.

Why Practice Kihon?

2010-11-25T02:01:00.000-08:00

I ask this question as a student as I'm sure many out there are also asking, some out loud, some in their hearts. Its nothing new is it? Every master will ask of his students to stick to basics, yet they themselves go out of their way to perform masterpieces of performance that sometimes have no bearing on basics. Trust me on this, no one studies something to perform basics. Everyone wants to be that master.

So why is it that you cannot practice those flourishes as well? Why can't we do henka waza, or more of kino nagare, or randori? I'm sure most would logically think that if you don't practice those, its going to be impossible to master them. The difference between kihon and ki no nagare is pronounced, much more when you perform advance Aiki applications. In fact, kihon doesn't look anything close to what Sensei is doing...

Have you ever watch those old movies? Not Charlie Chaplin I mean, but movies or series like Pride and Prejudice? Or even some of those westerns... Even better, have you read books of that era? The language they use is masterful. Its flowery but without being contrived, its enigmatic without being presumptuous. It strings together words that bring uncommon familiarity yet is no less in its complexity. Most important, it is beautiful. The English language hasn't change that much from that era to our modern world. Yet when we talk today it sounds almost clipped. Little better than a robot speaking the language. Our concern is now to communicate in as precise and shortest amount possible. No longer is the language a subtle contest of words, or a subtle courting of love.

The language; widely different in its use, starts with the alphabet and grammar and the lexicon. The alphabet are the blocks we use to structure words from the lexicon, the grammar strings the words in an acceptable fashion for common understanding. Maybe the lexicon is something like techniques. The more words you know the greater your choice of creating ever more precise sentences. The grammar is perhaps principles, without which your words lose their meaning in improperly formed sentences. Yet good techniques and good grammer can exist in both modern and old usage. It doesn't result in poetry or an exceptional and moving essay.

What then becomes this contributing factor, or the soul of the masterpiece one would ask? I would hazard that understanding may be an important component. It is not enough to know the words or the grammar. One would have to understand its nuances and even more importantly, to understand the listener or the reader's heart. Without understanding, one can compose the most eloquent phrases and the only one pleased with it would probably be you. This understanding of people... where in English class do we learn how to do this?

If we take that back and ask where do we learn how to understand feelings in the dojo, we would probably be stumped. I doubt kihon practice allows for this. Yet... it does. On the surface it doesn't, to most it will be an oft repeated kata to be done just right against different ukes in the hope that it will nurture a semblance of muscle memory and instinctive application in the face of danger. Dig deeper into your training and you will find that kihon does allow for that and much more. Much in the same way that you can keep drawing lines on a piece of paper, and it will be nothing but a bunch of lines, one could also draw the lines and make it look like a person, or a house or a sheet of music.

In practising kihon, one should dissect each part. The approach, the uke, the maai, the intent, the attack, the awase, the musubi, the kuzushi, the waza, the zanshin and so on. In this kihon we are given a canvas to practice our strokes, to refine our lines and to experiment with our colours. If we were to abandon this prematurely, we would approach waza as something that changes according to uke's attack, thus we contrive Henka waza or Kaeshi waza as its solution. How many times have you seen this? Oh, uke is attacking this way... thus I will change my technique accordingly. Then they justify this further that if you keep trying to force your technique then you are clashing or being stupid and myopic. True... but probably not all true either. To be honest, all this is to the cover for the lack of all those little things listed earlier that are missing in our practice. Sure your kihon and my kihon might not look exactly the same. Just as Osensei once said mysteriously said his techniques are ever changing. But doing it the 'correct' way even though it is difficult, one will practice harder to develop those small bits that make up Kihon. Only in this fashion would those small bits develop into something better.

Nevertheless, whilst I understand more now on the importance of Kihon. One should practice it in an 'Alive' way. One should also practice ki no nagare and aiki methods on occasion, not with the purpose of copying it but to put our kihon to the test. To see how far our understanding goes in structuring beautiful phrases with the words and grammar we have at our disposal.

Kamal Senpai's Visit...

2010-11-09T08:59:00.000-08:00

We were fortunate to have Kamal visiting us in KL. This was his first time here and we manage to get him to lead class just now. Kamal of course has been with Sensei for a long time, going to Japan with him on a few occasions, training at Takeda Shihan's dojo and so on and so forth. In fact you can easily see the influence of the Shin Shin Toitsu style in him because he found the very same teacher that Sensei studied under in Jakarta.

So unsurprisingly we spent the entire class going to the various Ki tests which I'm going to run through in here before I forget it all.

Shisei being the foundation where we all start our training from was of course the first to be tested. Seating seiza in fact can be taught structurally first before we emphasise the fudo genri understanding. By structurally we mean the physical mechanics of it. This method will help a lot for the engineering students and especially for beginners who have no idea what center means.

Seating seiza, you emphasise the weight on the knees, and lift the weight from your buttocks. Thus they are allowed to touch your heels but not to put any weight on them. You can test this easily by trying to pull up the knees. Done right you can move it at all. But if you were sitting on your heels it is possible to lift the knee and lose balance backwards. Next to keep a good relaxed posture and straight back. To lean slightly forward but not bending at the torso, instead to 'extend' the center downwards. We also have to focus on a spot in front of us, or to put our intention there. Another part of it is to have a weight underside hands. To get a basic idea of how this feels like is by trying to lift our bent hand with our free hand. If you do this and keep your other hand relaxed, you will feel that its very hard to lift the hand. Now keep that feeling and rest your hand that way.

Moving from this we did Tekubi kosa undo... (I think). Its when we have our hands on top of each other resting below our navel palms up. In the same fashion, imagine trying to lift the top hand up using the bottom hand. Then ask partner to help lift, you will that your partner will have great difficulty trying to do this. Now, instead just try to keep your hand from being lifted and again ask partner to lift.

Also in the front horizontal position, you have your hands on each other with the outer hand trying to pull your other hand inwards. Its hard if you just keep good extended feeling. Next have your partner push with all their strength and you will find it easy to keep your hands where they are. Then try to just hold it in place whilst partner pushes.

Then we did the ubiquitous unbendable arm. In this training one way might be to use the same feeling of heaviness and getting uke to help you with the lifting so instead of concentrating on not letting the elbow be bent, we are asking uke to help us bend the elbow whilst actually having all their weight and ours rest on the shoulders. This is of course the 1st unbendable arm exercise.

After that we did tenkan and irimi movement. The premise of the exercise was to use good big movements. If we just move the hands with the intention of performing a technique, we get short sighted or we get lost into the small bits and lose the big picture. So by moving in exaggerated movements we try to identify the feeling and incorporate it into our techniques in a more subtle fashion.

Following this we did the pinky arm wrestling. Here Kamal was trying to have us connect with Uke's center, and try to wrinkle the connective tissues from uke's hand all the way to the center. Instead of fighting the hand, to just connect and move everything of uke.

One of the more interesting exercise was to have a shomenuchi strike. Done stationary, have your hands up in Jo kamae position. Uke uses both hands and locks it at your elbow. So first try to just use your hands and cut down. It would be impossible to cut. Next try to use your shoulders to power through. Again very difficult. Then, use center to bring your hand down and cut uke's center. I find it easier to think that way, but Kamal explains the hands moves in a circle quite naturally and actually think about cutting a bokken but as you swing downwards, let go and let your arms circle to the sides and back up again. Using the same feeling, bring your hands down into the cut.

We also did morotedori sit down exercise. Using the same connected body feeling to drop instead of fighting to push uke.

Now, the exercises are all different and can be very interesting and fun to explore. In the end, do not lose sight of its intention. The main thing Kamal was trying to get across is that, all these methods is design to be used outside of the dojo. So that at all times we try to find natural movement in a relaxed way and also to use the mind together with the body. Doing this in everything we do adds power and dimension to our actions that would be otherwise lifeless or 'dead'. And of course the most important thing, to do it just 'because' and not to fight to achieve it.

Some graphics I've made out of Sensei and Eka...

2010-11-03T04:45:00.000-07:00

Its all pretty amateur stuff... so I'll appreciate any input.

Patience, Acceptance & Submission

2010-11-02T05:46:00.000-07:00

Teaching Aikido is learning Aikido... or an aspect of it at the very least. As a profession, teaching is very noble indeed. Not because the teacher becomes respected by his pupils, but the spreading of knowledge ennobles a person. A teacher must understand something to teach it to others. But the transmission of such a knowledge can only be happen once the teach lives to what he teaches.

Just as you do not respect a politician who flouts the law, you cannot respect a teacher who does not abide by what he preaches. Although you can cut some slack for other people, you hold a teacher to higher standards. Unconsciously everyone realises that the position of a teacher requires a dedicated soul, one that will be judged harshly... more so than other people, because a misstep would have repercussions a thousand times over. 1 person can lead so many people astray by wrong teachings or mistakes.

Undoubtedly, you do not begin Aikido by teaching. You start as a lowly 6th or 10th kyu student going through the process of understanding the philosophy, the principles, the techniques and technicalities, gaining strength and power as you practice more and more. You will do this forever until of course you reach a point where there's a barrier to your understanding. No matter how hard you go about in training, something prevents you from penetrating this barrier. Its not the normal plateau. Eventually you will realise that for you to actually assimilate all that has been imparted upon you from your teachers, sempais and peers, you have to give something back. Its your turn to be the sempai. To guide and teach your kohai. To spur your peers and to push the limits of your own sempai. From a student, you have now taken the step of a teacher. In doing so, you will begin to understand things that you did not understand before.

Just like when you took that black belt. You may have felt undeserving of it, but now that its around your waist, there's this inevitability that you have to ensure you retain the right of wearing it. This is only possible through pouring more effort into training, making sure that you do not revert to a lackadaisical practice.

Call yourself a sensei, and you have to act the part. At first, it may start as an 'act', using memories of how your teacher appeared to you, you try to present yourself the same way to your students. Much later on, the act 'becomes' you, you have now assimilated the essence of being a sensei. Of course, there are good and bad senseis... your objective however is to be a good one, that goes without question.

So what does all this have to do with the title?

Patience of course is a virtue, and you are a patient reader to read this long rambling of mine. As a student we have to be patient. A grade 1 student that has no patience for his lessons may try to jump into a grade 5 lesson. But he becomes painfully aware that everything he reads is beyond his understanding. Even if he were to spend a year reading it, he would probably misunderstand most of what he's trying to learn. Yet, if he were to go through the basics and progress step by step, when he reaches grade 5, it becomes easier for him to achieve understanding. Thus, patience is needed when learning something. If you try to progress too fast, it sometimes backfires and causes us to lose time instead. Teaching requires patience too. Sometimes it is the teacher that is impatient, wanting his students to progress faster. Perhaps partly to prove that what he is teaching is correct, or partly because he wants to begin more advance techniques... but just like pruning a tree into a bonsai, if you prune too much the tree dies, pruning too slow and it becomes a normal tree. The key to patience is understanding.

The 2nd stage of learning is acceptance. Patience allows us to adopt a pace most beneficial to us, but acceptance of the lessons is needed to make all that patience to be worth something. If we frequently resist the methods of learning or the lessons itself, be it passively or actively, we create barriers to our learning. It is not easy to learn acceptance, much more to enliven it in ourselves. Most times, what we call acceptance is just adherence. You can only accept something if it is with full awareness and willingness. Adherence is only complying to the situation at hand so as not to prolong your suffering. Teachers though have to practice acceptance in a different way. To accept that sometimes things don't work out the way it was intended. To accept that not everyone can learn from you, acceptance of students who irk you or the sacrifices that you have to make... acceptance teaches us humility and is amongst the most powerful lesson in life.

The final stage is submission. A submission of your self to a higher power. By relinquishing your tenuous hold to control things, you become more powerful. Though that power is not yours, it is a power that is overwhelming. Imagine holding on to something, the stronger and tighter you squeeze it, the more of it that spills from the top and bottom of your clenched fist. The more tired you become and the weaker you get, soon all is gone from your control. Imagine the anger that you have over that person who overtook you. The more you see him infront of you the more agitated you become. Pretty soon, you can't see anything else but him. Let go and things become clearer again. Submission in students is not to lay yourself to the whims and fancy of your teacher. But submission is practising hard to the best of your ability, but releasing the need to control the pace of your understanding. Let it go, it will come naturally. Essentially, you have subdued your ego. Teachers too are the same. To let go of the need to control everything.

These three stages of learning applies not just to a student/teacher relationship... but in the daily life and daily practice of Aikido as well. It was taught to me not by an Aikido teacher but by a friend who learns from wise men. Yet, so universal is the concept that it fits perfectly well in the Aikido concept. We do not act aggressively against an opponent nor do we react to him, thus we practice patience. He attacks and we do not fight nor do we avoid, but we accept that attack thus we have learned acceptance. Once we have received the attack, we do not fight to control that energy, instead we let it go and flow, we subdue our desire and ego to overpower our opponent and we have now understood submission.

Can you do a 'Do'?

2010-11-01T08:48:00.000-07:00

Someone ask you what do you do and usually it'll be something like, "oh, I do Karate or maybe its, I do Wing Chun... and for most of my fellow mates it probably I do Aikido".

So is that what it really is? Something that we do? Again, somebody might say things like this "You should do your Aikido on him, he's a jerk" or maybe, "What? Why didn't you do your Aikido on that guy?"

Now, I grew up playing truant on most of my English classes so although I can make a reasonably structured sentence, I don't know the difference between a verb or a noun for the life of me. But, I'm pretty sure we can't 'Aikido' someone. So... what exactly can we do with this traditional Japanese martial art that we've been learning for years and years?

Personally I think, that if we're still thinking about 'doing' something with Aikido, we probably can't do much with it either way. In Fudo Genri, we learn to keep mushin. The state of no thought in our actions. It is not so much as being thoughtless in our actions, but more towards being spontaneous I suppose. In that same vein, you cannot be spontaneously happy if you have to premeditate your emotions. What you'll be is more in line with 'acting' happy. Just as when professional actors use triggers to kickstart emotions in their acting, it looks real but its fake. Even if there is some meaning inside it (i.e. the triggers itself has meaning, though it isn't related to the reason the actor is feeling at the moment), the meaning is not sincere to the situation.

Thus, being spontaneous in our actions, is actually having a sincere reaction to an impetus. If we suddenly had a pin poke us we would cry in pain, that would be a spontaneous and sincere reaction. Similarly, in learning a 'way' or better yet, living it... we would react spontaneously to whatever impetus that comes along, and hopefully because we've been training our minds and body, we would react in an Aikido like fashion.

Doing something is of course still a necessary process. Imagine all you like, but if you don't get up and do that rolls, you aren't likely to perfect your ukemi when the time comes. Doing something in practice is sharpening that knife for the eventuality of cutting something. But when the time comes to cut something, put away that whet stone, hold the knife and cut. The time for sharpening is long gone, the time to let the knife be a knife is what it is right now.

It is my wish that one day I could achieve spontaneity in Aikido. To be a natural Aikidoka instead of having to remind myself each time I feel like fighting or reacting. People may find that training the body is arduous and painful and tiring, but training the mind is like grasping oil in a bucket of water. If we stop spinning it around to create a focus, the oil just spreads all over and loses its coherence. Such is that, we have not truly assimilated the knowledge within us, that we have to constantly urge it in the right direction.

Watch Aikido demos and you can see the apparent truth. What is spontaneous and what is premeditated. Where even if techniques that repeat itself again and again, done spontaneously uke still can't present any resistance whatsoever. Done pre-meditatively, even if nage constantly changes his techniques, it would appear rough and or forced.

The Harmony of Violence

2010-10-23T08:18:00.000-07:00

Originally I thought 'The Love of Violence' would be a good catchy title, but then I really couldn't see where love and violence ties in. Traditional show of love through violence, can only be construed as abnormal Neanderthal behaviour by today's standards. Beating a child much like 'Spare the rod, spoil the child' has been debunked thrice over by modern child psychologists and what not. Having gone through all that myself as a kid though, I have no real argument for or against it. Simply said, I would hit my child if he becomes naughty but only if there is just cause and only in certain circumstances. The first and most important being, you can only hit your child with love and never in anger or in a fit. The others that follow are only logical such as hitting in the fleshy areas or the palm of the hand, never near nerves and bones and never of course anywhere near the head (i.e. slapping the face). Hit, not pinch. Pinching is worst then hitting. Also hit using a cane and never with your bare hands. Unless you're mommy and you've never conditioned your hands through martial practice, and even then I would recommend a cane. You see, a cane might give a nasty sting to each strike, but presumably won't break the skin since you're not whipping to hurt. But a hand, has mass, and bone behind it... that can cause accidental damage to a young child's bone, muscle or nerve.

Anyway, its not about 'The Love of Violence' and its not about canning the child. So I thought, the Harmony of Violence is an accurate description of my blog today.

The reason behind it was because someone remarked about the roughness shown in class sometimes. Well its kind of hard to judge what exactly is rough and what is gentle, its a very long slide of relative measurement. Someone might consider a shove as rough whilst some only consider something like an atemi to the face as rough. Be it as it may, we do not emphasise bodily strength in our class. Ki Shin Tai as it stands require that we forge our bodies in the early stage so as to understand technique done using bodily strength. But that is a stage of learning, in order for us to move to and understanding doing techniques using Ki, mind or intent. So it was quite surprising to be given such a comment by a student.

I then wondered in what way is it rough or violent. If strength was not a factor, was the technique rougher that it should be? Surely not, since the ikkyo was done without a face plant nor a dislocated joint. It wasn't clash, nor did it originate from a strike or a block to uke's attack. So where does the violence creep in?

What we did today was really practice chushin. Chushin in ourselves without question, but more about chushin to chushin connection. Being able to understand this relationship allows us to deal with attacks without getting caught up in them. It is easily demonstrable that fighting an attackers shomen, or jab-straight combo, would inevitably result in an all-out melee. One that could have you blocking strike after strike, or having both of you duking it out like a couple of school yard bullies. Attacking uke's chushin directly however, using just kamae alone will bear noticeable difference in the outcome. Done right, uke will have no power to continue his attack.

Doing this however requires establishing a connection to uke's chushin over a distance. This requires understanding of maai, zanshin and spirit of atemi. Without these components, and without a good hara and extension, it would probably result in a melee again.

To demonstrate it in equal fashion, I had uke attack again and again. Then I pre-empted uke's attack. Just controlling the attack line and uke's chushin just walk over or pass through uke's space, if he attacks you just sort of roll over him and ikkyo might be a result. This ikkyo is often compact and would have uke landing with his legs folded under him with him on his back. But it won't feel forced.

I was wondering if this was what the call on rough was all about... surely not.

Still, if it was, then we'll just have to work on that a little bit more I guess. It got me thinking though. That violence isn't generally something that is attributable only to a fight or chaos. Harmony can be violent too. The ikkyo I did could lead to a violent end, even though it wasn't done to cause harm, nor was it premeditated. But the fact that uke's attack was immediately and instantly return onto him including the force behind nage's casual irimi through him, it could have resulted in a tremendously powerful finish. That could be violent if seen from the receivers point of view. See... nage doesn't fight. He does not block and he doesn't attack uke. All he did was go through uke's attack and give it back. Uke's force and energy comes back to him violently, as violently as uke tried to attack nage in this case. Nage's encounter was harmonious but uke's receiving point was violent and that's where we can establish that harmonious encounters need not be all flowery and lovely and round and round and stuff like that. It could be equally as harmonious as a steamroller going through its motions, flattening anything in its way, including Arthur Dent's house.

Sensei mentioned things like the Tsunami, earthquakes as harmonious. Well, if you tell it to the thousands of people who have lost their lives, loved ones and property in those calamities, you'd probably get a punch in the nose (unless you irimi and do ikkyo or rokkyo on him - heh). But to earth it is harmonious. Its just like lightning. Nature is seeking balance. Harmonious doesn't mean feathers and flowers, rain even monsoons are harmonious and very natural. The volcano erupting is harmonious. One wonders, what would really happen if all the earthquakes, tsunamis, lightning and volcanic eruptions were kept in tightly in check. Maybe large populations of now extinct animals might still be alive, and human beings would be in the bottom of the food chain, or maybe disease would have been so prolific that barely a handful of human beings are still normal, the rest have become mutants and zombies, or maybe entire plains are now deserts, or maybe water tables are virtually nonexistent and earth is decaying from the core. See, what we microbes err I mean people selfishly think is violent, might be the only thing that keeps every living thing on earth in balance and by that we mean in harmony.

Therefore, what we could take from this is do not be afraid of violence, instead only be discontent with disharmony. Sometimes, to be harmonious calls for an act of violence. Yet, this act of violence could only be achieve harmoniously if done in a state of emptiness, of acceptance. Done in a premeditated manner, this violent act could only have transpired through internal persuasion which inevitably will lead to disharmony.

Time will tell

2010-10-18T18:49:00.000-07:00

I chanced upon some writings from senior aikidokas that basically expounds on their recently acquired insight on Aiki. These insights usually talk about energy beyond the physical and intent preceding that energy. Much of their insight is basically what Sensei has been talking about all along. Yet the same senior Aikidokas were the first to dismiss Sensei's or other similar teachings and demonstrations a year or two back, claiming 'floppy bunny' ukes and 'hero worship' by the students... What has changed?

In as much as why Sensei has gotten much following now in Indonesia compared to several years back when he was effectively ridiculed, the decriers have tried it out for themselves and have felt it for real. Yes, those senior Aikidokas are living nowhere in our region, but they've met other experienced Aikidoka's and martial artists who have similar abilities. Those experienced teachers however have a more substantiated background however making it hard for anyone to just dismiss them, typically they are older, very experienced and have made a name for themselves. Yet, even then we have very junior Aikidoka's who give them one look and still think to themselves what an old fraud. We can't blame them, when most Aikido teachers lack the whole substance behind Aikido, Aiki itself. So much so, students are seeking teachers from Karate, Traditional Chinese martial arts and etc, this knowledge of Aiki.

It is perfectly alright to be suspicious of course. What with so many charlatans around out to swindle your money. But in martial arts, there really shouldn't be a question should it? If you want to prove a charlatan, bring him on the mat. That's what happened to Sensei, most of his students were naysayers or came from dojos of naysayers and then they got curious. What if? What if this thing is true. So they took courage and tested him out. A lot of us though like to offer our views from the sidelines, most of us would not really like to get our hands dirty. Some of course give excuses like distance, time and other nonsense like "I don't have to prove anything to you, you prove yourself to me"... in the end it all boils down to what we're looking for. If we're looking to make ourselves look good by decrying others, then you can call white white all you like, and the other guy will still insist its black. But if you're there really looking for the truth, then nothing will stop you from getting to it, even to put yourself at risk.

What does this mean for the rest of us? Well absolutely nothing unless you are serious about training. Being a student of a good teacher does not make you any better than you were prior to that. Learning from Sensei does not mean attending his classes or taking notes and videos. Learning means to put yourself at risk, to challenge yourself against failure. If we stick to the comfort zone of what we can do, when are we going to learn about the things we can't?

Certainly this would work out well when working with people who are already experienced and already know the things you're trying to learn. In our case, where there are no senior students around, then it'll be a case of the blind leading the blind. Yet, we cannot lose hope and must persevere. Knowledge exists whether we like it or not, there are teachers who come to revelation without any person guiding them. Some of the greatest geniuses out there intuited their findings, gleaning it from observation, logic, dreams, imagination and rational discourse. With us, we've been given basic knowledge and ideas, we've been given key after key, now is for practice and practice and more practice. Not just normal practice, sticking to kihon all the time, but practising Aiki in every which way possible.

I read a quote recently about this scientist who basically had had it with faith dwellers, mystics and all these religious warmongering. He wished he could draw a line put all those people who couldn't be reasoned with scientifically, on the other side and ask them to use whatever magic, prayers and faith to attack his side. When all measure have been exhausted, he'd nuke em. Well, we all probably feel like that one way or another at one point in our lives. Sometimes you just wonder if all politicians came from the same mother the way they talk and the way they screw you whilst looking like an angel. You'd want to put the blame on others, like what's happening to the world economy, the environment, the wars and terrorism... yet are we really innocent? Is it not us who put those despicable people at the helm of our state? We who elected capitalism as God of the world? If all of us could travel to the future and see what would happen to the world because of our failure as its guardians surely we would understand. Yet time is what it is. We only live in the present or we dwell in the past. We do not foresee the future. For all its glory and hubris, science and its fellows have not been able to convince the world of a better future either.

Everyday you live you risk making mistakes. Some of those mistakes you can shrug off, some you'll bear the scars till the day you die. But the worst mistake is to do nothing at all. In trying to avoid making mistakes, you'll end up accomplishing nothing at all and that would the greatest mistake of your life. There are no second chances in life and the clock is ticking. We know we have a limited time to live. We know we are going to die. We just don't know when. So truly, the thing that we really don't have much to spare is time. Every second counts and we should use it. Train hard, but life is not about training. Its about living. Train to accomplish something, train to learn something, learning till the day you die is a worthwhile endeavour. At the same time, teach what you've learned to others, use it in your daily life. You could learn all the knowledge in the universe, much good it'll do to you if you die with it unused. Let other people share in that knowledge, let them use it to help others. All of us have a duty to make the world a good place, to protect it, our mother earth. We can't do it if we waste time, or if we have nothing in our heads, or if we choose to do nothing with what we have.

A Beginner's Class at ISTAC

2010-10-15T07:12:00.000-07:00

Wow... first of, ISTAC in Persiaran Duta is truly a beautiful place. I'm wondering whether the university actually built the place like that or they got it off a rich arab/spaniard who had too many palaces to manage. The courtyard that we practiced in was a very pleasant place to train in. When it's not raining of course.

Anyway, I went there with not a little trepidation, mostly because I really don't know what to expect from Post-graduate students who study Islamic degrees and come from all over the globe. I didn't want to jump in with the guns blazing so to speak.

The first impression counts and so I started with the essence of Aikido as how our school sees it. Basically reminding all our students that Aikido is built upon 4 stages of development:
1. Harmonising with ourselves
2. Harmonising with others
3. Harmonising with the universe
4. Harmonising with the Source

This 4 stages must be at the forefront of how we train because if we don't have it in our practice, we can't call what we're doing Aikido, at least not as how Osensei sees it.

In learning to harmonise with ourselves, basically we are doing the mind and body unity thing. Most Aikido schools, especially those influenced by Tohei sensei will undoubtedly know this. Some teachers talk about Gi, Shin, Tai... same thing.

The tools we use to harmonise with ourselves include Aiki Taiso. Sure meditating works, but working the body and mind together gives a good building block to start of with. Just meditating the mind alone may work fine when you're alone, but it'll be difficult to hold it together when a partner starts to get involved. Because of that we did the Standing and Sitting ki test first. After seeing the new students caught on to the whole moving with the center thing and how much power and balance they achieved with it, I started on the next drill.

Center... now instead of explaining the esoteric aspects of center and ki and all that, I related center to the 'core' which is often used in modern sport sciences and body work methods like pilates. Certainly as I've seen it in old jujitsu books, hara was predominantly seen as the muscle group of the torso, not so much as the internal aspect where ki is generated or pooled. You can also see that most traditional martial artists of that era have an overly developed torso musculature area. If you look at the UFC fan favourite, Chuck Liddel, you can see what I mean. He has an unsightly protruding stomach that is probably 99% muscle. Its not the trim flat stomach that most models sport, but it bulges out beyond his chest. Now this is exactly what I'm talking about in terms of the old martial artists... therefore, it makes a lot of sense to assume that a lot of the mystical power attributed to the center comes from a well developed 'core'. Well, at least at the 'tai' stage of learning anyways.

Having explained that, I showed them the difference in doing a front ukemi with center and without. With center, the roll is smooth, rounded and easy to perform. Without center, you are likely to collapse and injure yourself. Then we practiced rocking back and forth from the agora seated position. Concentrating on moving using the core and keeping a rounded form. Having done a lot of ukemi, made me realise that beginners have a hard time doing this simple exercise for prolonged periods because they do not have the muscles for it.

Next we went to 'rei' Now... this was the stickler. I'm here at an Islamic university dealing with foreigners who may have different ideas to what is allowed in their religions practice. Bowing has been a major contention amongst some muslims and jews. Knowing that my sensei who was trained in a religious studies and has no problem with this helps with my own conviction that at the end of it all, its what in our heart that matters. Nevertheless, it doesn't augur well to antagonise the university that open its doors to you. So we approached 'rei' from a different angle. Instead of focusing on bowing to each other at the beginning, we emphasise the use of rei as a form a measuring respect and controlling the spatial relationship. In bowing physically we are also respecting the opponent with our hearts, so 'rei' is an exercise that helps develop that inner aspect of ourselves. With such a respect, an opponent who tries to engage us whilst we are bowing, we are still able to deal with their attack because we've established a connection with them which is entirely not physical but palpable.

When I demonstrated that bowing in a nonchalant manner or in a disrespectful way, the opponent can overpower us immediately, I see that they could accept this training exercise. And so we did the ki test for rei.

After that we did unbendable arm and I explained that in the first method we are relying more on leverage than anything else. Nothing mystical and entirely doable by anyone. The first method we hold our arms out relaxed and place it on uke's shoulder. Uke tries to bend our hands at the elbow. We keep our hands pointed to a spot far away and focus on that point whilst maintaining a relax form. This way, all the force applied by uke is basically given back to his shoulder or where we are contacting him. This is basically an easy trick to learn and all the students got it quickly. Next we did our school's variation. This time, I had uke curl my extended fingers and press my hand to my shoulder and keep it there. Using the other hand on my shoulder as leverage, and all the while pushing my hand to my shoulder. I now try to move it with my arm muscle, most probably the triceps and deltoids, and a struggle ensues. Of course since uke is bigger than me and has the power of both arms, its practically impossible to move. Next emptying the mind or rather forgetting that uke is there, and just relaxing my hands I move it simply like I'm stretching out in the morning. Moving freely this way instead of struggling to move uke makes all the difference. Our sensei teaches for unbendable arm to be correct, we must be able to achieve it from an already bent position and that we can move it freely. Its not unbendable if we are straining to keep it in place or if we're stuck in only one position.

After that we showed more about how we receive attacks from uke. The emphasis on the class was to demonstrate that learning Aikido is about learning to blend instead of fight or struggle. When uke resists we give them energy sincerely, if they force the energy on us, we receive it sincerely and wholeheartedly. Using kotegaishe to demonstrate how easy it is to move someone if we just hold him lightly instead of using our strength, we gave the new students a new way to look at things.

Because it was the first class and the time slotted was short, we weren't able to really practice any real techniques. I'm hesitant to even begin with ukemi here until I've seen how the students react to the lessons. If at all, this class would probably be classified as an Aikido primer and I probably won't be teaching a full Aikido class here until say 2-3 months of this. Nevertheless, I look at this class as something which is useful to the existing students whom I've pushed into training more and more of kihon waza that we have stop much of our aiki taiso and ki training. Having them work on the drills with beginning and un-indoctrinated students helps keep it almost real. That's something I'm going to watch out for, not telling them how to respond to events but rather working with how zany some people's response would be to our exercises, drills and techniques.

Looking But Not Seeing...

2010-10-10T10:14:00.000-07:00

The other day, my friend was inspired to teach in darkness. Maybe in the modern Aikido setting, that kind of training is off the beaten track, but traditionally Silat was taught in the dark as well. Sensei too have conducted similar classes sans light. In fact, Osensei liked to train in the elements. It is known that in his Iwama retreat, when training was conducted outdoors sometimes at night, Osensei made no changes to how training was conducted. Sometimes it was with live weapons... much to the dismay of his students.

There are probably two lessons to be learned here. Training in the dark removes a factor that most people are reliant on, vision. It is with the eyes that most people lead their lives, or perhaps have their lives led by. When you last watch TV, didn't that advertisement about that luxury SUV catch your eye? Its lines were really sporty and the engine had real power. Even though you may have a car already, but you wish that you could get that SUV too...just because.

Or maybe you're not really hungry, but McDonalds just came out with a lunch special... triple big mac with cheesy fries. Man! I need to dig that!

Its not just about TV. Research shows that employers often prefer to hire good looking men and women and most employees with above average height earn more than their shorter peers. What relevance does face and height have on their work? Not much, not unless you're a model or a basket baller. But these discrimination goes across the board, from secretaries to management to lawyers and even gardeners.

It is a fact that through genetically imprinted instinct, mankind look for good looking, tall specimens to procreate with because it is assumed that they have the best gene pool. It appears that perhaps the bias we have over ugly people is not rationalised, but instinctive. Well, instinct may be good and all that, but if human beings were to live their lives on instinct, we should have known a long time ago to stop cutting down all those trees. But no. We don't. Destroying the environment to enrich our lives goes against every survival instinct and yet we ignore it, but choosing your mate is decided by instinct? So which is it? Mankind it seems can choose to override instinct when it suits them. Go figure.

Lets go back to the eyes then. We have eyes that inevitably trigger desires or reaction in us to something it sees. Turning us off or on as it were. Yet behind that visual appeal or turn off, is what we perceive from our eyesight really representative of that object or person? Don't judge a book by its cover is an age old wisdom that has been spoke so often its often called cliché. But isn't it a gem of a wisdom?

Training in the dark is loosely based on this understanding. That to let our eyes deceive us will lead to our undoing. Osensei taught for us not to look at the opponents hands/weapons or his eyes, lest we be deceived. Its true. Look at any fight, good opponents feint to create openings. The majority of Silat is all about trickery. That's what fighting is all about, you trick your opponent. You destroy their advantage and you build yourself up. No one wants to go to an even match. Forget those noble fiction about fighting in a fair fight. If you're out there trying to survive, the last thing you want is an even match. 'Even matches' is for sports (or at least it was) not Budo.

Having said that, how does training in the dark give an advantage to us? Well, training in the dark in itself doesn't really give you much advantage unless you're specifically going to fight in the dark against someone. But its more about building up other sensory perception that you have besides your eyes. We of course have sight, hearing, touch and smell as the basic senses, but some have improved sensitivity than others whereby their tactile sense is finely hone, their hearing is very precise and etc. Some even border into the 6th sense where they have unerring predictive powers knowing your every step even before you've made them. Wow! Will training in the dark help me get all that? Well... let's just say that the jury is still out there on that one. But what we can see is that, in eliminating one of our senses, we learn to use our other senses to compensate and that's always a good thing.

Imagine a fighter jet where the control is solely in the province of a pilot. He has to eyeball everything and make snap decisions. Yes, fighters in world war 1 eyeballed and dogfight all day long, but modern jets shoot opponents 5 km out, the enemy is not even a speck of dust in our eyesight then... so how exactly is eyeballing going to work? To help him get a target and verify if its a friendly or not, to help him compensate for the relative speed and trajectories, the pilot needs a lot of information. Certainly this information couldn't be discern by him alone. So his other 'sense's' help... command, satellite imaging, radio signals, laser targeting and etc, they all mesh together and create an information package that effectively identifies targets and friendlies leaving the pilot to make a conclusive action. So, what it means is reliance on eyesight is like handicapping yourself, when really you could have all the other senses combine their input into a more comprehensive information package for you to decide over.

In more esoteric terms, you can't wait to see if a strike is heading your way in the dark, you need to 'sense' it. If you hear a movement and you can feel the incoming wind, you have an information package already. Your brain makes a snap decision, overriding the need for visual confirmation based on the 2 out of 3 positives so that you put yourself out of harms way. This is sensing it rationally. Develop this so that it becomes so intuitive and that it operates below conscious thought, and it becomes almost 6th senselike. Sometimes you know when your opponent is planning to do something. Just like when you know someone is about to say something...

The other thing that you may learn from practising in the dark is that the eyes is a frequent distraction. Not only that, it often lies as well. Learning to make judgements beyond the sole providence of the eyes, often reveal that we might have taken a different path had we listen to the other senses as well.

Often teachers will show you what they want you to do. Sometimes they focus on a few things and try to make you see it, but different people see different things. For instance we write about the chicken crossing the road, and one guy might look at your drawing and say it looks more like a duck than a chicken, another might say that the chicken is jaywalking, whilst another might say that there's really no point for the chicken to cross the road, what's the chicken running from? Or where is it going to? and so on and so forth. From the drawing of a chicken crossing the road, you can come to so many different understanding/assumptions, yet were we to just forget what we saw and instead ask why is the teacher talking about the chicken crossing the road, and what is he not saying when he does that... that is when we start to see the whole picture. In other words, the way we should practice is not to get stuck or let our eyes lead us where it desires, but to use our mind and guide our eyes to where it really matters.

We look everywhere, and what I see is seldom what you see. My black is not your black, we just assume it is. Working the dark is not similar to blinding yourself, it is about opening your eyes and seeing in a different level.

Buang yang Keruh, Ambil yang Jernih

2010-10-05T00:21:00.000-07:00

Such a short but meaningful sentence was captioned by the late P.Ramlee, a legendary artist of Malay heritage, in one of his songs. He sang this in the movie '3 Abdul' where he had just married the youngest and recalcitrant daughter of a natural born swindler. The old man who had married off his two other daughters to our protagonist's elder brothers, in a bid to siphon their newly inherited wealth sought to repeat his success with the third. But in the end our hero proved too resourceful for him and the tables were turned.

But in that song, which means 'throw away the dirty and take the pure' basically epitomises the traits of staying positive. In any given situation, you have a choice, if not to avoid the situation in the first place at the very least a choice on how to deal with it. As in Fight or Flee, man's characteristic is dualistic in dealing with situations like that. Both optimism and pessimism exists. However, again with the Fight or Flee scenario, leaving it to nature to decide which action one should take is akin to playing the roulette. In Budo and as a martial artist we have to train ourselves to override or control 'natural' urges.

In some arts, being negative means being prepared for the worst and enjoying good outcomes as bonuses. We assume the scenario will turn bad and are more than prepared to ensure our safety and security through any means necessary. It means that without sufficient information, we will turn the dial all the way to maximum and use extraordinary force to ensure our maximum chance for survival. In some arts there is a dial, in some the dial is perpetually at maximum. It is in this scenario that one should consider whether it is suitable for application in the civilised world we live in now.

Historically, old world countries always had their civilians ensure theirs and their family's safety through personal weapons and ability. Those who are born into martial clans or castes offer the best tools and skills to their children, while peasants and farmers are left with tools of the trade to stave off bandits and pillagers. In the modern world where overriding law and the advent of a systematised police force, more and more people are leaving their safety and that of their families in the 'capable' hands of the government or powers that be. Much to their consternation, the result leaves a lot to be desired.

Now, going back to the topic. Aikido as I see it symbolises a positive art. Inherently, to practice Aikido, one needs to be in harmony with oneself and with others. Being negative from the start contravenes that ability therefore as Aikidokas we need to cultivate a positive attitude. In our practice taking attacks from uke, we do not respond in kind nor do we address the threat as what we perceive it to be. If we were to do so, we are probably enforcing a negative attitude. Uke too will sense this response and thus the struggle ensues. In being positive however, and 'throwing away the dirt' we do not of course go out there and assume everyone's a boyscout and that mugger in front of you doesn't have a gun under his shirt. I know its dicey and thrown into that situation, the question of would I really stay positive or would I just make sure the guy doesn't breath again will only be answered at the end.

Still imagine armed confrontations and hostage negotiations. Police who decide to stay positive and try to talk their way into diffusing a situation, retain the positive attitude. If they were to question their ability or assume the worst of the other party, we do not doubt that the situation will turn nasty. Also given that they have the arsenal behind them it is easier at times to just be done with it and give the bugger what he deserves. As an infamous army commander once remarked, "shoot em all and let God sort it out", we can't tell what's in another persons heart. So some people don't give other people the benefit of the doubt. Like some countries assume the worst and initiate what they call pre-emptive strikes. As I've mentioned, with 'might' behind them, it gets easier to that everyday. It is only when such an action might illicit an unquantifiable response that one might hesitate to use force. That's why generally you 'pre-empt' someone that you ordinarily would be able to take out anyway, but you would hesitate to 'pre-empt' someone whose capability you are unsure of. This unknown factor has uncertainties that creates fear. Fear that he has more power than you in fact.

In this sense the 'Staying Positive' and making no assumptions have the most mutually beneficial outcome. By staying positive and creating steps to build the relationship and resolve misunderstandings, we eliminate the need to destroy or the attempt of such.

If you were every involved in Finance or Economy, you might have heard of Nick Leeson. Nick here was jailed in Singapore many many years ago for fraudulent trade that ultimately led to the demise of Barings Bank (UK) with losses amounting to USD1.4bn. Imagine that just a single man effectively lost that much money and caused the departure of an entire bank and its hundreds of employees. In this scenario, the directors of the bank were 'deceived' by Nick who earlier in his career made substantial profits for the company. In the end, Nick fooled them and himself in trying to recoup bad trades with even riskier trades. This is not 'Staying Positive', this is what we will call unrealistic expectation. It is similar to what gamblers are afflicted with when they bet against the house. Statistically, you know the house wins 60 times to your 1. Yet, millions flock to casinos to gamble their lives for the chance to turn rich overnight.

'Buang yang Keruh, Ambil yang Jernih' applies to a multitude of scenario, not just the martial or the economy, when in fact it was derived from a song about a relationship between man and wife, daughter and father. At the end of the story our hero actually resolved the entire situation by bringing harmony back to the family and reconciling his siblings with their wives and father in law, minus of course the lynch pin lawyer who was behind the whole tirade. P.Ramlee who is famous for his wit, charm and multi facet talent in singing, composing and playing instruments was fond of putting such little ideas and wisdom into his movies. Remember the lynch pin that destroys the 'family or relationship', oft times they have more to gain than both parties have to lose.

The caption also exists in a time where water filters do not exist. If you were to be handed murky water, you would have to separate it painstakingly by hand. This symbolises the difficulty of embarking into this venture. To stay positive in the face of calamity is arduous indeed. Stand fast and advance onward!

Do we practice for practice's sake?

2010-09-24T04:44:00.000-07:00

If you have ever had a chance to practice in Hombu, you would notice that partners stick with each other for the whole session. Typically in most dojos though, changing ones partners after each technique is the norm. Some would say, it represents the reality when you encounter different types of uke be it in their physical dimensions, strength or ability, or just plain attitude.

There are pros and cons for both I would think. Sensei's humorous story prevails about the one crazy yudansha in hombu who was out to wreck his ukes. Since he was a normal occurrence, locals tend to avoid him completely. Thus he preys mostly on foreigners now. It may have been humorous in sensei's recounting, but if it were me as that guy's uke I doubt things would have turned out so funny.

Practising with partners that have no intention on really training can be very frustrating indeed. But in the end, that is practice in itself isn't it? Practice isn't about doing the favourite things on your list over and over again, with favourite or popular partners. Practice is about polishing your knowledge, getting it right, getting rid of the dirt and the grime. Its about doing it when you're not ready, when you're not in the mood, when your partner is a jerk. That's practice.

Too many of us assume that practice should be wholesome and refreshing. Well, if we want a relaxing time we ought to go to a spa. If we wanted to laugh, we should go hang out with friends, watch a movie or something. Practice in the dojo may come out great and nice and enliven your spirit, certainly practice in Sensei's classes has always uplifted me. But to assume that that is the norm and that is the standard, is to place Aikido on a pedestal. Since no one is an exact copy of another, we have to expect that not all classes will be enjoyable.

However, to go through such boredom again and again, that is the spirit of practice. Be warn that I'm not advocating going into a hellish dojo for the sake of it. Far from it, you should aim to train in a dojo which you find appealing to you. What appeals to one may not appeal to another. But favour a dojo because of its teacher, and I think you could do far worst. Favour a dojo because of its price, or rewards or distance... well then, really ask yourself what's that got to do with Aikido at the end of it all?

Aikido is terribly hard... and in fact very easy to learn. Its easy to learn because all the lessons are there out in the open for you to take it. Its hard because most times its against your very human nature to put those lessons into practice. Not fighting is very much against most people's nature. No competition? Even worst, most of us are brought up competing for something or other, be it mother's milk or attention, or better grades or a better paycheck...

Someone comes at you and you're suppose to accept him without fighting? I mean come on, how real is that? Well... unfortunately its very real, if you're interested in Aiki that is. Sometimes I feel like giving up. Sometimes I feel why do this when there's really so little to be gained? After all, what are we going to use Aikido for in the first place? If I needed self defence, I think I've pretty much sorted much of that already. Of course there will be better fighters out there, but seriously, how many muggers are actually well trained fighters, or MMA trained, or ex-navy seals? Put yourself in the upper curve of the self defence curve and you're likely to get away unhurt in most altercations.

Still, there's so much more to Aikido than these physical knowledge. What would it really be like to live life harmoniously with yourself and others? Can I really do that? Do I really want to?

We practice Aikido throwing people around, but stop for awhile and think to yourself... what part of that technique teaches you about harmonising?

Thanks to my friend who gives me the encouragement when I'm feeling down. You know who you are. We don't do this just for ourselves. Responsibility is indeed a heavy burden, something which I often feel I have not the strength for, but God gives what He believes we can handle and who am I to question that?

Transcending Theory into the Practical

2010-09-20T00:23:00.000-07:00

I think it would be fair to say that for the majority of people training today, they are seeking some practical ability to use from their knowledge. It is probably in the slim minority that someone is training Aikido to cultivate his spirit alone and perhaps achieve that takemusu-aiki level sought by Osensei.

There are probably thousands of practitioners out there with a lot more decades under their belt and presumably with the incumbent knowledge and experience. Perhaps in their lofty perch they may scoff at what I'm thinking out loud. I don't blame them, because it may very well be that after the same decades under my belt I'd probably laugh at me too.

Still, here we are for those of us who have between a decade or two of practice... Those of us who are in the younger thirties and still have not discarded the occasional temper and flaring of ego and undoubtedly participate to some extent in road rage, be it slamming into the horn at jerks or yelling in the car at some road hog, or even the occasional swerving and slalom across the highway to beat traffic.

I am not proud to say that I've allowed this to happen to me. Just the other day as I was rushing to an event (it always starts with this by the way; rushing), I was trying to get into my toll lane when this lorry cut me off and started to block my entry. The wise and smart thing to do was to brake and let him past on his way before going in, but sadly my wise and smart brain was on the mend that day, and instead the hot tempered 20 year old brain I left disused a long time ago took control and so I sped and swerved in front of him. The affront of it! By God I couldn't let him get away with that could I? Anyway, he horned me after that and I promptly stopped and gave him... err some communicative signals. Well the short of it was we both got out, and I was carrying my age old baggage of all the insolent lorry drivers with me when I went out to confront him. Lo and behold, an educated man in the 50s was angry at me for my hand signals. Although I thought to give him a piece of my mind, a tit for tat you would say, I felt all wrong inside.

Here's the facts. Sure he cut me off. But it could have been unintentional. I swerved in front of him, to show my displeasure. He became annoyed and horned. I stopped because I took affront and gave him a rude gesture. He came out and I came out fully aware that it could lead to an altercation. I realised he felt he was wronged, and I understood his anger was at the rudeness more than it was because of the incident which could have been explained away. So... there, faced with that new-found knowledge, I felt very bad about what I did.

In the end, I apologised to him profusely for being rude. Even though I thought it was a fair thing to do to swerve at him initially, ultimately it was really a stupid and childish thing to do. To be a man is to control your ego and temper, lest it makes you useless. After all, we are learning budo, or are we really? To practice budo is to protect someone, not to look for a fight. Yearning to use your art against some 'evil' jerk is really the act of cowardice. You seek knowledge to fight as an advantage over others and you then seek a fight to prove your worth... is that where I'm going?

Thus, today is not about a technique I practised the other day, its more about trying to remind myself that its all fine to practice Aikido techniques and be theoretical about harmonising with someone, with yourself or the universe in the dojo, but out there... where we are living everyday, when we are sick, or bored to death, or having a migraine or when we are angry at something... those are the times when we need to keep our practice in our heads and heart. Its not just about this road rage which is easily identifiable. Sometimes it could even be abusing your relationship with others by taking advantage of them. Sensei once said, to be a good Aikidoka and more so as a teacher, is to be practice zanshin. Zanshin is not all about when we are on the mat practising with an attacking uke. Zanshin is to be aware of feelings, of having a 'feel' of the surroundings... It all sounds too much doesn't it. But read Gladwell's book 'Blink' and you can see that this awareness is real and can be achieved.

Anyway, just think... everytime we practice shomenuchi or some other attacks, I talk about not clashing and instead harmonising with the oncoming force. At the end, what I just did was to clash and it was only luck that brought me back to my senses. This is the shame I will have this blog remind me of each time I think I know better.

Ukemi and Whiplash... amongst other things.

2010-09-13T05:31:00.000-07:00

Firstly... its been a long holiday! So what with the feasting going on, my mind has been a lot on ukemi lately. In particular, whether I could weather the oncoming onslaught this October when I visit sensei again for some intensive training.

As I was thinking about this, my 1 year old son slipped and fell on his back. Hitting his head hard. A mere metre away from me, yet I was unable to catch hold of him as he fell. It was very fast, in fact I can safely say it must have been a third of second or less. Those movies you see with the hero just hanging on before falling down... it doesn't happen like that in real life. In real life you fall, and you fall real quick. But remember those ukemis we take? Sometimes I feel like we have forever to take them. Sometimes though, its all we could do to take a breakfall. Even so, its been a long time since I've had a fear of falling. Practice does to a certain extent inculcate this useful skill into our nervous system, lodging the education into our medula oblongata so as to short cut the thought process by a few nano seconds.

Having regretted that I did not pre-empted my son's safety, I thought about how decades ago I read in an issue of Spiderman. In that issue, his arch nemesis the Green Goblin had kidnapped Gwen Stacy (Spidey's first love). Finally Spidey showed up to rescue her, and the goblin threw her off a bridge. Spidey acted fast to save her but was thinking how to do it safely. At the rate she was falling, if he just webbed her the whiplash itself would have killed her. That's why he had to gain momentum himself and that's why he left it to last moment before catching hold of her. Even so... she died. She was probably dead even as the goblin threw her. But think about it... besides it being a momentous event in my favourite comic book where a main character actually got killed off, it was also all the more real in the fact that physics was looked at in more than just a cursory fashion.

Have you ever seen someone being thrown so hard that he practically bounce back from the mat? Assuming we have such a person falling and we try to pull him out of it, calculate it wrong, and the whiplash will have his head hitting the floor at an even faster speed than it would have initially. Whiplash, the basis of the slingshot manoeuvre used by Hans Solo to get away from the empire, effectively doubles the speed of your throw.

We are not looking at this as in how can I best use this knowledge to throw someone harder than usual, but really looking at why rolls are more advantageous than breakfalls. Obviously with breakfalls, one hits the floor with all the force of the throw and gravity along with it. But rolling out of a throw, one guides the force away from the floor, laterally. This way disperses the energy/force along the route and makes for a healthier you. It also negates whiplash because you run the energy into a different path instead of the opposite path which compounds the speed.

Even so, we should understand that not all throws could be rolled out from. But look at some of those judo videos, you will see that not all throws are a lost cause and uke needs to fall down splat. Some you could handstand away, somersault over, and some just ride it out. These methods may be unorthodox, but at the end of it all makes for a more realistic training and increase your longevity.

Break the habit of taking breakfalls for the sake of nage... instead find a safer way to take ukemi. That is afterall what being uke is all about, receiving techniques safely. Breakfalls on mats may appear to be perfectly reasonable to you now...but in a few decades and maybe a splat on the tarmac or two, may change your mind.

That is why one of the more robust methods of taking ukemi comes from Parkour and Systema and I believe Aikidoka's can benefit a lot to learn their training methodology.

Applying Awase...

2010-08-29T03:42:00.000-07:00

Whilst Awase is a commonly described and accepted skill in Aikido where its meaning is often accepted as 'blending' our school's emphasis is on the 'harmonising' aspect. Awase itself has many levels of skill. The lowest is body awase, next is ki awase, next is intent awase and last is spirit awase.

The lowest being tai no awase or body harmonising itself has multiple aspects that has to be trained. Typically, we start with te no awase or hand awase using grabs and strikes. Later we begin to touch on body awase where we learn to see gaps and fill it, and move uke's body using various parts of our body. After that we learn ashi no awase or stepping awase and last we learn to use skin awase. It sounds complicated but its not. It sounds easy but its not.

Having understood the theory behind Awase, it makes it all the more frustrating when you can really apply it well. In kihon training, awase can be practised in a variety of ways. The most dynamic would be to use shomenuchi. At Tai no awase level, we can apply a variation of ken no awase to receive uke's shomenuchi. We often do this by remaining in the line of attack. Extending kamae and sinking center is the beginning of applying this skill. Leading Ki and enshin also play a critical role. Done properly, uke's shomenuchi loses power, they lose balance and they'll stand on their toes unable to strike with the other hand. This is a wonder to see, but obviously irritatingly hard to do. Variations will be to add chushin into the element by using 'opening the door' method of blending. Another which is to me the hardest to do, would be step off line and attack uke's center without him being able to track you or you clash into him. The timing here is impeccable, your strike will touch his chushin comfortably as his strike lands at your original position. Done wrong, uke's strike will track you and we end up clashing hands.

Why start with shomenuchi you may ask. In fact most times we start with kamae to kamae. Nage tries to apply awase in 4 directions. In the beginning, atari is needed to ensure we have some energy to work with.

Now, this structure practice of awase is important and not very easy to do. Yet in the stages of learning Aiki, awase is the first step of many many steps. Not understanding it and not being able to do it well doesn't augur well to our progress. If awase is difficult, musubi would be 10x more difficult to understand.

After mastering awase, you should be able to use it in any situation. I'm far from understanding it let alone mastering it but it hasn't prevented me from 'playing' with it. Most times, I like to practice pushes that take uke's balance. Whilst this is not a fantastic display of skill, it does incorporate usage of awase and will eventually lead to a better understanding of ateru, even shuchu. Sensei has demonstrated a few times how he uses awase to block opponents strikes (straight punches or hooks). It inevitably causes uke to lose balance even though the block is very light, almost like taps even.

So, since I subscribe by the saying that he who waits for perfection, waits forever decided that its about time I put all this theory to practice. All in the name of training mind you, but applying it to fast strikes from my silat mates is not easy. Actually its near impossible. After constantly trying to take their center which is hard because of the way they stand and strike, in the end I resorted to a simple ikkyo which works incredibly well. Whilst we look at the technique as something so basic that most aikidokas know how to counter it, these guys have no idea what we were doing. So that sort of opened my eyes a bit. Little things we take for granted, may be bigger things to other people. Still, this has in now way diminish my desire to master awase and I will try again until I can succeed. Lastly, I like doing it outside of Aikido classes because the students don't really know what you're trying to do and are not likely to cooperate and the fact that they have no intention of letting themselves be beaten even in training.

Budo and its Ideals

2010-08-23T02:56:00.000-07:00

I saw Karate Kid about a month or so ago. I thought it would be a good movie to bring my kid along too. It was all based on assumption I suppose. Karate Kid is a nostalgic movie for me, having watched the original several times over. Jacky Chan after all is a funny guy and so I thought, how wrong could the new movie be? Well, it was so wrong that my kid wanted to leave half way through the show. He had his eyes covered each time little Jaden got whacked up, and there was never a time that the show really appealed to him.

Honestly speaking, I didn't think the show was that bad. It wasn't great though. The fight scenes were brutal. You gotta hand it to his rival, he sure knew how to act as the bad guy. Unfortunately, with the intense violence nothing much came out of it to really create a balance. Jaden goes to China, Jaden gets beat up because he fancies a Chinese girl, then he gets beat up some more, he learns kung fu, he then beats up the bullies and everybody became friends. Hey, the plot ain't much but it isn't that far different from the original right? Sure we didn't have the wax in, wax out but hanging your coat ain't that bad of a training.

The thing is, what seems to be lacking in the new Karate Kid is character. The story was like a hodge podge of rewrites of the original. The original didn't have over the top fight scenes, but it made do with what it have in the character and morals behind it. A lot of people ended up taking karate after the show aired. Every parent out there thought Karate was the way to make something out of their teenager, whether it was to make a man out of him, to get him out of bullying or to teach him respect. That was how good an impression the movie had on the populace. I don't think the new one would garner much enthusiasm though.

But here it is that's so funny. The fact that the parents of yesteryear thought so well of karate because of Miyagi-san and Daniel. Didn't they realise that the bad boys in the movie were also taking karate? Everyone saw the good side, but they kinda missed the whole bad part of it. There it is, the point I'm trying to make. Karate in itself doesn't necessarily build a good and morally right person. Karate and other budo would mould you into someone with discipline, strength of spirit and into a physically stronger person. The moral character though, is all you and all your sensei. If your sensei is like Miyagi-san, who ambles along in his life modestly, with a good heart, avoiding the ego trap and sincere in his undertakings, then you are most likely to gain some of those good values. On the other hand, if your teacher falls into the villain category, you'd probably be as ruthless as they come. Don't forget, the samurai's of the olden days... most became ronin and bandits preying on the people they have sworn to protect.

So what's this gotta to do with Aikido you ask? Well, sensei is fond of regaling stories about his students. They come in all shapes and sizes and we often laugh at some of the more bizarre incidences surrounding them. Whilst the tales eventually lead to some measure of reconciliation or improvement on those students whether it is gaining the ability to walk and exercise again, or gaining focus and improving their social skills, one must not attribute all those 'miracles' to Aikido alone. After all, if training in Aiki makes one intelligent, the MENSA board really should be chaired by Doshu don't you think? Really, what I mean is... learning Aiki and budo would help us gain tremendously in terms of physical and mental enhancement. But building moral values and character comes from having a good guide or teacher. Much of the lessons won't be in the dojo, but through his actions and speech. Mostly though it is through the ishin-denshin method of learning.

If we understand this then we will then have a basis to which we can learn in each class. This is true for a lot of different reasons. Often I see students attend class and train, but they don't seem to go beyond the 'training by rote'. Sometimes I wonder, what is it that they seek each time they go to the dojo. Do they seek self defence training? Yet they do not have the intensity of motion, nor the commitment of effort and of taking risks. Do they then seek enlightenment? If they are looking for zen, then shouldn't they be better off at a Zen temple? After all, zen has absolutely nothing to do with Aikido after all. However if the students understood, the purpose of Aikido, the stages of learning Aikido, the principles that guide the learning of Aikido, the characters of Budo and finally the ideals of the teacher for that dojo... then they would have a distinct advantage each time they step onto the mat.

For a fun take on Karate Kid though... click here

Attacking and Receiving

2010-08-22T07:37:00.000-07:00

In Aikido, ukemi-waza is a given. You learn it from day one and everyone gets excited about rolling forwards and backwards. It makes you feel like a kid again at least for those of us who grew up before Gymboree came into existence. For attacks though, we sort of have this love-hate relationship going on. Again and again, Sensei will stress how important it is to be an uke. Uke learns much in every encounter, more so than being a nage. Yet, we tend to gloss over on how to actually attack nage. Sure, Shomenuchi's like that, Yokomenuchi's like this, Tsuki this way, grabs are like so... Somehow, I still feel like attacking is like an orphan child in Aikido.

Is it because we didn't join Aikido to learn how to fight and by extension how to attack someone? So we stress the falls instead, how to do rolls and later how to do breakfalls and we are pleased with ourselves when uke flies all around the dojo smoothly and uke's dream is to make that smooth and silent fall that seems to whisper over the tatami mat.

There is something amiss here. Aikido is budo, and budo no matter how you dress it contains attacks. Excluding them from the syllabus just defies good sense. Notwithstanding Osensei's admonition to never attack someone, coming from his mouth atemi is very much an important component in each technique.

You must remember that story I narrated from memory about the Chado master who responded to a rogue samurai's challenge one day. On the advise of his friend, the master held his sword with the spirit that he usually employs in making tea. By virtue of his poise and calmness, the rogue samurai retreated from the fight having not found a kink in the master's composure or an opening to strike. Still, were that fight actually to commence, one has no doubts whatsoever that the master would meet his demise since he has not an iota of sword training in him. Therein lies the importance. Spirit is but a part of us, technique is every bit as important. Just as we have talked about Tai, Shin, Gi no ichi the other day, we need technique as much as we need a trained body and a cultivated spirit in budo.

So kakari-waza or attacking techniques, is important and we should learn this as much as we learn how to take falls in ukemi-waza. We need to understand how tsuki is different to uchi. Mune tsuki or a midsection thrust is powered from our hara, transferred from the ground/stepping/stance and never losing connection through our core and relaxed shoulders and arms right through our fist. In the thrust however, we are slightly different to say karate. Since, Aikido is very much influenced by Ken and Jo, our strikes too is heavily influenced in style. Therefore, people who are used to body arts are sometimes uncomfortable with Aikido strikes. Nevertheless, though it may appear awkward to strike in Aikido, we really should understand the practice behind it. We are not teaching the Aikido-ka how to break boards or bricks, or how to hit someone and bring him down in one blow. We are teaching him to strike with energy that strikes through an opponent's physical borders and into his spirit. We generate power not to bludgeon him or damage his internal organs, but we use it as a conduit for our own attack that strikes his spirit down. Still, understanding that you can hurt someone with such a strike is meaningful in that it creates a purpose and generates an honest intent in each attack.

Uchi or strikes are powered similarly from Hara but the movement is different to tsuki. We do not swing the hands nor do we create hyper torques from winding the way occidental arts generate power. Instead we mirror strikes of sword cuts. We have relaxed arms and shoulders and we cut through in a smooth relaxed motion. Using center as the fulcrum our strikes are circular and heavy. It is different than say Karate strikes. I have no idea whether it is as effective, but I believe since the strikes are not an end to itself, it is useful for Aikido-kas. From those strikes I think we can make connection with uke easily and from there blend with their power to perform our techniques. Were we to strike conventionally, this connection will not be easy to create.

But striking alone is not enough. We also need to understand how and when to attack. Attacking blindly as I mentioned before will definitely leave us to easy counter attacks. Our tai sabaki is key here in each attack. Maai too. But the first thing of all is to understand how our opponent is positioned. His kamae, his hanmi... these are important in making our decision which way we are going to attack. However, without knowledge on various attacking methods though, understanding our opponent's openings and Shikaku is meaningless as well.

Well, enough about kakari-waza. There is this other side to it and no its not ukemi-waza but uke-waza. the art of receiving. Funnily enough, half the time Aikido-kas spend their keiko as ukes, yet we have never actually learned uke-waza. We believe that our ability will save us from any strikes and woe betides whoever is stupid enough to punch our face.

The art of receiving attacks from a sword art is of course very much different than say an art devoted to bare hands fighting. Yet we must be honest with ourselves in that, how many people out there are carrying katana's nowadays. Even knife fighting promotes a different sense of uke-waza. A short weapon strikes and reacts differently from a sword. Some of Aikido techniques and the way we respond do not automatically ensure we can handle knife fights safely. Yet tanto dori is a common fixture in most dojos. We pat ourselves in the back when we've accomplished our tanto dori, yet find ourselves terrified to pit our skills with a kali exponent. Don't worry its not just Aikido. Other arts suffer from the 'Village hero syndrome' too. My contention is that, learning techniques to counter attacks be it bare hands or with weapons is great, but more importantly we need to understand really how those strikes can hit us and how we can deal with it. Because, unless you're Steven Seagal, you'll definitely get hit once or twice and like the Kyukoshin are fond of taglining.... "Its not how hard you can hit, its how hard you can get hit that matters".

A Rundown of what Didn't happen tonight...

2010-08-18T11:36:00.000-07:00

So... we went through 5th kyu techniques just now, and it wasn't too bad. Next week we will begin the 4th kyu techniques, all nine of them sequentially and hopefully have everyone prepared for December. I've emphasised this many times over, and its Kamae. Kamae, this state of readiness that almost everyone assumes is the posture. But a posturing posture really has nothing behind it. That's why its called posturing. Within Kamae resides zanshin. Within it resides the Fudo Genri, and later Kihon Genri. So all in all, whilst there has been improvement we will have to work on getting this idea of Kamae ingrained in our practice.

Also, whilst it has been stressed that we are going to work slowly from Fudo Genri to Kihon Genri to Aiki Genri, those are still only principles. The way that works is, you must adhere to it or you don't have it. Its as simple as that. But, in training, there's other things which link those principles to waza and connection to uke. This is what we have called Ki Shin Tai. Ki Shin Tai, if memory serves is the natural law of Ki, Mind/Spirit and body. However, it has also been mentioned that Koichi Tohei once discussed Shin Tai Gi. Which is in principle the same as the unity of Spirit, body and technique. Not just Tohei but quite a number of notable 1st generation students make reference to this unity of 3 aspects. I must have either heard sensei wrongly and mistook Gi for Ki, or Sensei is talking about something else entirely. Whatever it maybe, we can just concentrate on the natural laws of Tai first. Because its what we may call the building blocks or bridge from our principles into concluding our encounter with uke.

I've written about the exercises when we first came back from Jakarta but besides that, there are also other aspects that you must be aware of when studying the physical aspects of Aikido. Exclude all that you know of Ki and Aiki for the moment if you will.

The first exercise that I remember clearly we did was moving from the finger tips. You will see this closely relates to what sensei has mentioned before in terms of physically extending like you're stretching naturally. The body is strong in a natural stretch and its never hard or stiff. Similarly moving from the fingertips will bring our focus away from muscling through movement because it feels like overkill. This is an aspect which is important. Moving naturally as opposed to muscling through. If we continue to force through opponents, then we must take a step back and ask ourselves is this what Aikido is all about. Moving naturally though is a skill that must be learn which is really an oxymoron isn't it? What's so natural about something that you have to learn how to do it. The thing is, its a natural movement that we have blocked from our pscyhe either by ego or bad habits and years and years of unnatural movement. Much like how pilates seeks to develop our connection to unused muscles and posture, we learn in Aikido to move in ways we have never done before... or so it seems. Why don't you brush your hair now with your right hand... see how natural that movement is? Next time some grabs your hand, why don't you brush your hair like that and see how easy that movement is. Instinctively though when someone grabs your hand, most people fight back. So today for our basic kamae position, I told everyone to think as if we're fishing. We're baiting the fish, we are lightly testing the rod, the rod remains connected to our center even as we move our hands up and down. We do not push the rod, or pull the rod, instead we are feeling the line as it tauts and slacks.

As a scout we learn how to trap monkeys... for fun. Find a knot hole in a tree, and making sure the monkeys see it, we put some berries and nuts in the hole. The hole is just big enough to put an unclenched fist in... but the monkeys will grab those berries and thus make a fist. We then jump on the monkeys, they will try to run, but instinctively they won't let go of the berries so their fist remains clenched thus they are stuck in the knot hole. Try it.. it works. So you see, its ok. Its perfectly fine that you get stuck doing things instinctively because even monkeys do it. As budoka however we expect you to override that instinct, and instead react in a more natural way.

The next exercise I remember we did is to work in concert with uke. Uke is holding your hands, but imagine that uke is in fact helping you carry something. So you both work together to carry that load, and finally you hand him the load all together. This is a good exercise which again trains you not to fight with your opponent. By changing the way you move, your opponents reaction becomes confused. He expects you to fight. He doesn't expect you to do something crazy like this.

Now, I know I said forget about Ki and Aiki... but then, the way body laws work is also closely tied to the innate energy of the opponent. Thus within the physical body is the innate energy. In physics we also have what we call latent energy. Sometimes someone can use latent energy, sometimes they only have it but they don't use it. In the 3rd exercise we practice the leading of ki or in particular that latent or semi latent energy. For the uke that uses the latent energy, we need to also have a semblance of understanding how to use our own latent energy to move our hands before trying to lead him. For the ukes that only have latent energy, its more of a question of being sensitive to the energy flow. The basic precept is not to fight against the flow of energy, instead move with it and lead it to where you need it to go.

The 4th exercise we did is to sink our hara. This is no big secret. So many schools of martial arts understand that just by dropping the center we create a large amount of force. Think about it. How much mass is in your hands and how much is in your torso? Mass and acceleration becomes force. You don't need to generate acceleration with muscles when you can just use gravity instead. The only thing about this is how do you actually connect this force that you generate to your partner. Ok so that's where the skill comes in. Sinking hara is just the way things are done, the how is what we're practising in this exercise. This connectivity with uke requires that we create a unity with uke before sinking our hara. You can jump up and down all day, but if you and uke remain as two separate entities, nothing useful is going to happen. The key to creating unity with uke is above all, extension. The second is to ensure that together both of you equal to the power of 1. Do not exceed it or be lesser than it. As a start we can work on cutting away the slack. Another step is to 'fill' the gaps.

The 5th exercise was relaxing. In fudo genri we have relaxing the mind, body and spirit. In Tai we are talking about relaxing the shoulders especially and our connective muscles. The more relaxed you are, the better your body becomes a conduit for the power being generated by your center. Sensei will refer a lot to elbow power and this comes from there. You can't generate elbow power if your shoulders are tensed. But you can't generate elbow power, if you try to power it from the elbow also... everything comes from the center. This exercise also ties with 'floating' hands.

By the way, all this talk about center... there's really something you should know in relation to Tai. Center or Hara is often referred to the spot 2 inches below your navel in the approximate center of your body. It is approximately your center of gravity as well coincidently. In other arts there's also a lot of reference to this particular area. Most however will refer to the hips. Certainly you will hear martial arts in Japan especially always refer to the hips. To them, working from the hips is a crucial aspect so much so that when you appear top heavy you are looked upon with disdain. If you look at a lot of martial artists in Japan traditionally, and you compare them with western fighters you will see the difference. In the west where big shoulders and height epitomises power and strength, in the east you see bulging abdomens. Abdomens that are large but not necessarily fat. Don't question the strength of their arms and legs, far from it, but you don't see those big bulging muscles there. In fact they are more of a wiry nature. If you look at asian labourers you will see their body is being very wiry. They are strong, and they have lasting power. Big bulging muscles look impressive and is very intimidating. But they cost a lot to maintain, and sometimes become dead weight. In fact the emphasis is on the core muscle and the torso in general. Whilst in the modern world, we refer to the hips as the area around the buttocks and waist, in Japanese martial arts it actually refers to that and also the whole torso. Power is generated from the core, and it is only now that modern 'western' body arts are beginning to talk about the core... pilates again being one of them. What I'm getting at is, whilst the center maybe this invisible spot of power in our body and we should be training to perceive this, do not underestimate this area we call the hips because certainly in Tai we need to be developing this part as well.

There are other aspects to Tai that I suspect sensei has not begun to teach us yet. I don't want to assume, but here are some other things that I would like us to study and train. The first is what I used to refer to as the empty leg. This is the point that I say is where our uke really should have an additional leg in order to remain well balanced. In Japanese martial arts this is called shikaku or 'dead zone'. Actually shikaku is more than that I believe. When we do our sensing exercise, we use extension to feel uke's energy and balance. We are using this feeling to feel for shikaku and we actually try to unbalance uke from there itself. Later when we do ashi awase, we are killing uke's ability to move by attacking that shikaku but in a more dynamic fashion. But at the beginning, we understand shikaku as the dead zone that exists in any stance. Given time, anyone can find the shikaku for any stance. Just move around and push uke as he commits to that stance and you will eventually find the sweet spot. In systema, practitioners try to avoid having such a dead zone by remaining limber. We create a straight trunk by bringing up the pelvis and bending the knees and moving with a straight and limber posture. When you are dynamic and relaxed, your shikaku is harder to find, though it still exists. Later when we get better practised at extension and we can extend ki throughout our body, it would be significantly harder for anyone to find the shikaku even if you're standing still. This then becomes what we call the immovable body and mind. Right...err, getting uke's shikaku is the start of achieving kuzushi. If you don't have kuzushi, don't affect a waza.

As I said before, I think there's a lot to Tai and probably trying to learn it all by rote is going to be counter productive. But I write this blog not only to go over lessons, and help our students remember those lessons, but also as a reminder to myself in training. We go over only a few techniques each class, but the more we can be mindful of these principles and practice, the better our Aikido will become. I will write more about what I think is part of Tai later, but those would be my assumption. And we all know what Assumption can lead to, so take it with a pinch of salt and be wise.

Check these links out... they have really good pointers!

2010-08-16T07:44:00.000-07:00

This 2 links are really good. It seems they've analysed the Aikido movements in a measurable and biomechanical way, instead of the usual 'Extend Ki' gross oversimplification that we tend to do. Some of the pointers require a good understanding of principles and techniques, some require knowledge of key terms relating to the school itself (I'm guessing Tomiki maybe)... They often do randori, which are full fledge resistance 'competition' that have winners and losers as both Uke and Nage. So... because of the uncooperative nature of those encounters, one would need to have a good strategy and tactics to overcome resistance. In this, they have the advantage of us.

Looking at it from another angle, one school advances methods of training to take someone down and lists down the 'correct' self-position against each possible opponent-position. The other school, advocates refining and mastering principles and its application irrespective of the situation. Its probably faster to learn how to deal with opponents in the first school if you're the methodical, fast learner, intelligent and logical type. The other school however would be harder to attain a degree of mastery in a short time due to the looseness of its teaching methodology that emphasises self discovery through experience and intuition. It never hurts to try each school's ideas out, and any knowledge is good to learn.

So... first link: http://www.mokurendojo.com/2007/04/100-terrific-things-to-try-in-tegatana.html
Second link: http://www.mokurendojo.com/2007/04/hundred-hanasu-happiness-hints.html

Don't fret if you don't understand this... even understanding our 5 principles in the Fudo genri is difficult, much less understanding or doing the 100 points listed in the guides above.

Thinking too much!

2010-08-15T01:53:00.000-07:00

I've just been thinking... and then it all falls apart! Its funny when there's so many theories out there floating about, that different people attach themselves to different views. It can be anything, from the theory of gravity right through to evolution. If there's one school of thought, there will be at least another with a totally different way of thinking. Each debunking each other. This here is an interesting read amongst the many that have seen publication and those that have not.

Before it gets out of hand, and I know it will the way I write, the main thing I'm trying to get across here is to feel-act. Feel and it becomes instinctive/intuitive. From there act. Doing this with Kihon is definitely harder to ki no nagare, nevertheless it has to be taught at least for the senior kyu grades and especially for yudanshas.

I've been caught in the trap so often, its embarrassing. Thinking is not a bad thing, but thinking through a technique ... its like trying to think up of art. You can't do it. Sensei always uses art as an analogy too. For us to appreciate things like creativity and imagination, the right brain has to be dominant. Analytical logical sense for the engineers and mathematicians out there, we use the left brain more. People who use both sides of the brains and are not dominated by anyside are rare, most who do get it are people who train themselves and are gifted in some way. They create neural pathways that connect each side of the brain more than is ordinary.

Its been said that Aiki training develops this incredible pathways. Certainly having experienced the body and mind coordination alone, one would think that it helps develop a lot of mental focus. Not only that, in Aiki, imagination and intuition is developed further than is ordinarily expected of someone. Just because its not a subject at school does not mean that you can't train these skills.

Thus, the root of the problem lies in how we think Aikido should be learned. We approach it from either a physical skill or something like a class lecture. If we think hard enough we'll get it or if we work at it for countless of hours we'll get it. I believe, whilst in someways working hard and thinking hard would bring some amount of progress, the only way forwards really is to change our paradigm of learning.

Seldom is one taught to feel. Its almost a girlish thing this understanding of feelings, especially for the big boys and macho man. We seek to develop ourselves and defend ourselves and thus we could careless about feeling. If I have the biggest stick I'll win, or if I can build a titanium outer shell, no one will ever hurt me. So with those 2 ways of thinking, how could we possibly put ourselves in a compromising situation? To let our feelings out in the open, to explore others? Yet we are trying to learn the skill of leading someone, not only through the physical sense but through the visceral sense. How can we learn to touch that if don't understand it in ourselves?

I've said it time and time again, if you just want to learn to manipulate the body, I can recommend a variety of silat that does that better than what we'll learn in Aikido. Heck, even Judo would give you better body skills to bring someone down. Yet people still say they are interested in Aiki and that's why they stick to Aikido. However, they are trying to learn Aikido through wholly physical means. I suppose what I've been trying to get at this last 2 paragraphs is that, we have to relearn how to learn Aikido. Thinking is not a viable option. Feeling is probably a more acceptable method.

In the last class, instead of doing the regular ki tests we so love, we explored again with feeling. Feeling as uke, the flaccidity, the tension and the extension of nage. Negotiating those feelings intuitively i.e. responding in a natural way through each feeling. Nage too feels the correctness of the moment and feels uke as he responds naturally. Learning to take up that feeling and lead uke the way he wants to be lead, the way you want him to be lead. (You can't lead someone against their will, the only way is to make your will similar to theirs)

Please study again the class video that I'll upload soon and compare. You can't see feelings here, but at the very least you can see the form.

Ramadhan, thou hath arrived...

2010-08-10T19:09:00.000-07:00

The arrival of this auspicious month is greeted by mixed emotions. Happiness by some and weariness by others. There are also some who are not even aware of anything special. Surely, how can a month be any different that the one before it?

For the weary, they are thinking of the necessity to stay away from food and water from before dawn till dusk. They are thinking they have to curb their roving eyes, or physical acts of endearment, and even to cut down on physical activities. Some and I amongst them, I must admit, are planning our early departures from the office to avoid the ubiquitous traffic jams that will precede the breaking of fast.

The happiness of being able to experience this month is not in the joy of communal breaking of fast, or that Eid is in the coming. It is because in this month, we have been given a gift to bridge our faith. Do we change? Or do we remain such as we are?

To change for the better is always best. But the question is do we change our daily lives to compensate for the lack of water, food and sleep? Do we make excuses for ourselves not to work as hard or to play as hard? Always, I am greeted by extraordinary surprise when I say training does not stop. Be it in the afternoons or at break of fast, the classes will go on.

The month of Ramadhan is not a month to excuse yourself. Because of its special status, prayers and such are elevated to a different level, and to do more now is expected of one. But, in Islam it is also expected that one should maintain a good habit and keep to that schedule. If you regularly visit your parents once a week, you must continue to do so. If you attend classes at night, you should continue. Prayers are added above and beyond that, to pad the activities that you have already surrounded yourself with.

I remember sitting out of PE sessions in the afternoons during my early school days. It wasn't till I was in a boarding school that such inferior expectations were rooted out from my psyche. We half expect to faint in the afternoon sun and thus it is no surprise that some do. But when our expectations are no different than it is in every other month, fasting does not become a chore or a handicap. In fact, it strengthens our spirit. And frankly, we need the exercise.

Health wise, I will not contradict the nutritionist or the doctor. Its important to be hydrated as we all know from those intense seminars. But keep some good habits in during your practice and it won't be that bad. I know because I sweat a ton. The thing about training in Ramadhan is to understand your limits. Everybody has limits, just don't let that limit be... nothing accomplished. Keep your mouth closed and don't talk so much and you will not be as thirsty. Breath through your nose and not your mouth, and you will find this help improves your stamina. Move economically, running around making all those unnecessary steps is not only unsightly, its tiring. Especially since we are doing kihon more now, the steps are exact and rarely requires you to move more than a couple of steps. Also start your fast properly and break your fast appropriately.

There's a reason why we delay the start of fast as much as we can till just before fajr. Drink plenty of fluids and eat slow energy foods. Rice or porridge, pasta with a little protein and some veg is a good way to start and maybe some dates, figs or bananas. Buns and instant noodles or anything sweet is like playing with fire. Breaking fast is also important. Do not gulp down that large mug of ice cold syrup because God knows I want to too. Instead, sip warm water. Take a date. Let your stomach get used to a little food first. Pray and come back to eat again. This way we limit the gas and overeating and allow for normal digestion. Proper rest is important too.

I wish to all my muslim friends a fruitful Ramadhan. Lets make a point to develop our Makoto especially hard this month. Gambatte!

Realism, really?

2010-08-08T09:41:00.000-07:00

I just got back from watching Salt and frankly I've no idea why reviewers are giving it a hard time. Sure, its not Bourne but Angelina has her charm and the action sequence were quite good, if over the top at times. Still, you gotta wonder whether such deep cover sleeper agents are even a possibility?

Train kids for what, 6-7 years? And they are all from these super genetic match up to ensure high mental and physical prowess. So they got the 1st equation right, a strong base to start off with. They they have regimented training from mental, physical as well as psychological. Now you have highly skilled, very smart and very loyal almost fanatical teenagers. Then, they get sent back home to be sleeper agents. Great.

They live maybe 20-30 years of their adult lives as a normal person, making normal friends and getting the usual run of ups and downs, that sort of thing... until one day they're called upon to do some drastic stuff that would use all their available skills. How do one keep up with those skills? You're unlikely to be able to go around killing people with your bare hands for 20 years and still act normal. For that matter, how do you go about training to jump from moving vehicles unto another moving vehicle? Or shoot at great accuracy? Or a bunch of other things?

Why am I even asking this in my blog? Actually... I thought it would be a good idea to put this in, for us to get some perspective on how we train. We can envision that real agents do have special skills, and I can attest to that truthfully. The things you see agents do on TV, they are realistic...well some of them are, like slick driving one handed at 200kpmh, shooting cans and keeping them in the air, sensing armed targets... these are things which I've seen to be true. Not those, get shot a hundred times and still kick some ass movies though. Agents are human, they bleed and they die. But ok... so the training is real and the skills are real, but here's the deal. They either keep at it, or they lose it. Not lose entirely, but a good deal of the edge becomes blunt.

Also, if they don't have enough of good training, there really won't be an edge to blunt over time. So the trick is, to get good enough to call it an edge, and to hone long it long enough so that it'll take a whole bunch of time before you lose your skills.

Training on empty will not cut it. Mostly training with everything to lose will be the only way for you to learn anything much. When you're riding a bike, you have to take the two wheels and dare the scrapes and falls for you to eventually master it. If you keep using crutches like having two mini wheels on the sides, or people holding on to you as you ride, you'll never get it. Or it will take a long long time to do so. It gets worst if you plan on doing crazy skills. But there you have it, the true risk reward system. The bigger the risk, the better the reward.

So is this how we do it in Aikido? With its almost ritualistic kihon waza or kata training, we're not actually anywhere close to pushing the envelope. But then how do you train? Everytime it gets down to full randori or free style training, it usually ends up as a brawl or slugfest or a grappling match. It never fails to amaze me that you will see aikidoka's hanging on to their opponents arms and limbs to get an ikkyo, shihonage or kotegaishe. Even iriminage looks more like a clothesline. And at the end of the day, they call it real Aikido.

If this looks familiar, then we all know something is really wrong with how we're training. We've become the Tae Bo of the jujitsu world. A joke. Yet, we continue to amaze audiences with sword disarming, knife disarming and stuff like that. No one has ever considered inviting an Iaido expert to become uke for those though...

We also laugh when we talked about how Steven Seagal made his rounds on the streets to try his for real (or so it was claimed). Do we dismiss this is a joke or do we secretly wish we had the guts to try it out for ourselves. Now there's also the philosophy of not fighting that holds us back, but really is it about the philosophy or more about the uncertainty? My silat brothers did and continue to try it out in the streets. Half of them I would call hoodlums myself, but will I get in the ring with them? No, truthfully no. I know their skills and I know why they survive out there. So there you have it. I still have something to lose, they feel as if they have none. We have limits, they don't. Yet, when it gets down to it, we will be meeting people without those limits on the streets. It is exactly those tossers who don't give a damn what happens to you or anyone including themselves that are out there knifing people up and snatching handbags out of pregnant women. While I've never backed down from helping someone in need, I've never had the bad luck to chance upon someone who was armed and dangerous. I truly wonder how I'd hold up to that.

I'm not advocating blood and gore in our training. Nor am I provoking a UFC grudge fest. The self defence kata is also not what I have in mind really. But, surely somewhere between 3rd kyu to 1st dan, there must be a litmus test of sorts. A point where the aikidoka must be able to handle a fighter of a certain level and hold his own. Otherwise, we really should not call it budo anymore. We're not looking for techniques, but more on the aikidoka's ability to use principles and concepts of Aikido to remain unharmed and subdue his opponent. Free for all, but to limit the lethality of attacks so as not to cause serious permanent harm. The goal should be to maintain the philosophy through ability and not just avoidance. To really understand the psychological aspect of being able to handle an attacker with intent to harm you and to subdue him without the intent of returning that harm. To be able to turn aside danger without being ensnared by fear or anger. To be able to move at will and not respond in a violent and instinct driven adrenaline rushed manner. A test.

Building up to this test would be the indoctrination of the mind and spirit and the forging of the physical. Always, students have to be aware, have to be ready and extended and relaxed at the same time. To maintain a natural focus that is neutral and not contrived.

Even today, forging intent with 2 basic exercises. Tenkan using an attack line and extending ki along the line. Shomenuchi strikes, to strike before striking and to keep striking after the strike. Even today, a basic exercise and something quite difficult to grasp. I wonder if it is possible to train in this manner until we reach realism. Should we even try, or in the end, it all boils down to what's in our hearts?

Training with Purpose

2010-08-07T04:43:00.000-07:00

It was one of those days when we were not really about to do a class by rote. But not going too off tangent was important as well, and so we gave out the objective of training against 'jammer's. Been in Aikido long enough, and you'll hear the term. Jammers are typically what you would call an uke who actively resists the technique that you're about to do on the basis that he knows which technique is being performed beforehand and he understands the mechanical principles that will foil your execution. Its not so much about strength as it is about technique in itself.

This thing happens primarily because of boredom I would suppose. Either that or ego I guess. Its probably boring to keep cooperating with nage all the time and getting put on your butt each time, so some people like to throw in a monkey wrench once in a while. On ego, I suppose some guys just don't like being 'beat' at all. Foiling someone just elevates them to a superior status in their mind.

So now we know that 'Jammer's are out there. Now what? Well, most people would advocate doing a different technique to put them on their butts. That's ok I guess. But you know, we could be stubborn and actually try to learn how to deal with the jammer. Being physically jammed doesn't stop you from applying proper technique. It only stops you from applying bad technique. So we trained last night on how to deal with some techniques by looking at different ways of applying the same technique. I also focused on applying kihon genri elements in particular awase and musubi to counter the jamming. It works either way. A study of different approaches, sometimes applying techniques incorporating methods from other arts works well, sometimes not. Truly I think we were looking at the Ki, Shin, Tai in particular Body laws last night.

Of course, using kihon genri elements was only as good as how well you've mastered it and in my case, there's a long road left to go. Still, its a lot different than how I would have approached this training several years back. The only thing I had problems with last night was about 'filling up' my uke during a reverse bear hug. Since I know it actually works, we really need to practice it more in class.

I actually liked the session where we tried to takedown nage, and also the ground grappling bits. Sure, its just play and doesn't prove anything. But keeping fudo genri really gave the ability to deflect uke's power in those cases. I'll chalk this down to one of those infrequent play time that we'll give ourselves every now and then. At the root of it, its more interesting when uke attacks nage with a purpose. Either to hit or to take down or to apply a technique. Certainly it creates a different awareness, and aliveness. We've seen this before when we practised with uke that strikes as soon as he makes a grab, but putting in other attacking options open our more options.

Doing the same thing differently...

2010-08-04T20:27:00.000-07:00

I'm a bit screwed. I've no idea where I put that scrap of paper sensei wrote about training at various levels. The gist of it was that we will use more body technique & strength at the kihon level before increasing genri and aiki aspects as we improve to ki no nagare and aiki techniques. Even in Aiki waza there are various level from shoden to okuden and on. So at the beginning, fudo and kihon genri will be an important percentage but gradually reduced until its all aiki.

This will serve as an introduction because it will frame your mind on what we are trying to do here. Since everyone in our dojo will almost exclusively be training at the kihon level only for now, we should not try to emulate everything sensei or his senior students do at the beginning. It may sound contrary, but doing so will only slow down your progress. Instead of worrying how to use Aiki entering, pulling or etc, or awase or musubi, concentrate on developing techniques that are correct and are based on fudo genri.

My idea is to concentrate on an aspect of fudo genri for a set of techniques for a period of time. Once we have a good understanding and some measure of ability there, I will introduce another aspect of fudo genri to be incorporated. Since there are only 5 principles and we are only looking at about 5 techniques this time around, hopefully by December everyone will be sufficiently prepared.

I've already started this in the several classes since coming back from Jakarta. Center and relaxed being is emphasised at the very beginning, but the concentration is on extending ki. The last couple of Sunday classes, we've looked at using extension of ki in kamae to deal with attacks. Last night we used extension of ki during ki testing of rei and standing and seating. This ki test is difficult to do properly and well. Because, typically we are now quite used to extending ki into our hands. Extending ki through the body takes a bit of adjustment but is necessary. The ki tests is as we have shown earlier, push from the front and also the side. The toughest is bowing with partner pushing against us. Using strength and leverage, we will undoubtedly be pushed back because a leaning partner has a solid structure that we will be fighting against. Ki extension must be done through the body even before partner makes contact with us. We have to the extend it forwards through his hands and through his body. Partner will feel a difference between extended ki, stiffness, pushing and a slack body. Bowing need not be rushed and can be done slowly as long as you have started out right. Uke will be compelled to collapse under your bow if you have extended through him.

Standing and sitting ki tests are the same. Capture the feeling that you have done right when bowing and use this feeling during standing and sitting.

Next, the 4 techniques practised last night and for several months more are katate dori shihonage, shomenuchi ikkyo, shomenuchi iriminage and katatedori ikkyo. These 4 are part of the 5th kyu grading syllabus.

Our approach of Ki-Shin-Tai prevails. Since we are stressing the Tai elements, within it are many points that have to be cultivated well. Last night, we must correct our form alone. Not to disregard all the other aspects, but we are not looking for perfection. So if you already understand the other elements, it should be incorporated naturally but do not stop the technique if it isn't there. Just study the form first.

Movement of the feet, body movement, hand positioning, sinking center, relative movement to uke, timing, maai... all these aspects are covered under form. In simpler terms, work on making the technique 'look' right. Do not worry that it doesn't 'feel' right just yet, much less worry about how it works or not.

Receiving shomenuchi strikes. Where previously I have stressed extending our spirit and cutting the opponents center, let us take a couple of steps down now. Instead, just kamae with extension of ki, and then raise your kamae with the same feeling of extension of ki that you felt when doing the standing and bowing test. Even with a good attack speed, your arms will not collapse like a block, nor will it clash like a strike. From this static extension you can connect with uke's power and listen to it. Lead it upwards and away into an ikkyo. Or lead it upwards and move into iriminage. Remember no pulling, pushing or losing extension of ki along the way.

As we all improve in our ability, we will slowly incorporate the other aspects of fudo genri and kihon genri. Mushin and Makoto are more intangible in nature and will involve in changing how we perceive attacks and how we deal with it, but because we ARE training kata, the attacks and conclusion are already predetermined. Thus these 2 aspects will not really be as obvious or easier to train like the other 3 principles. However, when we start on kihon genri, aspects of kokyu, chushin, enshin and shuchu will be very obvious and can be seen.

Ultimately this training method probably has a name which I don't know. But the idea is to repeat the forms many-many times but focusing on one aspect at a time and correcting it. Hopefully in this way, you will understand the waza well but mostly understand be able to use the principles correctly and thus for the other waza, its just a matter of learning the forms and filling the gaps with principles you have mastered.

Advance onward!

2010-08-01T03:51:00.000-07:00

Back when I was younger and scouting for a silat group to join, I've come across a wide range of philosophy. Some will fight with a spacing of 1 papan (or one plank width). Some fight standing up, some crouching down. There was once silat that say, they never retreat only go forwards. At the time, we just laughed it off as a boast. I mean, come on... no retreat? Only going forwards, surely you'll get hit a lot doing that.

Sensei is fond of saying that in Bushido one must always advance. Not search for danger, but not retreat from it either. The true purpose of a budoka is to protect, protect others, a higher goal or aspiration, protect oneself. Even if one is afraid, sink center and move forward. The moment you retreat, hope will be lost.

One of his stories told of a coastline border guard (from the army in Indonesia). Back when the tsunami first came to strike, he called his HQ and told them about the incoming storm. HQ ordered him to stay and report the progress further. As it loomed closer, he called them again, but HQ didn't rescind the order and that they will evacuate him as able. So he called his family and hometown and told them to evacuate. His family pleaded him to leave his post, but he refused. This is his job and duty, to do as he is told for the greater good. In the end, HQ did not send anyone to pick him up and he was one of thousands who perished in the disaster. Some may call it stupidity and many would rationalise that it wasn't fair to be left to die without rhyme or reason. Some who adhere to different principles call it bravery of a different level.

Sensei teaches many soldiers including the elite presidential guard in his early years. He often ask them about fighting and war. Generally the answer is always the same, they pray that there would be no war and no fighting. They are happy to just lounge around and be with their family. Then what if say a superpower were to come and attack the country, would they avoid war then? No... they will fight to the death. Even if the superpower had stealth bombers and nuclear bombs, and you only have machineguns and grenades? They say, they will fight however they have to, and they will die if they have to. Its not because the enemy is a bunch of kids that they are brave, even if the enemy is invincible and powerful, they will fight and be brave.

So in the last 2 training sessions I've been concentrating on kamae. Kamae as a focus for extending ki. To train in extending ki, one needs to enforce a certain spirit. A spirit of advancing, a spirit of cutting, a spirit of inviting. Extending ki does not mean rigidity or physical strength. Just the mind.

In kamae, you can sense openings. You can advance without fear or anger. In kamae your whole being is a weapon and it isn't. We have to continuously train with this spirit in mind. A sure test is to shomenuchi each other. With proper extension of ki and spirit, your strikes will cut through a lesser person; one who blocks or tries to strike the hand instead or who tries to retreat. Even if you strike 'later' than uke, your strike will dominate his.

In kamae uke will grab your hand, but if the extension is there and the body is relaxed, a technique will unfold immediately. Guided by the opponents ki, you will lead him to a natural resolution. In kihon, one applies the extension of ki and immediately directs uke's ki into the technique that is practised. But in ki no nagare, one just extends ki and be relaxed and soft.

In striking your opponent you must be brave. You must extend your ki and spirit into the strike. To find an opening if you can, but to cut through if you can't. Being brave can be because of 2 reasons. One, you're stupid. Two, you have understood. Being brave but stupid leads to a punch in the face or a kick down there. Be brave, but understand your strikes and understand your opponent.

It makes sense now, the silat that refuses to retreat. It is not retreating in a physical sense that is the problem. It is the retreat of spirit and ki. Even as you move back, you have to advance your spirit. Even as you extend your ki, you are in fact inviting your opponents ki.

The funny part through it all was no one expected kicks from me. What? Aikidoka's are legless skirt crossdressing hippies now? If you can extend ki through your hands, why can't you extend ki with your feet? This too is an important skill later when we learn to do ashi no awase. Without being able to cut uke's center from your leg movement it'll be a difficult endeavour.

You Start with Rei

2010-07-29T00:56:00.000-07:00

Rei, or bow, is also known as the character of Etiquette in the 7 traits of Bushi. Represented by the 7 pleats in your hakama, the other 6 are:

a. Jin - Benevolence
b. Gi - Honor
c. Chi - Wisdom
d. Shin - Sincerity
e. Chu - Loyalty
f. Koh - Piety

How you Rei will determine how your training proceeds. Do you bow by rote? Do you bow nonchalantly? Do you bend down and offer your neck? Or do you nod like a feudal lord?

In our school, part of the ki test is done during bowing. Resisting nage's bowing as he comes down and up and also pushing him sideways when he's down. The idea is, if bowing from center, the bow itself will be very steady. But add to that a bow of sincerity, imagine as if you're bowing to your most respected hero, and the bow becomes even stronger. This exercise teaches us not only how to bow physically well, but also mentally well. To bow from the heart.

In Aikido, the heart plays an important role. That is why we place a very important emphasis on cultivating Aiki no Kokoro. Without which your techniques are but empty husks.

Bowing with spirit will also command respect from your opponents. A lifeless bow begets an immediate attack. Whilst a forceful bow has a feel of challenge and violence. A bow that emits ki, but with a feeling of caring and attentiveness, will resonate with your opponents mind, heart and intention. Whilst it doesn't kindle fear or aggression, it elicits respect and attention.

When you have cultivated such a bow, you're less likely to think of unimportant things in class. You have shown proper respect to others, it would be hard for you to take it back and become disrespectful again. You enter a state of seriousness but without the rigid tension of a marching soldier. You are soft yet alert. You look and see but do not stare. You are poised but not posturing.

There has been many issues with regards to bowing. Culture and religion being the most oft brought up issues being discussed. Certainly in Islam, bowing looks similar to how we pray to God. Its been narrated of our Prophet Muhammad that we should not bow to anyone but God. I remember when I was a kid, some Ustad even described the angles that are allowable for someone to bow. However in our country, we even have sembah or (salutation) to kings and typically in Silat matches. Some of these sembah can be downright submissive. So I don't see how we can on one side go around with our sembah here and there and at the same time dismiss bowing as inappropriate.

I personally believe that physical bowing has no ramifications in our religion unless it really mirrors our prayers. To me the most important is the unseen rather than the seen. We see people bowing in prayer or Sujud and Roko', up down up down, yet what are they thinking when they're doing that. Are they actually submitting themselves to God? Similarly we have Aikido people bowing this way and that, some just do a bend the knees and touch the floor with one hand bow, sort of like a malformed curtsey. What are THEY thinking inside I wonder?

Lastly, if I or any other trained martial artist can tell how vulnerable someone is when they bow, can't God in his infinite wisdom differentiate between Rei and Submission? So... let us think for ourselves and follow our hearts. When we go to class, try to feel right, try to feel truth. Start with Rei and end with Rei.

Fudo Genri and its Permutations

2010-07-25T02:08:00.000-07:00

Coming back from Jakarta has given us a good placemark in terms of training. Notwithstanding our efforts so far, the students seem at loss what with so many things to think about. If it were only a cut and dried thing.

In terms of stages there are 4 stages towards learning Aikido as paraphrased by from Osensei's teachings;
a. Unification with self
b. Unification with others
c. Unification with the universe
d. Unification with the Source

In terms of the first item, we would hold fudo genri as key. The immovable principles runs a similar course to many martial arts and body systems that is designed to improve our self awareness. Physically, emotionally and so on. Centering is not a word trademarked by Aikido, it is used in arts such as Yoga, Pilates, fencing and even dancing. Other martial arts might use different words, but the value of Dan tien is never dismissed.

Relaxation too plays a pivotal role be it in moving or employing waza. You need to relax to move well. Try being stiff and typing. You may very well still be able to type, but probably not all that smoothly. Try driving stiffly. No better not, we don't want you to suffer an accident. In Aikido though, our training reinforces the relaxing of the body and mind, but not into a catatonic state of flaccidity. The core remains strong because of our centering, and going into Extending ki, our limbs are still strong but in a 'cord of rope' like kind of way.

Extending Ki... ah the cliché, the oft repeated and more often misunderstood skill. We're not here to debate the existence of Ki, God and dolphins as extra terrestrial visitors. We have different methods to doing what might be the same thing. Some people like to use imagination and some like to use rationalisation. I've no idea how to explain extending ki in a rational or scientific manner, so I'll stick to how sensei does it. In the first stage, we use imagination (men), we imagine that the center is a sphere of energy that pulses and is bright. Imagine this sphere as gathering Ki from the surrounding universe and emitting the energy throughout the body. Feel as if the energy is flowing in your limbs outwards, to the tips of your fingers, head, toes and generally as a large sphere growing out of your body. To start with, we can take the analogy of turning the tap water on and letting the water run through the hose. Imagine the tap as your center and the hose as your hands. As the water flows through it, the hands straighten with energy, but its not stiff as a wood, its still relaxed on the outside. Only the inside is reverberating with energy. Letting the water run through the hose, it does not stop at the tips of the fingers. It needs to be let out, thus you let out the water and direct it at will. Of course once you've understood the men method, you'll have to move on to more 'truer' methods of extending ki.

Lets leave the other 2 principles in fudo genri aside for now.

So how do we practice this 3 principles in a meaningful and applicable way. What is usually trained and tested using the ki tests designed by Koichi Tohei, should not be left as an end to itself. Certainly, the method for training and testing in itself is a viable method towards developing ones ability in fudo genri, but in itself it does not provide much understanding.

Today we started with kamae. Both nage and uke face each other and kamae, both hands touching each other at around the wrist level. Relaxation of the shoulders is paramount unless you want to get an ache. Extending ki does not mean pushing the opponents hands. Instead the hands are still and soft. Only the energy is extending. As both uke and nage extends ki, they will begin to manifest a connectivity to each others center. From here, nage's job is to move uke's center. Using his center, move the hands inwards whilst maintaining the connectivity to uke's center. Done right, uke should not be able to spear through with his hands and hit you in the face. Nor will his hands withdraw because there is a slight tension created at the physical level. An escape will draw an automatic cut from nage... (that should be the feeling anyway). In this manner, both uke and nage learns to be sensitive to the connectivity and how they extend ki. Primary mistakes will be pushing the hands to imitate extension of ki and that would be swiftly addressed by a reversal from the opponent, or a muscle ache after a long period of time at impasse.

From kamae we proceeded to shomenuchi. In this exercise uke cuts full force to nage's center. We deviated a bit from extending ki practice to correct the shomenuchi attack.

Shomenuchi must be started with proper extension of ki towards the opponent. As an attack one would wait for an opening. As an exercise, one cuts as if it would go through any barrier offered by kamae. The attack should be directed to opponents center, not his head, not his arms nor his body... but inside of him. The attack must originate from center and not the hands or the shoulder. At all times, ki is extended through the fingertips. You do not use the fingers to make contact, only the hand blade should hit the opponent. Cutting off tangent will illicit and direct tsuki to yourself from your opponent.

So once uke has shomenuchi down pat, we proceed to block first. To create a benchmark on how contact feels like. Now try again by positioning yourself in a stronger position, extend ki strongly upwards, and use center to displace uke's center. Next try it cutting uke as he cuts you, cut strongly in spirit, and then cut back upwards to meet uke's hands and lead the energy up. Enshin is employed here to minimise physical clashing.
Next instead of cutting uke's center, one accepts the shomenuchi, and gathers the attack into your center. Keep full extension but the hands must be totally relaxed to achieve this absorption technique. (this method would need uke's cooperation in the beginning to intermediate level, that is to say a committed attack but one where uke allows his center to move as the energy is redirected.) As a training tool, it is a reversal on how our school usually teaches, but it does help uke and nage's development.

We did a few things around these exercises, and finally we had uke and nage both face each other using various non Aikido'like kamae. The only difference, in our minds we are replicating the principles. It matters not the outer form. From here we explore each others openings. We have uke try to attack nage and vice versa. This training exercise revealed the meaning somewhat of sensei's physical openings exercise that we did previously. In using feeling alone, we try to determine our opponents opening or weak points. Openings in this case does not mean we are assured that our attack is successful. Only that the opponent would be forced to defend but leave him otherwise unable to perform a counter attack.

Attack each other at all available openings. Face, body, legs using hand or leg strikes. Obviously if you want to have a long lasting relationship with each other, do not hit with force. Limit the strength, not the skill. If nage allows himself to be drawn into a fighting competition, then end the exercise. It is useless. Instead nage must grasp his innerself and focus. Extending ki and keeping the mind and body relaxed. An attack comes, he must cut uke's center immediately. Nullifying not the attack but the opponents mind.

Finally, we go back to shomenuchi and have uke strike us again and again. At first cut uke like in the previous exercise. Then as you get a better feel of the connectivity, greet uke's attack and accept it. Uke will feel completely helpless but otherwise unthreatened.

Aiki Camp : Day 1 and Day 2

2010-07-21T01:13:00.000-07:00

Day 1: Saturday. This may look like its going to be written like a diary, but its not. Cause, I can't really promise you that I would be able to have a perfect recall. What I can try though is to give you a glimpse of some of the things I gleaned from the trip...

1st session. Sensei Hakim.
Ki Shin Tai. The study of Aikido revolves around the laws of body (Tai), Ki and Mind (shin).
Before we progress to Ki and Mind, we have to first study Tai.

A. Relax, shoulders soft - we performed several exercises that helped us recognise the connectivity and impact of a relaxed shoulder. Without a relaxed shoulder, power generated from the body will be disconnected or get dispersed. Furthermore, tensed shoulders also allows uke to get a stronger feel of nage and allows him to overpower him.
B. Fingertips, ki at the finger tips - by using an exercise of joining our fingers together and moving it, our focus becomes drawn towards the tips of the fingers. A lot of sensei's have stressed the need to concentrate power on the finger tips, but with an exercise like this, visualisation and feeling it becomes easier. Sensei explains this easily by showing how we can lead someone's ki from the fingers. Which direction they point to becomes the direction their ki flows. Even if they close their hands into a fist, this ki direction spirals in their hands and can be directed.
In this exercise, nage waggles their fingers together and keeps the focus on both hara and their fingertips moving all at once. Uke tries to separate nage's hands apart as strong as they can. If you get it right, the finger tips feel like they are magnetised to each other or welded lightly together. The trick is not to press it together but to move the fingers in synchronisation to each other. Later, when we have captured that feeling of the fingertips generating the movement, we use only one hand and move it.
C. Extend, moveable hands exercise.
In extending our appendages outwards, we tend to use a lot of physical power. But moving with extension eliminates the need to push or pull. Just think of it like a fluorescent light stick. When it lights up, you don't see the stick extend physically but there's power in it now. So imagine lighting up the hands with ki. In this fashion, you can still move the hands. The old method of unbendable arms had nage standing there motionless whilst uke tries to bend the arm at the elbows. But if we have extension correct, we can start with our fingers touching our chest and uke tries to hold it in place, and then we move it out lightly using just the extension and not the muscle.
D. Hara center sinks - This is basic. Using the hara to move and sink instead of pushing down or bending the legs. Sinking the center is a known method for generating tremendous power in our movements across all martial arts.
E. Allowing uke to move like the river - this is a principle that we must understand. Its both the understanding that we don't push water around, instead we channel them and also the fact that such a potent fluid power could be channelled to travel into directions that we wish for it to go to. Learning to harmonise with an opponents power requires first for us to recognise that power and not stopping or clashing with it. Allowing the power to move through, we then learn to channel it.
F. Sharing the weight - in this exercise, uke grabs ryotedori. Nage imagines carrying something heavy and move uke around. Then lets them have all the weight.

2nd Session. Sensei Kaoru.
In studying with Kaoru sensei, we need to understand that in Takeda shihan's methodology, students study to be a good uke before getting the understanding to be a good nage. The idea is that, by taking relaxed ukemi, one gets to capture the feeling of the technique and finally gets to replicate it. This is not so far from our own understanding. After all, a major part of learning Aikido requires us to capture the feeling. We can't do this rationally nor by just mimicking. We need to feel the correct technique thus, take ukemi from a good nage.

So, the exercises that follows really engenders a more cooperative style than we are used to. But it nevertheless helps us to be more sensitive to feelings and energy flows. It's also a good way to learn ukemi, because its more uke centric that our nage-centric training style.
A. Boss. Employee follow - in this exercise, the employee lines up behind the boss. As the boss moves, the employee follows, smoothly and surely. If we resist, we are essentially an 'idiot' employee.
B. Boss. Know employee heart - in this exercise, we have 3 uke grabbing morotedori and pulling the boss's hand to the floor. Boss is relaxed and moves around freely with his hands in place on the floor. He feels and tries to connect to all 3 employees. Then without forcing them, lifts all three easily and move them around.
C. Relax shoulder. Feel center. Drop - Ushiro ryotedori, uke grabs either the hands, elbow or shoulders. Nage relaxes and does not use momentum. Instead its pretty static with uke at the back. Soft shoulders until uke cannot feel resistance in nage. Then nage extends and cuts uke's center then drops forwards.
D. Sleep together. Uke grabs nage, nage is half lying down. As uke grabs, nage does not pull uke down. Instead embraces uke and lies down to sleep.

3rd Session. Sensei Hakim.
In this session we practised trying to fill the space of uke's body. This is an effective awase technique that is used when faced by grey situations such as when opponents are not striking us or outwardly doing a criminal action. Things like compulsive buskers, or beggar or pick pockets who crowd you in. Learn to feel for the places where Uke feels empty and the fill those spaces. Once done, just move naturally and uke will move too.

Progressing from learning to feel for these 'gaps' or 'empty' spaces in Uke's body, we gradually will learn to feel gaps or empty spaces of Uke's energy. As nage becomes more sensitive to this energy gaps, he can then fill these up with his own ki and move uke in more subtle movements. This is what we call Tai no Awase to Ki no awase.

Other exercises done was to achieve dissolving/loosening musubi from ryotedori.

4th Session. Kaoru Sensei.
Nage is half lying again, uke walks towards nage and hands him a hand. Nage receives the hands and brings it to his center. Attaching it to the center, nage moves uke with just his center alone and then returns the energy back into kotegaishe.

In this session, uke's movement is analogous to a bodyguard protecting the president. He anticipates the president's intention and moves to accommodate him. This is a crucial technique for uke to take very difficult ukemi from very good Aikidokas. If we only move because we register the movement, it would be too late sometimes to take a safe ukemi. Being sensitive to the movement, means we can position our body safer for better ukemi.

Day 2.
5th Session. Kaoru sensei.
Nage does Shihonage but stretches his back leg. Front leg is touching uke's body and pins him lightly. Uke
s hands is touched to the floor in a continous circular movement.

6th Session. Sensei Hakim.
Awase and musubi and exercises. Uke touches nage in various situations or nage touches uke. Bear hug, reverse bear hug. Punching motion. Grabs, etc. Easiest is if uke touches firmly nage's shoulder.
Nage needs to feel the touch and connect it into your center. Capture that feeling, now imagine moving that feeling alone (not your body, not your center, not uke).

7th session. Kaoru Sensei.
Shomenuchi Ikkyo, uke move into nage's center. Let the water flow. Nage displace uke's center. Nage can help uke by lifting his back leg with his own back leg (but its not a reap throw). The displacing of the center is very subtle, not like a bump or barging in. The hands play very little in this training session. Nage must flow into a good position so that uke seems to fit into a puzzle and that puzzle happens to be an ikkyo position. Done right, their legs automatically comes up.

8th session. Sensei Hakim. Atari to Ateru. Atari exercises is to develop uke's understanding of providing proper energy to nage to play with. Nage accepts fully, neither resisting nor running away from the power. Nage is also reminded to advance to an attacker, projecting his ki and enveloping uke.

In ateru, we are to concentrate the feeling to one point and then let it go explosively. Not physically trying to attack but to touch uke away.

I think, that's about as much as I can recall now. Later I will try to capture some of the training ideas, methods and principles we have been exposed to in the Monday and Tuesday training sessions.

Back from Aiki Camp 2010

2010-07-20T09:54:00.000-07:00

Well, I just landed at KLIA and I'm back home, well not exactly, but close enough anyway. Its been a fully packed 5 days in Jakarta with training for everyday except on our arrival day. Even as I write this, I regret we didn't have more time to go over some of the things I have niggling issues with. At that, I must say I'm guilty as everybody else in trying to learn Aikido within a time line. Unfortunately, that's not realistic nor is it in line with the philosophy behind learning a martial arts like Aikido. Intellectually I know that, but having the responsibility of teaching kind of puts you in a tight spot. Normally this wouldn't happen when a dojo would only have a Sensei of a high enough level in skill, knowledge and training attached to it. When your sensei and sempai are in another country though, that luxury no longer applies.

In any case, our last lesson with Sensei in this trip really stressed the need for us to train to the order of our abilities. Nominally this would mean kihon waza for all of us with some ki no nagare techniques thrown in for spice. Everything will point back to our command of genri i.e. fudo genri and kihon genri. For the yudanshas, we need to also try to apply aiki genri as much as we can in the course of teaching and training.

Sensei's experience is that, you can only teach and show so much. The student has to work hard yes, but in the end...knowledge is a gift, not a right. Some receive the gift faster than others, others... well, some others might be gifted in other areas.

Now, I'll be going over the things we've done in our Aiki camp soon enough over the course of the next few days. But this is it for today.

Consternation: Shihonage

2010-07-13T10:03:00.000-07:00

Dang, I did it again. I thought I had it down pat. I mean it wasn't perfect, but it looked ok. Today, I find myself slipping. What is it that I'm forgetting?

Katatedori Shihonage

1. Kamae and Chushin. Check.
2. Extension and relaxed. Check.
3. Half step, sink and keep extension. Or is it entering musubi? Problem here, definitely.
4. Kuzushi. Not happening. Well maybe 10%. Disaster is looming.
4a. Cut through uke's center? Awase on the tegatana... Check. Doesn't have the same feel here.
4b. Absorbing musubi... not working. Should have I started with the musubi drills first? I think we'll have to revisit that again. Like urgently.
5. Big circle lead. 50:50.
5a. Connect to center and sink. Check. Still no where close to kinonagare. Need to improve my kaiten.

Playing with expanding the chushin line... say maybe 15-30 degree's. Sort of into Watanabe's stance-like. It seems to help everyone. Makes them think about the thin red line besides their elbow and not cross over it. The big expansive movement helps give them the picture in order to proceed to the smaller movement.

Kosadori Shihonage. Not much of a problem here. Floating hand is quite doable. Would work harder to make it lighter though. Imperceptibly, now that's the goal.

Yokomenuchi Shihonage.
Entering the spirit. 50:50. Losing my focus. Why must I use 100% focus to achieve this? Sensei says playful mind and acceptance. It feels like I'm having to project a lot of energy to reach their minds when entering for omote. Somehow, ura is easier. That's more chushin and extension. But a forward irimi is harder it seems to me. I'm keeping the attack line though. That's a start.

It was good to play around with Ikkyo like a story being told.
Nage goes for the sword, uke grabs. If nage turns and pulls, uke enters and disables nage.
Nage doesn't, keeps extension. Uke tries to go in, but nage counters easily.
Impasse. Nage brings center without intimidating uke. Drops center and turns chushin. Draws the sword and cuts!

Don't forget, awase on the hands. Without this, sinking and kuzushi would be impossible to achieve properly and you will be opened to attack. Extension is key too. Without which, any movement will encroach his sphere of power.

Purpose in Life, Purpose in Training

2010-07-11T04:59:00.000-07:00

Are we masochistic people? I mean, we go to school and we know there's an exam, we can graduate and leave for high school, college, whatever. There is this finality you know? But here in the dojo, there's no ending. There's a beginning though, I'm just not sure if we've gotten past it or not that's all.

Only towards his end, did Osensei say he finally understood Aikido. Was it a prophetic moment? Does that apply to all Aikidokas around the world? Are we fated to train till the day we die before we achieve this elusive understanding of Aikido?

Awhile back I wrote that the secret is there staring right in our faces. Even as Shihans around the world, exclaimed in their 200,000th Ikkyo that they finally 'get' it... it looks strikingly similar to their 999th Ikkyo awhile back. When we embark on this journey of 'DO' or a Way, it is something of a road that we undertake. When you're on a road and it leads somewhere, you follow the road or lose your way. Sure, some roads have forks to choose from, bumpy roads, and hilly roads... the choice is yours. Osensei and your teachers have left signposts to guide your choices, but ultimately the choice remains one of yours to make.

You could even abandon the road altogether. Maybe make your own road and call it Ahki-do for laughs. But once you've abandoned the road, you cannot say you're taking the same journey Osensei made. Maybe you'll end up at the same place, but it still wasn't the same road.

Now the question is... is it the road or the destination? There's another saying that goes, Its the Journey not the Destination, and I really like that. It even applies somewhat to what we're talking about here. Though, the destination here in Aikido is Harmony. Harmony with oneself and with the universe. I mean, say what you want, but that's a great destination to aim for. If you happen to find yourself in another road just like it, by all means stand by it. If you're aiming for the destination, then no matter the road, your heart is in the right direction. But if you're here for the road... now, ask yourself why.

I have no idea why people take those long slow Sunday drives. For me, get into the car and its, lets get somewhere quick. Petrol costs, tolls and jams are not what I would consider delightful pleasures. Walking down a road aimlessly, now that's weird too. If that make sense, then should we rational adults walk a long winding road aimlessly?

I saw my wife's aunty buried this morning. We've been praying for her the past several weeks. She was a source of strength for my wife when I was sick those couple of years, even at the same time she was having her cancer. She's been subject to 240 chemo sessions in the last 10 years. Can you imagine the pain? Back when she was first diagnosed, the prospects weren't that good. It was a miracle she remained strong as long as she did. She even got to see 3 grandkids along the way. Alas, her fight is over. The suffering is over. For most of us it is a mixed feeling. Sadness to see a kind lady pass away, happiness that she is no longer in pain.

So when you die, do you leave behind people who treasured the time they had with you? Or is it just a significant will to be disbursed, or a popular name with some fancy tunes on the radio? Did you leave behind a legacy? Are you prepared to meet your maker, to be judged on how well you dispensed your charge in life? What is our charge in life? There's no occupation here called, employee of God after all.

So there you go again. Walking down a road aimlessly after all.

An afterthought with respect to epitaphs:

Here lies the Man, who did Aikido;
Broke my elbow with an Ikkyo,
Made the girl scream from Yonkyo,
Stopped that 5th kyu with a loud bellow,
Won a bout in UFC and more,
Became the talk of internet forums galore.

and the other guy...

Here lies my friend,
Made me laugh as he dropped me below,
Surprised a girl with a painless nikkyo,
Got the old lady to walk again.

To Think, Compare and Reason

2010-07-07T21:34:00.000-07:00

Firstly, lets remind everyone reading my blog that this is a continuous and winding journey that I'm writing about. Don't take my wisdom and make it yours without scrutinising it for a bit. I've said it before and I'll say it again. My understanding of Aikido, martial arts, life, whatever... will change with time. There's a famous sensei who refused to write anything about Aikido because he didn't want to come back to it in his later years and deal with all the mistakes and presumptions that would inevitably be there. Even Osensei was reluctant to stamp his mark on what is Aikido until his later years. For us greenhorns, its highly presumptuous for us to say, this is the way to do so and so, or this is what so and so means, and this is the secret of blah blah and blah. I'm guilty of sometimes writing that way occasionally but I reiterate that it should be taken as only my understanding at that point in time. Each one of us will have a different understanding at any point in time, much like the six blind people asked to described the elephant he was touching. Each man described accordingly to which part they touch. A pot (the head), a winnowing basket (the ear), a plough (trunk), a granary (the body), a pillar (foot), a mortar (the back), a pestle (tail) and a brush (tip of tail). Only one who is not blind or has gone to all the stages of touching every part of the elephant would know the animal for what it truly is and even then... only to an extent.

Look at this wisdom, its nothing new. Its been around Buddha's time and oft repeated by knowledgeable men. Such is the point of knowledge that it could last lifetimes and guide men to a better way. It is to this standard that anything of worth should attest to.

When we study Aikido, we sometime gloss over the needful things. Part of the problem lies in that Osensei did not structure a one and true method towards learning Aikido. Be reminded that as he began teaching he first taught Aikijutsu as per the Daito Ryu style to a bunch of people who already had years and dan grades from other arts. Even so, he taught it the way he understood it and ingrained within it his other martial knowledge. Some would counter with, how much knowledge could he have gotten from other arts when A. He did not learn them much or that many arts and B. He lost to Takeda using those aforementioned arts.

Well the simple answer to me lies in the man. As a person first studying a martial art and only that art he has one view in life. After studying two, he has two views... but as he journeys further and trains more, his two views become 4, then more and more. A newly minted black belt in Tae Kwon Do may think highly of his speed and high kicks, whilst a travel worn senior would as soon as throw him on the floor and be done with it. The saying, ripe with age, is not without reason.

So yes Osensei lost to Takeda when he was young and unbeatable. Already he was a remarkable man at a young age to be undefeated. To be defeated by an older and wiser man, and then to learn from him shows Osensei's thirst for knowledge and understanding of the value that Takeda's art has to teach him. Taking that knowledge and splicing it with his own is the mark of a master. Some people like to comment on Bruce Lee's idea of taking the best of everything and making it into a single comprehensive art. The problem I see there is that, that single comprehensive art is now going back to a single view of life. Anyway, that's one possible reason why Aikido has a neglected structure. Osensei first taught Aikijutsu, that later became Aikibudo and finally found its way to Aikido much much later. His students find issue with the change in name. What exactly is Aikido and what is Aikijutsu.

Much of what was taught earlier in his life became more and more refined in his later years. Some techniques have changed completely and some were taken out altogether. In any event, Osensei kept on and on about not looking at the techniques but the spirit of Aikido to understand it. Aiki no kokoro was what he was driving at. To learn the heart of Aiki. Yet this was not taught in DR Aikijujitsu and those guys had Aiki! In fact, there were indications of various high level martial artists in Judo and Karate who had Aiki even at that time, and they didn't have to think much about this Aiki no kokoro thingey. So what's so great about understanding the spirit? Surely its all techniques and secrets? Certainly, Osensei taught his students in layers. Definitely, Aiki is not contained in Aikido alone, because its secrets were in DR Aikijutsu long before Osensei used it in his life. And just because DR is famous for its Aiki, we cannot say high level masters elsewhere does not have the same knowledge.

Our beliefs is that Knowledge is a gift from God. Its not meant to be kept under lock and key by men, nor is it to be purchased. Knowledge can be learned not just from men alone, but through nature, through observation and thought. The mind is a gift for men. The mind of men is unlike any other. Not only do we have minds to to think with, we have ego to flavour our decision, we have virtues to guide us. Osensei's training seeks the betterment of mankind. To learn to harm, even under the guise of defending the weak, flirts very closely to the ego of wanting to be better than others. Nothing wrong with wanting to be better, but a lot of wrong when you seek to prove it, and more wrong when you use your fist to do it. Thus his guiding principle is to defeat a person by not wanting to defeat the person. Instead to control him, by seeking harmony and balance.

How do you teach a want? How do you structure a method for grinding the ego? Sure, you can teach the techniques which is the outer form much like the skin of the elephant. But would they help in understanding the inner? The dilemma of it all. But as a martial art there can be no ifs and buts. To think about a counter to every single attack in the world is to have you sit safely tucked in bed without the need to venture out into the dangerous world. So, techniques are taught a certain way. The spirit, well lets leave the spirit alone for now and hope that the kids will grow up the way I did. Yet, such is life, that no child ever resembles his father 100%. Some saints bring up devils in their midst and vice versa.

In our quest to learn Aikido, we find a teacher who can teach us the outer form and hopefully inner essence. We abide by his instructions so that we don't have to make a journey mirroring Osensei's life. For even were we to travel the river road, the water has passed us by making each journey different. But interpretations of a good teacher will retain the essence of an earlier journey, much like a photograph or a narration of poetry would capture the spirit of the moment.

For us, we use our minds to compare and reason, and to think. But if we jump start this, we will miss the narration. For how can we understand the tragic of Romeo and Juliet without first understanding their love for each other or the hatred that their families harbours for the other. In class, we must concentrate first on getting our techniques right, because in practising good techniques as uke and nage, our questions would be answered. The techniques are tools for learning and are not the goal onto itself. They are tools, that we use to learn about the inner aspect of Aikido. But if our tools are chipped and unaligned, it would be very difficult for us to discover the inner aspect of Aikido. Think about it like a sculpture that we have to uncover from this big block of rock. Using our techniques we chip away at the block. Using our eyes, we rough hew the rock to a shape. Using our heart, we divine the sculpture from that shape.

Let me recap for the moment, for I am known to be a wordy person. I lack structure in my writing because I think and write in the fly. I like to write this way because of the spontaneity. I don't know what I would be writing even as I put the title to this piece, but gradually a picture comes to being.

Aiki is not the sole provenance of Aikido or Aikijutsu or the Japanese people. The Japanese do regard Aiki as their natural heritage though. Aiki is knowledge created by God for mankind to discover and use much like any other knowledge. In silat as we have seen from Cikalong, they too have Aiki in their practice. Don't talk about Ki... almost all arts utilises Ki to various extent. Remember the famous Budo instructor. A feudal lord seek a teacher to teach his guards Budo and called for a contest. The teacher came and said he did not want to fight. He called for the strongest guard to hold on to his arm whilst he wrote a calligraphy smootly and without hesitation. The strongest guard could not endanger the masterful strokes much less prevent the teacher from moving his hands at will. This is Ki and it can be manifested in many forms.

Knowledge too. Einstein didn't pick up a book and learned relativity. He dreamed it all up. Of course he had an exceptional brain to begin with, and an exceptional education. But so had his teachers since they taught him! Yet, the theory was his to discover.

We have not gone over the study of Shu (traditional wisdom and to obey implicitly) Ha (detachment, to break away from this rigidity and one life view) Ri (transendence or takemusu aiki, becoming one) in our classes. Perhaps next week when we meet up with Sensei we will ask him to discuss about this. Certainly, even if we don't teach it formally, we practice it by enforcing Kihon genri and waza first. Genri is atypical of Shu, since within the principles one must follow a form. But even so the principles provide us a way to break away from the physical Shu i.e. to move away from Kihon waza but retaining the use of our genri. Later, much much later I would assume, we will come to a new understanding of our genri, allowing us to breach Ri. True formlessness.

Lastly, going back to this Aikido structure. These techniques... its not just waza alone that I'm taking about. Even Aiki to me is a tool, albeit a high level tool, but still a tool nevertheless and not the ultimate goal in Aikido.

Open Your Umbrella Under the Shelter of the Eaves

2010-06-30T11:19:00.000-07:00

Probably misquoted, but the gist is there. The title is taken from one of the chapters written by Dave Lowry, a favourite budo author of mine, in his book Moving in Stillness. Alas, I've lost his books amongst the other favourite books that I have when moving out of my parents house. But since I've read his book numerous times, occasionally events in my life trigger a recall of certain anecdotes and wisdom hidden in his gem of a book.

Today's training was good again. Miles is serious about improving our ukemi. Up to the point of doing jumping ukemi over a partner doing a standing bow. Its been years since I've done those athletic showy ukemis, that doing it today must have pulled my adductor muscles in the inner thigh somewhat. So coming back home from our late night practice, I was suddenly overcome with a muscle cramp down there whilst staring at this notebook. Its quite an uncomfortable experience, but I relaxed the muscles as best as I could and proceeded to hang from a chin up bar. Subsequently, I thought hmmm... lets put some muscle balm there and speed the healing a bit.

Let me tell you this. Protection is critical at anytime you ever want to use a muscle balm near certain areas of your body. As I was burning up and trying to wash it off (making it worse because the water actually spreads it around more), I thought to myself what a funny thing to happen to me. Here I am, talking about zanshin all the time, and the best I could do now is to practice kokyu to take my mind away from the pain. Then I thought about the protection bit, and that's when the phrase from Dave Lowry overtook me.

The meaning here is simple. In a heavy rain, taking the time to open your umbrella, you will be drenched out in the open. The wisdom is to take immediate shelter first, and then open your umbrella to move in the rain. Just like soldiers, if suddenly come upon under enemy fire, the worst thing to do is locate the enemy and fire from your current position. Statistically speaking, in the event of gunfire, your highest chance for survival is to move. A moving target is harder to hit. Take cover and fire from cover. Actually you can derive many meanings from this phrase. It applies to almost anything in life, even business. If we focus on trying to fight head on and oncoming assault, we will take huge losses. Sometimes its good to take a step sideways and duck under shelter, even if its a temporary shelter and one that is leaking before putting forward our plan for revival.

Yesterday's extra class, we did a moving drill. Too much is spent on waza from a prepared position, where nage waits upon uke's attack and executes a waza. Even in kinonagare, most times nage stands there and does his waza. Yesterday we tried first to just move naturally and escape naturally. In our mind we are to mimic a child's innocent single mindedness. When you see a child grab something, he grabs with his whole heart. Similarly when he does anything, all his focus and body move harmoniously towards that single thing. Its not in his nature to struggle as yet. A baby's grip is surprisingly strong because of that (plus he is very relaxed).

Using this thought, we move and release our selves from uke's grabs like its the most natural thing to do. Brushing away mud from your clothes so to speak.

From there we started to do Ushiro ryotedori sankyo. Instead of staying on the spot to struggle, or pulling, we now project the feeling of moving forward, but we only take half a step. Using the projection we move our hands forward and bring it into position for sankyo. Done right, uke is almost propelled forward without him realising it. There would be no pulling sensation for him to fight with.

I brought it up today after class. Saying that we learn a principle in class and practice it, and by the next class we forget to apply it. How can it be that we go to class, do something for 2 hours and the next class we just wait to practice something else? But that's the reality even for me. This reminds me how most of us study for tests in this country. Mostly its about memorising the correct answers. We do past year test questions in the hope that a similar question will pop up and we'll know how to answer it 'properly'. At the end of this years test, everything is forgotten in the following. We don't learn to learn, we learn to answer tests.

Getting fixated on an attack and staying there to address it is a habit that we can get rid of. Doing this intentionally will lead us to a more relaxed approach in facing oncoming attacks. We then acquire the skill to really move naturally in ki no nagare and have now taken the first step towards takemusu aiki.

Reminiscing the Childhood

2010-06-27T04:29:00.000-07:00

As I sat quietly to my lunch over the bustling crowd gathered under the poolside terrace with its gigantic overhanging screen playing the latest football match, I looked at the pool and remembered my time as a kid here in Lake Club. Those were the days that I swam under the noon sun and thought nothing of the blacken skin. There were times the sleeping lifeguard came to my rescue as my brother tried to practice his own informal lifeguarding on me (drowning me in the process), that I was quite thankful for.

I remembered how it was in my first Tae Kwon Do lesson in the club. Halfway through class the master called a break. I immediately went up and bought a mushroom pie. My master found me as I scoffed it down and laughed. It was a water break, and this greenhorn went and bought himself a snack. That's the first anyone did anything like that in class I'm proud to say...

Thinking about TKD... I enjoyed it. I mostly enjoyed the sparring, but the training was good. Even at the club we had some really adventurous training. Flying kicks over punching bags and then crouched students was the most fun for me. Others like forming a boat "stomach isometric exercise", wasn't that fun. But it got fun when the instructors started jumping on our stomachs as we did that. Imagine, I started at 7 and by the time I was around 12ish we had full grown adults jumping on our stomachs and it was fun. Going to boarding school after that exposed me to even more advance training. But its a wonderful feeling to hit a target hanging 8 feet with a jumping spinning kick. Nothing beats seeing your progress as you get to hit targets you couldn't reach before. Sparring with people whom you couldn't beat and beating them, or breaking more and more boards as you get better. This sense of progression... it helps a lot when you're a teenager trying to prove your worth to the world.

It's sad to hear then about the latest victim of school ragging or bullying, this time from RMC or the Royal Military College. A student was ragged by his seniors to do pushups and when he couldn't complete it well, he was kicked by one of them. Which later caused him to bleed internally and die at the hospital. I told my friends that bullying has been going on in boarding schools for goodness how long. Even I had to go through it. But we are all ultimately responsible for our own safety and treatment by others. Sure, playing the role of a junior member to the seniors is important; tradition, discipline, gratification for the ego and all that. But playing that role and being a victim are 2 different things. A line has to be drawn and that line has to be recognised by you. Ultimately, you cannot allow anyone to cross that line. As a human being you have your rights and this include your right to your health and safety and respect. As the seniors or bullies test that line, you have to make known to them that you are willing to fight and defend your rights. In this fashion, they will respect and leave you alone.

But tying this incident to our TKD training. You can see the force of someone jumping on a prepared stomach against a kick to the torso of an unprepared person, can result in very different outcomes. Even in our TKD sparring session, we didn't have body pads. We had gloves and some padding around our feet, but in no way does it save a person from side kicks or back kicks from those pads that are designed for the instep only. I've seen many friends on the floor wheezing. Heck I was one of them. I still remember seeing black as I rolled on the floor trying to catch a breath. My friends looking worried, and trying to help. Its never fun falling down from a flying kick because your partner managed to kick you in the gonads while you're show boating. But none of us died. This boy died because someone kicked him wrong.

I'm not saying that being prepared can save you from debilitating injury. But it does help. So does having the proper spirit. I swam in the hot sun thinking of the fun I'm having. Not of sunburns, or skin cancer, or heat stroke, or fever... thus, we rarely had that problem. The spirit that we had protected us. Instead, try to force a kid to swim in the hot sun, you're likely to have him contract one of those afflictions I mentioned.

Today, we trained from Katadori. Ikkyo, nikkyo from the static position. First using our empty step, then with shifting step. Next we used the outer triangle method, and last we worked on Ashi sabaki. It was smooth sailing until we got to the last part. Too many times along the way though, the students had problems of connecting with their uke's. Pulling in a myriad of fashion and concentrating on the hands are the main mistakes, but wrong facing chushin was notable too. But when it came to ashi sabaki, everyone was looking blank.

I then had us work on yokomen where we demonstrated how ashi sabaki felt like. Moving away engages uke in a fight. Going in blank gives him a perfect target to hit. Doing it right, stops his flow, and cripples his intention to strike. Using this projection of the spirit allows us our many different resolutions using the hands. So once everyone got into that feeling, we tried katadori again. Always the hand is like brushing a mosquito, and aimed at the outside triangle of uke. But the key here is ashi sabaki first. I can say that some have gotten it, a bit at the very least... but more training is required to ensure it becomes second nature for us to project our spirit without the impression of Jaden Smith's scrunched up face in Karate kid showing up.

Good ukemi training today at KD

2010-06-23T10:35:00.000-07:00

Its always refreshing when going to class to train instead of thinking about teaching. You can just listen and do and leave the thinking behind. Though, I don't mean training dumb. In learning from someone, be it a Sensei, Sempai or Kohai, understanding what their objective of teaching is essential. Besides mimic'king their movements, it is also a good idea to reflect on your current experience and knowledge and apply. Applying the principles you've learned is always a good idea in Aikido. Beginning students stick to Kihon Genri, advance students can add Fudo Genri, Aiki Genri and so on.

Today we did a lot ukemi with Miles. It seems everybody is of a mind to improve their ukemi and fitness in preparation for Jakarta. There's a lot to be said of about this sort of events. Just like Sensei Marcus once remarked. Its good to have seminars and grading to look forward to. It gives an added incentive to train harder in preparation for it, thus if we keep that level of training, we have improved ourselves and hopefully our Aikido too.

What is preparation so important? Remember Sensei told us of his student that once left training for quite sometime because of work. But he never stopped applying the principles in his daily life. He soon realised a lot of the meaning behind those principles whilst applying it in his life. Later he came back to class to train, every body remarked that his Aikido has improved a lot. They all suspected him that he has been training secretly somewhere. In fact he didn't do physical Aikido at all. In applying the softer side of Aikido he has brought balance to his martial skills. Kancho Inoue mentioned this too in his seminar. Aikido has a physical side and also a mental side. In order to be good, you need to train your physical side a lot. In order to be very good you have to train so that your mental side equals your physical side.

I've always mentioned to my kohai, Osensei wasn't just a man of martial arts. As a budoka, he has never forgo his training of the mind and spirit. He trained in Chinese and Japanese literature since he was 6 years old. In his library collection he had books of Einstein, Newton and famous philosophers amongst his collection of war manuals and martial books. A man who is only good at fighting cannot be a true budoka, at least not as an Aikidoist.

Anyway, I'm getting sidetracked here. About the student who left class and came back better. Don't try this at home kids. Not everyone can apply and learn Aikido's softer skills in their daily routine. Sure I do try to apply it 24/7, but we seldom succeed. That is why you will find very very good Aikido teachers far far fewer than just good or ok teachers. Everyone can do 10s of thousands of hours in practice, but can any make all those hours alive in our hearts?

The ukemi we're doing will help us in many levels. To improve strength, fitness, flexibility and muscle memory. Just like Tiger woods hitting thousands of balls a day but also doing gym work to build muscle tone, doing Aikido waza alone is not enough. We need to increase cardio work so that we can take more ukemi. The easier we can do this, the more we will be able to act as uke. And the more we act as uke, the more we get to learn. Sometimes Sensei will go through us students like flies. Everyone drops in exhaustion past the 2 min mark, myself included. Sometimes when he goes really really aiki like, we don't get near 1 min when we already start panting. This is bad, because if we could take 10 minutes ukemi, we are getting 10x benefit to learn and feel his techniques.

The breakfalls were pretty routine, but I would like to talk more about the shihonage ukemi that I pointed out tonight. Uke and Nage must carry the feeling of being armed at all times. Even as nage holds uke in shihonage but has not thrown yet, the feeling is as if uke and nage are pairing with swords, feeling each others center. Uke is not resisting, but he is connecting to nage. As nage moves, uke moves, he follows harmoniously nage's center, always keeping his center under control. Uke shouldn't go rigid, or go halfway down to a fall. Uke should be light on the feet and extended in everyway. If nage drops, uke drops... it doesn't mean he has to fall. Nage goes up, and uke can go up too. Somewhere along the line, if Nage loses control, Uke can take initiative of Nage's center and throw him too without changing hands position. But if Nage does throw uke well, uke should be light in taking the fall. I.e. not resisting the energy but going through it.

The other one that we did was koshinage. In koshinage, the principle here is to displace uke's center. You do this by unbalancing uke and entering so that you form a T to his chushin. The back of your heels in line with his exact centerline. Your body is bowed at a slight angle. Your arm is like a see saw. The arm being held starts extended up, the other lightly touching his knees. As you displace his center with your hips, you extend your hands up and away and cut down, the other hand brushes his knees and legs to swing him over your hips, and you pull your rear leg closer to your lead leg, the effect is like having someone roll over your hips. How you displace uke's center is important. You really want your hips just below his center. Going in and under, then springing up is basically like a shovel motion.

The last thing we did was to kokyu sorewaza. This time I wanted nage to maintain proper zanshin with uke and throw him around the mat. Decide on which direction to throw, and as he comes up, go to the proper location and enter into his center so that he is force to move into that direction being the easiest for him. Waiting for uke to come up, is like waiting for the enemy to attack the base. Instead, we have sent out mobile units or raids and engage him beyond our borders, i.e. attacking him in his discomfort zone. Not that we should have the intention of attacking. More like being overly harmonious, like a fog enveloping the car hiding and obscuring the path in front of us, instead making new paths that lead inevitably down the cliff.

Aiki Taiso, Tai Sabaki, Ukemi... the Basic Building Blocks

2010-06-20T00:10:00.000-07:00

The last few classes we've been really concentrating on working our Aiki Taiso, Tai Sabaki and Ukemi down pat. I've introduced a couple of new or variant ukemi's.

We've been comfortable so far with front and back ukemi. Even to the point where I've done combinations in class with front to back, back to front, front and change legs. We also did back-mae ukemi and back yoko ukemi.

This time we've introduced ushiro yoko otoshi (which sensei showed last time he was here), the worm ukemi and reintroduced how to do an easier yoko ukemi. For Ushiro yoko otoshi ukemi, we're not doing the spectacular somersault back drop into the ukemi. Instead using paired practice, partners walk towards uke's outstretch arm in a pseudo irimi fashion and do a limbo. From the limbo, he stretches one arm down and keeping one arm as light support on uke's hands. Dropping on the outstretch arm (yoko style), he rolls around his shoulders to the other arm, releasing one of his bent knees at the same time. This ukemi is nice to do when irimi comes into the chin. Instead of hanging there with the neck chopped off, go into limbo and flow with the energy, then roll out.

The worm is when you are compressed by nage then he lets you bounce up and enter's with irimi. Let your feet fly up, spin your body horizontally face down and land with the hands curving your body, so that the torso comes next, then the legs using your toes to touch the floor first not your knees. Arching your body back as you come down helps too... but carefully. Not stiffly.

The yoko ukemi, we begin by doing a roll. Sort of like a baby. Rolling side to side and making circles on the floor with our hands stretched out. Right hand paired with right leg and move together. Then standing up, imagine you're a big fat drunk, swaying side to side and as you tip too far out to one side, you just roll over your hand shoulder and to other other hand. Typically because this roll does not stop the force at all (unlike some forward rolls), you'll find yourself immediately standing up from the roll. That's fine. If you do end up with legs splayed (like the initial rolling on the floor exercise), just swing your body around to get up. You'll tend to use less energy this way to get up and makes for good ukemi during strenuous seminars.

Today, we did a lot of tai sabaki movement. Exploring our kamae using the triangle supported by the circle and line. We started with tenkan, then we did awase from kamae four directions, then we did the drop center from kosadori, then morotedori irimi and tenkan using the outside triangle. After we did this using physical tactics, we tried using the float and drop elbow method. After that, we did ikkyo from there and let uke fight it out, and repeat until complete. Lastly, we had uke start with yonkyo on our hands and then drop shoulder, elbow and center and perform ikkyo on them as a counter.

Awase and Musubi not withstanding, Aiki taiso and tai sabaki exercises requires our extension and chushin to be properly utilised. This is our building blocks to a better aikido.

Ukemi and Other Places to Improve...

2010-06-16T18:55:00.000-07:00

Its been so long that I've done any new ukemi that I thought I could get away with what I have presently. Given that I've also had a break of 2 years from intensive training, getting back my original level of ukemi is harder than I thought.

Even so, taking faster and faster throws from sensei has been getting harder and harder. Conventional breakfalls is not cutting it anymore. I realise there's a need to have more spring in my step now. Training as I am right now, with very little movement and strength is gradually stripping my fitness level. Therefore, I'm going back to the gym for more running and a little strength training to build muscle tone.

On top of that, I will have to master 2 more ukemi which I've never been officially taught. The first would be the worm'like ukemi taken by flipping 180 degrees and doing the worm. The second would be the ushiro otoshi ukemi which sensei showed the basic level in our last seminar. Doing the first one requires me to toughen up the arms and improve the flexibility. The second requires flexibility of my spine and hips/psoas, which is definitely going to take a lot of work. Last night in the extra class we worked on this for about 15 minutes. Too short by far but we'd get no progress if we start to get injuries.

The problem I'm having is with the 2nd ukemi. Jumping up and falling on my shoulders is definitely going against my instincts right now. I think the remedy here is better stomach muscles to maintain torso integrity while doing the rolling on the back/shoulders.

The other thing we did was to run from center and drop down to make a running sweep by running sideways on the ground. This is to help us train our movement so as not to stop when dropped by someone.

We focused a lot on aiki taiso last night. The better part of the class was going through aiki taiso. This is our fundamental building blocks. Just like in the Yoshinkan they have Kihon Dosa, we have aiki taiso. I took a page from Kancho's training the other day, I had everyone do happo undo left and right and with their eye's closed. Later I might try this for the entire set. Even sensei has advocated training in the dark before. We will explore this method of training from time to time to improve our connection with our surroundings. Thinking about this, maybe we should have an occasional class using normal clothes and shoes outside. In order to take what we've learned in class into a more natural environment.

Traditional training will be our Shu. But to make our Shu more meaningful, we have to sometimes enter Ha. Not enter it completely thought, not at this stage, but to take peeks from time to time.

Last night we also worked with 2 techniques differently. Morotedori kokyunage and Ryotedori tenchinage. With morotedori, we're not parting curtains or floating. Last night we worked on uke's triangle in his kamae, omote and ura. Using that angle we achieve tenkan and irimi without force. This movement is basically shearing. We're not abandoning awase though. It works better with good awase, but the focus was whole body movement entering those angles.

Similarly with Ryotedori tenchinage. We're trying to first synchronise our hands and body to move as one. Then with the partners energy. We didn't do aikiage here or drop center, but instead we move into the angles.

Addendum to Inoue Kyoichi's Seminar

2010-06-14T17:25:00.000-07:00

The trouble with composing a summary when you have the time is that, sometimes you will forget a few details. Compounded by the fact that most Aikido seminar's are quite lengthy with lectures and activities interspersed between each other, means that you'd have to a wonderful memory to recall everything. Its not an excuse, but hey I got to justify this post right?

Kancho said this of training... this was mentioned during tenkan practice. One problem he sees is people doing tenkan but their minds is still with the uke. Thus they're moving into a new direction, but part of them is still stuck on uke, thus their movement becomes in balance, rigid or pulling. Shioda told him to first put your mind on uke during the grab, full attention, then tenkan and give full attention to the new direction. This is very similar to how we project our intention one way, then the other way when we do aiki taiso. Having does this directional projection, we still have connection with uke though and that's through the hands and center connection.

Kancho also said that in multiple uke situation, Aikido is just like life. You deal with one thing at a time and finish it before moving to the other. (multi taskers beware!). In the case of Aikido, you meet and throw an uke at a time (sometimes you just move past them to meet the other uke first, this can be construed as priorities). If you deal with one uke and half complete something and then rush to meet another uke, pretty soon you'll be buried in an avalanche of ukes. Similarly, in life we tend to do something halfway then take up another project, and then another, and pretty soon we're completely bogged down with half completed jobs. As I'm writing this down, I'm reminded of my own half completed projects rusting in the binary shelf of my computer hard drive.

Surely, you remember the zeal or energy that you had when you first took up a project. Enthusiasm abound and ideas flowing. Suddenly after awhile those things fade away. Maybe it takes a year, maybe even a week, but there will be times when you lose total interest in that project. I've seen it in many people who take up multiple activities like radio car building/racing, then helicopters, or maybe paintball and go kart next, swimming, then cycling or photography. Some do it because it was a fad and their friends did it so they wanted to join this group activity. Some do it because there was this famous or popular teacher teaching, so they joined because the teacher really appealed to them and they wanted to enjoy that activity like that teacher too. After awhile, when the friends have gone on to other things, or the teacher has left, you feel a little bit lost and empty. That activity you thought was so fun has now become a chore. There is where the decision comes in. Your soul searching starts here.

Not everything you do is meant to be completed. I realise that. We're not robots. In life, there will be mistakes and failures. But in Budo, where mistakes and failures can cost you your life or someone else's, we must be mindful of the type of mistakes and failures we allow to happen. Sometimes, there are things that you have to complete irrespective of whether you like it or not. Your soul searching is not so much to see if there's an affinity to a particular activity or not. Any kid worth his salt knows what he likes and dislikes. Soul searching means whether you can push past that boredom, dislike and confusion, and finish what you've started.

Remember, if you believe everyone and anything can be a teacher, then we must listen and understand what they are saying and the things they are not saying. A true teacher will help you cultivate that skill, so that it can be applied to everything else that you do. That's why its important to have a teacher who can teach you to learn, not just having many teachers with many different skills. This teacher will be your True North so to speak, whereas the other teachers gives you the other points in a compass.

Seminar with Inoue Kyoichi, Day 2

2010-06-13T03:10:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I forgot to relate a story Kancho told about this Karate master. He met this man who told him how kamae is very important to him as it was to Gozo Shioda. In fact, Gozo Shioda did a series of video tapes about Aikido, and the producers asked him to teach the most important technique for the last tape. Shioda then agreed, and for the entire tape all he did was expounded on Kamae. Going back to this karate master, he said when he was younger but still a senior yudansha, he went to China to train under this exceptional master. This master agreed to teach him, and made him stand in a horse stance. He then circled the karate man once and left the room, returning an hour later. Class over he said. This went on for an entire year. At first the karate man grew bored doing this training, after a few days he thought of quitting. But after several months, he felt something changing in him. After the year was over, he felt he understood the importance of this kamae stance. The teacher then said, ok now I teach you how to move. So for the next year, the man trained how to move forwards, backwards and sideways. The karate man stayed for three years learning very very basic things, but in the end he felt his Karate improved tremendously.

There is a key and various levels of understanding for everything that we do in our lives. Particularly in traditional martial arts, where what is seen generally hides a deeper meaning.

Today, Kancho stressed Kihon Dosa again. This time he had us train in a kata like progression. From migi hanmi and reversed it to hidari hanmi. In aikikai we don't have this taiso in kata form, not all of it anyway. But the principles remain the same. I especially liked when he asked us to close our eyes to do the entire sequence. Doing it this way requires us to retain our balance from feel alone as well as moving to the appropriate angles correctly. Any wrong movement will lead us to clash to our neighbours or make us lose balance. Sensei too have expounded the value of training in the dark. Even in my Silat training we use to train in the dark sometimes. Of course, when mistakes means a finger in the throat or worst an eye, we tend to be very sensitive to incoming attacks. This element of unknown and danger allows our minds to be free and not be constraint by set forms and responses.

After this we did very simple exercises. One of which was kaiten irimi movement to avoid a shomen. Because Yoshinkan kamae has the lead foot slanted outwards, moving into the kaiten irimi step is very natural. Still we must get the timing just right if we are to obtain kuzushi of uke. Next we adjusted this for tsuki. Here Kancho showed a slight irimi from the lead foot before doing the kaiten irimi from the back foot. It is similar to our half step in feeling and maybe in execution. What's important and similar to us is that we do not avoid the attack but move positively and accepting it.

After this we did shomen ate. This shomen ate came after the first kaiten irimi movement and when uke comes to attack again, having the same feeling as kaiten irimi, we proceed to deliver shomen ate. The way we do it is to attack the chest and irimi up into the chin. This exercise is best when you have full understanding of extending ki. Also you do this immediately upon uke's attack, such that it is not telegraph. In fact uke will perceive your shomen ate as very fast an unavoidable. Incorrect extension or timing will allow uke to see your movement and connect his attack first. Shoving the chin should not be the intention as well. Nage's who do this inevitability move their fist in a linear fashion. Whereas this movement actually orginates from our center (to the Yoshinkan, it originates from the movement of feet and fingers in unity). It is also circular in fashion, since it leads uke's energy from chu tanden upwards, and you cut his chushin. We have a similar move in silat, which I like to demonstrate from time to time. Attacking our attackers using it allows us to bring them down with out effort. The strike hits the chest. My teacher calls it 'pinjam tenaga' or borrowing opponent's energy. In a way that's true, because shomen ate should not be a force generated by us, rather it should be a natural movement that guides uke's energy back to himself so he will fall.

After class, Sensei Joe Thambu kindly introduced me to Kancho so that I can relate my story about Hakim sensei. I asked Kancho to show me. Kancho obliged by showing me the awase with uke's arm that guides his shoulder into the forward movement. Whilst this is a better version than attacking the elbow that locks uke and forces him to take ukemi to avoid an elbow break, it was not the one that sensei described to me where uke fell on the spot. I suspect Kancho did not demonstrate that for fear I am unable to take the ukemi. Certainly, I felt when he rotated the shoulder up and down, the ability for nage to bring uke's head down on the spot is there... I'm not sure whether I should have pursued this to my satisfaction, but seeing that I'm a guest and the majority of the participants were Yoshinkan boys, I thought it best not to overstay my welcome.

All in all, it was refreshing to train in the Yoshinkan way. The house of building the spirit certainly has deep meaning within it. Having a very senior teacher making real effort to develop the basics for his students really shows how important it is. Despite the fact that he knows its a boring subject for most, especially for the beginning student who is impatient to 'graduate' from basic movements. This seminar is different then the clinic he did in PD last year in that most of the participants were Sensei Ramlan's students. Whereas in PD, the participants were international and very mixed, thus Kancho showed a lot of aiki waza. Nevertheless, for the uninitiated Aiki waza brings excitement to the crowd, here Kancho has shown his emphasis is still the basic stemming from Kihon Dosa. The secret is here, he repeated often enough. We can only hope that someone was listening and can understand what he's trying to say.

Day 1: Seminar with Kancho Inoue Kyoichi

2010-06-12T06:58:00.000-07:00

I've been looking forward to this seminar for sometime now. Sensei visited kancho over 10 years ago and ask him about Hiji Ate. He wasn't impressed with the way it was normally done. Kancho did one that wasn't forced, but put sensei on his back on the same spot without him understanding what happened.

When you hear feats like that, usually its done by some dead person a long time ago. Or someone so insanely improbably for you to meet that they might as well be dead before you'll get a chance to meet them. So it was totally surprising to hear that Kancho has already visited Malaysia before. Now was the chance for me to see him in real life.

Kancho began the class exactly on time. It was amazing to see the Shudokan boys in action. They're all proper, structured and behaved as an organised and disciplined unit. No doubt Sensei Ramlan with his teacher, Sensei Joe Thambu played an important role developing the mindset and relationship that these students readily accepted as part of their training regime. Anyway, going back to Kancho. He lectured us on the importance of the spirit. The heart. That's the most important thing. Most times he says, people get caught up with bodily training and techniques. Moving is Aikido no doubt, but so is sitting still. In seiza we learn discipline, we learn mind over body, we learn many things and pain is just a small aspect to it all. So whilst the boys are all geared to get it on, sitting still must have been an endurance test like no other. Since he spoke for 1 hour.

Glossing over the spirit part is not intentional. But it reflects readily what sensei has been trying to instil in us with Aiki no kokoro, makoto and mushin, muteki and all those other mus I haven't gotten down pat yet. Aside from those, kancho says that Osensei used to refer to the spirit not only as our heart or spirit, but also as Divine Spirit. i.e. training in Aikido is not only to train our body, but also to train the Divine Spirit within us. He also mentioned that, in order for us to progress, we need to train the mind so that it matches or balances with our body (i.e. techniques and physical ability). No doubt, the Yoshinkan way is probably the best methodology to train the body. Its Kihon dosa effectively builds all its students with the knowledge needed to perform all kihon kata/waza at the very least in proper form. There wasn't any fumbling about that I saw. Yes, minor mistakes like forgetting chushin, intention and the like... but in terms of movement or steps, without a doubt, all the students knew what to do. And that is simply amazing compared to Aikikai students.

The Kihon dosa was done in a pretty regimented way. Simply following it like the Yoshinkan guys would really be hard for us soft Aikikai people. Even after they do it, they too must loosen up their bodies because of the rigidity. But seeing Kancho performing it, it is very natural. Indeed, if you studied Total Aikido by Gozo Shioda you will see him mention the same thing. It starts out very hard and rigid, but later you'll be able to do it all in a relaxed fashion. This was also true about chushin. When you start out, it is imperative that chushin alignment remains unchanged. But Kancho demonstrated that it can be done when you get better, out of alignment (at least physically). Through it all, I pursued kihon dosa using our kihon genri. In the end, the effect achieved is pretty much the same, minus the strained muscles or joints.

We started out paired practice with tai no henko and something like sokomen dosa. The emphasis as Kancho said is not to pull or move in a linear fashion. He talks about chushin and filling up the gaps in the grip, but really its similar to what we understand as awase and connecting with uke's center. So there's no real difference there. In sokumen nage, the movement in, included a slight center displacement by nage into uke. This is achieved by sliding in with the back leg shearing/cutting through uke's space. The hands as reminded by Kancho's assistant instructor leads the body movement. Kancho mentioned 2 holes. The 1st being the holes in uke's grip/fingers, the 2nd being the hollow of the space between his chest and hands. Nage takes advantage and move into those 2 holes for this technique.

We then did morotedori kokyu nage. This morotedori is done in ikkyo undo fashioned and cuts down. Most times we try to project forward to throw uke. But really, if awase is done right, we keep uke's elbow extended upwards and outwards, dropping our hands with awase would move uke's hand like glue and thus unbalance him into a fall. I myself was guilty of at first trying to project outwards. But when I did our relaxed method it drew a more powerful throw without much effort. Sensei Thambu's take on this is quite fascinating. He really enters to displace you and throws through the elbow in a 45 degree's angle. Not quite what kancho is doing, but very effective and not strength based at all. It was very comfortable to take ukemi from but it was an unavoidable ukemi because his control over your center was absolute.

I forgot. In the tai no henko, as explained by Gozo Shioda to Kancho, when we lead uke, it is important to extend our energy or ki forwards. Shioda told him that energy goes all the way around the world and comes to uke's back. In fact, Kancho experienced this feeling that his small back got pushed or felt like it was pushed by that energy, and he had no choice but to follow the lead.

After morotedori kokyu nage, we did katatedori aihanmi kokyunage. Done from soto, at first with the tai sabaki similar to sumi otoshi beginning. Moving front leg out and turning chushin, extend hands to the corner. Then bring our raising our hands in a circle upwards to control uke's elbow up, we bring our body out of line and chushin facing him again. Then still controlling the elbow we lead it down into a throw.

We then did iriminage from aihanmi using ura tenkan. Here, Kancho showed the use of atemi when uke is down that goes into the irimi movement which done with proper hand awase to the side of the face is actually a neck break in the old days.

We then did nikkyo from same as above. Sensei Ramlan's take was to cut like a sword in a big circle cut. Because the hands were quite far, it was uncomfortable to me against our usual way. But the center to center connection remains pivotal here. Cutting always in a circular motion, not the hands but uke's chushin is important.

Throughout the class, Kancho emphasised circular movements, correct chushin, correct response by uke and such. Uke he says must hold strong but not resist. Instead treat each and everything as training the body. In fact, receive the nikkyo well he says. Like a lover. Doing this will build up the hands to become strong and supple. Dumb resistance will just cause injury over time. Uke moves too, and don't release the grip or stay rooted in one position. One wonders, because this is similar to the Aikikai doctrine. Moving though does not mean you lose balance, in fact you move to a place which has good balance and position. There are certain movements that he points out is driven by the legs, back legs especially. Moving the body in a disjointed fashion loses this power. Also, he mentions that Aikido is moving naturally, and being as harmonious as nature wills it. Standing and walking shoulder width is the only way to do this. Any smaller you will be less stable, any bigger you will forfeit mobility.

I might have missed some things here, but I hope the gist of the training was captured. Unfortunately I had to leave before the final session so I only had 2 sessions to write off. Since I still haven't managed to get him to do hiji ate on me, tomorrow will be my final chance.

Recap over Saturday and Sunday's class.

2010-06-06T00:06:00.000-07:00

We did a lot of Ikkyo yesterday. Going through kihon from kosadori, to gyakuhanmi, morotedori and shomenuchi. We also did shihonage from dynamic open door movement and also sorewaza instead of hanmi handachi. All these training is motivated into training the center to be the strong foundation, not the legs and also to practice floating the hands which is essential in Aiki Kenkyukai methodology.

Today we did more iriminage. Starting with basic sokumenage, then into gyakuhanmi iriminage, morotedori, shomenuchi. We also looked closely at extension and a bit of musubi pulling and entering at the end. On the whole, the idea today was to look at how we extend during static movement and how that translates into dynamic movement. We also looked at moving body with kokyu. Sinking center using kokyu for both static and dynamic movement. Half step and letting uke through (which revisits our opening door training yesterday). This extending from kamae, sinking as uke attacks, and half step is the key to allowing uke through and not clashing with him. Our zero power hand ensures we accept his energy without stopping the movement. Both hands leading him in equilibrium means we control his center, not his hands or neck.

Much of the mistakes we caught today lies in:
1. Avoiding the attack or attempting to deflect it.
2. Moving the body from the line of attack, instead of creating space through sinking and using half step movement.
3. Moving backwards i.e. pulling uke instead of going forwards and leading him.
4. Once sinked, attempting to throw uke upwards instead of letting him go up and fall on his own. Cutting centre.

Dreams, Reality and life as you know it...

2010-06-03T04:24:00.000-07:00

Its been made into a big deal for serious practitioners of a martial arts to have dreams... well at least in Silat. You know, after you pass the initiation, you'll probably get to dream of a final showdown or test somewhat with the tok guru who has long passed away. That sort of thing. I sort of waited and waited, but never got such a dream. Frankly, I'm happy. Because everyone I know who fought in the dream with the Tok Guru always woke up injured. Typically because they cause the injury to themselves. I'm happy I don't have to poke my throat and suffer for a month to graduate.

Funnily enough, I noticed even westerners dream. Well the ones who posted their dreams on Aikido usually have things like Osensei in the mix, or them vs serious fighters. I don't really know what to make of it, but hey it probably means that they love Aikido so much they still want to train in their sleep.

So... what has dreaming got to do with anything? Well I dreamt of an encounter last night. I was in my old kampung house with my wife (which is odd cause she's never been there and it has long since been torn down). I hear a woman screaming outside the house for help. I look out and see 4-5 armed men, potentially aiming to sexually assault her. I go back in and look around for a weapon. I pick up my kali sticks and go out.
The men notice me coming and they too hold sticks plus each one of them had a sharpened metal rod which they threw spearlike at me. But it didn't bother me, it felt that it wasn't important even to dodge it, because I knew it wouldn't hit me. Anyway, the fight ensues and I start hitting them. But it wasn't like real hitting. I know I was hitting them everywhere, but it didn't cause injury. They were obviously in pain, and losing their weapons but they didn't suffer cuts or blunt trauma or anything like that. Soon I notice someone is missing, and so I stepped back and notice he was flanking me. Finally after a few minutes everyone has lost. And I look at them in annoyance. Each look contrite and apologetic. So I told them to go and think about this. A couple look ready to turn over a new leaf. But I couldn't find the girl. I left hurriedly hoping the police don't ask me about this. I feel bad that if the police ask me to identify those men, that they will not have a chance to become good again as I will be forced to help the police apprehend them.

If you know me personally, you will realise how far out of character this is for me. I will be the first to advocate an eye for an eye. And I prefer to have rapists, murderer's (even the rempits who cause injury and death from snatch thefts) to be hanged. Saves the tax payers money and rids the world of parasites. Yet, I felt bad if these 4 men who were going to rape that girl, get caught by the police before they changed their ways for the better.

Also, I was thinking as I left the house to confront the men. Why am I taking kali sticks? I've only dabbled in them. Why not Silat and Aikido? I've not been able to understand this at all. But its not strange to understand the need to have weapons when confronting armed men. Also, in the fight, I did not cause injury with the weapons. Only disarm and defeat the men. This in very unlikely to happen if you really used Kali Arnis to fight.

Dreams have meaning for some, and for most its just aimless fantasy to occupy the mind. I do not know how to interpret dreams but it is enough to evaluate how I feel about things. Also, I've thought about something long before sensei mentioned this in his various lectures...

When I see something, will it look exactly the same for someone else? Sensei will say, the high level budoka will see the truth behind the façade. Something out of nothing, and nothing out of something. In the lowest understanding, take the story of the the Lord who had 3 sons and wanted to see who would be his heir. He invited them to see him one by one. As the first went into the room, an apple dropped on his head. Without missing a bit, he drew his katana and cut the apple cleanly in half. The 2nd went in but did not cross the door. Soon enough, the apple dropped in front of him. The 3rd went in and as the apple dropped on his head, he caught it nimbly and took a bite. The Lord obviously made the 3rd his heir. For the simple reason, that he alone reacted appropriately to the situation.

You will get good someday from the constant practice. Even as we train our minds to see beyond the physical, we must be aware that the proper response is every bit as important as identifying threats. Remember sensei's tale about his frequent jokes on his TKD friend. Let us not be fooled.

Spice adds the variety in life...

2010-05-30T05:50:00.000-07:00

Today's curry will be great. It has all the right ingredients, even the elusive curry leaf that somehow survived my not so green thumb. In fact I was patient with the stir frying of the ingredients or bumbu, it has turned the right golden brown colour before adding the chicken and stock.

In curry, many spices can be used. The mainstay would of course be coriander seeds, star anise, chilli, tumeric and curry leaves. Then you start jazzing it up a bit with mustard seeds, halba and other stuff like belacan even. The bumbu will require chilli, onions, garlic, and of course curry powder. Add some asam jawa and you're in business. Still even with this surefire mix of spices, get the timing wrong and it'll all go down the drain. I've had miserable curry before. Didn't taste right, so I dumped a whole load of curry powder to get the taste and consistency right. Stomach ache notwithstanding, it tasted ok... until the next morning when the spoon I left in the pot got caught in the curry like glue. Ah, student days...

So there you have it. All the right ingredients are there. You can even have the recipe in front of you. Until you start making the curry though, you won't know how it'll turn out.

Similarly, there is our Aikido. We did a variety of things today. Starting from our basic expansion of the aiki taiso into kihon waza... then we started looking at Goshin from a different perspective. Uke is attacking a 3rd party, and nage gets to do something from the back. We did 5 techniques, ranging from the nicest kokyu where we let go, to pressure points, to half nelsons, and to kicking his knees down and breaking his neck. Interesting.

Where did the aiki go you may ask? Its still there... in your hands and mind. The ingredients are at your disposal. How you apply it is your style, or nature, or prerogative. So don't get caught up with those spices, essentially its how you use it that'll make your curry err I mean your Aikido good or just a mediocre simulacrum of jujitsu.

As a reminder for the goshin applications:
Kokyu - lift yourself like you're floating, drop all your weight on your hands, your hands touch his shoulder like a feather, and lets go of that weight on him. Address him when he's down.
Pressure point - 45 in and 45 down. Weapon side.
Sankyo - free hand, go in to his back not to his side. Elbows up and down. (uke watch your face)
Half nelson - Weapon hand. Touch the face, the other hand cradle the face. Sink and keep his hand extended behind his head.
All out attack - weapon side, 45 degrees push through the knees into the ground, holding shoulder lightly. Other hand grab the nose and twist to the side, the other hand slap his ears and follow through to the ground. Use knees to guide weapon hand down.

In each application, try not to get to caught up in what you're doing. Ultimately you're protecting someone and yourself. That's first. Not fighting for a weapon or bringing someone down.

Lastly, like most curries... it'll taste even better the next day. So hang in there.

Extra Class on Wesak Day...

2010-05-28T08:47:00.000-07:00

Today was nice. A public holiday that got filled with important things. A bit of work in the morning, a communal prayer in the afternoon, and an easy paced lesson in the evening. The dojo was of course very accommodating indeed, I'm sure that that played an important role in the feel good factor.

Nevertheless, we went over the basics again. Needless to say, the basics have been on our minds since Sensei's visit last month. No matter how we repeat the lessons, ironing out the wrinkles takes time especially if the wrinkles has been left along for several years.

We started with kokyu and then proceeded to Aiki Taiso. In my mind, I wanted to gloss over these parts and get through 5th and 6th kyu curriculum. Somehow, the best laid plans tend to go south. As sensei always said, you teach what your students need to learn.

So I've limited the Aiki Taiso exercises in the last few classes we did, so that we can study them in greater detail and see how it applies during kihon waza. This time, because Safia decided to join, we did spend some time on paired tenkan practice. We note again that nage extend ki through the wrist into uke's hand and feeling that connection before leading his ki through your fingers down and scooping it. Face the same direction and extend. Letting uke move on his own accord before offering the other hand. Pulling or moving before this connection is made will not work.

Sayo undo, again note how the body alignment is vertical. Pay close attention to chushin. Extend the hand from the center before letting it go to the side, both hands in harmony. Do not bend the knees, instead lower the center (and the knees follow).

Ude furi undo. Now put one of your hands in front of you and the other one behind you. Starting with hidari hanmi, step through as in Kaiten movement, swinging the hands from the center. Direct ki first in one direction then the other. Hands are relaxed and extended but try to make sure its just loose for now. Shoulders do not move. Notice that whilst you are leaning slightly forward, and more weight is distributed on the toes, you do not plant the feet or over bend the knees. When moving forward, don't push from the back legs, instead the center propels the movement forward. Notice that ki direction is important, otherwise we will lose chushin and can easily lose our balance.

The techniques we explored today was katatedori sokumen nage. This time we did a half tenkan. Actually almost like an irimi movement. The problem when doing a full tenkan into this technique, most of us make the mistake of pulling up uke's hand and launching him back. With this movement, we stress the continuation of uke's energy forward. So we lead their hands as we move in, uke will follow and come closer to us, and he moves to regain balance, we lead him up and down into sokumen nage.

After that we looked at shihonage. Some mistakes we noticed in class is moving into uke's space, moving forward when sinking down, not moving out of line of attack when doing the 2nd method, locking shoulders, and etc. The partner holding a tanto with the free hand makes us more aware of these mistakes.

We then looked at shomenuchi ikkyo. Blocking seems to be a favourite. So work on extending into uke before connecting.

After that we looked munetsuki kotegaishe and iriminage with tanto. As uke attacks, half step to the side and extend atemi into uke's mind. At near contact, irimi movement with the other leg and cut through uke's body and graze his attacking hand. Stance is now ai hanmi. For kotegaishe, keep hands balanced turn into a tenkan position and take uke's balance with the other hand. For iriminage, slide through maintaining zero energy contact with the hand, sink and perform iriminage.

Common problems here is not extending the atemi into uke, blocking the hand, pushing the hand when moving, running or avoiding the strike... When using the half step, chushin stays in the line of attack until last moment, when the other leg follows the first using irimi. This movement is light and keeps uke's attack in the line where you can easily avoid it. Moving the body together with the first half step is what helps uke track your movement.

Since so many had problems with shomenuchi, we did sorewaza shomenuchi ikkyo. This time, running is no longer an option. Leaning and blocking into the strike becomes more obvious. So, leading the strike is the only way. You can either stay where you are, or you can move forward. Either way, uke will have dominance over you if you only meet his hand with yours. I explained this idea, later on my way home. Imagine uke's hand as it comes to strike you and we raise our hands to meet it. We will be fighting his hand and preparing to do battle with it. Our muscles tense up and our posture compensates for this intent. Instead, we focus on extending through uke's body. Our hands are light, it raises automatically and meets uke's hands, and continues rising up. It doesn't get bogged down by the hand. The important thing here is the extension through uke, not meeting his hands with yours.

So there we have it... going over the basics in preparation for Jakarta.

Hubris...art thou?

2010-05-23T03:06:00.000-07:00

I wanted to entitle this post as Me, Myself and I, initially... but then, that's so cliché isn't it? So much so, that it really doesn't get the message across.

In our neverending pursuit of mastery in Budo, our one true enemy will be ourselves. Not so much as an enemy that we can defeat with our martial prowess, but one we have to overcome with our mind, our spirit and our action. Its easy to talk about it and even to think about... much like, yes I'll wake up tomorrow for that early jog, or I'll have a vege day tomorrow... easy to think and plan about it, but harder to execute.

Now those were definable things that we can see and do. What if the things are more grey? Things like, dislike and like, inclination and preference, or about habit? Human beings are a creature of habit. We do certain things habitually like maybe drink coffee in the morning, even though we really don't need it that day. Or we go for teh tarik, when actually we really need a glass of water. These habits, they rule us.

What about ideas and knowledge? Dare we say these things rule us too? Maybe we have a certain level of skill, we feel that we know certain things very well. When others try to show us something new or their own idea of it, we politely decline or even ignore them. We feel that other people really have nothing to show us since we are much better than them.

When you were a student, didn't it ever frustrate you that the teacher never gave you a chance to question him/her? Even though she was wrong, and you can prove it, typically the teacher would be very very reluctant to accept correction from her student. Mostly its pride that gets in the way of progress.

And there's really nothing wrong with pride. Proud of your country, your children, your work... these are good things. When you're a proud person, it means that you place value in yourself. And we are valuable, who we are, a sum of many things including sacrifice from our parents, our teachers, our life experience, our friends... This is nothing to be discounted. But, beyond pride is hubris... and therein lies the problem. We have to know that line, and we cannot cross it... ever.

So... there we are, years of practice have honed our skills. Our body moves effortlessly, our techniques are marvellous. Suddenly, this new guy happens to stop us short. We struggle, we sweat, we forget... and we fight to regain control. As we fight, we forget all the principles, all the understanding... everything goes out the window.

If you do find yourself in this situation, accept it. We are human beings, and we have good and bad days. Osensei fell down his front steps once...when he saw Kisshomaru in trouble. Gee, what happened to ukemi? Well it went out the window and landed on his bum that's what. So if Osensei can fall down, so can you... probably a lot more than he did. Accepting it is stage one. Learn from it. Accept that you need to eat the humble pie every now and then, and appreciate that you've been given a chance or opportunity to learn from it instead of it being the final mistake you ever made.

Finally. Remember Sensei's story of the beggar confronted by those powerful men. And remember Rei.

Revisiting the Frogs...

2010-05-20T21:31:00.000-07:00

Its weird that inevitably somewhere, somehow, a martial arts discussion will lead to a discussion of animals. Certainly, in Chinese martial arts and Malay martial arts, a lot of wisdom was gleaned from the observation of animals. In Japanese martial arts less so. But confining our views to animals alone is being myopic. What the ancients did when they observed animals, is not because of their commonality to human beings in their search for survival, though that does merit a point. Rather it was nature itself that was being observed.

In certain arts, the moons reflection in the water also gave rise to principles in martial arts. The mountain, the bamboo, the grass, the river... name it, you have it. Can it be any wonder that Osensei himself has told his students numerous of times, that to master Aikido you need time to reflect in nature? Though, he may have also meant it on many levels, take the easiest one first... accept that we have much to contemplate from nature.

So what is it with Frogs you say? Well its kismet, because I was just thinking about an old biological finding about the frog. Take a frog and some water from its pond, boil the water with the frog in it and you will see that the frog will remain in the pot until it is boiled alive. Yet take the same frog (before experiment 1 I assume), and put it in a pot of boiling water, it will jump out as fast as can be. Some would say that its really the reverse edge of adaptation. Some people can adapt to different temperatures especially if it differentiates slowly, yet ultimately the body will go past beyond a certain endurable point to which end we will die. However, lets skip past those and instead focus on the essence. The frog died because it refused to accept the changes happening to it in its own little world. Sure its water was getting hotter and hotter, but its lived day for months, even years... it should go back to normal soon enough. Yet soon enough never arrived, instead it got hotter and hotter until it led to the frog's demise.

Responding to change is necessary. Getting stuck on what was, and what you think would be... is a trap. Much like the boiling pot of water was a trap for the frog. Thus the lesson here is to forego preconceptions based on historical fact or experience, and based on hearsay or anything else for that matter. This is true, even as we prepare to attend our next seminar with a familiar sensei. Don't go there thinking, ah... we'll be doing this and this, and so I shall prepare for it... Instead, go there like a blank sheet. Absorb what you can, and understand the reasons why it was taught. Later you may reflect and compare and assimilate. This lesson is especially true in an altercation. You would think something and suddenly your opponent will react differently. Sticking to our kihon techniques you do a shihonage, fully thinking that your opponent will fall down so as to prevent a shoulder dislocation. Yet suddenly, he stays there and you ripped his shoulder off... and then he stabs you.

Someone said, that as long as you don't expect anything, people can't disappoint you. So don't disappoint yourself, expect nothing and accept everything.

Another reason why I entitled this post with Frogs was because the other day I was reading a local news report. About a boy who fought an armed robber who tried to steal his motorcycle. The robber aimed a gun at him, he then deflected the man's arm and thus the shot hit a window instead. The robber panicked and ran off, throwing his gun into a river. Subsequently police caught him, and frogmen found the gun. The boy displayed the spirit of Budo without any formal martial arts training. All he knew was, he needed to Protect this bike given to him by his father for his good results. Protecting someone give rise to bravery, sometimes to superhuman abilities. His spirit empowered him and protected him from normal animalistic response.

What is a normal animilistic response to a threat. Well, most times you become pale as your blood drains from your dermis and goes deeper in the body to feed the organs. It tries to limit blood loss from cuts and such. You freeze, because you don't want to appear threatening to a predator. Or you run. Your bladder empties itself, to prevent toxins remaining in your body. These are some of the instinctive animalistic response. Trained budoka are supposed to override these instincts. Instead to remain calm and collected so that a proper response to the threat can be initiated. Allowing instincts to control your body leaves you open to predatory instincts as well. It also limits what you could do, to an ever changing threat level. Therefore, whilst our training is meant to cultivate the empowered spirit, its aim is also to overpower our natural instincts that are not appropriate. Control is the word. Acceptance is the key.

I would have to quickly finish off due to the time... yet there are so many things that can be discussed here. But one final thought... we are in a constant state of evolution. Our minds, thoughts and actions evolve from experience, knowledge and skill. Thus, do not also allow these words I've written be your boiling pot of water.

Training thoughts...

2010-05-19T10:29:00.000-07:00

What we did today was interesting... balancing on one leg and sinking to do Ikkyo really made you try to do it well. Done right you will effortlessly move uke, with the caveat that you're in a proper position and that you have uke's center under control. Bad position means you're out of reach or leaning. Sinking vertically is also important, even a slight leaning back or front will provide impetus for uke to resist.

I noticed when doing iriminage that we have to bring uke tight into our chushin and move only that. If we move like dancing, i.e. moving our chest, uke feels this. When moving on chushin alone, the feeling is akin to floating.

Ushiro ryotedori, its good practice to do this when we're tired and uke is strong. As usual its not a problem to take uke's power with proper awase. But, we tried it in the instances when we didn't get it right, and uke got a firm bear hug from behind. First I tried to do something similar to what we did from the front choke, but it was difficult to blend into uke, since my whole back was controlled. I know sensei does body awase easily, but backside is hard for me... go figure. So when that didn't work like it should, I tried to revert to what we did normally, fill the gap and lift uke's center... uke was stronger and taller so that didn't work either. Next I was trying to do skin awase, hard to get this right with our chest and his forearms being the connective parts... almost but not quite. I did a standing rei and it worked... just ok... Have to study this a bit, accepting an attack from behind is being neglected in our practice, and I think we should look into this because I've a feeling that if we do it as often as we do frontal acceptance, we'll get better improvement overall... since we'll be less focused on sight and it'll be more intuitive and tactile.

Extending into uke is giving me an insight. At first, I'm feeling that if we do it continuously into Uke's weak points it would be give them huge difficulty in moving. But it doesn't always work... now I'm thinking about what sensei said about pulling the thread from uke. I get it, we don't wait for them. Even as they are coming, and I'm thinking acceptance and all that, I really should also be having this thread I'm pulling from their center. Accepting is nice, wholesome and so superflous that half the time I'm expecting to just roll all over me. Thread pulling would probably seem more akin to what Takeda Shihan does...I would think.

As you can see, my bright idea is still a bit dim...

The Dynamic Role of Uke

2010-05-17T09:43:00.000-07:00

In the olden days, students learned from their teachers by taking techniques from them. They attack wholeheartedly in the hope that if they win they have nothing else to learn, and the teacher shows them the error of their ways. Thus, a student's aim was to defeat his teacher as his ultimate goal. Once he is on par or better, they then part ways.

This is true of almost all martial arts. Be it Jujitsu (in the times of Osensei) or Silat. Most assuredly, things didn't end in a blood bath as depicted in most Kung Fu movies, at times we Malays call it, ambik syarat. Or in other words, a formality. The teacher acknowledges the student's skill by sparring with him. Knowledgeable martial artists will know how good a person is even from the way they carry themselves, or from a handshake. A friendly spar will reveal much.

Thus being an uke is very very important in learning a martial art. Being uke in the formal Aikido way, means one learns the art of taking waza safely. Attacking in a prescribed method so as to best deal with the resulting waza in the safest outcome possible. However, we have since carried this too far. Thus, the birth of an endless debate of what is a bad or good uke.

Simply said, the argument is a bad uke is one who doesn't conform to expectations. In one school an uke is expected to attack in a methodical but non offensive fashion. Once nage achieves contact, the uke is expected to just furnish energy and keep the movement going. Nage then goes about doing his thing. In another school, an uke is expected to attack 'realistically' whilst keeping to the prescribed manner. In another school, resistance is considered bad, while a different school some resistance is always sought after.

It is no wonder, people are confused on what exactly the role of uke should be.

In Aiki Kenkyukai, we prescribe the following manner to uke. Uke's are to learn how to take ukemi properly. It starts with knowing how to attack. Attack in a way that is correct technically, and which is intended to hit nage at the correct target areas, and will hit him should he not be able to perform waza correctly. The strength and speed varies according to skill grade, but the intention and commitment remains the same. Uke also learns to take proper ukemi in that when good waza is performed, uke doesn't flop and die, nor does he resists and stiffens up, instead he moves as naturally as able so that kaeshi waza can be performed if waza is incorrectly executed, or he can take safe ukemi to prevent self injury. Ability to perform kaeshi waza is dependant on skill and relative ability, it is not a goal, but a natural response to incorrect waza by nage. Uke's job is to make nage's learning possible... it is done by being honest, not by deliberately being a nuisance. Allowing nage to perform waza with impunity hinders proper learning, thus is avoided.

Senior belts are to direct energy flows so that it becomes intuitive for junior nage to follow. Junior belts are allowed total freedom to oppose senior nages according to rank. Dan grades are supposed to handle all measure of resistance. 3rd Kyu and above, must handle some level of resistance.

So the last class, some time was spent on being a good uke. Attacking properly. Taking waza will be done in the future as shown in the seminar previously. One of the things pointed out in the last class was how katatedori has become the symbol of modern Aikido. Always the outsiders will question the relevance of katatedori, and always the answer from Aikidoka would be that katate is relevant because attackers do grab victim's hands. Yet, the grab in Aikido classes is never as panic inducing as the real thing. Short of being a listless grab, most grabs by uke are secure holds that seek to detain you in place. Some uke uses a vice like grip to squeeze the life out of your wrist whilst, straining to hold their position. Some grab you like you're a piece of cotton. In each case, one should ask what can they do from that grab. If its just you wanting to hold someone in place, perhaps the strong grips might be real. If your intention was an attack, a simple grab followed by an attack would be more representative. In any case, decide on the action and relive it through training.

Training should be done with purpose. Not just for training's sake. Sensei doesn't mind how you grab, since nage gets the chance to try out Aiki from any position or manner of attack. Uke though needs to learn something from that attack, so make it count.

One should also try to understand the waza from uke's point of view. Sometimes, its necessary to just feel the flow, sometimes to feel it with passive resistance, sometimes to feel it with follow through attacks. In this manner, uke understands truly how the technique works in different situations. It is also wise to use the dojo as a place to experiment in terms of positioning. Afterall, the hall mark of Aikido is that it is possible to receive multiple opponents. As budo this is a decisive characteristic. If a martial art deals only on one on one situations, it is more suitable to call it a sport. Therefore, resulting from your response to an attack, your positioning must be able to handle other attackers.

Training this way requires some freedom in class. Sensei needs to allow proper kihon form in one class, and kinonagare in another, and randori in another... Also different positioning and different levels of attacks from uke is important. Only in this differing situations, will we finally be able to see through the basic form of the waza.

Wednesday Class

2010-05-12T19:41:00.000-07:00

This class we focused on the 2nd Aiki Taiso...ikkyo undo. Notice how in Ikkyo undo, the center moves, then the hand goes up, next the hand comes down and only then the center moves. This is opposed to funakogi undo where center, hands, center, hands is the basis of the movement.

When moving center forward, it is acceptable to sink, more so than to push or propel your hips forwards. This becomes especially true when you meet shomenuchi strikes head on. Moving forward will generally bring a conflict of energies, whilst sinking allows you to blend easier. At least at the start. Sinking though is not dropping down. The center movement is actually very fluid and relax. Rigidity or straining the core is not the right way of doing this exercise.

The hand moves up powered by center. Its a very relaxed movement that is also directed more by intent and ki extension. This movement is light but it is used in atemi.

The hand moves down naturally, like from floating hands to a drop with weight underside. It goes immediately to the sides near the center. Don't pull or push downwards.

Next the center moves to the original position. In each movement, the body remains vertical.

From this exercise, we started by exploring a mid level kamae. Uke and nage both position their hands touching each other and extend their fingers to each others throats. From this position, nage tries to push uke's hands away, Uke just continues to extend. Done right, uke should penetrate nage's defence and will be able to attack the neck. Next, nage maintains extension, and turns chushin. Done right, uke will follow the movement on nage's axis and thus offer his back to nage. We advance this training by having uke punch nage's face.

Next, we study movement to execute iriminage from the same position. Nage tries to push uke's hands diagonally away and uke should be able to respond with an elbow to the face. Nage tries to maintain the hand in the same position and try to slip beside uke, Uke should be able to enter and take nage's balance. Nage tries to cut down uke's hands and move to the side, whilst besides each other uke should be able to elbow nage's ribs. Now following the same exercise, nage turns chushin whilst maintain extension, and half steps into position besides nage. Continue to respect uke's ki and extend to the same direction (don't bring his hand down). Gather uke's head to your chest and execute iriminage. We advance this lesson into shomenuchi iriminage. Using the same principles. Extend hand lightly but intention is strong. Move chushin to redirect and blend. The don'ts are : Don't move forward or into uke. Don't stiffen up and block the strike. Don't stay rooted and get crushed by the full weight. Don't try to side step and get a faceful of elbow. and etc etc.

Next we looked at yokomenuchi. Before that, we did a refresher on striking. An example showed is how an ideal straight punch is done. Try punching a straight right with your right side. Now, try powering the punch using instead your left side and relax the right. The resulting punch should be more penetrating, faster and stronger with the latter. Similarly with yokomenuchi except you'll be powering it with your center instead. Hands kept at chushin, jodan, move forward and empty step the uke's ura then complete the strike.

In yokomenuchi, maintain nage's position. Extend hands as in ikkyo undo and turn chushin to accept the strike. Maintain vertical line. An irimi occurs from the changing forward toe, not by taking a step forward or leaning forward. Correctly done, uke's power is taken and they will enter kuzushi. Sink center and they will drop. Push them down and they will walk backwards to regain balance.

From this exercise we proceeded to do yokomenuchi ikkyo. From both striking hand and defending hand. Again movement must begin with extension, sinking of center and empty steps. Forcing uke into moving will result them getting their center back.

The dynamic jiyuwaza we ended the class with, identified many common mistakes. Most of us would stand there waiting for the attacks. In each case we get overwhelmed. Employ fluid movement but not to avoid, instead go meet and greet uke. Technique is done only if it feels right. If not just maintain control of chushin and move uke with you. Keep them as gifts for your other uke.

Movement...

2010-05-09T06:58:00.000-07:00

Its interesting to see most people's interest in Aikido is in the waza. Generally, in martial arts... people really talk about techniques, striking, training, sparring that sort of thing. Gozo Shioda knew Osensei's movement was different than other teachers, so much so, he even studied how a gold fish moves and emulated it. That's how important he believed movement played a part in training.

Since Aikido generally do not have sparring, and is mainly driven by kata training, albeit with a partner, the effect seems compounded. Sometimes, you see nage's remain resolutely in his ground, stopping all of uke's power there. Now, what may appear to be similar to sensei's Aiki demonstration, is actually our way of getting pummelled by uke. In Aiki, you've harmonised and neutralised uke's power regardless if you've moved out of line or not. But in the beginning, movement first... even if its just a toe's width of change.

Movement is key I believe. With correct movement, techniques appear as if by magic. Overreaching, incorrect positioning, ineffective technique are some of the symptoms of bad movement.

Therefore, I've always favoured having movement exercises in my classes. Most times, I'll start nage at the middle facing oncoming uke's who walk to them with good speed. Nage's job is to move naturally and effortlessly. Maintaining zanshin and doing the least possible and as close as possible to uke. After that uke moves to a grabbing motion, and from there a striking mode.

It is interesting to see that whilst nage usually do quite well in the first 2 stages, they tend to get excited during the 3rd stage. Avoiding aggressively, waving their hands about, dodging. It seems they feel fearful of the attacks but not the movement and grabs of uke. What is obvious though is that whilst the 3rd action is more dynamic and more of a risk to nage, in terms of maai, nothing has changed from the 2nd action. Although we don't know which hand is striking, the strike zone remains the same space as in the 2nd action. By natural movement we should have avoided this zone effortlessly, opening up defence possibilities and allowing us to maintain good positioning against multiple opponents.

Too often you see nage thrown into randori get stuck on techniques and uke's piling on them from left, right and centre. The idea here is to learn to move and perform a technique as it comes naturally. Move first, and apply technique if its possible or don't, just ensure that your positioning makes you safe and leaves uke awkward.

From this basic movement exercise, we can go into more and more advance movement that in time will lead us to ashi awase.

Leadership

2010-04-30T03:14:00.000-07:00

I was annoyed looking at the rows in front of me and my neighbour beside me... waving people through even though the gap is in front of him directly. I thought, this guy is irritating. Not only was he black berrying away during the Khutbah, and now he's not taking responsibility for filling up the gaps. Making others work for him, what he should be doing himself.

A brief intention to tell him something crossed my mind and then, I thought to myself, what would sensei do? Thinking about it, he would have either filled the gap himself or remain silent. Ah, a slap on my ego.

This reminded me about his lecture one time... his father told him that he doesn't expect him to be rich and give him money, or to be famous or to be a politician, an engineer or anything like that. He asked him only to be a leader. In anything he does, be it a floor sweeper, an office worker or whatever it is he does, he must be a leader.

To some people, that will construe taking the easy road. After all, you're not asking him to be a corporate magnate, anyone can be a leader of a trishaw puller right? Instead, think about it. One of the things a leader has is responsibility not only of himself but to his followers and people who are affected by him. A leader of a nation is responsible for his legion of administrators and executives but also to his citizens and neighbours. A leader bears the sins of all those under him. If they have done wrong, the leader has done wrong because he has not led his people to a better way. Being a leader, if you're a muslim, is very hard. That is why, seldom are those who would vie to be a leader, at least for those who are learned. They all know of the fate of a leader should he do wrong or should he fail to lead well. Yet, ironically, the learned also know it is expected of them to be a leader. It is a decree that they lead well for the sake of the people and the world. The animals and environment requires salvation, and human beings are the leaders who can defend their right to exist.

Yet it is cruel to see how unreasonable today's so called leaders are. How they think less of people and more of their own status and their family and friends.

So what has this go to do with Aikido? A leader does not order people around, he leads. Try and force your workers to do as you want, and you will see that will be the quickest way towards dissent. Similarly, the practice of Aikido is for the immediate harmony with your opponents, the universe even. Stop. Don't think about leading the sun, just try to lead a goat instead and see how you fare if you force it do something.

How can that happen if you're not a leader. If you just follow? You lead your opponent with the mind, not force him. You cannot follow from his strike, its power or direction. You need to lead him from the start. This spirit of leadership is important. Understanding that you lead and not force is also important. Believing in this path throughout your practice is important.

A martial artist does not have to wait to be a black belt to step up and be a leader. As long as you've put your mind to learn, and you've step through that door in the dojo, you have to lead. As a sempai, as a kohai, as a seasoned veteran or a raw beginner. You have chosen a path of enlightenment, it is your duty to lead.

Thoughts on Teaching

2010-04-29T01:30:00.000-07:00

I make it no secret that I have more to learn than I have to teach. But I realised a few months back that in order for me to progress I had to start teaching. Don't ask me how that revelation came about, cliché or not, it's something that I really believe in, because it didn't come from anyone else but my inner heart. Somehow, I felt it.

So mysterious orders aside, I do like teaching what little I know. It has made my Aikido better I dare say. Not that I would recommend everyone go onto the mat and start yapping about their new profound knowledge of Aikido. But seriously, once I start thinking about progression in class from principle to waza and from waza to waza, things start to click.

Even as I try to demonstrate elements of waza, when you start to show others the 'correct' way, you inevitably become more conscious of how the technique is performed and what similarities it shares with other stuff. In a way, its really about looking at practice from a different perspective and to me, that's always a good thing.

An example of how to do tenkan, would be to look at your opponent's viewpoint. It really becomes something else, when you use that feeling of looking at his viewpoint. Instead of manipulating your hand or position to be beside him. It feels different to uke as well. Anyway, when you putt, a friend told me you shouldn't only look at it from the ball's perspective. But also the hole's perspective. It's true. Angles from the balls appear one way, but from behind the hole, it becomes something else. Combining the two almost always leads to a better putt.

I was also thinking that sometimes as students we make things unnecessarily difficult for ourselves. Even I'm guilty of that. I was looking at how I got into trouble in some of sensei's class. With simple mistakes that I've pointed out to others in fact. What is it about taking classes that makes you foolish, forgetful or less careful? What makes you move awkwardly or forget the principles that often guide your class?

I'm not sure of the right answer for that. But I found that when I try to 'copy' what my teacher does, it usually ends up wrong. Instead, gather insight from what is demonstrated, and feel how it should work with you. Everyone walks differently, move differently, operate differently. No one can emulate perfectly how another moves. That is why, there will always be some who get it and some who don't. Those who got it, found it with the guide of teacher, but they found it on their own nevertheless. Those who don't are those hoping that the teacher will teach it to them one day.

Peter Goldsbury in his amazing essays on Osensei's transmittance of Aikido to his students, espoused that Osensei never really taught his students, or cared that they've learned anything at all. Mayhaps, it is true that most teachers of that era, bestow this gift of knowledge fleetingly and sporadically. After all, Budo is knowledge of life and death. Knowing another's secret techniques, eliminates any advantage he might have against that you. But I think, Osensei really taught or tried to teach, principles and ideas. He tried to cultivate spirit by example. He was less interested to show his techniques, but show them he did. Albeit in the fashion of an eccentric. His one objective was to have Aikido change the world. Not by overpowering others by virtue of its strength, but to change others by cultivating our spirit as better men. A hard ideal to follow, but one I believe is shared by Ghandi although he did it in a different form.

Even as Osensei taught his skills to his students, his waza changed as he matured. Sometimes he will call his students and show them his techniques have changed. Looking at that point, nothing should be construed as absolutely correct. Everything changes and is imperfect. So if we fixed our minds, we inexorably become relics or statues. With aliveness in our minds and body, we change and suit ourselves. With knowledge of Aiki, suiting ourselves in harmony with others becomes easier so much so that people who are not trained that way, and who are fixed in their ways, becomes something like meteors dragged into the gravity well of a planet.

I write this to remind myself, that when shown a technique to practice in class, I will strive to grasp the principles behind it, the ideas behind it and to use it as best my body is able and as suited to my uke. I will not limit the training to copying their physical movements, instead to capture the feeling and duplicate that as best as I possibly can. Through time and practice, this method of training I believe will cultivate understanding. And from understanding alone, can we make Aikido our own.

Truly, the last class at our Crush Dojo :P

2010-04-24T20:08:00.000-07:00

Ok, somehow we managed to hold on to Crush till last Friday so there was one final class before we move to the Yoga centre next Wednesday. In the last class, we concentrated on Ikkyo.

1. Gyakuhanmi tenkan ikkyo
We've done this before from different ways. Basic level Aikikai style will have you cut uke's chushin obliquely from the forearm/elbow angle as you move off center. Examples of the dropping centre with hand awase was shown during the seminar.
This time, we're doing it from tenkan.

2. Morotedori ura/omote ikkyo
Morotedori happens when uke grabs one of your arms with both of theirs. Several different scenarios exists that makes uke give up his two hands against one of yours. One possibility is that you have a weapon in that arm, reflex usually dictates extra danger to that hand thus they divert all their resources against that hand. Another is that they have multiple help thus, holding on to your hand prevents your escape whilst the others close in. In any case, grabbed by morotedori, you definitely do not want to compete strength to strength, 2-1 does not favour you. Thus you must learn to relax completely instead. Also because of scenario 2, you must be aware of your next positioning.

You can choose to irimi or tenkan depending on the positioning that will favour you and that gives you greatest surrounding awareness. Relax the hand completely but extend ki into uke. Raise your hands softly as if offering something to uke's face. Or you can drop centre slightly and tenkan whilst raising your hands to scratch your ear. After that, a few choices are open. You can opt to take the closest hand for ikkyo, or you can choose to turn uke around with a lead and take his other arm, or you can maintain uke in that position but cut down his hand and soto to the other side for ikkyo.

3. Ryotedori Ikkyo
Aiki age will be emphasised in our daily training regime since it forms a crucial skill element in understanding aiki. In basic aiki age, we bring our centre down and connect to uke's center before raising his centre with us. Another way to capture the feeling of relaxed movement is to raise your hands without shoulder or elbow strength and instead just do a 'whatever lah' gesture or touch his shoulders like a dance routine. In any case, there is a rotation of the forearm that brings uke's elbows up and raises his body to his toes via the shoulders. The indication is the shoulders. If uke's shoulders doesn't move, then you really haven't achieved control.

In any case from that position, drop centre but keep the ki extended. Keep one hand high, one low. Take ikkyo on the high hand.

4. Shomenuchi Ikkyo
In shomenuchi, we looked at method 1 and 2 of entering. We left method 3 alone for now. Method 1 is to cut uke whilst stepping offline. The irimi intention is important here to avoid doing avoidance. This has been mentioned before so we'll skip to method 2. Method 2 is ken no awase. Blending of the tegatana instead this time around. Do not move forward. Instead enter his mind and chushin, lower your centre as the attack comes and blend. Lead his ki upwards. It doesn't matter if the strike is coming down or coming from below. In each case you will bring the ki upwards.

As you achieve control take a look at your space using a mirror if you can. 50:50 spacing means the advantage lies with uke. He has the momentum. Or it'll come to a difference of height, strength and skill. The control stage usually offers you 70:30 in terms of space or positioning. Your posture is erect, whilst uke is reaching or compressed.

Dynamic Shomenuchi Ikkyo, multiple ukes
In our training, I emphasised more dynamic and zanshin. As we progress to striking waza, nage becomes more and more aware of multiple attackers. Thus in our session, uke's give nage a few seconds to complete a technique and then attack him. Nage thus must complete each technique within several seconds and move on to the 2nd uke. Most times we take too long to think how to complete the technique. Training this way makes you use 'feelings' more and train your mind not to become myopic.

5. Yokomenuchi Ikkyo
Attacking yokomenuchi, most uke's will skirt around to the sides and attack nage's neck whilst tilting their body or extending their strike too far. A good yokomenuchi looks very similar to a shomenuchi. You enter by moving forward starting with an empty step and move 1 line away from nage's centreline. You cut directly to the temple or neck and can use both hands in the attack. If you can attack by reaching out with only 1 hand then, you're giving yourself away. You also use yokomenuchi to attack from nage's ura side. Going into his omote side allows nage to enter into your opening easily.

From yokomenuchi, nage can choose to draw out the power or entering into uke's strike to meet him at a balance point. His strike follows and arc which achieves full power at its final target point. During the apex you can meet him as the power goes outwards to the tip of the arc. Irimi is done into uke's centre and not the hand. Nage does not move forward into the striking hand either. Instead, shift chushin and extend ki through your hands. Use kokyu for now. Touch uke's striking arm and connect immediately to his power source or centre and relax your hand against that. Drop your centre. From there compress him and use awase to raise his arm and cut for ikkyo. If there's a lot of potential forward movement from uke as you compress him, give him more space as you transfer towards ikkyo.

6 Hanmi Handachi Ikkyo
Same thing that we did in the last class. In Hanmi handachi, pulling or trying to press down uke by force will definitely not work. So extend into uke's center, once connected, drop your hands and let all the ki flow downwards. At its peak, softly raise the hands and cut for ikkyo. Use suikomi often to ensure you do not disturb uke and give any signal for him to react. Also if you try to raise your body you will still be at a disadvantage over a standing uke, thus keep your centre down and body relaxed. For this exercise don't move around, stay in seiza. Pushing uke's arm as you get ikkyo will also be a problem since you cannot move. Instead you must draw uke's ki and lead it besides you. Get rid of the habit of moving around a lot to compensate for poor control. By doing this in seiza and not moving you have to establish control from ki extension and awase alone.

Revelation:
As we finished the class, I tried to practice skin awase. I thought I understood it a bit. In order to make it easier, I pushed uke's bone using bone first. And then I tried capturing the feeling of skin to skin connection becoming one before moving uke using that captured feeling. It seemed to work and uke could feel the difference.

Makoto...for now

2010-04-21T08:35:00.000-07:00

A student asked whether Makoto could be conceived as naivety or object innocence. Somehow, I don't think that is true. Perhaps thinking about a pure heart, one wonders if one should accept that everyone has a place in the universe and that we must not assume the worst of anyone. Well then, I think a proper definition of that would be unrealistic expectations.

A pure heart, or sincere heart to be more exact, I believe is more about doing things whole heartedly. Without guilt, remorse, regret, hesitation or rationalisation. Take your pick. It is about doing things as they should be. Its about acting in accord with the universe.

The example I gave was in an encounter with a beggar. We are often approached by those seeking funds for charity on behalf of others, on behalf of themselves and so on so forth. At times, it is easy to see a scam, more often than not it is difficult. Especially when it comes to professionals who make it their business to look legitimate. Normal people usually think to look for clues as to whether these people deserve the money before doling out the cash. We rationalise sometimes, if for example we have given the other day, maybe we'll say no this time around. Or sometimes we're with someone, and its embarrassing not to give because it gives an impression that we are stingy. All sorts of things come to mind when you're reacting to a beggar who approaches. Sometimes when you see one, you pray inside that he won't approach you because you'll have to go through the whole rigmarole. Sometimes you are already speculating if its a scam as he approaches.

In those instances, I would hazard that we have not yet reached makoto. Nor would it be makoto if you give everything you have to everyone who ask of it. I believe that at the stage of makoto, you will act as it happens. There will be times you will give them money, and at times you will refuse. You will do those things with complete sincerity, without thought of reward be it praise from your peers, or thanks, or satisfaction that you are able to give as opposed to the one who is begging. And in those times you refuse, it would be perfectly natural for that refusal to happen. No malice, no speculation, no care to the impression of those around you.

It will also hold true that in makoto, you will strike without fear and receive without fear or hesitation. You will enter when the time is true, and you will cut down the person in front of you without anger. Being in a state of makoto would be like Saidina Ali cutting his enemy down. Yet stopping when the man roused his anger by spitting at him. When he was asked by his enemy why not carry out the deathstroke, Saidina Ali calmly replied... It was right when I had to cut you down as God wills it, but it is not right to cut you down when I have anger towards you.

This ties back to the origins of Budo. To serve a higher purpose. As Budoka, you serve not yourself but a higher and more noble purpose. In serving that purpose you will achieve a state of makoto. But serving your needs and wants, those are not makoto.

Hopefully, my current understanding of makoto will not differ so much 2 years or 10 years down the road. But that's how I see it today. Also think, why Makoto is part of Fudo Genri. What has a sincere heart got to do with the Immovable Principles. To me, if you don't form expectations or anticipations, you won't plan to react a certain way. Instead you accept and do what is necessary and it becomes so true that it happens before something affects you.

Videos posted for last beginners class

2010-04-20T05:55:00.001-07:00

Check the video link for class vids on tenkan and stuff we did last Sunday. I'm playing around with the compression so bear with the poor resolution. I'll get it right some day :D

Important Notice: Video password

2010-04-17T22:47:00.000-07:00

I've passworded the video album for our last seminar and classes. The password is sensei's second name in English. The videos are here for you to study and share amongst fellow Aikidoka but because I don't want it spread public, let all of you who see it watch it from vimeo and not upload it to youtube or something like that.

Revelation:From Form to Function , Form follows Function

2010-04-17T22:34:00.000-07:00

Its something that's been oft repeated. Everyone is different. When asked to repeat a technique, Osensei replied each technique exist only once. He didn't mean the waza, he meant the way he did it. Each partner comes with their own set of variables, each attack different. For us to do waza perfectly, we need to intuitively adjust to those variables.

Keeping to form will inevitably lead to failure. However, in the process of learning, Form be-gets Function. Practice form to understand the principles behind it and to apply waza. Even entering ki and kokyu is form. I think only awase onwards is formless.

I was just looking over the videos for shihonage again. Empty step, float the hand but extend ki, feet keeping with chushin, center down hand feels light, compress uke's center, don't lift the hand, shear angle in keeping with awase, enter, keep connection, cut center, wrap, keep head position safe. These are just some of the points I can see. Yet, if you understand shihonage, its just control uke's center down up and down again.

Wanting to do something a particular way is a mindset that is trapped by Form. Feeling uke's energy, let the form follow the function of the waza. To reach this however means going through the form countless of times until the feeling is etched within us! At our stage, we shouldn't abandon Form. I think we will know when Form becomes unnecessary at our own time.

Post Mortem

2010-04-12T22:13:00.000-07:00

As Sensei left us to head home for Jakarta, he spent some time discussing on how we want to continue our training. As a big proponent of feeling techniques and not discussing or watching them, Sensei knows our frustration of being unable to train regularly with him or his senior students. Nevertheless, given his history of learning to peel away the secrets of Aikido from his Japanese teachers who inherently protect Aiki as Japan's national treasure, it is not inconceivable for us to do the same. Especially with Sensei guiding us as he can.

A strong advise was to hold extra training after class especially for black belts. It used to be common practice in my old dojo that somehow died down as more and more senior belts left and work and family life became more important. We must however strive to do this in order to be better. In Kimura's book, he describe his tactics simplistically in winning the Judo Tourneys of his day and retaining championship over a number of years. He started out training 3 hours a day that became 6. And soon after he realised that his opponents will train harder so he started training 9 hours a day instead. When he succeeded in winning the championship again, his opponents said to him in awe. "I thought you trained 6 hours, so I started doing 6.5 hours a day. I didn't realise you had started training 9 hours!".

Malcolm Gladwell in his book Outliers basically hypothesise that it takes about 10,000 hours to achieve mastery. He uses examples like the Beatles and other notables in his book and creates a plausible account of why the greats are greats and the good are just good. For the Beatles, they happened to have played a lot during their Europe gig when they first started out. It was the time when you played every single day for more than 10 hours and get paid nothing. Even so, the Beatles gained endurance, gained flexibility, gained a vast repertoire of tunes and they refined themselves. It was a back breaking experience that ultimately forged them into one of the best musical group ever.

So what is 10,000 hours to us? If we happen to practice 2 hours a session and maybe 3 sessions a week that would roughly make it 300 hours a year. So 30 years should be about it really. Now of course if you're talking about mastery of 1 technique that makes it 30 years of training Ikkyo alone. If we're doing all the other stuff as well, like katatedori nikkyo, morotedori sankyo, ryotedori shihonage, shomenuchi iriminage and etc etc... then those techniques will also eat up on your mastery time. Just to put an even darker spot on your glimmer of hope, this is to say if you're training 'correctly'. If you are training 'wrongly' then, those 10,000 hours won't really do much would it?

If you haven't asked yourself 'What have I gotten myself into?' by now, you must either be strangely abnormal or you have a true heart of a budoka. Sensei himself likes to refer to practitioners of Aikido as budoka instead of Aikidoka. I'll talk about that later since I don't want to digress.

Going back to conviction. It takes time to get to mastery. Some however have innate talent. And some are given enlightenment. That is why once in a while this world is blessed with a spark of genius. They are like beacons of light that other people stared with wide eye wonder and are occasionally blinded by. Mozart, Ibn Sina, Da Vinci, Tesla, Ueshiba... the list is there for you to look at. They did not take the full 10,000 hours journey to achieve mastery. Not because they lack dedication, but because they achieved mastery beyond normal human ken.

Sensei says there are 4 levels of learning in Aikido. This I have mentioned in my earlier post. In some arts it could be as many as 70 or 100 levels. Each level taking years to master. In an art like budo, one questions what kind of person would dedicate his life to mastering such a knowledge. We no longer serve Lords, there are no samurai's with land and peasants to guard, army to fight. Why spend so much time doing something that won't bring us wealth or prestige or position? For some, it is their calling to be a warrior. A modern day warrior as it is. For some, budo trains the heart and soul that is distinctly being less and less regarded by modern society now days. Call it what you will, the path of budo is just one of many that can lead a man to greatness. And the first step is to understand that that greatness is not us.