Do we practice for practice's sake?

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

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.

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...

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

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

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...

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.