Two Wings of One Bird

In today's classes there was some discussion about the difficulties in being shite and focusing on "shite stuff" and then being uke and focusing on the "uke stuff".

The main point of the discussion was that it is easy to get trapped into thinking of a technique from one point of view or the other (shite or uke) rather than as a holistic union of the two. Some people indicated that they didn't care what their partner was doing when they were focused on "their" part of the technique.

I have always maintained that the most dangerous person to practice with is someone around the rank of 3rd kyu because (in general) their technique works but they don't have the experience to feel the feedback from uke which can end up injuring uke. I think this is because they are still keeping the "shite stuff" and the "uke stuff" separate.

Keeping them separate is similar to the phenomenon of drivers vs. pedestrians. When you are a driver you get annoyed with pedestrians but when you are walking you get frustrated with drivers who get in your way.

A more holistic view would be to try to feel what uke feels when you are shite and as uke to try and feel what shite feels while applying the technique to you. If you can manage to imagine and feel the other person's response to your movement or resistance (as the case may be) then you should more easily understand the whole of the technique rather than just half of it at a time.

One other benefit is that you will more quickly understand when your uke is in danger and might be about to be injured if you think of what they are feeling at the same time as you are thinking of "your side".

I believe that working on a technique as two halves is far less than working on the technique as a whole. The gestalt of the two halves is definitely greater than the sum of the two parts.

Something for me to remember when I get lost in the minute details of a technique.

The Hijiate Spiral

There are only a few basic principles that encompass the whole of our Aikido techniques. The problem is remembering to apply all of them at all times in all techniques...

Yesterday I was working on hijiate kokyunage which is my absolute least favourite technique. However, as often happens when training I had a breakthrough in visualization or understanding...maybe a re-breakthrough since I should already have known this.

I'm talking about The Hijiate Spiral.

We know that Yoshinkan works in circles and that spirals are circles that move forward. When I first started doing the technique yesterday I was focusing on the shoulder and using the crook of my elbow to turn over uke's elbow and have that force move in and around (over top) of uke's shoulder to throw them forward and then down.

What I realized as I was doing this is that my circle was very two dimensional. It only went from uke's elbow to uke's shoulder and over it. There was no sideways motion in the circle I was using. No spiralling.

I found if I thought of my elbow pushing into and over uke's shoulder as well as moving the shoulder to the side away from uke's body then I took the balance much more and uke couldn't resist the shoulder manipulation ending up in a much easier but more powerful throw downwards as the spiral kind of arced over uke like a giant slinky.

Again...just applying the basic principles. It's amazing how such easy concepts are so hard to remember let along apply.

Spirals are circles that move forward. I like that :-)