O’Sensei was giving a demonstration for the purpose of having photos taken for a newspaper article.  The photographer missed a shot that he thought would have been excellent and asked O’Sensie to do the technique again. After O’Sensie had done it a couple of more times the reporter asked him to do it the way he had done it originally and O’Sensie explained to him that  he couldn’t because each attack is different and the technique changes to fit the  way that it unfolds and therefore you can’t simply repeat the same movement/waza over and over in a randori situation but rather the  waza  has to fit the  individual attack.

The right way to do a technique is one that works.

Please note I did not say “the one” that works  because there is never one way since there are  so many variations to attacks, techniques, body sizes and body-mechanics.

As I heard a Shihan once quoted , ” It’s not that aikido doesn’t work, but rather your aikido doesn’t work.”

In Aikido the most effective methods however are the ones that  “capture” the uke’s centre and do not give it back.  This can be accomplished by moving his/her centre of mass either ahead or behind his/her base of support which means he/she is either fall/stumbling forward trying to stand upright or tipping backwards and similarily trying to regain his/her  balance.

The third option, one and two being crashing forward and the second crashing backwards, is to put Uke in a position whereby he/she is unable to move. This can be accomplished by many types of pins  or controls and usually requires uke’s centre to be low and forward or back, and or on the extreme edge of their base of support. (think what happens to Uke when a good sankyo is applied ….. he/she tries to minimize the pain by raising up on their toes which has the effect of manipulating their center both up and the either forward of backward.)

One example of a pin/control during a technique might be in shomenuchi ikkyo when the nage/tori has entered deeply**and has  controlled the uke’s strike and has their hand on their hip before stepping into the pin.  When done correctly, the hand holding side is against the hip , the hips are rotated toward the outside and the other/inside arm is straight and directly below his (nage’s) center.

When this has been successfully executed the uke’s arm with elbow locked  is at a steep angle, his other hand is on the mat to prevent him falling forward face first,  and due to the biomechanics of the human body, and the forces applied,  it is impossible for the Uke to get up  or punch nage because if he  lifts his hand from the mat he will fall forward.

** This entering deeply/irimi is key in this technique as it usually is in most waza. The irimi redirects uke’s attack and moves him/her not only forward but can also “unweight” Uke so as to make Uke unstable and easily moved to wherever nage wants to move him/her. In shomenuchi ikkyo the strong irimi takes nage from a position of facing Uke to that of being beside to one where ideally  their centersare  in the same line of forward movement.

There are as many ways to do techniques as there are Shihan’s, Sensei’s, Yudansha and Kyudansa, as there are tall, short, light and heavy students, as there are flexible and inflexible people as there are young and old students.

As I said in my premise “The right way to do a technique is one that works.  Please note I did not say “the one that works ” because there is not one way since there are so many variations to attacks, techniques, body sizes and mechanics.”

The caveat here is to be sure to do the technique as prescribed by the Dojo or Sensei who is teaching,  as every teacher/dojo has their own personal “style” and by working with many instructors students will eventually find their style/technique.

Now I have your attention.  ”There is no Aikido that works”  …… all the time.  Misleading , wrong, correct?

As one great shihan was quoted a saying to a student , ” It is not that aikido doesn’t  work, it’s that your aikido doesn’t work”.  There is no aikido that works all the time in the same manner for everyone,  rather it’s the right aikido  for that person working at  the right time. For this reason  we train with numerous ukes ( to see if it does work) and don’t just head for our favourite each time because our aikido works with them . Also we  should also try different ways* of doing things until we find the one that we can call our own.(* cavaet  warning warning warning this is not a license to do what you want when you want)

I have just finished  watching a DVD, for the 3rd time ,with Ikeda Sensei from Colorado (The Unity Seminar  with Mary Heiny Sensei).  He emphasizes that there is no one way to do a technique and as well as having to be varied and adapted each time we must  find  which way of doing a technique works for us depending on our personal motor skills, body size etc.

So does this mean anarchy on the mat with everyone doing their own thing?  No, but rather that  general training sessions  are not designed for free styling  and that this is where we  do “kihon” waza (kind of like scales in  music) ( this also helps not to confuse new students who might see a senior student doing something “wrong/different”  and don’t know which way to turn) and either in advanced classes, or personal training, then we look more deeply into “our” techniques. It is easy to cheat in training by going too fast to cover up errors and ingrain poor motor patterns but it is better to do them slowly with control until one is ready to test them at a faster pace . Kihon waza is just that,  it is the basics or foundation that all technique spring from, and without a good foundation your aikido house will fall down.

When should someone start trying/experimenting with non-kihon techniques ………………….. one hundred people and one hundred opinions.

My feelings are basics are basics and those need to be programmed correctly before you move on.

More ramblings to come ……………………….

I know that each time I come to practice as soon as I line up in seiza and close my eyes that my separation from the affairs of the day start to go away as I go through the ritual of warming up.  There is a reason I call it a ritual in that from a purely western, physiological, point of view the warm-ups we perform do not prepare the body totally for the movements and energy systems we are about to use ( stay with me because I am not saying they are not functional).

The warm-ups that we practice usually follow a set pattern beginning with some bouncing exercises then moving into various range of motion exercises.  But what happens here is that I am almost instantly in the “aikido mind set” once the warm-up begins.  The body and the mind have moved on and are already prepared for what is to come. (operant conditioning perhaps).

I really noticed this when I visited another dojo and the warm-up was totally different and lasted only five minutes before we were off and going.  I was not doing aikido I was exercising.

At this stage in my Aikido  is moving away from a physical discipline to more of a mental ( I hate to say spiritual because of the religious overtones  so I should perhaps say the philosophical side).  I’ll leave it to the 18 to 50 year olds to beat each other up .

The warm-up to me is as essential to my practice as the techniques we work on each class as it takes me to an Aikido State of Mind.

Just more random thoughts on a Sunday morning…………….

Today I visited a dojo in Mission Viejo just outside of Los Angeles.  The atmosphere was warm and welcoming and the Sensei was pleased to have me practice with them and even asked if I would lead a practice on Thursday night. I declined that offer and said that I would prefer to learn and practice what they were teaching.

I also declined for other reasons.  One being that since our “style” and” teaching methodology” was very different from their methods  that by doing a one shot intervention it might simply confuse their students.  The dojo is a new dojo and I doubt, but  I could be wrong,  that many have gone to seminars put on by other Sensei’s. I would feel badly introducing conflicting techniques/ideas into their training.

I will probably visit them again on Thursday as I am always interested in how other Sensei’s teach and where their technical basics come from.

It always happens but it still comes as a surprise.  The test is over, you’ve passed, and ready to go again but things are not working. It is a struggle to stay focused and get motivated until it dawns on you: it’s natures way of telling you to take a break recover and rejuvenate so you can start working on it once more.  This is different from the plateau that occurs when you have been training for a while and you get to a pont where you just aren’t improving. This is the  ”why is this not working when it did two weeks ago”  and the year before that (with a few exceptions).

Wake up and smell the post-test let down.  So I’ll train a little less, do some things that I have put off while getting ready for the test and then wait for that little voice to tell me to get my butt to the dojo on a more regular basis and start on the next phase which is usually training hard to gain the test skills to make me feel that I deserve my new rank.

Just my thoughts.

It is always good when you have a night when the sensei says that he’s not going to talk a lot !  This either means he is not going to talk a lot or that’s what he intended but he forgot and we get a good rest between techniques.  Last night was one of those nights when the sensei walked the talk and it was an evening of sweat and discovery.

The question is how much should the sensei talk? How much should we watch and steal the technique?  How long does it take to try before it clicks? Sometimes it depends on the message and other times it depends on the messenger .

Just a thought.

Thanks for inviting me on to your site .  My entries will cover my observations and comments as I continue to work on this journey.

A.