Half way

It came to me after a tirade on the perils of trying to recreate a strict form.  I am only half of the equation.

Tenchinage is not about me going Heaven and Earth.  If I move little, but Uke's shoulders go Heaven and Earth then I have kuzushi.  If I raise my hands in the Heaven and Earth idea, but I have no kuzushi, no affect on Uke, then I have failed.

A good punch in a Karate form or a Taiji form really doesn't happen in isolation, nor do throws, pins, blocks or any other strikes.  Ukemi taken in isolation is not ukemi - it receives nothing.  

When I trained in a Ki Society offshoot dojo, the idea of the Ki no Taiso appealed to me.  Beginners need to have some sense of the shape of a technique.  I started to have my misgivings at that dojo when people who had done the same shape many times had no sense of the relationship required. The esotericly named forms that I was gleefully told I had never done as poor little me was just an Aikikai student - I had done them all.  I knew how to apply them.  

Maai is the space between myself and my Uke(s).  Ai Hamni, Gyaku Hamni, Omote, Ura, Hanmi Handachi - these terms are about a spatial relationship.  Sen no sen, Go no sen, Sen Sen no Sen - these terms are about a temporal relationship. We can do solo practice for a long time, but without the sense of the relationship our techniques will not feel correct no matter how correct our solo practice is.

Do I sink low, stay upright, dodge, enter, blend, lead - I might not be the person who determines that.  I get one vote, so does everyone else.

What form does offer is a common language.  We have dozens of different words now for very pedantic constructs.  Which word is correct, which minor variation is being shown - we in Aikikai respond like this is a declaration of loyalty/disloyalty.  Different is a synonym for wrong, or a mistake.

I like how this Tandoku thing was presented for this exercise.  Several variations, lineages, timelines all noted and respected.  A whole community from several decades and several countries who can all move forward with their practice.  Innovations and changes catalogued, saved, communicated, expounded upon and held up for civil discourse.  Videos presented by people who spoke different languages and lived elsewhere in the world but still able to communicate in a physical language of form.  Even people like me who didn't know the form.

Because, ultimately knowing something in isolation doesn't matter much either.  Education, discussion, classes - these words all imply a relationship too.