"Don't blame me, it's just the Rabies talking."

We train to create a reflex.  Reflexes by definition are triggered by perception that the spine and not the conscious mind responds to.  We don't choose to flinch.  We might need to train poor reflexes out of ourselves:  it's not always helpful to fall into an infant startle reflex or fall into the fetal position.  Relaxing into good posture and awareness, full body connection - this is a good reflex to develop.

The USA decision to have people register their hands as lethal weapons is a little contorted in my opinion.  The idea that a reflex has been so engrained that I slash someone 30x with a folding knife in my pocket before I consciously think - this is the public image of this claim, and I think it insults us all. 

I met a security guard once who laughed and bragged that when he was playing a friendly game of water volley ball with his family, a relative of his jumped up for the ball and "our hero" responded to the person falling towards him with a palm strike that shattered the man's nose.  I think I remember other listeners saying, "oh, good Mushin!"

Musashi was able to cut without conscious effort to raise and lower his sword, but he was a brilliant tactician.  He wasn't a slave.  He was a genius and a top level manipulator, not a brain-dead robot.  Chinese arts take about Wu Wei, and in Aikido we talk about Takemuso Aiki - the spontaneous creation of martial technique.  This requires a free mind, a mind that embraces all possibilities.  Mushin is often defined as "No Mind," but this is not something to confuse with "Brainless."

A good reflex to draw a weapon.  A small step further to pull a trigger.  Hands up, making a fist (if part of your system), making space- but hitting someone in the face a dozen times?  Breaking a neck?  A stray punch can crush a throat I suppose, and kids in hockey do end up dying from a hard slap shot puck to the chest so why not a hard single punch.  An accident can happen; this is different from not taking responsibility for your actions because of "your superior training."  

Who you are shouldn't change.  If you want everyone safe, but see the need to make a choice, your response will likely be proportional.  Soldiers cannot hesitate on the battlefield, and they need to shoot to kill.  But, if a hypothetical soldier pulls a trigger and takes out a school full of children?  We don't credit his training.  We'd court martial him, maybe give the death penalty.  At our most compassionate, we call him sick and confine him.  We don't hold this soldier up as the ideal we should strive for.  We expect a proportional, reasonable and planned response.

I work in health care along side some great martial artists.  Their general health, determination and ability to override their stress and function well and remain calm makes them great caregivers.  I know MDs, PTs, OTs, CNAs, EMTs and many others with martial arts backgrounds.  One of the nicest RNs I ever met left us for a year to be a combat medic a few years ago.  Their emotions don't override their intelligence.  "We forge our minds and bodies in the fires of our will!"  Who wouldn't want someone like that backing them up in any profession?

If a weakened patient started yelling and flailing, and the nurse responded by breaking the patient's nose, the nurse would be fired.  We would not brag about Mushin, we would call it poor emotional control and a lack of impulse control.  We would not call this nurse a higher level martial artist.  We would call him a rabid dog.

The thing about rabid dogs - we don't say, "this is a good dog, just the rabies is responsible.  I want the dog to be rabid, because there's a good time and place for the rabies."  (However rare that time and place might be.)  

We shoot the dog.

Don't brag, "It wasn't me, my training took over and it just happened!"  If you are a slave to your training, then retrain yourself and be the one in charge.

Morote Dori Meanderings

 

Morote Dori is a bit of a strange exercise for many people.  I didn't get it right away.  I remember complaining, "But I would just let g-"... as the elbow hit me in the teeth.  I remember having issue at the beginning with being asked to move Uke with one one arm when I had two perfectly good legs for kicking and another perfectly good arm for striking.  In terms of combat - I had this image that always makes me smile:

There I was, in the bar minding my own business, and up walks Bubbah, lookin' real ugly and mean-like and he says to me, "Boy!  I wanna hold your hand!  It's your hand or your life!"

So, what a silly waste of time, right?

1.  The first movement in the 4 corners work above, I am doing something more basic out of Yoshinkan.  I also looks alot to me like Shomenate.  So, my Uke's neck stays in one piece while I get to practice a palm strike to an imaginary chin with power.  The Sokumen Iriminage movement gets practiced with solid resistence without Uke's neck getting broken.

2.  Circular movements have a new meaning.  If someone grabs my right arm in classical Morote Dori, if I circle underneath and up I have his left arm coming to Ikkyo and his right arm to Shihonage.  If I circle overtop, I have his right arm in Ikkyo and his left arm in Shihonage.  Play with that idea, and a thousand ideas come out.  As the circle continues, a long laundry list of classical movements becomes possible - in my own little world I started to call it a line.  There are decision points where the circle can change and find another line.

3.  Two people grab Morote Dori, and each hand has resistence and needs to be fully explored and expressed.  So, I can practice bringing my hands together against Ushiro Ryotekubi Dori with strong resistence without needing to find a pro wrestler to practice with.  Both Iriminage hands need to be expressed, both Shihonage hands need to be expressed.  With one friendly partner, I might never need to develop a large portion of a technique because it still works - until it doesn't.  I get a good sense of where my holes are in my basics, and I get to ramp up my structure practice without putting my partners at higher risk.  My bum left arm doesn't get to hide behind my right.

4.  Carrying on from the multiple attacker grabbing practice, I learn that one simple way of moving should be stable and powerful in multiple directions.  This is huge in randori.

5.  Ikkyo = two hands on one arm.  Nikyo = two hands on one arm.  Kotegaeshi, Shihonage, Sankyo, Yonkyo, Gokyo; you get the idea.  Morote Dori movements are the foundation of all wrist lock reversals.

6.  Tanto Nage, hand gun retention = Morote Dori practice.  Throwing with Kokyu Ho while holding a sword too.  Now I get to not be focused on my grab, but rather my ability to cut.

7.  If I can't hold with power and structure, none of the rest of the wrist locks matter - weak grip, poor structure: no Shihonage, no Kotegaeshi, no Sankyo...  This gets practiced by attacking Morote Dori sincerely.

8.  Jodan, or raising the hands up.  Chudan, or opening or closing.  Gedan, or sinking the hands down.  I get to play with these ideas against power.  I was told a million times before Aikido, "Lift with your legs, not with your back."  I did the flutter-the-arms-upward-and-downward movement at the start of the Taiji form many times.  Nothing informed the subtle points of the motion like having someone grab my arm who could bench 400lbs.

So, to round out the 12 Days of Tandoku and satisfy the requirements of the challenge - basics are the foundation of advanced material.  The silly exercises from the first class - they contain a huge amount of material that keeps giving and giving with more practice.  The lessons from the first class - those might be the ones you never outgrow.  Simple broken down structure and body movement work, whether with or without resistence - this is the foundation of moving with power.  Take the most advanced practice you know, and when you dissect it you will see your basics.  This is what might become a way of life.  As Musashi wrote, "your combat walk should be your everyday walk."  How your arms connects to your body and how they are best used - who cares if you never get in a fight?  These are the positions for carrying groceries, for pushing a door closed, for helping a patient to the bathroom.

Or, as a very smart blogger shared this week:

 

Those lessons that teach you better are likely your basics.

 



 

Yokomenuchi Tai Sabaki

More of the same ideas as yesterday's post. Yokomenuchi requires a little more movement to get off the line of the attack. Shomenuchi has a single vertical plane, and a movement in nearly any direction takes you off this plane. Yokomenuchi is cutting through the plane you are moving in (there is a variation where you duck underneath, but it is of limited utility for me - I am often too tall at 5'11"). You need to judge your Maai, placement and timing.

Working on this gave me a better foundation for understanding "Any 5." It also helped my Randori. Shodokan's Tandoku is a good repository of body movements, as are the Ki Society's Ki no Taiso and the Iwama Suburi. In Aikikai we don't have a universally accepted solo practice to teach us how to move our body, just some ideas that keep popping up.

Again, guidelines/suggestions and not something to hold up as dogma. This is not an exhaustive list. Which leg is weighted when you start? Tenshin is easier and faster with the front leg weighted, as is Irimi Tenkan. You need to shift to be back weighted to go to the other corners. How much momentum have you already generated? It's harder to back up when you are already moving forward, easier to back up when you are waiting for Uke. How would this be different with a weapon? Can you bring weapons and empty hand together?

Most importantly for me - as we don't have a hard, fast, universal standard of solo Tai Sabaki practice, find your own sources of inspiration and test them out if this idea doesn't work for you.

 

What the heck is Shomenuchi Kokyunage? 4 Corners in Shomenuchi (and personal implications for "Any 5")

The 12 Day Tandoku Challenge is now in Day #10 at this writing, but between using my iPad to write the text and my Windows desktop to post the video I couldn't seem to get one coherant entry.  Here we go again.  How long can I write on something I know little about?  Apparently I can go on for a good long while.

This is a personal theory I started to work on after I was unhappy with my Shodan Randori.  I wanted an approach that helped my overall positioning in the room in relation to my training partners and I wanted to develop the Takemuso Aiki ideal of spontaneous creation of technique.  Good positioning, timing and kuzushi all seemed to start with the first movement.  This gave me better opporunties and a better platform to move from.  I talk about this at the dojo, but I haven't posted anything before and thank you to Steve Kaufmann for his permission to do this.

One of the things I wrote about in response to seeing the Tandoku form before was about seeing 4 corners used.  I have my own idea of the four corners, but I really took inspiration from the ushiro exercise of Shirata Sensei for the organization of the material.  Kawahara Sensei was the driving force,

In the old CAF test requirements, at 5th Kyu we did:
Shomenuchi Ikkyo to Yonkyo Omote and Ura
Shomenuchi Shihonage Omote and Ura
Shomenuchi Kotegaeshi
Shomenuchi Iriminage

Other techniques were asked for, but essentially the Gokyu test was all the basics against Shomenuchi with accuracy.  I am only referencing Shomenuchi for this entry.

For the Yonkyu test, we had to add:
Shomenuchi Gokyo
Shomenuchi Koshinage

At the Sankyu test, we got asked for three Kokyunage from Shomenuchi.  There are a few implications here.  One is that I believe Sensei wanted to communicate Kokyunage is the more advanced technique, instead of the Koshinage.

When the time came to do three Kokyunage, we did three different Tai Sabaki or body movement and placement.  I started to see different corners.

Shomenuchi Iriminage, Kotegaeshi and Ura all moved forward and behind
Shomenuchi Ikkyo to Yonkyo Omote all moved forward and in front.
Shomenuchi Shihonage Omote leads outward and in front
Shomenuchi Shihonage Ura and Goyo lead outward and slightly behind

So, forward in front and behind, lead out in front and behind.

Kokyunage is is becoming a meaningless term.  It applies to too much.  It is far to vague.  When I read Saito Sensei's Takemuso Aiki Kokyunage book, I see things called Kokyunage that I learned by another name.  I have heard all techniques are kokyunages, and it might be true but I don't find this idea helpful to communicate, teach and distinguish different ideas.  It also didn't seem to keep with what Kawahara Sensei was asking us to do.

I started to practice the most abbreviated, singular receiving movement made fully expansive and expressive.  I saw this as an opportunity to break the established forms and just move with an intention to time, place and lead.  The extended and complex kata distilled down and simplified to a split second of time and contact.  I started to see when I didn't cause kuzushi right away.  I started to see a myriad opportunities in the basic classical kata to finish the movement.  This became my personal understanding of Kokyunage. 

Each Kokyunage could also be represented by a single sword cut or a single movement with the Jo.  One particularily challenging student years ago was just given a few madeup Jo kata with these few body movements to practice on her own, and she did well on her Gokyu test.

For my kohei who have been preparing for Ikkyu and Shodan tests, I like to encourage this idea.  We get asked for any five techniques from a variety of attacks, and there certainly are more than five basics.  For preparing for multiple attackers and freedom of movement, I like to practice different initial moments of contact.  While I mention specific kata in the list above and we were asked to learn specific kata for Kawahara Sensei, really all of the basics can be done from any of the corners.  The corners are also suggestions/guidelines and not an exhaustive list of possibilities.  Neither is Tandoku I'm guessing.

Thank you Ross for taking Ukemi.

(After years of scribbling on napkins and practicing this on my own, I really wanted to be happier with the video.  Good to see what I look like, and things to work on...)
 

Tandoku and the Way of the Sword (Do Nothing Different)

Our shared art is said to be descended from sword work. Specifically, a Japanese in origin sword style that has little resemblance to modern Kendo nor Iaido and no resemblance to Korean, European or Chinese sword work. Definitely, this is not supposed to resemble any movie sword work - as much as I loved The Matrix, the movie did a disservice to us mere mortals.  We can never look as cool as what the public has come to find boring.

I have often wondered if the reverse was true - that our juijitsu came before our weapons.  Takeda Sensei, Morihei Ueshiba's teacher, was to my understanding mostly a Juijitsu teacher.  Takeda was not trying to gain popularity for his sword work, but rather his empty hand techniques.  Many Aikido teachers in different associations will have something probably called Shihonage, probably have something looking like Ikkyo with a variety of names, Iriminage by a variety of names and styles.  The devil is in the details.  Our empty hand forms have movements in common, though our language does not reflect that from association to association.

Basic sword and Jo work from Birankai, to New England Aikikai, to Iwama, to the students of Nishio and Shirata - very little resemblance.  Some do weapons daily, some very seldom.  Their empty hand work has more in common.

Of course, regular weapons training feeds and informs empty hand work.  But, when I look at the Tandoku clip of Tomiki Sensei, or the Iaido of Kanai Sensei - the weapons work follows the empty hand.  At one point in time for the Samurai, this might have been reversed.  Many decades if not centuries have passed since the sword was the default weapon.  Today, we learn to use our hands first.  The Samurai class was all but banned from wearing swords and guns in public in 1876.  The Founder of Judo would have been a teenager; Morihei Ueshiba would not have been born yet.  Post WWII, the sword would have probably been subject to heavy restrictions.

Kanai Sensei was a very impressive and powerful man.  I am friends with a number of his students.  His empty hand work was gorgeous and unique in the details.  His own Iaido system to look at it either came simultaneously or the empty hand Aikido came first.  The Shiho Omote movement in particular - the empty hand technique is the same, and unique.

http://youtu.be/cabwIuuKYSs

(bonus points for anyone who can tell me how to put two Youtube videos in a single blog entry)

At the start of this exercise, we were given several source videos one of which was Tomiki Sensei doing the same movements as appear in his Tandoku kata/exercise, but holding a bokken and swinging it.  He's doing nothing different.

Chicken or Egg?  Swords or Empty Hands?  Why care?  But if our empty hand is what taught us to get off the line and bring a weapon to bear to bear with mobility, power and stability - then who cares what tools we adopt into Aikido next?  Just do nothing different.

Da Lu

One exercise that I am somewhat upset to see isn't seeing much Youtube time is Da Lu. I approach it as a way of issuing and neutralizing that starts with the stepping and body movements. The hands play a secondary role. This is, I think, a more formal practice in Yang Taiji, and maybe one of the Yang developments along with the San Shou two person combat form.  There is a Chen Style practice called Da Lu, but it is more like what I equate with Walking Push Hands - nothing is different from regular push hands, your feet are just moving.

This video is a good representation of basic Yang Style Da Lu as I learned it.

For those people out there who want to bring Aikido and Taiji together, or for people who are following this as part of the Tandoku Challenge - I see something similar to the final movement in Tandoku, and some similar ideas to the Tomiki Walking forms.

Nothing Natural about "Natural"

Whole body movement is not how we like to move. Like most people, you probably didn't get lessons on how to move. One day, you didn't fall over when you sat up. That worked so well, eventually you didn't crack your skull standing and then eventually you threw all caution to the wind and moved your feet. Whether or not you moved effectively or smoothly was mostly an accident. You might have been teased on the school yard, or taken a dance lesson or joined Junior Miss pagents or something that made you pay attention to your walk.  Your first pair of heels maybe, or an injury.  Walking was not likely judged for it's effectiveness - the only standard was, "don't fall over most of the time."

In keeping with the Tandoku theme, the idea of feet only movements, then simple one step movements with one hand in motion, then increasing the difficulty in the feet, then increasing the difficulty in the arms and eventually using two arms with the more complicated footwork - this formula is something I see in Taiji push hands progression as well.

Isolating a body part to move it, then isolating another body part, then slowly complicating the whole thing - now, the whole body is being used.

The video above shows a series of Chen exercises, and a nice progression.  Few students get past solo form, and those who do get into paired work often stay in the early phases.  Basic push hands is where power and neutralization is expressed in the hands, and the feet are locked in place.  The waist and the weight shift is the driving force.