The Other Hands

I found it difficult to mark the different circles exactly.  Over time, I decided that the forms were adapted to a personal preference by the teachers.  Because I never came across a Yang or a Wu teacher that used the circles to teach the basics, I wonder if this idea was discarded in later forms of Taiji, or if this was a basic that some of my teachers decided was less important/more boring/less likely to attract students than the choreography work. 

In some forms what I referred to as the Lu posture or Earth Circle resembles a different circle that I came to associate with the Wind Gua or Pull Down or Cai.  I proceeded to see it as Cai for myself.  For the other forms, by the end of a form I usually see that all 8 circles have been employed somehow no matter what actual name the posture has.  I didn't see any reason to argue with any teacher, I still have little enough reason to believe that I am correct.

The Mountain Circle or Shoulder Stroke or Kao was one that I had to change my understanding of a few times.  The actual movement called Shoulder Stroke in the Yang form is done with both hands coming together just before White Crane Spreads It's Wings.  I was taught multiple ways of doing this transition, which I now see were different circles being used.

In Master Jou's book and the Taiji classics, Diagonal Slanted Flying is the posture specifically associated with this Gua.  Unfortunately, I was taught a different way of doing Diagonal Slanted Flying by different teachers.  I eventually made an "executive decision."  While a few teachers had shown me to do the leading arm in a positive circle, I believe Chen Man'Ching shows two circles going down and out.  This is also how Kao is entered in the San Shou two person Taiji form.  It was interesting for me to meet a prominent student of Chen Man'Ching's who said that the form wasn't static and did get modified many times.  The sequence was the same, but how movements were performed did change with time.

My Chen teacher was particularily proficient and vicious with Split.  While the movement does resemble how many people do the Diagonal Slanted Flying posture and the closed posture can be applied in a Shoulder Stroke, I went with seeing this as emphasizing energies travelling in opposite directions.  In time I became much more comfortable with what I had decided was the Mountain Circle, and that in turn made me more comfortable with what I saw as the Thunder Circle.





The question is what any line would represent in a Gua.  If the bottom line would represent the lead arm and the top line would represent the relationship between the arms, then the Mountain Circle and the Wind Circle would be demonstrated like I show in the videos.  If the bottom line was the relationship, then the Wind Circle would look like what I posted as the Lake Circle, and the Mountain Circle would look like what I posted as the Thunder Circle.  As Mountain and Thunder each had one Yang line, I had trouble seeing which was which.  Similarily, Wind and Lake each have one Yin line. 

It doesn't matter which is which for the Earth or Heaven Circles, as they are completely and clearly opposite.  The second two cardinal directions, Fire and Water, were easier to see than the four corners.  The 8 circles were still there even if I couldn't always decide which circle was associated with which of the gua.  The corners still have me questioning myself sometimes.  Sorting out Fire and Water was based on the physical shape and application or the circles.

Fire or Push or An was a source of confusion in that the Chen Form I learned (and other Chen styles, and one of the Wu styles) taught it was pushing downward, like I show here.  The Yang Form had some teachers showing a downward push, but many uprooted doing something more like the forward portion of the Cai circle above.  Others did something like the closing portion of the Mountain Trigram.  This inconsistency had me deciding if I just made the effort to learn circles well, then I could apply any type of An.  The 8 circles were there but exact shape of a specific technique would vary widely and which circle would be employed changed from person to person and style to style.  The differences between the Fire, Wind and Heaven Circles are subtle if the rising portion of the circle is being used, as is the difference between Mountain Circle closing and Fire Circle sinking.  It just helps me to see the different circles.

This one was a huge lightbulb moment.  I had been just going through all 8 circles with little idea what to call most of them when I noticed that the closing of this one very much resembles the Yang Form Press or Ji or Water.  The lead hand on the bottom is retreating and the rear hand comes forward and this works very well in push hands for me.  The Taiji poem about the coin thrown on the drumhead makes sense to me here.  The poem also talks about opening and closing in an instant, which is what this circle does.

The further use I have for this is actually in Aikido.  I talked before about the Thunder Circle resembling an Aikido Sokumen Iriminage.  My wife does a variation of this style of Iriminage that is very clearly using the Water Circle opening movement.  In Aikido, these very different things have the same name and I found I could progress past sticky Aikido debates by seeing the circles.

Elbow Stroke or Zhou or Lake was one of the basics that I had never even heard mentioned when I first learned the form.  I was surprised that it was one of the 8 core movements.  I did read that Circle Fist is also associated with Elbow Stroke.  The Taiji poem mentions that it is very widely applied and very dangerous, but I seldom heard the name used.  The Chen form taught movements called Elbow Stroke that used the Wind Circle and another form used the Thunder Circle.  I stayed with the 8 circles and I used this one as the Lake Circle.



There are many additional differences in how these circles can be employed, and in how they are done.  This was where I saw the Torso method being applied.

The Hand Method

So, this is 20 years worth of my understanding of Taiji distilled.  I started in 1990 with the Yang system under Stephen Berman, and with Master Jou as a source of inspiration (I trained with several of his students, but I never met him personally) I trained with Ronnie Yee in Hong Ju Shen's Chen Style, then later I met Jay Dunbar of Magic Tortoise and studied the Wu/Hao form.  I had other influences along the way, but these were the main ones.

This is my own stuff though.  Every master I have asked has told me I am wrong.  I have accepted their viewpoint and their superior understanding, and still came back to this same understanding year after year.  So, follow me at your own risk but I can't stop thinking along these lines.

I was frustrated during my time with Yang style because I didn't see any underlying principles though they were always referenced.  I trained in Aikido all the time I went to different Taiji schools, and it was in Aikido classes that I would take the time to experiment and play with what I had been shown in Taiji choreography. 

The Taiji classics talk about the Hand Method, the Torso Method and the Mind Method.  Under these headings, Taiji has 13 techniques represented by the Bagua (8 trigrams) and the Five Elements.  While these are the same Five Elements used in Chinese medicine and the Bagua is based on the Daoist priniciple of Yin and Yang, the symbols and ideas are not directly related to the Daoist religion or Chinese medicine.  Yin and Yang, combined in the Taiji symbol, was a concept that was broadly based and widely embraced but there was no central authority to limit or rigidly proscribe the use.  Similarily, Taiji's use of the Five Elements is not derived from or related to the Five Elements of Xing Yi Chuan though the names and symbols are the same.

There are exercises in the Chen Style I studied that really started to show me how to use whole body power and gave me a sense of what the internal connections and structure were like.  In terms of the hands, there aren't many options.  While I was told there was no connections, my teacher showed me a "Positive Circle" and a "Negative Circle."  (We had a couple of flakes show up one night for practice who were so upset by the name Negative Circle that they left the school on the spot.  Don't get hung up on the names.  They're not my names either.)

The exercises start with the lead hand circling forward and down (Positive) and then the second circle is going forward and rising (Negative). 

The rear hand can also circle in the same fashion.  The two hands can be moving on the same plane, or they can be offset from each other.  So two options each for two hands and two options for how they related.  2x2x2=8. 



So, two positive circles on the same plane or three solid lines:

Changing between circles can get more complicated, with both hands changing direction from an open or a closed position or one hand paused in an open or closed position.



Three negative circles offset or three broken lines:

So, most of the thinking I did started here.  The three solid lines when interpreted this way resemble the Peng shape of Grasp Sparrow's Tail, and the three broken lines resemble the Lu shape of the same sequence.  At least, half of the continuous circle resembled those final shapes.  And that's where I started to see the Torso method.

I plan to cover the rest soon.

"Find your own way."

I am starting to hate this statement.  It's not that I don't know that it's true.  It is.  And I find my own way very often in class.  I'm now working on the feeling/sensing practice.  I've put nearly 20 years into Kihon style practice, and I think I'm ready for some occassional Flexible and Ki-no-nagare practice.

Lately Aikido Journal has had some bloggers who are telling their students that the responsibility for learning is their own (Yes, very true).  "Mom, I failed my algebra test.  My teacher sucks."  There are lazy students out there, no question.  One writer said to ignore all Ki exercises and make up your own.  I can't agree with that, and I think the idea of finding your own way needs to be qualified.

Masters in the past had knowledge, and sought to pass it on.  They developed vehicles to transmit their knowledge.  I could spend years on my own and never accidently rediscover what they already know and are trying to teach me.  I do need to go my own way at times, but if I refuse the guidance of those before me what is the point to belonging to a lineage, a style, a dojo?  I think some people believe "Learn, and Forget" is a process that goes faster if they never bother to learn in the first place.  The historical body of knowledge that Aikido represents will be lost of we don't even try to acquire it.  What we chose to never acquire, we can't teach and a part of the art is lost.

As a teacher, I should hope to know more than the people lined up in front of me.  I have a responsibility to keep practicing, growing and learning.  Creavitity is an important part of that process.  I will need to find out how a technique feels on my own, because no one can make me feel something.  My teachers can only give me guidance and feedback, and that's all I can give to others.

There are necessary insights to be gained from practice.  Senior instructors from a variety of dojo and styles often prove their worth to me by giving me a moment of "I never thought of that."  There are many people out there showing and doing things I've never seen before, and that excites me.

Years ago at the 30th anniversary summer camp of New York Aikikai, I attended a class that showed a way of entering on a strike that I thought I had "created."  As no one taught it to me, I guess I did.  I wanted to be able to do Aikiotoshi to other attacks and not just Ushiro Ryokatadori. 

This one class did more than just prove I was reinventing a wheel.  The class was a full hour and showed several ways to utilize this entry that I had never even thought of - and most were a big improvement on my own creation.  In the years since, I found "my" entry in The Dynamic Sphere and it's the 4th basic technique in Tomiki style Aikido.

I continue to get creative - but I realize that my best efforts are still stumbling down well trod paths of centuries worth of martial artists before me.  I don't get to create so much as rediscover.  Doing this work on my own gives me a better starting point when I meet that teacher who has something to show me that expands my world.  I'm grateful for the insights.  I see the need to do the work on my own.

It's just so much easier to be a lazy coward than to do the work, both as a student and as a teacher. 

As a student, new material makes me feel stupid.  I feel clumsy, and I need to move slower and of course I do it worse.  New learning is not positively reinforced.  There's an ugly process of learning to use a new tool, a new ingredient that hopefully will feel wonderful very soon.  The odds are I'll run back to the safety of what I already know instead.  I'll probably only embrace the new idea if it is more comfortable to me than the old way of doing things.  The one way isn't better than the other, but given the freedom to 'find my own way' I'll probably pick what I like and never fully acheive what I don't like.  I'm wanting to be the experienced one in the class; I don't want to be the one who is needing to learn and practice.  I need to keep myself on track.

I'll hear the spiritual sounding justifications for what amounts to martial hedonism.  "I don't like the energy of (fill in the blank)," is a comment I hear too often.  I hear this aimed at several surrounding dojo, or techniques or style of practice.  Everyone seems to "love the energy" of the hot large breasted woman with perfect legs and gorgeous hair who doesn't shoot you down when you practice with her.

It's okay not to like a style of practice, or to be scared of a technique or to find someone disagreeable.  Just be honest and say, "I don't like this," instead of using some emotive pseudopsycho babble that makes you feel better about standing in judgement. 

With new knowledge, often times there is a different style of ukemi or throw involved that makes a person uncomfortable because they are scared (but not willing to do the work to learn how to not be afraid), or they don't want to feel and look stupid.  So, they never learn but start to talk righteously about their blind spot because they can't admit to being afraid or having a fragile ego. 

As teachers, we've gone through kindergarten.  We don't want to repeat elementary school.  We want to go forward and be creative.  We don't want to be rehashing the basics.  It's easy to tell the student to find their own way and dodge our own responsibilities as a sempai.  We don't have to admit we don't know how to teach something, don't like doing it, that we feel clumsy and stupid just trying to do this thing we hope to avoid.  We talk like we're giving the student a huge gift by refusing to teach them and we don't have to admit publicly that we're afraid or our ego is too fragile to take a risk and take responsibility.

I hear many people being told to focus on ukemi.  Ukemi is important for the health of the student and they gain a longer career in Aikido.  But, if the student is doing the ukemi, I get to experiment with the throw.  I think some of the talk of focusing on ukemi is the teacher can now better endulge themselves.

While the head teacher endulges themselves creatively, the junior instructors take over the grading preparation until they also learn that they don't have to either:  "I want you to find your own way!"  So, the junior students start to prepare each other without much guidance.  As they have less experience and knowledge, they have less to pass on to each other.  The blind lead the blind.  The dojo as a whole degrades.

Infighting starts.  One person likes one idea, and some else likes another.  Who is right?  Neither student has trained long enough yet to know 'the correct way' is an incorrect idea that hampers their own growth.  Which variation you pick becomes a declaration of loyalty and friendship.  Blind spots now become cherished.  The head teacher goes on to explore whatever they want (pursue their own mastery, Yes, a very important thing to do.)  In a larger dojo, the teacher who does focus on the test preparation is the one who gets looked down on by the students.  The other classes are so much more fun, I "like the energy" of the other classes.  I don't want to do the basics, I want to do the advanced/cool/impressive/spiritual/martial stuff.

Until the night of testing.  Wow, people don't know what they need to know to pass!  It was your responsibility to know!  The instructor doesn't want to take responsibility for the elementary school level teaching or the stuff they don't like to practice.  Maybe that variation was good enough after all.  You've performed great service to this dojo.  People like you, you're friendly and you're attractive.  You represent a demographic we need to have better represented here.  I want to encourage you to continue and I think your ego is too weak for me to fail you and still have you practicing, still have you pay monthly dues.  Pass. 

Grades get given, people get passed out of sympathy.  Now the new students want to know their test material - and the person who didn't pass on merit last time is the person who offers the help the new student.  Who resists the chance to be a teacher?  Someone is asking me for help, of course I need to help them!  After all, I were given that rank so I must be ready to help someone else prepare for it.  And it's such an ego boost!  And I won't enjoy the self examination of my own abilities.

I had a student once that I taught Aikido to who ended up breaking her wrist slipping on the ice after I had spent years teaching her to fall correctly.  I feel that reflects on me, and badly.  As a nurse, when I precept I draw on that experience.  If I don't prepare a new nurse adequately they might kill a patient, they might leave someone suffering they could have helped, they might burn out and quit.  How ready they are for the job is a reflection of me.  They can find their own way after that, but I need to do my part because I am the teacher.  I am the Sempai, and that gives me a role to play and not just privileges.

As a martial arts teacher, I can't teach a self defense class without getting a sick feeling.  Am I really doing enough?  This isn't just for grading, I want them to live!  What would I do if they had to fight to survive?  Would they be ready, would they be full of false bravado, would they get raped, killed and left to bleed to death in a ditch?  Would that be my fault?  I can't help but feel sick taking the responsibility for their life.  I think too many instructors have a very easy time washing their hands after they walk off the mat.  In Aikido, we can wash our hands because we can make a spiritually toned arguement that we had no intention of being combat ready anyway. 

What if we taught a bad person to be a more efficient thug?  Is the pain they cause my fault? 

If a prison guard or cop came to your Aikido dojo asking for help, would you just tell them Aikido is not about winning?  Containing a prison riot or arresting a suspect is a skill some people need to have.  If you need to have these skills, failure is dangerous.  Would you turn away a student telling them you can't teach them what they need to know?  Would their future failures be my fault whether I took responsibility for them or refused to help them?

Students do need to grow and develop, and we can't do everything for them.  I can't stretch for them.  But, I should be the one who can teach them to stretch safely and effectively and I should be able to evaluate how well that information I've given them was understood and I should reevaluate if I gave the student the best answer for them, the answer that would give them the new ability or insight I am trying to pass on.  If they don't get what I'm saying or my attempts to help them prove harmful, I need to have the courage and responsibility to ask if I could have done better as a teacher.

We are taking a huge responsibility for them.  We might want to put the responsibility on the student and we might want the ego strokes and money their loyalty gives us.  But, to be worth our students' loyalty our responsibilities are to their mental, emotional and physical health and their induction to a time honoured tradition that will hopefully make them better people and better members of society as well as better fighters.

We need to give students some freedom to grow.  But, we can't tell our students to "find their own way" to hide our own shortcomings or abdicate our responsibility for them.

Tenshin

I have only recently learned that Tenshin is the name of the Aikido association that follows Steven Seagal Sensei.  This blog entry is about a type of movement used by the USAF.

Tenshin was a movement I never really knew the name for when I was a Kyu rank.  At 2nd Kyu, we had to do Yokomenuchi Kokyunage 3 ways, and Tsuki Ikkyo to Yonkyo.  All of the tsuki techniques were done with tenshin, and I did at least one of the Yokomenuchi techniques with a tenshin opening.  Using the footwork as a throw in and of itself, with few embellishments, really helped me feel how powerful the motion could be.

Around my 2nd kyu, I moved to Lake Louise for a year and a half.  While in between jobs, I went to the USAF summer camp to see Moriteru Ueshiba (then Waka Sensei).  After a week of mostly USAF teachers, I was struck by this one movement - "It's like an irimi-tenkan, only moving in another direction!" is how I would later try to describe it to my peers in Saskatoon Aikikai.  I came across this movement many times with USAF lineage teachers and with much broader application as tenshin was commonly done as a small part of a larger technique.

The new USAF test requirements have made this one of three ways to describe a technique, and it is one of the primary ways to receive any attack.  I like to talk about 4 corners (an entire blog on it's own) and it's definitely one of the primary corners.  Saito Sensei does demonstrate tenshin movement too, but he is very specific about when it should and should not be used.  I think tenshin has many traps and pitfalls and is all too often practiced badly or inappropriately.  I'll try to get some video to add to this blog.

Before I go further, I try to follow O Sensei's rules for practice.   He clearly asks us to be aware of all directions at all times, and he is clear that Aikido is an art for fighting against a larger group.  This is why our pins don't look like Judo pins, this is why we don't lie on the ground and choke someone out.  We can see the whole room from our pin, and we can move and defend from any direction.  The basic kata give us a number of ways to deal with a group of attackers, but we train one-on-one most of the time.  When kata make no sense, consider the form if you were surrounded by a larger group of people.

I do not have eyes on the back of my head.  All of my sensory organs aim forward or to the side with the exception of touch.  I move forward well, but no one can move as well backwards as they do forwards.   We're just not built that way.  If I think the mat is crowded, I'm more likely to practice moving in a tight corridor - but this makes my practice worse.  I start to try to only move in a narrow area to avoid collisions with other pairs, giving more advantage to uke.  I don't learn to get off the line, and I don't learn to use centrifical force.  Finally, after practicing like this for months, when I do have an empty mat I'm still more likely to move straight.  When freestyle happens against multiple attackers, the exercise becomes contrived because my techniques are becoming fake.  I never learn "mat sense" as I never need to.   Ukes get reprimanded by onlookers if they get too close to a throw in progress.  It's all done for a good reason, but it makes my Aikido worse and reinforces mistakes.

Too many Aikido people try to move straight backwards when doing tenshin.  We do this because there is no consequence in many dojos for doing so and often because of crowded conditions.  It also shows a desire to escape instead of engage our attackers. 

When I just move straight backwards, my uke will be pulled on top of me.  I add to his attacking force while making myself less able to dodge it.  I also can't see what is right behind me.  I might trip over any number of things or run out of room or walk into a second attack.  In a recent Sandan test, the nage tripped over someone she herself threw in the middle of a freestyle.  It wasn't a bad accident and she recovered well.  What if the surface was more dangerous, like a floor covered in broken glass, or rocks or stairs?  What if the surface ended, like a subway platform?  What if I'm against a wall?  With entering movements or tenkan, these situations provide opportunities for nage.  Stepping backwards without full awareness give uke a huge advantage.

What happens by accident in practice can happen on purpose in a real situation and the results might be worse.  If I collide with the wall or step off the mat or trip on someone, I try to wake myself up and take responsibility for my error.  Sometimes, I like to specifically put myself in a position where I might collide with the wall, just to see if I will.

There is a drill I sometimes see where uke attacks forward continually and nage is just supposed to receive with tenshin until the opposite end of the room is reached.  I think this drill is a mistake to practice - it encourages tunnel vision on one attacker and it makes nage move in a very linear fashion.  With a more circular movement, I might never reach the other side of the room.  I prefer to practice a tenkan or an irimi to the second strike.

The Shotokan Karate kata almost always move forward.  There might be a single step back or sideways, but mostly they change direction and start moving forward in another direction.  If I am already in motion, tenshin is a difficult movement to do as I need to fight my momentum and reverse my direction.  On an icy surface, I already know I'll probably fall over.  Irimi and Tenkan allow me to conserve and continue momentum, tenshin is to initiate movement and creates momentum.  So, while the USAF is making this a basic movement I still see Irimi and Tenkan as being more useful and more easily martially applied.

I like to turn more with my tenshin, and I really emphasize the sideways motion.  If I end up facing at least 90 degrees to the original direction, I can now see what is behind me and still see what was in front.  It's very easy to continue to motion with my hips and see the whole 360 around me in the single movement.

To make the initial sideways motion, I need to be on my front foot.  If I've already tried to shift away from the attacker I need to use my forward leg to move.  It's not wrong, but I see too many people shift away, then shift forward so they can move sideways then move again - and it takes too long.  If your weight is on your back foot, there are other types of motion for this situation and don't bother with tenshin.  This footwork is for leading and blending, but to do that you do need to be engaged and connected to your attacker.

People will shift back unconsciously, and it's usually because they are nervous or don't want to be a violent person.  I can see people who are doing this just to escape, without any thought of where they are escaping to or what advantage they hope to gain.  This introduces problem of intent.  Too many people do the tenshin in practicing their Kata with no intention.  I can look at people and see who is thinking, "that was a wasted extra bit of motion on the front of the technique" or "Now I can Start to counter attack (after their tenshin is finished).  Tenshin is a solid platform for a variety of strikes and throws as well as an opportunity to get to a more advantageous position against a group.  If you never put any intention into this moment of initial contact, you're doing yourself a disservice.

In a 1935 video, O Sensei shows a tenshin motion against a rifle and bayonet going into an Ikkyo movement.  While many people start with the Yokomenuchi Shihonage movement when they first learn tenshin, tenshin is not always done pulling down.  Against a firearm or a bladed weapon, pulling down and towards my own abdomen would be fatal and lifting up while getting off the line gets me to a safer place.  Tenshin can be done moving to Gedan (downwards), Chudan (across) or Jodan (upwards); with only one of either hand making contact or both;  with the hands moving together or in different directions.

I mentioned Saito Sensei earlier.  When I read his books, the tenshin movement is used in Ki No Nagare practice, with a different corner used for Kihon practice.  Saito Sensei's use of tenshin is almost strictly relegated to techniques in motion I think.  I interpret when the motion hasn't begun or is stopped or uke is rooted, you do not open up and lead directly in front of uke.  I try to encourage students to do tenshin before they are grabbed and not wait for uke to grab them and lock down.

A final comment mirrors my own initial impressions.  I called tenshin "an irimi tenkan that moved away" when I first saw it.  I'm seeing a teacher occasionally step more forward and people are calling this irimi tenshin.  Stepping Forward and then leading or blending is irimi tenkan.  The lead for irimi tenkan does not have to be 180 degrees; it just is for the beginner's class (Yamada Sensei will show a 90 degree motion.)  Tenshin is emphasizing the leading out motion, Irimi emphasizes the entering and when done to the inside there should be a strike to the face.  The two are something I try to keep very separate in my practice, but eventually they both need to come out spontaneously and the difference between the two can get very murky at the midway point between them.  Eventually, there is no correct name and I think that's the most correct labelling.  Tenshin is ultimately just a tool to be used singularily or in combination or discarded with when appropriate.