"Mostly Harmless." Or, Atemi in Aikido.

I had been a Shotokan Karate student in the 6^th grade, and briefly in the Canadian Rockies.  Now I was living in a town with a large, well thought of Shotokan School just 20 minutes from my house.  I had recently passed my Shodan test in Aikido, and I wanted to know more about Atemi. 

 

During a Karate seminar (I cannot remember who was teaching) I was shown a wide variety of what was possible to achieve with a strike.  Then, the teacher said, “Locks are for only if you don’t want to hurt the person.”  Interestingly enough, the “lock” he showed involved pulled the arm straight and doing a palm strike to the elbow.  He would have broken the elbow if he had used any force, and it looked more like a strike than a lock.  The teacher’s thesis was both inaccurate and poorly demonstrated.  To hear this “Locks are Harmless” one-note assessment of the majority of Aikido techniques had me shaking my head at how uninformed the karate students were.  But, their knowledge of what could be done with a strike was still opening completely new doors to my understanding.

On the one hand, of course the teacher was right.  We don’t routinely get broken elbows and necks in our classes.  We modify our techniques for safe practice, and no one gets hurt.  We try not injure people whenever we have a choice.  But, Shotokan students are not routinely killed either and also modify their techniques for safety.  They also preach a graded response to violence.  Not all strikes automatically have to kill the attacker, not all strikes to the eyes automatically leave someone permanently blind.

 

I was a contentious student in too many ways.  I never emptied my cup or forgot what I already knew.  I would raise my eyebrows when told this movement was to block a kick to my knee,

and had no relationship to this movement: 

In hindsight, I do owe them an apology for being puffed up and full of myself, and I owe them gratitude for their patience with me.

Today, with Boxing, Wrestling, Fencing, Tae Kwon Do, Kendo, Judo, Kick Boxing - we want the one art to have one strategy, one skill set.  Rules for competition set the restrictions in the other Arts, but we don't compete.  Aikido was never meant to be only the “wrist lock Art,” nor was Karate meant to be the “striking only Art.”  I needed to realize that for each Art to express its skill set well, teachers who were better informed than I was giving them credit for were deliberately restricting the students.  So, for Karate students, to learn to kill with a single blow, every motion was practiced as a strike.  For Aikido students, we were learning to lock and throw - practicing striking distracted beginners from this.

 

From "The Bubishi, the Bible of Karate," (paraphrased and added to by me) there are different types of effects one can have on an attacker with strikes:

1. Pain

2. Paralysis/impaired function

- weakness to numbness to joint destruction

3. Knock out/impaired consciousness

- dizziness to out cold

4. Impaired sensory function

- temporary to permanent

5. Organ trauma

6. Impaired respiratory function

- yes, the lungs are organs but we need air uniquely enough that this deserves its’ own category, plus I can affect someone's breathing without touching their chest (hitting the mouth, throat, nose, etc)

7. Interrupted circulation

- from bruising to massive trauma, from a knockout to internal hemorrhage

8. Impaired balance

9. Death

- immediate to imminent  (There is a big difference between instant death and dead in minutes in terms of counter attack.)

10. Distraction

- I was also told to strike to the face whenever entering the center.  Putting the hand up in front of uke’s face gives me some options even if I don’t hit.

11. Illicit a reflex/create movement

 

Of course, we can cause multiple effects with the same movement.  A light tap on someone's nose can make their eyes water and cause a reflexive movement at the same time, a harder one will do the same thing but interfere with breathing to an extent, and a harder one yet will maybe cause the attacker to stumble and turn their head away as well or raise their arm to block.

 

Not all targets listed in the Bubishi are lethal.  Stamping on the outer edge of the foot is one example that will not kill someone but will impair the attacker’s ability to fight.  Some targets in the Bubishi would be better struck with a bladed weapon, some would be better hit with an impact weapon, some of these targets are best (in my opinion) “struck” (damaged) by having the attacker fall on them. 

 

Can't the same effects on an attacker listed above happen with our own core techniques?  A choke can suffocate and render someone unconscious; a lock on the neck can break it and cause death or permanent paralysis.  We can cause pain, or we can sprain, dislocate, or shatter a joint.  Locks can make breathing impossible, or cause internal bruising.  Higikime and Udekimenage can break elbows.  People have had skulls and necks broken by Shihonage, Iriminage, Kaitenage and Ikkyo.  Our techniques aren't the reason we take the moral highroad.  Our philosophy can be expressed in our movements when we are mindful.

 

Hearing someone else talk about the limited utility of locks had me thinking about some Aikido teachers (not Sensei) who said the only purpose of our atemi was a distraction, and that we should never even make contact.  Atemi maybe add so much more than just that.  I had heard Aikido refer to striking arts as "low-brow" but my exposure to Karate was showing me this absolutely wasn't true.

 

All of our techniques depend on unbalancing the opponent, either physically or mentally.  Why not use a strike to achieve this?  Some say, "It's less harmonious and compassionate.”  Like all of our locking and throwing techniques, our atemi can make for a graduated response.  I would sooner stun someone, make him or her blink, or knock the wind out of them rather than break their elbows.  Stamping on someone’s foot and running away is arguably more compassionate than a throw that might cause serious injury to a person who doesn’t know how to fall. 

 

Kawahara Sensei had some very powerful and solid atemi, and he showed them frequently in his seminars but never actually struck his uke with force or speed.  I had no doubt in my mind even feeling the light contact of his fists on my ribs that my bones would crumble whenever he chose. 

                 

I learned about several variations of a single technique from Sensei.  He would show things that were harmlessly controlling, or extremely painful.  He would explain how a particular  joint could be traumatized, or broken.  Very rarely, he would discuss how killing or crippling was possible.  Ikkyo could be solid or flowing, or a platform for koshinage, higikime, atemi and kubishime.  I had seen things demonstrated that make me cringe to remember them.  And, they weren’t all “mostly harmless.”  When he did discuss more violent applications, it was often so that we could practice more safely.  Sometimes, he was not going to let a philsophical mandate prevent him from teaching his students to be safe in the larger world.

 

The one stipulation I use for Aikido atemi is that they should be a part of our kata. Our strikes should work well with our techniques, not be completely divorced and distracting from the core technique. I realized with this understanding that training in Shotokan was not going to improve my Aikido atemi. The solid rooted stances were not meshing well with my desire to keep mobile. MMA was the biggest wakeup call the traditional martial arts teachers had in the last few decades, and tried to bring striking and grappling arts back together as they were intended to be. The final result bears no resemblance to Aikido with Atemi in my opinion.  Arts like Taijiquan will show effective ways to combine a strike, lock and a throw in a single motion.  With a little inspiration, I could see that in what we practice in Aikido as well. 

 

O Sensei's first rule for practice: "Never forget that the techniques we are practicing can kill. Respect your teachers and this fact and pay attention."  We were told by him that we were not learning harmless movements.  We learn a graded response.  Atemi can play a role in that graded response without violating our philosophical mandate.  Atemi might actually be safer and kinder to use than many of our throws and locks.