Where does your practice begin from?
When I train in the CAF and USAF, we start in Hamni.
The USAF dojo where I am now gives higher weight to Ki no Nagare style movement or Ki flow. This has the benefit of having a sense of the encounter beginning before we make physical contact. In Ki no Nagare, eventually Yokomenuchi, Shomenuchi, Tsuki, Katadori, Munedori, Katamenuchi all the way up to punch then do a triple kick to the head followed by some flying guillotine, eventually we get to respond to the first sign of movement so it all starts to look the exact same. No waiting for someone to get their hands on your throat, no being an easy target. We should feel connected and engaged from across the room.
In the CAF, we gave more regular weight to Kihon. (We didn't call it that, this is a Saito Sensei term and the only one I ever heard for solid practice.) We waited until we were grabbed Morotedori, then as Uke became as solid as they could, then we moved. The same for any Ushiro work. One of my sempai was a power lifter, and someone who did not get moved easily. Kokyu Ho (Breath Power) was exhausting, but left me able to find the connections and structure to issue force.
The two ideas are very complimentary, and I have come to agree with Saito Sensei that Kihon should be the starting point - if your timing is bad in Ki no Nagare, you need to be able to respond to actually having someone grab you. The shape your body should default to in Ushiro work is still the hands in front and close together for either practice. Without learning Kihon first, then a student asks Uke to move more lightly and possibly fake the ukemi instead of taking the responsibility of moving Uke.
Hamni is used as the default position. It's the position a throw gets completed from. The position a second throw would be launched from. A person who practices like this should be learning to have one or twenty attackers should be treated the same. Each split second of a technique is the shape and structure of another response to a different attacker. A standing pin is often Hamni as well, and for the same reason.
Shizentai seems to be the default position in Tandoku. This is the starting point in Shotokan Karate immediately before and after a kata. If two competitors are squaring off before the referee blows the whistle, this is the posture you see them adopt as they size each other up. This is a common meditation posture in the Chinese Internal Arts called Wuji. No forward motion. No extreme posture. A relaxed springboard. A position of stillness and rest, and similar to an everyday posture. The person who practices like this should be ready at any moment during their day to launch into any movement.
One of the big changes I saw in O Sensei over time - in the 1935 Asahi News video, he strikes a pose in between throws. In his later life, he's walking. Just good upright posture with his feet rolling underneath him as he goes about his day, moving into Hamni when he needs to (which didn't seem to be often) then back to continuous movement. No worrying if the correct foot was forward when the Uke attacked, no poses or pauses between movements, no forced stopping. No trying to make the power stance of Hamni something used to walk across the room - Hamni to Hamni is an awkward way to walk and not really a way to adopt as an everyday stride.
Depending on where I was training, I could expect a dojo to tell me any one of these practices was "Not Aikido." I see advantages to training all the above.
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