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Intuition, the invisible action a collection of all actions practiced. After years of practice this is what I have come to understand as intuition. I observed that when I practice a technique whether it works or not my body and mind remembers it. That is each and every moment of practice I have ever done. Overtime, I think I have practiced a certain technique thousands of times and each time collecting information that is evaluated by both my mind and body. The purpose here than is the next time I do the technique all that information will and does come into play. It floods both mind and body instantaneously into action, without the slightest thought. A process of which is completely devoid of all that conscious and analytical stuff that goes on in the forefront of our minds.
When I don't interrupt my intuitive process with my forefront thoughts of judgment and all those things, I am freer to act and discover. As an Observer rather than an actively committing self-evaluation, I allow all that stored information to flow freely and come into play in a heat-beat. And I like that.
The biggest pothole to my intuition of course is my own active judgmental stuff hijacking my intuition. Once that is done, the doubt monster takes over and finishes me off to where I completely stop, shut down. Resulting in me having to slump off to a corner diseased with self-doubt, and nursing a wounded ego. You should see it, I mentally do beautiful wazas on myself. My mental Aikido is purely excellent; I defeat myself like no one else can. It is flawless waza every time. I am my own enemy, my own foe. I am that foe O'Sensei speaks of in his poems.
But, if I choose to drive around that pothole, and trust in my intuition regardless of pulling off the technique or not, I win. Why, well that is just more information to store and use later without thought. The most wonderful thing is that I am not defeating myself with mental wazas. If I turn my thoughts off follow my favorite book, "Zen of Tennis" and also put my mental game face on, my technique comes off allot better. I am in the zone more often than not.
I have found intuitional training to be my best training partner. It is an invisible action that takes time to adjust to. It is hard to let go of those old patterned ways especially if your training and instruction didn't start off with intuitional training. On my road to Aikido started with a lot of potholes that I hit and hit hard. It has been a road full of potholes, in my Aikido journey. Potholes that have forced me to understand and take a new perspective on how I look at and approach my Aikido. Simply put, I have discovered a great insight and greater success in my Aikido, and to trust my Aikido intuition and not to judge myself.
Will I ever be the greatest skilled or even skilled enough of Aikidoka to be popular, or will I ever be considered formidable, probably not. But, what I will have is the wonderment and joy of discovery and learning in my Aikido. My self discovery of my stuff and the benefits gleaned from that are what I measure at the core of what true waza is for me.
Oh, and btw, fame is nice, but it is over rated am told, and a hell of a lot of work staying famous. I am too lazy and stupid for that, and leave that to others that are more qualified. Now-if I wanted to be a formidable fighter, I would not be a martial artist. Instead, I would be a quick-drawing, sharp shooting son of a gun, who could run fast. But, I choose Aikido instead, and the payoff has been immeasurable.