Poll: How important is right/left symmetry in your physical aikido practice?

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[AikiWeb System]

AikiWeb Poll for the week of November 26, 2006:

How important is right/left symmetry in your physical aikido practice?

I don't do aikido
Critically important
Very important
Somewhat important
Not very important
Not at all important


Here are the current results (http://www.aikiweb.com/polls/results.html?poll_id=351).

[SeiserL]

IMHO, very important.

[connie brown]

It helps your body balance/poise/ internal balance if your technique is more or less symetrical. Like if your falls are uneven for instance your body gets more out of whack. But I think that the symetry of Aikido helps to align the system over time.

[Amir Krause]

Depends on the training type:

Empty hand - we normally train both sides equally, I even try to stress my weaker side since I can feel a significant difference.
Weapons - each weapon has some traditional way of handling, which is not equal for right and left.

Amir

[Rupert Atkinson]

Training both sides gives natural coordination. This is one of the strong points of Aikido.

[DevinHammer]

Depends what you mean by "symmetry ". Training equally on both sides, or having a certain body symmetry during a technique (i.e. keeping both sides 'live', equally weighted, etc.). Please clarify.

[billybob]

Few people are truly symmetrical. We define right or left handed in american culture. We were taught that 'all swordsmen are right handed', so I never grip the bokken left handed.

I agree that we should Train for symmetry - so why don't we train left handed sword techniques?

david

[Hanna B]

I agree that we should Train for symmetry - so why don't we train left handed sword techniques?
In some places, they do. I have seen Swedish and German aikido teachers during a seminar they taught together telling/showing each other, slightly enbarrassed, that they teach/train both sides only to get the reply that the others did the same. "Just never do it when there's a Japanese [teacher] around!"

[Mark Uttech]

Few people are truly symmetrical. We define right or left handed in american culture. We were taught that 'all swordsmen are right handed', so I never grip the bokken left handed.

I agree that we should Train for symmetry - so why don't we train left handed sword techniques?

david

Some of the tradition is always kept intact. The jo is used on both sides, and Saotome's two sword system helps to train both sides.

In gassho,

Mark

[billybob]

Thanks for those posts!

I am truly asymmetrical. People used to smile when new people were attacked by me. Getting over the physical issues that cause it, but I wanted to add that we make our bodies asymmetrical all the time. Carpenters swing hammers with the same hand through a whole forty year career. We write with the same hand, etc.

Aikido, walking, swimming, maybe they counter these other aspects.

dave

[rcoit]

one word - balance