Balance breaking

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[orenb]

Hi guys,
Can anyone give me tips about balance breaking? it seems to be one of Aikido's (many) illusive concepts.
Thanx

[Chuck Clark]

The best way to answer your questions about kuzushi is to find an instructor that is good at it and study with them.

It is a complex subject and reading a few bits of written "directions" won't help much.

Good luck.

[Nick]

I couldn't agree more, Chuck. It reminds me of the time when I naievely thought I could learn iaido from a book.... I'm just glad the front end of the book had a hefty philosophy section...

-Nick

[MikeE]

I definitely agree with Chuck and Nick, it is one of those intangibles that you cannot learn from reading, or someone telling you. It's kind of like ki, don't try to understand what you can't hope to understand, but with a good instructor you can develop it. One thing that helps my students is doing some selected aiki taiso (i.e. enkei undo,funakogi undo) in pairs.

[Nick]

Actually, ki is quite easy to understand. That's what makes it so complicated.

-Nick

[AikiTom]

I agree with the above. I think it becomes a matter of "ki sensing" to me, that is, where the energy is going - up,down, right, left - and going with it not against it.

That said, I once browsed a judo book in a bookstore that had a simple idea in it: it said to mentally draw a line between your opponent's feet, then right in the halfway point of that line imagine a second line crossing it at an exact right (90 degree) angle - that's your direction of kuzushi, or "off-balancing." Try it for yourself, it's pretty good. Problem: 1) spend too much time looking at feet and you're history 2) hakamas :)

Good luck