The Most Essential Principles of Budo: Structure

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[Peter Boylan]

A while back, over on Aikido-L (for those who remember it!) we were discussing the most important principles of Aikido. I ended up boiling the question down even further and wondering what the most essential principles of budo are. These would be principles that are essential no matter what art you studying. My first one is structure, and I wrte this blog post in regards to it.

http://budobum.blogspot.com/2014/06/the-most-essential-principles-in-budo.html

What do you think? Did I miss something even more essential?

[Janet Rosen]

Nice post. I would suggest that much of what we discuss under "relaxation," "mind at one point," "extend," etc are all ways to shorthand/visualize/manifest improvements in structure.

[Peter Boylan]

We're not very good at talking about alignment of hand bones or spinal column and putting it into application. Talking about one-point or relaxation or extension are much more effective ways of getting our body to do what we want.

[Janet Rosen]

We're not very good at talking about alignment of hand bones or spinal column and putting it into application. Talking about one-point or relaxation or extension are much more effective ways of getting our body to do what we want.

Actually...having a knowledgeable person touch the muscle that needs to fire or give a very specific body use term is even more helpful. It is SOOO easy to misinterpret metaphor....

[Erick Mead]

A while back, over on Aikido-L (for those who remember it!) we were discussing the most important principles of Aikido. I ended up boiling the question down even further and wondering what the most essential principles of budo are. These would be principles that are essential no matter what art you studying. My first one is structure, and I wrte this blog post in regards to it.

http://budobum.blogspot.com/2014/06/the-most-essential-principles-in-budo.html

What do you think? Did I miss something even more essential?

Linear ranking, I think is far too simplistic to capture an important aspect of the relationships between fundamentals.

Like five-element theory, I Ching, or ichirei sangen shikon hachiriki all important components interact with the others -- and in multiple dimensions, and in patterned ways but with no set orders of priority.

If I were to list five (not magical, that's just all I have in mind at the moment) I'd say:

Sensitivity. Structure. Rhythm. Connection. Continuity.

As a first cut...

[Peter Boylan]

Actually...having a knowledgeable person touch the muscle that needs to fire or give a very specific body use term is even more helpful. It is SOOO easy to misinterpret metaphor....

Janet, sadly, I have rarely had the pleasure of working with someone who can give that sort of physically specific direction. I'm jealous.

[Janet Rosen]

Janet, sadly, I have rarely had the pleasure of working with someone who can give that sort of physically specific direction. I'm jealous.

Heck, I don't get it that often either :)