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<blogEntry id="3404">
	<title><![CDATA[Physical Theory of KI? -- A Dialogue]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[Credit to Ron Ragusa and Raul Rodrigo for inspiring me to think through this dialogue]

Q: Is Ki just mystical crap? Is it a physical, tangible thing, or just some woo-woo energy of the cosmos?

A:  There are very good reasons to accept Ki as a physcial concept and a real perceptible thing that can be understood in purely physical terms, and yes, to actually justify, in a sense, some of the statements that is like an "energy" that pervades the universe.

Q: Accepting an assertion that Ki is a part of the energy spectrum pervading all the universe --  raises a few questions.

A:  I'm going to take up the issue because the premise of the likely questions (and the implied belief of others on the woo-woo front) both illustrate the misperceptions of the concept of Ki, understood physically.

Q: Where in the spectrum does the energy of Ki lie?

A: Ki is the oscillation forming every wavelength of the spectrum.

Q:  What is the wave length of Ki?

A: Any of them, because Ki is the wave oscillation, itself.

Q:  What is the exchange particle responsible for the transmission of Ki energy?

A:  Every wave/particle possesses Ki which is its oscillation. Even the background vacuum oscillates from zero to +1/-1, constantly.

Q: What theory of physics predicts the existence of Ki energy or the Ki particle?

A:   All three -- classical, relativistic and quantum mechanics, are predictive of angular momentum (which defines oscillation) as a more fundamental quantity relating what we commonly distinguish as mass and energy.

All "energy" is carried in quanta of wave/particles, but even massless energy, such as light, has a non-zero angular momentum defined by its oscillation, alone. Momentum is independent of mass.

Even seemingly at-rest matter with "zero" velocity has momentum called inertial moment. This is the "resistance" of "non-moving" matter shown in Newton's first and third laws of motion. Inertial moment is simply the sum of the oscillations of the mass (and massless) wave/particles within it. In the same exact way that a gyroscope resists motion of its axis because of its periodic motion, the randomly oriented and incessant oscillations of the wave/particles comprising the mass resist any motion, in any direction.

Reduce the the oscillations substantially (cool it) and the inertia of the mass can changes radically in certain ways, as seen in the superfluidity of liquid helium, or BEC states of matter, and more commonly in the simple changes of physical state from gas to liquid to solid.

Align and match the phase of all those oscillations of matter that has loosely bound electrons and you get an electromagnetic field, which being nonrandom, shows the cumulative positive and negative poles of the oscillations which are now coordinated.

Q: Surely this view of Ki cannot be used to relate it to "everything?" What about gravity?  Or are you so woo-woo that you think the yin-yang of Ki involves "anti-gravity?"  OOOOOooo!

A:  Not in the way you suggest.  Seen in this perspective, (although this is speculation on my part), gravity may simply be the "opposite pole" pairing the inertia created by mass oscillation.  "Gravity" is seen to operate as a force, while inertia is not (though there is no rational reason for not calling inertia a "force"), if we choose that convention, since "action" by definition requires a force, and the inertial reaction of mass is also force -- but we somehow fail to fully realize the significance of that fact.  The oversight is simply an artifact of the scheme of analysis -- if you posit forces, vice oscillation (momentum) effects the parity that seems obvious from an angular momentum perspective is hidden by a circular definition in terms of forces, since inertia is rarely recognized as a "force."  Gravity may simply be no more than the fact that all mass pulls other mass because all mass pushes back when pushed. It may be a parity law, after all.  

Q:  Can you propose possible experiments that can be conducted in a lab that would lead to the formulation of a theory explaining Ki energy in terms of physical law?

A:  They've been done (apart from the gravity thing, but that's unnecessary to a practical use of the concepts, just as we didn't worry too much about the lack of a quantum theory of gravity to go to the moon).  It is simply a matter of applying the right physical convention, understood in a broader way to see Ki as a real, physically exploitable and analyzable thing.

Q:  Assuming you may have a point, how then does one put that information into a framework for training?  Would it eventually enable a student to carry out the standard ki tests or otherwise improve Aikido training?

A:  I cannot speak explicitly to the Tohei Ki-testing framework, since I trained through both Saotome and Saito's lineages, and some limited exposure to Yoshinkan. But I don't think that really matters, because Ki is Ki, and training that improves any uses of Ki improves all the uses of Ki.

Q:  What is the nature of Aikido training that your perspective may help to improve, then?  

A:   Aikido training is tapping into the fundamental and powerful nature of oscillatory power (our bipedal balance system is explicitly oscillatory) -- and O Sensei signalled this throughout his teachings on things like kotodama, furitama (spirit shaking), tekubi furi, (wrist shaking) funetori (boat rowing) and any number of Doka, like the red an white jewels, that control the ebb and flow of tides, and my favorite of which, capturing both low frequency (undulating) and high frequency (buzzing) oscillations as the explicit manifestations of Ki is this:

[Quote=O Sensei]The honored techniques of KI
May manifest the spirit of the Great Snake
Or that of Bees
To make such spirits (tama) appear
Is the Way of Takemusu[/quote]

Q:  Is it just a matter of the right techniques?  Are there different techniques or methods of training you would suggest?   

A:  It is my considered opinion that the combined aspects of sensitizing the body to be attuned to these natural rhythms (Ai-ki), allows one to begin to exploit them more readily -- at points in space and time that when there can be no resistance to the manipulation. 

In oscillatory terms that point of absolutely no resistance ( in both spatial and temporal terms) is another explicit concept that O Sensei tauight -- Juuji -- 90 degree or right-angle relationships -- harmonic relationships, creating a driving resonance between two interacting oscillating systems. At 90 degrees phase difference in oscillations, when one system is at maximum positive or negative the other is at zero, and when the one is at zero the other is maximum positive or negative. No resistance is possible in this orientation.

Q:  How is sensitivity to be gained from your perspective? What is it we trying to become sensitive to?

A:  The secret in gaining in sensitivity is simply in rigorous training in the "mystical crap" or otherwise "weird-seeming" aiki taiso -- such as furitama, tekubi furi, ude furi, funetori (and I do not rule out kotodama training, though it has never been taught to me, apart from certain vocalizations for funetori). Paired practice such as the kokyu dosa, and the forms of the waza, help to isolate the sensation of the nature action from the anticipation of the form of the action. These allow one to begin to learn the feel of the other persons structure and dynamic through these mechanisms.

I know it works, because I can literally feel my way into another persons body in a tactile sense in kokyu tanden ho, and the same way my seniors told me they could do when I still thought it was mainly mystical crap (but unmistakeably effective mystical crap). Now I know it is physical. It is as entirely real as the sound I can hear without seeing the immediate cause of it. I may have finally sorted out why, or at least found a decent starting position for doing so.

Q:  What would this perspective mean in trying to better apply Aiki in training and otherwise ?  

A:  One way to approach this in application, I have come to conclude, is to think deeply about the ways in which resonance, harmonics and other aspects of 90 degree relationships may be set up or addressed in the response to attack, and to begin to see how these are already powerfully expressed in the formal waza, especially in the spiral rotations that signal such as situation. And in developing an intense weapons practice where they have to become much more precise, and which finally disposes of any hope of using leverage as the principle of action at the point of engagement.

Q:  Is this any different from what others maintain was developed in the training of aiki in other systems of jujitsu, and notably in Daito Ryu ?  

A:  I have not the resources to compare the portions of the DTR syllabus that O Sensei explicitly dropped. Plainly DTR formed a training regimen directed at Aiki, but as koryu it was primarily pragmatic, not systematic. There were things in addition to pure Aiki in DTR training. Even many techniques in Aikido can be applied to an extent without a good understanding or grasp of physical Aiki.  But that is like saying the butt of a shinken can also crack nuts.  

But my gut at this point tells me that those DTR techniques O Sensei dropped likely exhibited little or none of these principles and were more allied to leverage principles also seen in other schools of jujitsu.  If I am correct, those were therefore discarded, in favor of his more systematic concentration on this view of Ki as a martial tool. Someone around here was working on classifying what was dropped from the DTR syllabus. It may be possible to use this hypothesis as a rubric to examine them to see if this may have been among the rationales (there were surely others, too) that may explain some of those he dropped.

Q:  Back to Ki-tests, how can this perspective practically help in addressing or trainign ki tests ?  

A:  In the case of unbendable arm, one "ki-test" I have been exposed to, it would be to emphasize letting only one of the paired skeletal muscles do work at any given time -- i.e. ensure that the body is orienting itself in properly positive-negative poles in every element when expressing Ki. The more typical situation of untrained persons is to have counter-action of the skeletal muscles at every joint (as with the biceps/triceps) that is used to stabilize the joint fulcrum when using leverage. With leverage, limb rotations are opposed to one another. Ki doesn't use leverage. All rotations go the same way with Ki (until, of course, they automatically reverse (reflect) at some discontinuity and all go back the other way again).

The counteraction (entirely necessary to use effective joint leverage) is wasted energy when using Ki. Leverage stability counteraction directly reduces the effective force of the action muscle. The counter-tension also inhibits the free flow of Ki (understood as oscillation) in the body in the negative (or zero) channels (depending on how you look at it), by damping oscillations that would otherwise move freely, and thus also be felt more clearly.
-----------------------------------------------------
I hope that this dialogue gives some practical and hopefully useful, initial consequences to this admittedly large attempt at a comprehensive physical theory of Ki.  I welcome any comments on the whole set of concepts outlined, either in criticism or suggestion of further inquiry.]]></body>
	<date>01-02-2009</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="3259">
	<title><![CDATA[Aiki Physical Model - Structure &amp; Dynamic]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[Two basic physical models seem appropriate for the human body

1) Torsion tube
2) Double (or multiple) pendulum

The torsion tube can apply to the torso but also to the limbs and to the limbs and torso considered in a continuum.

The double pendulum can be considered as the legs from hips to ground plus the torso from hips to head. Each limb may also be separately a double pendulum, or all of them together form a chain of dependent pendula.

At first glance, these models would seem very different, a torsion tube quite static, the double pendulum quite dynamic, but the structure and dynamic of these models are, in fact, closely related.

This is a stress diagram of a torsion tube:

[IMG]http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=509&d=1215185239[/IMG]

The effect of the torque creates shear on the radial and longitudinal axis of the tube. The diagonal figure shows the resulting linear stresses of the shear -- tension in one diagonal and compression on the other. If you extend these diagonal lines around the surface of the tube, (and torsional shear is always greatest at the surface) then you get two interlaced spirals around the body of the tube.

One spiral is in compression and the other spiral is in tension. The two lines of stress are oriented 90 degrees from one another, and they are both 45 degrees off the longitudinal axis of the tube.

"Wait!" you say, "What about the double pendulum?" Well, since you asked…

Two linked pendula that swing with a 90 degree offset from one another make a dynamic curve, called a harmonic curve, also called a Lissajous figure. It can take on very many shapes, all mathematically similar, but one form of the harmonic curve looks like this :

[IMG]http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=508&d=1215184421[/IMG]

Two components of opposed stress at 90 degrees form an interlaced spiral relationship, so do linked pendula operating at 90 degrees offset.

Double pendulum action occurs in, dare I say, all actions of the human body's balance and limbs. Torsional stress occurs in all actions of the human torso and limbs. This understanding shows that the lines of interlaced compressive and tensile stress (in-yo) link the two sides of the body without muscular contribution -- if the form of the body is collinear with the stresses.

To illustrate, place both arms in tegatatana, turn palms and elbows out, raise one arm and lower the other -- Voila! An upper spiral engaegd at the "upper cross" of the back. Now in this position, stand with feet at shoulder width, and turn on the heels and balls of your feet without stepping, twisting down until your kneecap touches the back of the other knee. You are a stable continous spiral form coincident with the torsional stress lines. This is tenchi posture - and what has been shown somewhat statically with very large form, can also be managed dynamically (with greater developed control) in much smaller progressive spiral forms or waves.

If one addresses a line of stress, say compressive stress, and pushes on it (compressing), well, you just pushed against what is already "sprung" to push back. If, on the other hand, you compress the tension line of stress, you relieve the stress on the structure, and it cannot resist without reversing its internal stress. Conversely, if you exert tension along the tension line -- it is already "sprung" to pull back. If you tense the compressive line however, you relieve its stress, which it is impossible to resist, unless the internal stress is reversed.

If I actuate the structure using this same mode, by prestressing the structure and connection along a compression line of stress, by relaxing the compressive stress -- the structure extends ("pushes") along the compression line, Conversely, if I prestress the structure in tension, and engage along the tencison stress line, and relax, the structure contracts ("pulls") along the tension stress line. In fact If I keep the intergity of the body whole, I do both at the same time on different sides.

This mode is distinct from using musculature to "push" or "pull" because the pre-stressing of the structure allows it to "relax" into the load along an appropriate line of stress, such that it cannot over-actuate, as muscles do if making active compensatory (resistant) strains.

If the structure is linked (jointed), and an applied extension or contraction is applied so as to relieve the target's internal stress along the torsional lines --the reduction of stress causes the limb (or torso) to tend to buckle (gyrate) outside the spiral torsional line of stress supporting it against the loads-- at which point it can exert neither tension nor compression in response, (and the sudden discontinuity typically reverses the applied stress profile, often catastrophically).

Reversing stress in a continuous mode without buckling, requires a smooth transition of form and energy at the same time. It is the form of a wave, spiral, like the stress lines, but cycling from positive to negative (like the top or bottom of the Lissajous curve noted above, or the top and bottom limits of the torsion tube structure, since all the stresses have to be resolved within the structural limits. If it does not resolve, then the structure must move to relieve the structural stress. Thus, at the major discontinuities -- the lower limit of the structure, (Earth) and the upper limit of thew struture ( heaven) compression on one side spiral resolves to tension on the opposite side spiral at the top of the structure, and tension on one side resolves to compression on the other side at the bottom.

At any discontinuity in the linked structure, the same reversal can occur (and already exists -- at a small amplitude). A small cycle of stress waves (kokyu in-yo ho) will "find" a discontinuity. A resonant cycle of stress waves will maximize the discontinuity signal (furitama). A counter-phase pulse of stress waves (or conversely the intersection of a counter-phase shape, which is equivalent) into the discontinuity will cause it to buckle and lose all structural integrity allowing displacement by the connection struture. (kokyu tanden ho)

Because the body's tendon stretch reflexes are conditioned to respond to sudden losses of structural integrity, they come into play. If a tendon is stretched suddenly there is a reflex action (e.g. -- the knee reflex), too fast for the conscious compensation to stop. A sudden wave of stress through the structure of sufficient amplitude AND at the resonance frequency (the structure itself amplifies the wave) induces a non-linear tendon stretch, triggering the stretch reflex associated with any tendon which is already in discontinuity.

Because the triggering phase is followed by the reversed phase of the stress wave, if the reflex is triggered, the reflex overactuates with respect to the oncoming counter-phase of the wave. The joint buckles out of the line of stress, and structural integrity is lost. The mechanism of structural integrity is exploited in a critical way to destroy that integrity.  Shear is the name of that mechanism and in a body free to rotate, spiral action is the form of that eccentric shear.  

This is one way to look at the integration of structure and dynamic in Aiki. The discussion on strikes and resonance in my blog looks at other issues, as does a discussion there on mass transfer and angular momentum chains. One point that I dealt with off-line with another poster here, helpfully pointed out an error in my interpretation of the mass transfer math, (adding an additional square term which was a already implicit in the interaction). The intuitive appeal of the error, I now realize, was my sense of the size off the disparity in input to reaction in actual engagements. That disparity, i now realize has much to do with the resonance and reflexive effects on the target , more so than the actual effective energy of the delivered input.

All of these points are suitable for adapting a structure to structural stress or dynamic loads as they are in disrupting it with structural stress or dynamic loads. The interplay can become quite complex between individuals with good training.]]></body>
	<date>07-04-2008</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="3214">
	<title><![CDATA[Rattling Bones]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[Ki is rattling a bag of chicken bones in the eyes of some.  I have a view of Ki, as a physical cyclic phenomenon that has a demonstrable physical basis -- and it really does rattle a bag of bones, but no chicken is involved -- unless you're just into that kind of thing -- not that there's anything wrong with that. 

In response to a question about impulse of a strike it struck me (pun intended) that it is a matter not just of length of time, but of timing (in the sense of rhythm) in the frequency of the strike at impact. It matters -- not merely speed, but the actual frequency of the impact/react timing. 

It requires some teensy background on force, momentum and Newton's Third Law (action= reaction).  

The commonly understood linear equation  F = ma can be rewritten  as &#931; F= dp/dt where the sum of forces is the change of momentum (p) with respect to time (t).  Impulse,  J = F * dt  = dt* F = dt*dp/dt = dp, which is simply the change in momentum.   

Very, very rarely can real world forces be treated as purely linear. Most forces are usually:
1) not isolated (there are other forces in play, with different 3D vectors), 
2)  dynamic, and the amount of force is changing rapidly with respect to time, and 
3) eccentric (off center) as to both or all objects involved, thus involving moments (potential rotations) or actual rotations (angular momentum). 

When an object is struck what strikes back (3rd law) is its moment of inertia -- its inherent reaction to having its center moved or its mass moved about about its own center.  While this is often treated as linear inertia of the center of mass, that is in fact a very special case, since any object that has appreciable volume, is always hit at some distance from its actual center, creating a moment. 

The object has its own inertial moment(s) that is being moved about its own center. If you hit the one end of an object that is in free space (momentarily detached from its support) it rotates about its own center in reaction -- i.e., it does not "hit back" in any linear sense, rather the inverse motion of its OWN inertia about its center creates the rotation reaction of the opposite side of the object in the opposite direction from the eccentric applied momentum (satisfying the 3rd law), rather than a linear "resistance" reaction and the point of contact. Thus, in angular momentum terms the "reaction force" is resolved internal to the object through a rotation. Or  in a complex linked body (like ours) it is resolved through many, many possible cascades of alternating internal rotations (waves) in three dimensions (spiral waves). 

Any wave has a frequency, and all objects have a resonant frequency at which they will harmonically and sympathetically vibrate.  That represents the elimination of any internal damping of momentum in the wave being applied so that a resonant cyclic momentum reaches all part of the structure without appreciably diminishing - whereas a purely linear momentum does not.   

Inversely, if you provide a certain shape and rhythm of impulse (defined as a change in angular momentum) to one part of an object (at the resonant frequency -- equivalent to a rate of application, or the correct  rhythm or maai, pick your terminology)  that angular momentum propagates through in a harmonic fashion with minimal internal damping, the spiral rotation reaches the extremity supporting it -- and in the anti-phase of the wave -- detaches the object momentarily from its support (overcomes briefly the moment of gravity and the entire body of the object is then instantaneously free to rotate in space in response to the positive phase of the pulse.  And if the wave is spiral, then the positive phase is offset from the anti phase by 180 degrees( of the spiral's rotation, but not necessarily in the same plane as the anti-phase at the time it affected the detachmentnof the support -- i.e. the turn of the spiral can carry the support outside of its limit of lateral stability 

In short you can pound  people so as to drive them in the ground, in which case you are merely hitting earth, or you can pound them so as to unstick them from the ground -- if you do it right -- and it has less to do with gross angles of strike than with the frequency of impulse at impact.  Bone rattling strikes are exactly that and they can be relatively slow or much more energetic as long as they are some harmonic of the fundamental frequency of the body.

Thus, it also has less to do with the magnitude of the movement, or its absolute energy.  Since the human body is in a constant struggle with gravity its own movements play in to the resonance  cascade an things like Ikeda Shihan's infamous wrist twitch drops on big burly guys become much more comprehensible.  It is harmony like in music -- because it IS music. And it must be learned, like music,  intuitively and through much practice.  

The resonant frequency of the human body is found in studies to be about 10 Hz.  You can easily determine this for yourself: Perform tekubi furi at the rate where your middle vibrates up and down and count the cycles in one second.  Do the same for furitama at the rate where you feel your center vibrate in time with the motion of the hands. It's right at 10 Hz for both actions, and it alternately lifts and drops the weight off your heels. 

With real people there are biomechanical things (that relate in a deep way to this point) coming into play like exploiting ones own and one's opponent's autonomic stretch reflexes to different advantage -- but that is another topic of discussion .]]></body>
	<date>05-23-2008</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="3120">
	<title><![CDATA[Power and Grace in Aiki]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[B][U]Power and Grace in Aiki[/U][/B]

Witnessing the best martial arts has an air of effortless inevitability in the outcome.  It is a perception at odds with our more common perception of power, as dominating force. However dangerous or deadly, it is not the sense of imposed force that we really perceive in a profoundly capable warrior.  An almost careless grace is more the image of superb martial power.  

This perception remains even for those witnesses of such a performance who know better -- that slavish work that went into producing that bit of physical grace.  Grace may be the best word to illustrate the contrast:   power vice grace. Or grace as a foundation of a different kind of power. 

The first observation about the desire for power is that is confesses a defect, a lack of something.  If one were truly whole -- it should not be missing. The desire to supply the lack would not exist.  Many come to the martial arts because they desire power to supply that lack, of whatever type it may be -- and there are many different types of personal sense of this deficit.  

Aikido also follows this rule; however it also seems a bit different in this regard. What distinguishes many, if not most, aikidoka is that the power they tend to seek is not an increase of power over others so much as a greater power over themselves.  That is the motto of the art, after all "True Victory; Self Victory; O Day of Swift Victory!"

A second observation about power:  the common conception of power is in the sense of resistance.  It is so ingrained that our instinctive action is to resist force applied and to apply more force in the face of resistance to our own.  If we sense no resistance being made or being overcome, we do not usually perceive the action as exhibiting "power." Resistance in defying, resistance in overcoming -- always in conflict -- always one imposed against the other and the weaker eventually crushed by the stronger.  

Even in aikido people are not immune to the need for satisfying uses or displays of power in this sense.  It is a universal human problem.  And as a universal problem, no quest for power occurs in isolation from the quests of others in the same space.  Contests of power occur -- striving for dominance along a defined axis of influence. 

And so it must be -- if we limit our understanding of power in this way.  Moreover, it is a trap for both sides.  If we define our sense of power by the sense of resistance we are capable of generating or overcoming -- neither the weaker nor the stronger can ever be free in this perception of power. The weaker is not free to relinquish.  It means abandoning the sense of resistant power that keeps him from being completely crushed. The stronger is not free to relinquish. It means giving up the sense of power he has known to protect him by crushing opposition.  The defeat of resistance or the defiance of resisting is the acme of power understood in this way.  The stronger is just as much a slave to the resistance defining his power as the weaker is to maintaining it so as to preserve his own integrity.

There is an escape from that trap. There is type of power that does not provoke instinctive resistance.  It is not common.  It is, by no means, the unique province of aikido (or any other martial endeavor). Power that is developed in this way tends to diminish or destroy the desire for "felt" power in the sense of resistant conflict.  It accomplishes things differently than "felt" forms of power through resistance.  

Actual power is obtaining the result conforming to your will.  We'll leave the ethical question of what to will for another discussion.  For the moment we are talking about power to accomplish that will.  

Simply stated, power is freedom to do as you will.  More carefully observed, the desire for power is usually a desire to make others do as you will. Very often even that is debased to being seen to make others do as you will. They are not the same thing.  And it is not merely a matter of egotistic desire for display.  It is a deeper subjective problem as well.  Even internally, the desire to FEEL yourself exerting power is a wish to be an observer of yourself in maintaining or defeating resistance. 

That is why the sense of power in aiki is hard to define. The commonplace desire for power is, essentially, a felt absence of something.  Thus, in possessing power we deeply wish to FEEL the consequence of some presence in having it.  Yet perversely, when that is actually possessed in aiki -- it does not feel like much of anything at all.  Therefore it ceases to be recognized as "power" by those who seek after the more common perception of it as their felt desire for maintaining or defeating resistance as the substance of power.  Aiki, conversely is operating from the void, wherein the more substance you feel of the process of conventional resistance -- the less you are in aiki. 

Aikido departs from this understanding of power as a zero-sum game.  It is an acknowledgement that MY part of the problem of power is just that -- only one part -- and until an opponent is utterly destroyed it must begin and remain only one part of that problem.  In aiki, no conflict is ever necessary to resolve MY part of the problem in the paradox of power. The understanding of power changes from a binary contest of opposites to a unitary problem of precision coordinates.  

In Taoist terms, it is the freedom that exists in the space between the joints of bone where the only edge of the blade, which approaches nothingness, alone may go.   In aikido, power exists if I am free, and I am free if NOTHING resists my movement, and more to the point I have power if I offer NOTHING to my opponent as resistance to his action.  This NOTHING is an active intelligent NOTHING, not a passive one.  It is rather more something than nothing, but it is the way of it that to work effectively it must be essentially perceived as NOTHING.  

Of course, this change of perspective is a bit of a trick.  Merely because I define my power in this way, does not mean that the other guy does.  I do not get to inhabit some inviolate bubble of splendid isolation. More to the point, just because I define my power in this way, does not mean that I exist without connection to my attacker.  It is however a different form of connection with a different intent, affect (perception of its operation) and effect (perception of its result). 

Any object in motion in a straight line can be moved laterally in a perpendicular axis, without creating any resistance whatsoever. The path is altered but the original energy is conserved and not impeded.  Change the path -- without impeding the one bent on pursuing its narrow confines. The attacker continues inexorably where the path leads -- that was the intent.  It simply now leads elsewhere that he imagined before he set foot on the path mapped in his mind.  The path ahead has altered, but NOTHING in the instantaneously perceived aspect of the connection or his intended action has been altered. 

The mind acting in aiki alters the shape of the path rather than removing me as a target in the path.  If I am attacked the path is right exactly where I am now, but by its nature I occupy the path WELL AHEAD of the attack. By definition, then, if someone attacks me I am well ahead of him.  I do not have to "get ahead" of him, I already am; or as O Sensei said in a slightly different sensibility "I am already behind him." And truly, any path necessarily runs both ways.  I just have to be facing the right way to meet him.

The first task of orientation is spatial. Whether centripetal or tangential, the basic principle is j&#363;ji [&#21313;&#23383;] or the cross-sign, representing the essence of perpendicular contact.  Any component of force that impinges the attack at any angle more or less than ninety degrees is perceived as a push or pull in the line of the attack.  If it is perceived, it inherently changes the attack one is preparing to receive, destroying the premise of aiki action.  All action should ideally take place at ninety degrees from the action being countered. It does not always look that way, however. The body does not really move in straight lines, but in spiral arcs.  Thus, our own spiral motions must connect to the attacker's spiral curves in precise three-dimensionally orthogonal relationship. 

It takes time and much practice to sense this relationship in three dimensions intuitively.  Once we do then the possibilities of technique begin to open up as variations of motion in this consistent dynamic relationship.  

By this token, aiki is a particularly difficult problem to explain or demonstrate in conventional terms of power.  Most people who want to "test" aiki, essentially wanting a wrestling contest.  And aiki cannot wrestle, for aiki power is not in meeting and overcoming resistance, which is the sense of what it means to wrestle.  In this way is most fighting understood, like chess or Go -- opening, move, counter-move, endgame.  In aiki there is really only one move, and it simply continues. Either, at some point one ceases using aiki, and then it begins a fight by resistance,  or the opponent becomes incapable of continuing an attack, and that is victory.  

The second task of orientation is temporal -- which is not to say that it means being faster. In fact, correct spatial orientation takes care of this aspect of temporal orientation, without regard to straight-line range. The more purely temporal problem of orientation is being in rhythm. But let's get the first temporal point out of the way

Take a conical spiral.  If I meet the incoming linear force with a spiral oriented at right angles to its line of force at the point on contact, it creates zero resistance or negating component of force along the line of the attack.  Any point along the spiral is equivalent to any other point in terms of engaging in the same dynamic j&#363;ji action. The amount of lead time I have in beginning the engagement in that manner is virtually irrelevant -- so long as my shape and orientation are correct at the point of engagement.

For the same momentum, as the radius of the motion decreases (the narrow end of my conical spiral) the velocity increases and vice versa. The spiral either progressively tightens or opens as it moves along.  Thus a tighter spiral (closer to its center) moves "faster" for the same energy, again addressing this temporal problem in terms of the spatial relationships and their configuration.  If it tightens, the predominant motion shifts from one axis (of the attack), to another (of the motion in aiki).  The relative velocity between the axes changes as a result of the increase of effective velocity along the intercepting spiral, even though the absolute velocity of the attack axis has not changed at all.  The attack goes astray, and if done properly, the opponent's foundation of stability follows as well.

If the spiral opens, the effect is more subtle but no less effective.  The predominant axis of motion still changes. The progressively flatter curvature of the opening spiral takes incoming energy on a progressively less steep "downhill" energy path, dissipating into the other axis. Like a river spreading to a delta, it spreads out the energy without changing its course, reducing the angular velocity of the attack, again altering the relative distribution of the velocity in the defender's favor, thus changing the path of the attack in the same manner as the tighter spiral. So as you see, the issue of time to respond in aiki is largely spatial in terms of critical orientation and shape, rather than mere linear range and vector magnitude.  

The purer question of time in aiki lies in rhythm.  But it is not a counter-rhythm of move, counter-move of a sparring match.  It is also not founded on a regular rhythm, but a chaotic one.  While it seems impossible to harmonize a chaotic rhythm, in fact, each of us has the same rhythm naturally, just by being able to walk around.  It is not a fast or a slow rhythm, or rather it may be fast or slow, but is always the same rhythm whether fast or slow.  It also is not always upbeat or downbeat that must harmonize -- it may be syncopated or even on the empty beat, and still join in with the dominant attacking rhythm without destroying it.

This element of rhythm has another aspect of j&#363;ji action.  Intersecting spiral arcs (portions of three-dimensional waves, actually) -- interact differently depending on their relative phase.  Phase has to do with the spatial placement of troughs and crests in waves that interact, described as angular orientation around a unit circle of the cycle of the waves' action.  This is too short a piece to delve into the nature of different phase relationships.  But they are just as important as the spatial orientations and the same criticality of j&#363;ji orientation in the rhythm applies. 

The rhythm of aiki is inherent in the body, your own body, the opponent's body and both together.  It is inherent in five or ten bodies, once they collectively turn to (or are drawn to) attack the same target.  Once we know it well, we actually can match it almost as effortlessly as recovering balance when we stumble.  Funatori undo (boat rowing exercise) begins to train you in exploiting this rhythm.  Happo undo (eight-direction movement), tekubi furi (wrist shaking) and furitama (spirit shaking) also provide different aspects of training in this same rhythm. Aikido is not alone in this sensibility; the same basic actions can be seen in things like sanchin. While applied in different ways they collectively illustrate tempo being controlled in part by spatial relationships such as the size of the motion or of the things made to move in concert or in contrast to that certain natural reverberatory rhythm.  

In that is found the grace of aiki, and its power.  That grace has a mathematical elegance to its expression, as well as a physical  elegance in its form. Physical grace is not merely an adjunct of power in aiki.  It is through such grace that aiki comes into its power.]]></body>
	<date>01-03-2008</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="3083">
	<title><![CDATA[Perception, Physical Harmonics and Aiki]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[In an Aikido Journal article about Terry Dobson,  [url]http://www.aikidojournal.com/?id=3936[/url], he related his one and only question to O Sensei in his ten years of training with him  --  to please explain circle, triangle, square.  O Sensei's considered response was: "Find out for yourself."  

I have gone with that -- looking for an objective reality and not merely a symbolic or spiritual description behind that traditional geometric composite image.  What I have gotten to, so far, fits the both the traditional description, a more rigorous physical definition as well as richly connecting to the shape and feel of the dynamics I experience in practice.  

This blog entry, on topics I have been mulling over for some time now, was prompted by a discussion that was tending to elevate subjective "feel" over objective understanding of physical action.  The analogy initially used was in driving, and the upshot was that driving did not require one to design or alter the basic configuration of the car.  I like flying as a better analogy.  It melds into one thing what the driving analogy broke into two parts-- flying involves both altering physical configuration of the vehicle of the skill as well as the skill of employing it in any given configuration.  In the case of aikido, the vehicle or tool of the skill is the body (or bodies) involved.  In training we gain skill in use but we also alter the way the tool functions by that use . 

I know for fact that I would be quite dead now if I had not been taught the counterintuitive physics necessary to recover from inverted spins and in my later experience with helos, that of vortex ring state.  Both involve overcoming a powerful "feel" for certain "normal" reactions acquired in more ordinary flight, largely induced by kinetic illusion.  

Kuzushi, among other things, occurs for most people who have not been trained, because their body and mind react automatically to the "feel" of something with action that in their ordinary experience would salvage their balance, but the simultaneous in-yo dynamic in of aiki being actively exploited by someone with training, actually compels those same unconscious changes to make their situation far worse.  Illusions of perception are powerful without an objective reference. Sometimes they are dangerous even when there is one. In the famous ambiguous image, at one moment you see the faces, and then the next you see the goblet. 

Another good example of tricks the perceptual system plays with orientation I was recently shown is here: 

[url]http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,22556281-661,00.html[/url]

Depending on how one views it, the animated figure of the dancer rotates clockwise -- or counterclockwise.  The kinesthetic system is just as susceptible as the visual system to responding with overly definitive assumptions from ambiguous sensory cues as is exhibited with this animated image. 

"Feel" is necessary but also is not sufficient for complete understanding -- or safe operation. In regimes where counterintuitive action is frequently or critically experienced, feel uninformed by objective principles of action is a bad gauge for action -- sometimes a very dangerous one.  On the other hand no one can practice aikido with a slide rule or laptop. But aiki frequently and critically operates in regimes where it is actively exploiting intuitive cues of "feel" that are deceiving the percipient about the objective reality of the dynamic. 

That is the power of aiki over those untrained in its use. Only knowledge of the objective determinant of the events occurring enables one to shift perception from one's initial intuition of orientation in a regime of ambiguous sensory cues. Because of this, we cannot stress too much the proper understanding of objective principle as well as intuitive feel in structuring and understanding what we are doing when we practice it. 

Now, to the physical harmonics. I will bet the attached image has a fairly familiar "feel" for movements typical of aikido for many of you.

[IMG]http://www.aikiweb.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=1597&ppuser=7854[/IMG]

For visual orientation of the third dimension and dynamic of the curve, it begins as red and then slowly transitions though purple to blue along its length of travel (or vice versa if you are contrary).   

The image linked is called a harmonogram.  It shows an intuitively related "feel" for the dynamics of actual practice.  The shape of the harmonogram given describes a complex Lissajous curve. It is the three notes (three interacting, independent oscillations) of a dominant major seventh chord. 

Some of you will dismiss this  as being too esoteric or even more esoteric that the traditional circle-triangle-square. I assure you it is not, and has far more possibilities for analytical and descriptive use.  The actual math is fairly simple. If you want to work on them graphically, there are several free and shareware Lissajous applets and programs available to playing with.  The resulting mechanical possibilities of description are richly complex and deeply interconnected.  

[B]A harmonogram is simply the combined path formed by the interaction of two (or more) independent pendula.[/B]  

It has a fairly simple physical basis belied by the apparent complexity of the path that results.  Mathematically, the Lissajous family of curves are 2d representations of one or more sine waves meeting at right angles.  They, can in more complex versions, also involve oscillations on two or more coordinate planes, and also more than one frequency oscillation (or shifted phase) superposed on the same plane. But basically they are just superposed oscillations in different orientations. 

A sine wave is described by triangular (trigonometric) relationships which map onto revolutions of the unit circle. At the point where the sine waves intersect, two unit circles are defined. That also defines a unit sphere centered at the point of connection. Lissajous curves in 2D projection are all bounded by the unit square (+/-1, +/-1) and in 3d by the unit cube centered on the same point.  This purely physical description is of a piece with the traditional formulation of underlying principles. In it may be found precise and deeply meaningful mathematical relationships of circle, triangle, and square -- joined in spherical rotation. 

I am coming to the conclusion (prove me wrong, please) that this description of harmonic motion (the proper term for the physics involved) is the fundamental description of aikido's exploitation of physical laws flowing from the structure of the body. Dynamically, it operates in conserving or manipulating the conservation of angular momentum contained in these harmonic oscillations. 

Those oscillations (in-yo joined) are free to occupy and reverberate in any part of the space defined by the interaction of all linked parts in perceptible connection with one another.  Since it is governed by perception of motion, and actual physical contact is not necessarily required to obtain that mind/body interaction that reaches kuzushi.  Perceptible motion in properly connected relation (regardless of actual contact) or the nature of the connection, can achieve this in regard to an aware and reactive opponent. 

Each limb forms a double pendulum (potentially more than double, actually, depending on the use). They therefore exhibit coupled complex harmonic motion. The body is poised on two legs forming two linked but independent pendula, another harmonic couple.  The body at the waist and point of support on the ground form a double inverted pendulum, another harmonic couple. Two people connected in aikido, swiveling from their points of support on the ground also form two linked but independent inverted pendula, a further harmonic couple.  

By my count, summed over all scales,  there are at least  5 or more double-linked oscillation interactions that can flow into one another harmonically -- in one person's body.  In a system of two people interacting there are ten or more.  At any given time, motion can shift imperceptibly from dominance by any one of these twenty or more possible contributors to the multi-phasic oscillations in play, all of which exhibit complex harmonics when coupled to another oscillator in the system,  and most of which have large regions of supercritical stability ('top of the hill' dynamic).

The various oscillations travel or communicate throughout the body by the flexibly linked rods of the body's component parts. Different oscillations can travel throughout and past one another in this manner. Different couples can be formed of overlays of complementary relative motion of certain parts if their motion is made appropriate (various kokyunage for example), or by or intentional isolations of intermediate linkages (such as in nikkyo or shihonage). 

Oscillations can be progressively damped by the use of the joints as viscous dampeners ("rooting" behavior) or progressively overdriven harmonically at each stage for strikes or throws. Because they are all connected the biggest oscillator in the sysatem (center of mass), can drive the smallest component, with momentum concentration advantages, and conversely the smallest in the system can use the mass dampening of the largest component to dissipate or convert applied momentum.  

Balance and attacking power generation depend on the intuitive orchestration of these complex harmonics. Aikido is the art AND SCIENCE of disrupting the intuitive operation of those harmonics, without changing the nature of the harmonic interactions that are occurring. That allows normal reactions in this harmonic concerto to be exploited.  

Each oscillation is a form of periodic physical rotation in space.  The intersection of two such oscillations induces precession or alteration of rotation from one axis of orientation to the other, as gyroscopes do, and as Foucault's pendulum famously did to show the rotation of the Earth.  The perceptual counter-intuition that is involved in precession motion, is famously seen in those devices. 

By changing the underlying physical frame of reference for perception of these rotations, the alteration is often not fully perceived until the original frame of reference is completely lost and the departure of motion is too great from the intended path to be salvaged.  Any attempt to do so at that point, typically wrecks the necessary harmonic complementarity of their own motion, which then makes any counter using the same dynamic mechanisms impossible. 

This is a rigorous physical model that closely fits in mathematical terms the traditional exposition of aiki principle in "triangle-circle-square, joined in spherical rotation."  It is framed from the fundamental physics of the linked harmonic pendula of the body, its limbs and any other body in connection.   It results in a visual depiction of interactions that are both mathematically correct for a valid physical model and intuitively correct for the objective elements or shapes of typical aikido movements as they are experienced. 
.]]></body>
	<date>10-17-2007</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="2960">
	<title><![CDATA[Whips and Chains]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[In a number of discussions, I have addressed the issue of angular momentum and the nature of its use according to aiki principles.  This entry will sum up some of those thoughts.  

I have observed that a mechanical model for the relaxed human structure is that of a linked chain of bones. This has very significant impact in the use, magnification and dissipation of forces in encounters  involving aikido.  The tip of a folded chain, if allowed to fall freely from the support, accelerates with nothing bu the force of gravity.  And yet, the chain tip actually accelerates [B][U]faster[/U][/B] than a ball dropped simultaneously from the same height.  

The reason this occurs is because of conservation of angular momentum in the free end of the chain and the addition of each increment of momentum from the successive links to those still falling as they are each brought to a halt by the tension against the support. In the limit the speed of the falling chain would go to inifitnyt but limited by the material and its dimension, it merely becomes very, very fast until it suddenly goes to zero, and rebounds against the support.  

The whip operates on the same principle: a coil or loop (technically, a spiral wave) of the whip constantly decreasing in radius -- thus increasing in angular velocity by the inverse square of the radius, The kinetic energy embodied in that progression increases as the square of the velocity.  The tip of the whip at full extension exceeds the sound barrier, which forms a limiting boundary on what would otherwise be a mathematically infinite angular velocity as it approached zero radius.

Chris Thralls wrote of Terry Dobson, who he reports frequently used the training example of a whip to illustrate his views of aiki priniciples in action. [quote=Chris Thralls AikiWeb/Forums/Weapons/ "Rope or Whip?" 07-11-2006, 02:56 AM] I had the privilege of training with Terry Dobson a lot, and he used a bullwhip to demonstrate several things. The most important thing was the demonstration of leading one's partner by their Ki, instead of pushing them around. .... He was adamant that Aikido is the art of Nonresistance, of joining with and leading Uke's energy to a peaceful resolution. .... He then demonstrated the effectiveness of circular and spirallic movements in generating very strong forces. He showed how changing directions dynamically caused the tip of the whip to move so fast that it broke the sound barrier, hence the "crack" of the whip. [/quote]

One can see the principle in operation in many aspects of ki no kokyu action in aikido.  The dynamic form of sumi-otoshi can be duplicated in form with a rope the length of a human body plus the length of the arm.  Holding one end and placing a spiral wave in this rope, will lift the free end of the rope off the ground and cause it to  rotate vertically end for end, just like uke's body does in sumi-otoshi. 

Likewise, much of sword cutting follows these same principles. Even though the sword is relatively rigid (just like the bones of your forearm), it can be treated just exactly like one more of the bony bits in the body's chain of links. Realizing and seeing the form in operation this allows you to increase cutting power through proper form rather than strength.  But it also allows for greater control and precision because of the same principles that cause the snapped whip to dissipate it energy into mathematically zero radius but infinite velocity simultaneously as it reaches the limits of its length.

The principle operates equally well in reverse to dissipate rather than concentrate angular momentum. Even in relatively static forms such as kokyu tanden ho, the limbs must rotate around the joints to exert power, making them the slow motion equivalent of the falling chain or snapping whip.  IN the same way that the falling chain at the end of its fall lifts itself (chaotically) by rebound of its own acceleration agaisnt the tension of its support, a similar reversal of momentum can be applied to the partner's body causing him to lift, which is . in fact, what is done in kokyu tanden ho.

That expression of power can be dissipated by use of these principles in a couple of ways.  In tekubi furi undo (hand shaking exercise) you can feel the oscillation of the waves of positivca and negative angular momentum generated at your hands reverberate right back down into your center.  That is in my opinion why we do it, to train that sensation in the body more keenly. If you fling your hands at the ground in the tekubi furi exercise while standing up, you will in fact feel you heels lift slightly off the ground,  this is the combined angular momentum of your flung hands being counterpoised and the shoulder/neck, lifting the body with the reaction to the force that you just threw at the ground. Uke's body can be affected in much the same way and in different configuraiton to reverse his applied energy back into him in the same form of reaction -- all by the manipulation of the angular momentum he is using to try top push you.
 
In kokyu tanden ho exercise, you also are finding the path to "push" with this chain (yes, you can push on a chain of tangent spheres without it collapsing, but only along one supercritical path, which is unique to every load condition, which is called the "funicular" path (hanging cable shape) for that set of loads.  What is often called in Japanese "hiriki" or "elbow power"  is an expression or observation of this load path where the elbow becomes the focal point of the coordinated movement, like a single weight hanging from a cable brings the cable to less of a curve and more of a point -- like the elbow.

In unliftable body exercises you are finding the path that does not allow this chain to be pushed -- allowing the chain to collapse under the lifting loads, which is relatively easy since it is supercritical to begin with.  This allows you to form a set of four hinges across the joints of the body from grasp to grasp. This is a mechanism subject to collapse merely under its own weight. The body is therefore not liftable simply by the addition of more lifting effort. Conversely, if you allow your arms and shoulders to become relatively rigid, they will pin together at your neck and you can be lifted, because a three hinge arch is quite strong.  This is the reason why bodies that are floppy because they are unconscious (or dead) are thought to be heavier than live "stiffs." People who are aware and alert have enough normal tone in their limbs and torso to actually be easier to lift, than they would be otherwise.

So, get a length of rope. Play with it. See what shapes you can make with it. See how they may relate to your expression of kokyu and aiki principles in your practice.]]></body>
	<date>04-11-2007</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="2948">
	<title><![CDATA[The missing Kokyu training -- Farming?]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[O Sensei spent a great deal of his time in early and later life not in the dojo -- but on his farm.  George Ledyard Sensei has attributed this to a desire to be more connected to nature as part of O Sensei's overall spiritual journey.  http://www.aikiweb.com/columns/gledyard/2004_06.html

I think that this overlooks a less mystical and far more practical contribution of farming to the development of kokyu power as a physical sensibility.  My critique is not a fault lying in the training or curriculum of any lineage, but is a systemic condition of the cirsumstance in which they find themselves teaching.  The critique is common to all aikido training --  in Japan Europe or the United States,  i.e.-- wherever aikido is typically practiced -- which is in [B]cities[/B].  Almost none of their students do agricultural labor, and very few do any significant routine physical labor at all. 

This may seem trivial so to some of you.  I assure you it is not. Saotome Shihan and Ikeda Shihan both find a strong commonality in Ushiro Sensei's Okinawan karate budo with that of Aikido.  The only [B]direct[/B] connection between Kenji Ushiro Sensei -- a master of Okinawan karate -- and O Sensei is in fact the common element of [U]farming[/U]. Okinawan arts are famously derived from the tools and movements common to the farmers of Okinawa, who were were prohibited from possessing ordinary weapons.

If I am correct, then this, in itself, explains the complaint by so many that the "basic" or kokyu skills of body efficiency are seemingly lost/not taught in the aikido curriculum as they once were. For the record, I don't agree with that complaint so generally, but I do acknowledge that there is a significant swath of aikido around that lacks a certain fundamental to its practice or that seems not to develop it routinely in its students.  

Having come from Saotome's lineage and that of Saito along the way, I feel these two do not suffer generally from that problem to the same degree, largely because of their focus on weapons.  The reason why this may be so will become clear as I go along.  

Having grown up in the Florida panhandle, I have done my fair share of grass-sling work, cleaning up my father's property, chopping and splitting wood, handling and shifting various bulky goods for my father, who worked in construction all his life.   I also climbed radio towers (on the order of 300-500 ft.) in the summer to change lightbulbs.  These activities and farming have one major thing in common with the warlike arts.  They all place a premium on developing body action that conserves energy with minimum muscular effort. 

While I used a grass-sling, the more conventional two handed Western scythe demonstrates the principle easily.  You do not push a scythe, nor do you pull it.  You use an alternating cutting/gathering motion with each arm together to make it work efficiently, driven by the walking rotation of the body core.  Similarly for a hoe, or a rake:  the most efficient way to use it takes the same motion of both  arms in the vertical plane as for the scythe in the horizontal ( the most efficient hand position for these is with the forward hand turned thumb-toward the body.  A chopping motion, conversely, using the arms instead of the body to drive the motion will swiftly wear you out.  

The Japanese kama scythe (which is one-handed) is used in actual pracice with both arms and both motions alternately -- gathering stalks with the free hand while reaping them below in a gathering motion with the scythe in the other hand, then flinging the cut stalks to the side with a cutting motion outward of the one hand and recovering the scythe with a cutting motion outward to the reaping position again. All the while the motion of body steping forawrd alterntely on either side drives the motion of the arms -- which are hardly using muscular strength at all, and therefore do not tire as easily.  Try doing that for twelve hours, and you will discover the meaning of efficient core movement, as I did with a grass sling.

An axe is used properly to throw the ax-head with the whole body as you would throw a ball, but in the descending arc defined by the handle intersecting into the wood under guidance.  Beating at the wood with the head using the arms is not efficient to cut , and is also extremely tiring. 

These examples are provided to give some practical demonstrations of a class of two reciprocal body motions -- [B]gathering/cutting[/B] that lie in the rudiments of farming and other forms of manual labor.  These differ in principle from the conventionally understood motions of pushing/pulling.

Mechnically, they are also quite distinct.  The relative rotation of the limbs in the class of movement called gathering/cutting is reversed from that found in the class of movement called pushing/pulling. 

If I [B]push[/B] my right arm out in front of me from my upper body and you watched me do it from the side , you would see that my upper arm is rotating counterclockwise, while my forearm is rotating clockwise.  If I then [B]pull[/B] back they do opposite -- the forearm rotates countercloskwise and the upper arm rotates clockwise. 

In contrast, if I [B]gather[/B] my arm forward from its relaxed hanging position at my hip, the upper arm still rotates counter-clockwise, but in this case, so does the forearm, and for that matter, so does the hand about the wrist joint if I [B]extend[/B] the sequential progression. If I continue this outward, curling extension I end up with my arm in a distinct arc above my head.  
 
If I then use a [B]cutting[/B] motion, it reverses -- the upper arm rotating clockwise, as does the forearm, as does the hand about the wrist, in an uncurling, outward extension.   Both movements are fundamentally about extending.  

These are in a different class of motion from pushing/pulling. They use progressive, sequential rotations of the limb segments, driven from the center core using pulses of applied angular momentum generaeed by the hip/spine axis, and without muscular effort of the limbs. 

Similarly in moving bulky goods typical of farming, the same motions are involved.  To lift a large bale or sack, you hug the load (gathering motion of the arms) lift from the center.  Very often such bulk goods (like bales, or large bundles, or bags of grain) are thrown or tossed to load or unload them. This motion begins with a rotation of the center of the mody and then progressing out the limbs with the typical cutting motions to project the load with acceleration.  

Long answer short, if you want to improve your fundamental kokyu motion and power, one thing you can do is take up farming, gardening, land-clearing or some other form of manual labor and intuitively find the ways that let you work efficiently.  

Like bujutsu and budo, they involve moving big unwieldy things and wielding implements with maximal efficiency using the body core.]]></body>
	<date>03-23-2007</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="2744">
	<title><![CDATA[Gyrodynamics in Aiki]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[This Blog is about technical intricacies and exploring non-aiki analogues of aiki principles, and other observations that may shed light on Aiki priciples and WHY they work the way they do. While the facts related are sound as far as they go, the application of everything here is speculative and subject verification in actual aikido practice. Choose wisely, therefore, and ask your own teacher. ]

Two dimensional state vectors at perpendicular angles (or any angle, really, but we are talking about juji + ) have a resultant that is the vector sum of the two i.e. -- a vector headed north and a vector headed west sum as a vector headed northwest. The magnitude of the vector is likewise a Pythagorean function (in the case of right angles (or a trigonometric function of the vector addition of any other angles).

But the human body is not a two dimensional object. The body as a whole can rotate in three axes about its center. Most human joints have more than one degree of freedom, some have two or three, even if some axes are more restricted, and one is a universal joint within its limits of rotation.

Dynamics of rotating objects require gyrodynamic analysis. Apply force to a rotating object and the resultant vector is ninety degrees out, on an axis that is not in the plane formed by the vector force and the axis of rotation of the object to which it is applied. This is counter-intuitive to the two-dimensional force assumptions that frame most people's walking-around knowledge, and counterintuitive to innate learning of most people's bodies. Gyrodynamic action also exists in vibrating as well rotating bodies.

To which the engineer says, most reasonably, that none of the joints in question rotate at a rate with sufficient momentum for classical gyrodynamic action. But what engineers puzzle over -- helo pilots live and die by and thus learn intuitively, wherefore the points I am making.

For all of our mechanical articulation, human beings are also not classical mechnical objects or mechanisms. We are exceedingly complex feedback engines. In short -- we can push back in quite disproportionate and confusing ways.

I have puzzled for years over the nature of the action involved in aikido technique. It is symbolized by the tachi sword and its deescendants, whose shape implies the spiral that gives it cutting efficiency. It is implied in the Red and White Jewels of O-Sensei's Doka. Jewels in classical Japanese reference mean the magatama shape, the comma-like elements of the tomoe, the same as reputed to be the shape of the Jewel of the Imperial Regalia. It is also the shape of the arm held in tegatana, the bent "unbendable" arm.

The principle of virtual work is another counterintuitive concept. To determine the dynamics of an complex articulated object that is too difficult to analyze in motion, assumes it is static and hardly moves at all. In more techincal words, it calculates the dynamic by an infinitesimal movement over an infinitesimal time. Without belaboring the specifics of the method of virtual work, suffice it to say that it is a very powerful tool for situations where other tools simply fail, miserably. Bernoulli's underlying assumptions about all things finding equilibrium also has resonance in aiki priniciples.

Aiki, ki musubi, uses the kinesthetic apparatus associated with every joint of the body. Most joints of the body are themselves complex affairs, and the body's articulated system of joints is yet more so. Two levels of virtual work analysis are necessary to fully assess the equilibrium conditions of the human body in dynamic action.

The human brain and body is analogous to a programmable analog computer. It is capable of calculations that are mathematically indistinguishable from the solution of difficult sytems of simultaneous equations that are the bread and butter of virtual work as a tool of engineering and physics.

Juji, as I have begun to understand it, is how aikido teaches to sense (or iinfer) and then to respond to the gyrodynamic rotation/oscillation in human movement. To describe my understanding, the brain/spirit/makoto learns in aikido training to provide resultant inputs to the attacker's joints along the axis of the gyrodynamic resultant, regardless whether "classical" gyrodynamics would seem to apply. The brain can posit a gyro dynamic according to the principle of virtual work. The result is spooky, tricky and very unnerving to the unprepared attacker's kinesthettic sytem, when everything goes wrong and yet he cannot feel exactly why.

The attacker intends his action to act in a single plane to maximize directed energy. If a motion rotates or oscillates it is admissible as a gyrodynamic input evenif it is only one oscillation or a very small rotation -- and the brain can treat it as it as such. By treating the attacking joint/body motion as a virtual gyro, the brain uses the principle of virtual work to create an output that is not a counterattack along or evasion from the incoming vector plane of rotation or oscillation (the more common martial response) but a gyrodynamic displacement of it by entering directly, and turning. The attack and the response in aiki are never in the same plane in a physical sense, as O-Sensei said "In Aikido there is never any attack."

I have not yet touched on the issue of magnitude, but radial ratios should give some idea of the manipulaiton of force amplification or dampening that are possible by such gyrodynamic means.]]></body>
	<date>09-18-2006</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="2742">
	<title><![CDATA[Analogues for aiki principles in electromagnetic f]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[This immediate blog discussion follows a forum discussion on gyrodynamics and the principle of juji, the "cross shape" +.   It is put here in blog form for those who care about the technical intricacies of such things and exploring non-aiki analogues of aiki principles, and other observations that may shed light on Aiki priciples and WHY they work the way they do.  I will repost the gyrodynamics portions of this discussion immediately following.  While the facts related are sound as far as they go,  the application of everything here is speculative and subject verification in actual aikido practice.  Choose wisely, therefore, and ask your own teacher. ]

You cannot have magnetic flux without electric current somewhere within meaningful inverse square law range, and you cannot have electrical current without magnetic flux similarly situated.  But they are always 90 degrees out of phase from one another. (right hand rule) But you can have observed purely electrical action or observed purely magnetic action because of their existence in differing phases.  The potential always exists for the correlative action of the other at the same field strength in each circumstance; but it remains potential (virtual) until realized by appropriate conversion of its form or phase. 

Of course, you cannot measure a field directly without inducing current or flux. Heisenberg's law still applies. An electric field exists without magnetic flux.  Magnetic flux  is only created by those electrons starting to move and thus creating current. One can be used to measure the other.  But electric fields can be measured indirectly without inducing current or flux.

Photons possess neither mass nor charge and yet they excite electrons and electrons, when sufficiently excited, emit them without creating current, but revealing their charge state.  Because of two potential polarizations, photons also preserve the phase distinction between the joint magnetic and electric fields to which they relate.  In a sufficiently strong electric field, electrons spontaneuously emit photons and tend to ionize as they do that (with a local deielectric current, but none globally).  So there are proxies to field strength measurement that allow the inference of the field, even if undetectable directly. For example, charge distribution (and thus field potential), may be inferred from the distribution of color of plasma ionization discharges in the atmosphere. See: [url]http://www.atmo.arizona.edu/students/courselinks/spring05/atmo589/articles/Williams_Physics_Today_Nov_2001.pdf[/url]

One guage of magnetic field is incomplete but only propagates at the speed of light, and thus may be deemed "actual" in relativistic terms, since we can directly observe its components.  The other guage for magnetic field is complete, but has unobservable, inferred  components, which are capable of travelling faster than the speed of light, but because they are not observable, does not matter.  It can thus be deemed "virtual" in relativistic terms, since going faster than light is not allowable in actuality. 

The Aharanov-Bohm effect directly demonstrates that eletromagnetic effects occur to particles in a region from which the "actual" field at issue is expressly excluded.  The " virtual" mathematical field apparently has more demonstrable reality than the "actual" field, even though it is non-relativistic.  And now we know that quantum non-locality does not require forces at all to "communicate" state variables (an acknowledged overstatement).  

There are empirical reasons to believe that virtual wave states exist within human neurological systems, too.  If so, then all appropiate mathematical treatment applies. Even the spooky stuff.  See: [url]http://cnd.memphis.edu/neuropercolation/paper/5._WavePacket.pdf#search=%225._WavePacket.pdf%22[/url]
and, [url]http://cnd.memphis.edu/paper/tnn-ce971R-HK.pdf#search=%22chaotic%20neurodynamics%20tnn-ce971R-HK.pdf%22[/url]

The potential field vector is there whether there is actual electrical current or magnetic flux or not. If the path of the realized current is known (and it can be demonstrated or inferred), even if unrealized, the potential (virtual) field is as defined mathematically as if current and flux actually existed at the time of the analysis.   It is thus is the proper topic for the method of virtual work to compute a resultant without disturbing the field any more than is necessary to detect its orientation until the action is applied.  

In aikido, the analogue is the connection (ki musubi), which harmonizes tori/nage to uke's state at contact and allows the creation at that moment (takemusu aiki) of appropriate technique based on the detected orientation.  The connection does not disturb the attack, but joins with it in order to establish orientation, which then leads to a technique appropriate to that flow.  

Only at this moment of connection is anything like "strategy" in existence, much less "tactic."  And even then, the only "strategy" is to let the state of forces at play define the action to be accomplished.  Chinese would describe this as following "li" &#29702; the principle of the grain of wood, which shaped itself to the forces under which it grew.  

Try the right hand rule.

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	<date>09-18-2006</date>
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