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

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.

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

IMHO, very important.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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!"

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

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

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

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

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

one word - balance