Exercice to develop sense of center
I am currently developing and testing a way to explain how I keep my center in my practice. People that have heard my explanation likes it and find it useful for his practice so i'd like to share it with you for talk about it. (I don't know if it exist and if so, please point me where to study it!!)
The mental image I'm using for this is as follows: Imagine that you have a half-sphere filled with liquid at the place where the hara is said to be placed. Your mission is to move your whole body in any way that you think that can makes the liquid surface to vibrate as little as possible to avoid spilling it on the floor. Remember the experience of walking while carrying a glass full of water in our hands and how our whole body moves in order to prevent the spilling when someone step on us. I think this mental image is useful for training several things at once: 1. To keep the body as straight as possible to avoid the water being spilled easily. 2. To deflect or absorb and integrate the uke attacks in our body without colliding. A collision makes our water vibrate and spilled on the floor. 3. To reach uke attacks an no waiting for him to come. Is easy to mantain the liquid calm if we contact uke as soon as posible where we want to be. 4. To connect to uke. I way of keep the water in place is to maintain unity with uke to sense his movements and react to keep the water in calm. 5. To avoid making extra movement when we receive uke's attack. by moving more than necessary we add more vibration to our water surface an increase the risk of spilling 6 ... In Spain it is a little late to continue writing, i will continue tomorrow if you are interested on this. Sorry if my english is not good enought i will try to improve. Any thoughts or comments will be appreciated. |
Re: Exercice to develop sense of center
It's a good metaphor. It might be useful if you combine it with the exercise of having people walk carrying a container of water -- something bigger than a glass of water. It's a good way to really become aware of unevenness in your gait, tension in your body (which translates to the water -- I think it's possible to be "centered", in a sense at least, and also so tense that you're effectively frozen in place, because you can't move smoothly). I like it because it demystifies some terminology that, IMO, often acts as an "emperor's suit of clothes", such as "connect with uke" (which, whatever their mystical/ethereal dimensions, have a physical basis and need to be understood as such). Fun to try, anyway, and see what happens.
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I'm actually playing with the size an position of that imaginary semi-sphere, For example im studying how i react when i imaging having it on muy hand while uke is grabbing my wrist. I usually find easy to move freely, bending arm and walking without letting uke to displace the position of my wrist and maintaining connection. Quote:
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Thanks for your answer! |
Re: Exercice to develop sense of center
Stuart McGill - The Ultimate Back. backfitpro.com
His DVDs on how to strengthen and stiffen the core for making best use of the body structures. It's not "aikido specific" - it's high performance sports specific - where there's money riding on whether the (name sport here)"ist" gets it right. |
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This image was used when I started Tomiki Aikido as an aid in proper movement for the basic movement exercises--the pelvis as a bowl of water, move like you don't want to spill it.
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posted a description of an exercise last year http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showpo...3&postcount=34 it really is a centering exercise, at least at the beginning. the thing about this exercise is you don't have to imagining things. me, i don't care for imagining things, because i imagine i won a lottery, but it has not happen so far. wonder if i should buy a ticket though.
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It wasn't a bad image, but it was tremendously limited, like learning the alphabet without knowing what sounds the letters make or how to form them into words.
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I have a question unresolved about that. When i have that path created from a wrist grab (by ex), I move my center trying not loosing that path and the presure on my partners hand increases. Im trying to avoid that pressure but I donīt have any clues of how to do it. I'm reading some of your post and are interesting. I will keep reading you!. |
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I kept my center stable as the forces pulled me in all directions. |
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Im often feeling something like extending my ŋbalance? Like it were running throught my feet and from the inside of my arm and then to my partners shoulder. is that connection?. Sometimes, and dont ask me how, i manage to full unbalance my partner wit a little twist from my shoulder but i dont know how to move him in any directiob without increasing pressure. Any idea to practice? |
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I can't really tell what you are doing so it would hard to say. a few minutes of hand-on time would fix things. IHTBF. when you start to work on this, you have to do it light and work up. it will take time for your body to change. i mentioned somewhere that it took me two years to get my body to change enough for me to feel it, and longer to be able to use it. there are a number of folks over there that work on these stuffs that could help to give you the right feedback. |
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I think i manage to get some sort of that you call unity. In one of your comments you said that when you sense uke you have unity. Im able to feel throught a contact point; the tense up parts of uke's body, how his structure reorganizes when he react to my movements, where uke's balance is heavy loaded, his tiredness or degree of commitment. However Im not able to take advantage of this "unity" and manipulate it correctly without some degree of disconnection when I start a movement. I have a bad feeling on this, is like having something near but something with you cannot play and enjoy. I started to feel that two years ago and its weird, it feels like kind of holding a big snake with one hand in the air and trying to keep it vertical in place absorbing its waves by constantly adjusting your body to avoid him scape or bite your head, but not being able to put it in a bag! :D |
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Make sure to use silk to tie those weights. And breath slowly or you'll be hurt. More practical were the "human resistance" exercises. But you need to get beyond the sime pushing against erect postures (standing or seiza) The upper torso needs to be developed as if there were a "springiness" in the spine. The pelvic girdle is the base, the thoracic and lumbR vertebrae are the spring. If pushed in any direction, the base remains (single weighted as much as possible) and the back muscles literally spring backward (suck-in opponent) and then back at the opponent (spit-out). We used to do this starting with 1 dimensions (depth) and then all 3 dimensions. Finally, in push hands, the receiver only defends while the attacker is mobile, trying to push him at any and all angles. The defender ultimTely has to change stances a bit but the less he changes stance, the more he learns to use this flexible torso to guard his center. |
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By the way, Tenkan happens via all six sides of the dice in this practice - Tenkan without stance change.
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here is what i called the Ikeda 3-steps approach. you want your partner to move to the right. 1. push slightly to the right 2. then in toward your partner 3. then again to the right so it's right-in-right and repeat in small increment. once you get used to that, then it will be just one step. however, methink, that you need to work on the internal connectivity more. i believed one of dan's mantra "aiki in me before aiki in you" and sigman has similar statement involved jin. you are trying to do the "aiki in you" portion. |
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What i do is trying to maintain the forward into my partner and at the same time push to the right without losing that forward. My forces go as an "L" (if you imagine you are watching us from the ceiling) and our connection point is where the two segments of the letter joins. By doing this i often feel a kind of "/" resultant direction where uke usually falls with his body alone. |
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Oh Phi, I miss something, who is dan's?
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dan = dan harden |
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