Stefan Stenudd

Hi Mike,

I will try my best:
The center, tanden, is not just a center of gravity, but the starting and ending point in most budo. It is a relation one should have to all of one's movements - not just because it brings stability, but also because the center is the "birth place" of one's interactions with one's surroundings, the source of one's ki, et cetera. It is the "I am" of budo.
Its role can hardly be exagerrated.

The tori and uke relation is fundamentally one between their centers. When uke attacks, the attack generates from uke's center and is (in principle) directed towards tori's center. When tori acts in aiki, it is with acceptance and guiding of uke's center, and the energy coming from it. For tori to be able to do that, it is important to remain in his/her own center all through.

Let's take shihonage as an example: It is very much a sword move - drawing the sword, then cutting with it. There are some body turns involved, as well, but essentially the arm movement is that of a sword cut.
Now, the straight sword cut should be done in front of one's center, or it will lose power and sharpness. Shihonage, too, tori should do with both hands in front of the center (and the center line of the body). If the hands deviate to the left or the right, there is a risk of losing the ability to complete the technique.

I am not sure if I am making myself clear, here. When I practice aikido, I always primarily and mostly focus on staying centered, and making my movements from and to the center - also, in relation to uke's center, the rest of uke's body being little more than expressions of uke's center.

Unfortunately, I don't have a shihonage video clip on my website, yet, but in this soft style shomenate ikkyo et cetera, maybe you can see what I mean with staying centered and extending uke's power from uke's center:
http://www.aikiken.com/aikido/video/...kkyo-omote.wmv

Another example is basic style jodantsuki ikkyo ura here:
http://www.budo.net/ikkyo/ikkyo-jodantsuki-ura.wmv
In guiding uke, I focus on doing it from his/her center, as a continued flow from it, and in the ikkyo ura turn, I focus on remaining centered, so that the whole turn is done with my main contact point with uke in front of my center (or center line).

What I focus on is to remain in my center, and to remain in contact with uke's center. I do my technique with uke's center, not his/her arms or body, really.
Of course, arms and body are involved, but at the core is the dynamic relation between tori's and uke's centers.

Am I making any sense?