Thanks guys! This wasn't really meant to be an article. It started as an outline for a block of instruction I was preparing on the Principles of Aiki. It has morphed into what will probably be the basic outline for a book. Each of the principles I talked about could easily be fleshed out into a whole chapter. With some diagrams and some more info on practical training exercises to help people understand each principle, it would be a whole book.
Anyway, this isn't meant to be an explanation of how O-Sensei understood these things. This is how I understand them. These are the principles which I use when I am doing my Aikido. Most people have read various books on Aikido and have heard many of these Japanese terms used but most folks have no actual idea what these terms mean in the practical sense of how they actually operate in technique and how they would go about training to develop this understanding. So this material is actually the lesson plan for a very practical block of instruction that I have been working on which should make many of these principles mush more clear for people from any style of Aikido.
I'll be covering much of this material in two of the seminars I am doing this Fall.
Next weekend 9/29 - 10/1 I'll be at Redlands Aikido in CA
Seminar Flyer
Also, November 17 - 19th I'll be in Bozeman, MT
Bozeman Aikido
If anyone can come I'd love to see you there!