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Joep Schuurkes wrote:
I don't think there's much relevance or benefit. I haven't done a full study of Ueshiba's movements, but I'm quite sure he doesn't exhibit the whole-body spiraling of Chen taijiquan. There is some spiraling in the arms, for instance when turning the hands over in the rowing exercise, but that's quite common, just think of the fist turning over in a Karate punch.
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I think you're right about Ueshiba not exhibiting the "whole-body spiraling of Chen taijiquan." To me that's neither good nor bad; aikido and Chen taiji are two different arts using different approaches to body methods (Chinese
shen fa). And your remark about limited relevance/benefit of SREs to aikido is a good caution for aikidokas looking outside of aikido for "internal" exercises.
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The bold typeface makes me feel a bit like I'm being challenged. Is that intentional?  |
No. I have neither the time nor desire for ridicule or confrontation, and this forum doesn't benefit from that kind of exchange. I was only asking if you had specific practices or exercises to suggest with respect to the "conditioning" of internal connections that you'd written about yesterday as important to silk-reeling:
"The internal connections need to be conditioned and the coordination to move in accordance with these connections needs to be developed. . . . . Once can contract the frontside of the body with the dantien/hara as center to 'close' the body. One can also contract the backside of the body, again with the dantien/hara as center to 'open' the body. This opening and closing of the body can only be done if the internal connections of your body have been conditioned sufficiently to guide the movement. And if you allow these connections to fully define your movement, you'll get the typical spiraling movements of silk-reeling." (bold added for emphasis)
I was curious about what exercises you use and could recommend for conditioning of internal connections with respect to silk-reeling.
With respect to aikido:
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I think the makko ho could be a nice start: http://www.rianvisser.nl/shiatsu/e_doin.htm. I don't think it can get more simple: stretch some meridians and do reverse breathing. Unfortunately, just assuming these postures while keeping your stomach form expanding when breathing is not a guarantee you're actually doing it correctly.
Secondly, I think aikido has plenty of good breathing exercises with arm movement that would make more sense from an aikido perspective than the SRe exercises. |
I agree. Of course, reverse breathing is not simply keeping the stomach from expanding when breathing. I'd mentioned
funakogi undo before. Playing around with it while doing reverse breathing seems to engage internal connections to some extent. The flexion of the wrists tightens up connection through the shoulders to the back.