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Ron Ragusa wrote:
I understand what you're saying. Might not nage commit his weight onto uke and be centered at the same time?
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Well, I'm using "commit" your weight as to "lean on" uke so that he has to support you because you're not supporting yourself.
Weight transference--where you put your weight into him, but don't
commit it, outside yourself--is another thing, more what I think you're talking about.
Quote:
Ron Ragusa wrote:
As has been observed many times before, it's just not possible to experience what uke is feeling from looking at video clips.
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Here, I'm not so concerned with what uke feels. I'm concerned with what nage is doing.
Quote:
Ron Ragusa wrote:
It's been my experience that there's a big difference between leaning into an uke with correct feeling and leaning into uke in the absence of correct feeling, even though outwardly both appear the same.
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But again, I'm not talking about "leaning," which you can do with a straight body, but about bending over, which requires extra muscular effort, which saps the power of the body.
You mentioned Maruyama Sensei's being able to remain un-pushable in some unusual postures and it sounds a lot like what Forrest Chang shows in his "Stupid Jin Tricks," but it takes a lot of development and he only shows it as a "trick," or example of possibilities. I don't know of anyone who regularly works from a distorted (bent) posture or advocates it as the "correct" way to work. Note Phi's comments above.
It's a theoretical and "debatable" point as long as training itself is theoretical. But when real forces come into play (as in judo randori) a bent posture quickly breaks down.
Did you check out the link I posted to David's videos? Do you have any examples of Tohei ever operating like that? And the further back you go to aikido's roots, the more impeccable the erect posture is found.
I have always found that a bent-forward posture is accompanied by an over-eager mind. It works with cooperative ukes, but when the attacker gets a little sneaky, it's easy to make a bent nage fall into a hole.
Best to you.
David