David, I do not think Takeda subscribed to your smiling/aiki power theory.
re; thread.
It is a good thought. I also noticed that the fear reaction in me (my o my; seems I get fearful an awful lot) causes 'ki to rise'. My 10,000 reps has been to resink it back down to qihai point. Funny thing is; I can't fake it. When i can do it...yes; i feel it in dantian and in my face. Staying relaxed so that ki stays under control...seems so far away to me. Almost unimaginably far away in a fight...
Something else I noticed: Some people have huge asymmetry/eye dominance. What do you make of it?Is this a left/right imbalance? i have thoughts but i don't know. One video clip talks about eye-aiki. not sure what this is all about.
re: sock
Sometimes i feel like it's more of the veins on a leaf than the sock; but you had some really interesting thoughts.
stay crazy,
J