graham christian

O.K. Excuse me for my little bit of fun but it was also because it's one of those things that I read about on here and yet the reasons I never agree with so I was moved to express such.

Many a person or student, especially from another art have said to me in the past 'yeah but' Such a common statement when it comes to Aikido attacks. They are usually followed by 'then I would do this or that' for you leave yourself open and the usual comments.

As an aside the same thing happens with nikkyo or or whatever. The experienced person from another art says do that again and proceeds to do all kinds of clever manoevers. However, this is just another example of me saying to the person, woah there buddy, I am showing you nikkyo for you to learn how to do it, not to show how clever you are. This would then be followed by, 'Now if you want me to show you nikkyo and give you the right to counter it how you please then prepare for the consequences but in so doing you will not learn how to do it but merely suffer the consequence. At least the effectiveness will then be felt.

Now, attacks. Aikido attacks. What do they represent? This is the first thing to recognise.

It can only be recognised by looking from the viewpoint of energy or power if you like coming at you.

Until you recognise this then you are wasting your time.

Next is to recognise that this power or energy is coming at you along a predetermined path. To know these paths is to know the attack.

For instance Shomen: A cut down and through. Energy coming at you from up to down along center line

Yokomen: Energy (with attendant mass) coming at you on the diagonal.

Tsuki: Energy coming at you straight through center line.

Note that the straight through tsuki is a straight line of power. The yokomen is actually circular in effect as is the shomen. (like the hands of a clock)

So these are motions and Aikido being a harmonious martial art deals with motion, harmonizing with motion.

So we have here harmonizing with straight line energy and harmonizing with circular energy.

We have here thus the basics of the straight jab in boxing, the roundhouse kick, the right hook, and all other strikes for they are merely versions of the above. They are straight or they are curved.

With circular you enter into the center of the circle or else keep outside the circle. With straight line you irimi to enter or via ma ai once again you keep out of range. They are the hard to learn simplicities.

But now back to the basic. So far we see they 'represent' types of attack motion wise. Even the spear is straight through, the sword is circular, etc. Aikido as a martial art.

Aikido is a discipline and it is stated that there is no fighting in Aikido. Aikido has a little mentioned thing called ma ai. When faced by a person feigning to do this or that, boxing, kung fu, whatever, in other words when trying to be drawn into a fight the the discipline of Aikido says keep ma ai. Thus no fight.

Meanwhile the discipline says stay calm, relaxed, zanshin, centered and the rest of it whilst keeping ma ai and wait for an 'opening' to enter and finish the encounter. No fighting, no give and take rigmorole, no clever tactics, no rolling around, no sparring, wait, enter, finish. That is the martial of Aikido and differenciates martial from fighting and competition for me.

Which brings us to the point rather nicely. When waiting for the opening, when using ma ai, what exactly are you waiting for? This word 'opening' is far too vague a term really from an Aikido perspective. Far too open to various high foluted opinions. You are not actually waiting for an opening so in truth what are you waiting for?

You are waiting for commitment. Aikido deals with commitment. Someone bouncing around in front of you doing all kinds of feints and rubbish has not yet committed and it is only the committed attack Aikido is interested in.

Commitment means motion through. Through where? Through you.

So it doesn't mean loud shout or power punching or hitting even, it means doing so with motion through. This doesn't mean through with the strike only it means through with yourself also, the rest of your body.

We used to say albeit probably incorrectly, that anyone punching through and yet the body stopping was doing a karate tsuki, not Aikido for Aikido is carry on through. We would say he who doesn't is dead and that they have earthed their Ki and thus easy to handle.

Any true swordsmsn does not cut and stop. they cut on their way through.

In Aikido tsuki you do not just hit through you carry on through to the 'wall' This is commitment, it is complete.

Thus it can be done at walking pace. You can tsuki through and carry on 'walking' through very slowly even. It may look crazy from the outside but you are getting the nage to deal with continued motion and power, to deal with commitment.

So commitment is moving on through and out the other side and that is all. The attacks in Aikido should represent this and this rules out hitting at or even doing to for it is doing through.

So what does Aikido do? It deals only with that point of commitment, nothing else. Aikido harmonizes with the point of commitment.

The attack therefore be it slow or fast represents commitment, non stopping motion through, the whole body, going from point 'a' through to point 'b'

If someone says to me to demonstrate tsuki, even slowly then I am moving from center (point 'a') on through to the wall twenty feet away (point 'b') and thus I carry on moving until I reach that point. The other persons body is of no significance.

In this way in Aikido you learn to deal with the unstopping motion and you learn to know when one is and when one isn't. It's not a matter of ferocity or strength but purely motion through.

In other words you enter the others space, circle in order to strike and you should end up out the other side of their space, this is commitment, this is the Aikido attack.

These are my thoughts and views.

Regards.G.