Quote:
Dan Harden wrote:
Moving in an "Aiki way" as you mention begins with no movement at all. In fact it is the hardest part. Next is moving solo...still very difficult. The last is connecting to someone. By then it should be almost automatic. Oddly enough most of the greats were all known for following that model.
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Right. I've been trying to phrase that. And you can also see that the big teachers explain the same idea in the opposite directions: as you get better, the big movements become smaller and smaller until you're almost not moving. It's not an equivalent statement, though. Instead of approaching the infinitely small through large outer direction and movement, it has to be better to begin with inner direction and no outward movement.
A big shift began for me when I studied Feldenkrais and he (his Method and writings) directed my attention toward smaller and smaller movements until I noticed a place between thought and movement where everything begins.
You have to find that first in yourself before you can start to apply it to others and you have to learn to keep it all inside rather than sending out toward, if not
to someone else.
So it has to begin at non-moving internal work.
So then the specifics of the non-moving internal work...
What are they and what are the effects?
They are the six-directional tuning of the nervous system.
The effect is to make the practitioner very hard to move, very hard to prevent from moving, very difficult to let go of, once grabbed.
With these skills, the outer forms of aikido can be employed easily, though this stage should really be takemusu aiki, from which techniques are generated spontaneously according to the situation.
It's in the body of the practitioner--not in the forms.
Thanks for the help.
David