Quote:
Paolo Valladolid wrote:
We were chatting about various things related to the seminar weekend, then at some point the conversation turned to the uke-nage connection when uke takes hold of nage's wrist. So he offered to show me what he thought should be a good uke-connection. He took hold of my wrist and said "Feel that coming up your arm?" I said "Holy shit!" Whatever he sent up my arm did not feel like electricity or heat. Then George would periodically ask "Ok, where am I now?", and I would tell him wherever I felt he was - the near shoulder, the far shoulder, the near hip, etc. Basically, George's idea of a good uke connection on a wrist grab is a clean path to the nage's center via the point of contact.
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This has been the basic thrust of our kokyu tanden ho exercises for many years, drawn from Hooker Sensei. Once you get it -- YOU can feel how far you are in, and tell your partner as you do it... Furitama (and tekubi furi) has a part to play in the "that" coming up your arm, though more subtle. Hooker was emphatic on furitama, at least with us, but leaving any explanations as an exercise for the class. Laying hands on him was like trying to move a human-sized medicine ball -- soft and pliable and yet unyielding to the core -- all at the same time.
As to variant training methods -- I will point out that Hooker was personally devoted to sanchin no kata training. Very much of what I observe above is present in sanchin and highly applicable to aiki, so I would not hesitate to recommend it, though he did not teach it, as such.