Brian H

I think this thread is great. I have been working on my own natural body movement as it relates to Aikido and to another interest of mine, pistol shooting (I'm a policeman). I recently attended a tacticl pistol school and the instuctor went into great depth about natural body motion and speed. He explained that when a shooter goes beyond his natual body speed he actually slows down and expends more energy.

If the shooter "hurries" to his holstered pistol then he has to expend excessive effort to stop his hand and his hand will slam into the pistols grip. This makes for inconsistent hand grip and pushes the pistol deeper into the holster, making it more difficult to draw. The by going to "fast" the shooter then has to push and pull the weapon through its draw stroke an stop its motion when it is fully extended. As he was talking a little light went off in my head that said "This is what I should be doing in my Aikido!" So when we went out on the range and started shooting I just relaxed and let myself just "draw" the pistol at my own pass instead of slamming down hard and jerking the pistol out fast. Not only was I going faster with a "slower" draw, but I was getting nice tight groups because I was firing as my pistol came up onto target instead of wrestling it around as it presented. (For the anti-gun folks, please substitute "sword" for "pistol" and think happy "iai" thoughts)

When I got to the dojo I found that the same held true for my Aikido. I just "moved" and found myself clashing and banging less. And as to original post, I have had my "best" classes when I was so tired I could hardly walk into dojo. There is something about mind numbing fatigue that just takes away your ego and robs you of the strength to muscle your way through technique.