Thread: The Ura of Kiai
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Old 07-08-2010, 09:11 AM   #10
DH
Join Date: Aug 2005
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Re: The Ura of Kiai

Quote:
David Orange wrote: View Post
Dan,

Thanks for the detailed response.

When I mentioned being immoveable, of course, I meant immoveable to the opponent "when" you want to be immoveable. When I discuss these ideas with the relatively uninitiated, they have the same problems I used to have when trying to understand you and others on this topic. Of course, I mean, being immoveable when you want to stay where you are and being irresistable when you feel like moving.

And the idea of staying in place and letting the attacker impale himself with his own power is just what I perceived as a sort of zero point of the ura of kiai. Instead of going to him and impaling him with your energy, you let him come to you and impale himself with his own energy.

That's the kernel I've been looking at recently.

Then, from there, you're free to move at will, letting ground support him even as you're taking the ground out from under him.

And though I did relate some of Ark's movement to some of yours, I do understand that your method and Ark's are not overlays at all. Nor Ark's and Mike's. I do feel like Mike's peng jin, as I've come to understand it through reading and some experimentation with people who have trained with him, is the essence of the "kernel" I mention above, stopping and supporting the attacker's energy and causing him to lighten and "float", but again, this is just describing that initial balancing. How to maintain it while moving, how to effect it from any point of contact, how to do it without resorting to muscle, etc., are all levels I've yet to scratch.

And I glimpse that as I explore this direction more, it will also change my kiai, which would change my aiki, which would change my kiai....etc.

It's definitely the most interesting world of potential I've found in martial arts since I first encountered aiki based on movement.

Thanks again and best to you and yours.

David
Hi David
Got it on the immovable side..okay.

Floating people on contact is aiki age. Forget the wrist grabs and such. It is a body energy consistent from your head to your toes. I like to show it in ways that people do not conceive of to make the point about the totality of it. A good example is to have them grab me behind the knee to lift my leg up and having them feel kokyu ho (aiki age) energy from the back of my knee. The point is that anywhere-even your nose should create a feeling of kuzushi without much thought, it is natural when they come in contact with you.
Up energy is just a single use. Your body properly supported (once again that energy thing) creates kuzushi in them. The real fun starts (in practice) when you float them at any point "suspend the contact point" and move freely all around it. Think of it like a floating kuzushi point that leaves you free to move anywhere you will; enter, throw, hit or kick. the fun part is to be able to suspend freely, but remain super soft with total body flexibility (bending of all the joints etc.) You can practice it over time by getting kuzushi then moving, without adding or taking away anything from that point. Then switching hands, ducking under, walking around them, while the various contact areas on your arm change but the kuzushi remains constant in them.
It can be shown and done by lot of people to various degrees, but the quality in it is not the same as someone with the proper conditioning. Other fun things are bringing or carrying their intent to a place other than where they intended it to go. Again though these are external manifestations that can be "mimiced" of what should be going on- "on the inside."

Impaling themselves and movement with weapons is a long complicate topic. Example: straight on movement and winding movements can offer the same "result" you outlined in your example yet they are two completely different approaches.
hopefully I will see you this fall
Cheers
Dan
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