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Old 03-03-2008, 05:45 PM   #8
Haowen Chan
Location: Pittsburgh
Join Date: Mar 2007
Posts: 91
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Re: Confused as usual :-)

Quote:
I don't know how it can get more explicit than that. I'm probably getting lost in semantics, but that phrase seems to tell me almost everything I need to know. Beyond that it seems like it's simply a matter of practice to become familiar with how my body works on another's.
I just started working with these exercises and I'm a complete newbie to aikido, so "I don't know jack and am probably totally wrong" disclaimers apply... but this is my opinion:

I think "Moving with the middle" is more of a mnemonic (like Tohei's 4 principles) than a explicative thing, as in, you can chant it to someone as much as you want and they wouldn't figure out anything new if they didn't know it beforehand.

The question that is begged (as TimWK pointed out) is "how exactly does moving my middle push my hand out". As Chris Moses said the short answer is "connection". There are several layers of sophistication to that and I don't know any of it, just enough to keep me busy at my total newbie level. There are definitely specific exercises that target the skill and conditioning aspect of this; one typically has to be work those with slow and simple movements before being able to incorporate them into waza effectively.

I guess deriving skills from first principles and personal observation is possible but not something I'd do: the technology has been known for centuries (millenia), you just need to access it, there's really no need to take the long road of reinvention... especially when you might end up with something not quite optimal if you try to derive it yourself.

I hope this is helpful!

Last edited by Haowen Chan : 03-03-2008 at 05:55 PM. Reason: clarification and details.
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