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Old 08-06-2013, 06:04 PM   #44
Keith Larman
Dojo: AIA, Los Angeles, CA
Location: California
Join Date: Apr 2005
Posts: 1,604
United_States
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Re: What is Aiki? Introduction to a method of analyzing Aiki. (Part 3)

I should add that in polishing I started feeling incredibly cramped and tight. And very sore after polishing only a short time. Exhausted too. Over time I learned to relax in to the polishing realizing that over time when doing it correctly things connected up and locked in place as if I was holding it very carefully and tightly but I was in fact increasingly relaxed. That was one of those epiphanies for me a number of years ago. There was no slack but I was totally relaxed if things were going well. And at first I had to be in that tight kamae to get that feeling. Over time I found I could get the same feeling as if I'd gained a sort of conscious ability to "link up" when I wasn't as tightly in the kamae. Now when I pick up a sword I can stand over a stone and get that feeling of connection and control of the blade in my hands to polish. Not always a good way to do it, but something developed over the years of spending 10-12 hours a day doing it that made it vastly easier to control. And it is a weird sort of a thing that I can turn on and off in my head with no apparent change to someone looking on. But I feel the difference. hard to explain...

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