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Old 08-31-2013, 08:39 AM   #7
OwlMatt
 
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Dojo: Milwaukee Aikikai
Location: Wisconsin
Join Date: Dec 2009
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Re: Techniques are dead: Living movement vs dead technique

Quote:
Cady Goldfield wrote: View Post
After driving a manual transmission for 35 years, I don't have to think about how to use the clutch, stick and accelerator. I just "do" and can also be aware of the road, the sound of the engine, the feel of the vehicle, and what all of the drivers and pedestrians around me are doing. No more conscious thought of "clutch...shift...gas..."

There is conditioning of a method first. From the "chaos" of the untrained body to the "order" of the trained body. This is true in any physical or mental discipline: we start out with uncontrolled movements or thoughts, too much motion, too big a movement, uncoordination, and we gradually re-direct our energy to a new way of moving and thinking.

Artists who learn to paint using a method, musicians who learn to play an instrument using a method, writers who learn to write using a method... we all go through the same learning process until our minds and bodies -know- what and how to do, and the actions become spontaneous because we no longer have to think of how to "do things" step-by-step.

There is an old expression: "The bound foot is the free foot."
What you're talking about seems to be the ability to summon up what you've learned without conscious thought. I think there is a point beyond that, at which things you haven't learned can be summoned up without conscious thought. I'm not at that point as an aikidoist yet, but I can make a musical analogy.

When my daughter was born, I decided I wanted to learn this song as a lullaby for her. Trouble is, Richie Havens tunes his guitar differently than I do, so I couldn't just play what he played. In the course of figuring my own guitar accompaniment, I was playing through the chorus and discovered I was playing Gmaj7/A, a chord I'd never learned, never practiced, never even seen before.

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