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Ahmad Abas wrote:
I feel like I need a Physics degree to understand what's going on in here... But I like it. In a way I can catch glimpses of how we can describe what has been largely an indescribable element of Aikido.
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See the shapes; "get" the shapes; look for the shapes. If you get nothing more, it was worth the trouble, because you will see them over and over again if you look.
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Ahmad Abas wrote:
What I would have generally described as the non-mechanical aspect of Aikido i.e. the Aiki or Mind-Energy-Body unity part is now hereto being described aptly as being mechanical/physics still. Does this help in the learning of it? Apparently so if Erick's students are to be believed.
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To be clear. I use traditional terms to express the action in traditional training of aiki taiso and working through waza (
always in variants, never by rote). I don't do white board lecture on a mat. We practice Aikido -- not physics. Saotome's legacy is safe because it is mainly through his students did that I learned to see it this way -- though there isn't one of them that would speak of it the way I have come to -- they showed me what I have seen -- with some good input from Saito's approach along the way.
I use what I have come to understand in this way mainly to critically correct bad action -- and to be able to explain WHY I am making the correction and why the action was bad. I cannot emphasize too much how that helps a student --- that there is not only a demonstrable HOW, but an
independently intelligible WHY in each instance, and if asked I can tell them precisely why. It helps them to see the error as they do it more readily and then self-correct.
The WHY is the part that was not readily available without more mechanical concepts of action. There are components of neuromuscular action going on -- but those follow from the nature of the mechanics, because those systems they are sensitive to and use those mechanics. I would analogize the tradition as the meat of the blade -- what I am doing is analogous to polishing -- in the technical sense -- deeply involved in precise geometries and shapes consistent with the nature of the action of the weapon -- which is immensely critical to blade performance -- NOT the shiny rub on granny's silver. And there are other forms of polishing that are also effective.
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Ahmad Abas wrote:
Does it require actual/extensive physical instruction or can it be done just by understanding the concept as introduced by Erick to learn though... I wonder.
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Nothing substitutes for extensive physical instruction and lots of self-critical effort. Nothing. Anybody who says different is selling something.
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Ahmad Abas wrote:
Grounding incoming force and projecting the 'earth' into various parts of the body, extending it beyond our body into uke, taking uke's center, leading not forcing, wave/bouncing, impulse/ateru... I've seen it, felt it, heard it described from the esoteric to the scientific way, and it boils down to how well we can duplicate what we feel. If we can't make our body do what we are thinking of doing,
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You had me till the last -- I truly think that unless our body acts without thinking we are not yet doing proper aikido -- certainly not takemusu. And thinking about feeling is a step remove ed from feeling and acting. My approach puts the thinking apart from the subjective feeling, letting the feeling remain unmediated by thought, and directs thought toward the objective form and action, which is more amenable to thinking in the first place. IMO.
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Ahmad Abas wrote:
For example doing sankyo last night against my uke who's taller and stronger, once you get him down keeping him there is messy if don't maintain control on his centre. You can't take control with your strength because he is stronger. You may make use of torque and leverage,
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Leverage won't work - or in any event is not aiki -- but the strong guys WILL use leverage -- it's what makes the "strong" after all. But in every lever there is a inherent shear -- if you use the shear -- he can't do a thing about it -- more lever = more shear. Figuring out where the shear is going (hint: right angles, always) and that's where seeing the shapes matter immensely -- and then you can correlate the shape to the feeling in the action.
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Ahmad Abas wrote:
Actually it was the least tiring way of accomplishing my goal last night. Channeling his upwards force into my structure and into the ground and reversing it to bring him down. But then where is the 'sankyo' element of controlling? Where does the image of us holding uke up with sankyo come from?
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Uke has three pillars when down in a sankyo -- two legs and a bracing arm. Take a dinner plate. Put it on three pillars. Put your spread fingertips on the plate. Twist your hand with slight pressure on the surface of the plate. See what happens. That is torsional shear -- and there is your sankyo control. The more he works to get up the more vulnerable to it he becomes.