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Old 11-24-2011, 10:08 PM   #12
Mario Tobias
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 261
Philippines
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Re: Controlling balance of attacker

For me IMHO, it is always finding the "circuit" from nage's hara to uke's hara once the engagement has started. I liken connection to flow of electricity except that in this case it is flow of controlling balance. The challenge is how to complete the hara to hara connection.

In every technique imho, you start the "circuit" from nage's hara -> nage's shoulder -> nage's elbow -> nage's wrist -> nage's fingers -> uke's fingers -> uke's elbow -> uke's shoulder -> uke's hara. It's like dominoe effect. One part that doesn't connect in the technique, you will use force to make the technique work.

If you have an "open circuit" (eg nage initially using shoulder/arm power instead of power from center to generate the initial movement) or (eg using nage's shoulder power to directly attack uke's shoulder instead of going through elbow/wrist/fingers first), then the techniques will also be forceful. Similar to the electricity analogy, the connection will be lost and there will be no "flow".

Finding the circuits in the different techniques and coordination work after discovery is the challenge and the fun of practice. BTW, this is just my way of understanding connections to help me visualize all interactions in very simple fashion as we are being taught very abstract things all the time. This would work for all attacks imho.

If uke regains balance during a technique, find another "circuit" again to connect with uke's hara to unbalance him. Isn't the goal of practice controlling your center and uke's center in the first place? The discovery is the fun part.

Last edited by Mario Tobias : 11-24-2011 at 10:18 PM.
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