Quote:
Jason Casteel wrote:
I like to think of it like imagining you ran up to a table and pushed down onto it with all your strength/weight. Naturally the table, unless it were very cheaply made, wouldn't budge and you would be pushing yourself up/back, but at that moment you contacted it, the table pushed back (or pulled) ever so slightly.
Also, in your first reply you were talking about him being unthrowable, and I agree, but I wonder how much of that unthrowability is also him keeping his center away from nage? I've found that to be a very interesting thing to play with, though I can't do it against any pressure without some external shifting. I believe Ark does some demos along those lines where he'll squat and have two people push down on him from each side. They're connecting to him and pushing him down, but then he subtly shifts his center to break their connection and is able to just stand up regardless of the weight/power they're putting into him. I would imagine they're some of that going on with Mifune as well.
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Hi Jason,
Yeah, I think that's naturally the effect. A guy pushing onto a guy who is "lower" than the other guy, will naturally prop himself up, because the guy who's low is directing his "energy" or "center" to the ground. In that case, yeah, the table image is suitable. I got some "a ha" moments from watching some Kondo videos of him teaching a seminar and while people might suggest other Daito Ryu guys for good examples of "aiki", his demonstrations of aiki, while lacking in subtlety, gave me ideas as to why it's easy for small guys to throw bigger guys. Kondo would do aiki using aiki-age, and put his attacker on his toes, upon which Kondo would throw him. If you are on your toes, you are basically powerless, and you can be easily thrown. But I figured, you don't literally need to be on your toes, you just need to be unbalanced for you to be throwable.
That's what I mean by "dynamic downweight". I didn't really explain. Why is that if a strong guy lifts a 150 pound weight and curls like its nothing, but can't throw a 100 pound dude (like Mifune)? The weight has a recognizable "center". It won't move. If you are strong enough, and can "sense" where the gravitational pull is on the weight, you can move it. But with a 100 pound guy, he can hide his "center" while maintaining a downweight anywhere on his body. So the guy will not be able to sense where the pull is on the 100 pounder, while the 100 pounder is mentally directing gravitional force affecting his body and consequently aligning his body in such a way that it desires to stay clamped to the ground.
I don't know if that makes sense. Jeez this is hard to explain.