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Old 05-04-2012, 11:03 PM   #54
John Thomas Read
Dojo: Northcoast Aikido, Arcata, CA, USA
Location: Arcata/CA
Join Date: Aug 2010
Posts: 6
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Re: What is atemi really for?

The moment uke (the attacker) forms intent to attack nage (the defender) he (she) commits to the level of psychological concept; that is, uke becomes enveloped in the world of thought. Now there is no doubt that when properly used, thought is very useful to human beings. But on the martial level, thought also has the unfortunate tendency to constantly stop on things, so when uke's mind becomes caught in conception, 'suki' inevitably appear, 'openings' that are vulnerable to attack.

Thought is contracted energy, not unlike material substance. When uke forms intent to attack nage, his mind enters a predictable state, like a mass in motion. Simply by observing uke commit to his conceptual structure, nage will find a way to take advantage of the weaknesses inherent in the human mind's conceptual predictability.

In martial arts, atemi is most commonly thought to involve a strike toward a vulnerability in uke. But atemi can be understood in other ways. For example, it is entirely possible for nage to 'throw atemi', not by throwing a strike, but by placing definitively (setting in space) a certain 'stillness' (often of the hand) in the midst of a high speed technical movement.

Such a stillness stands out and catches uke's mind, causing it to stop for a moment. As uke's mind stops on nage's set of technical stillness, nage himself does not stop and instead continues to flow through the technique. The result is that uke, caught for a moment in a conceptual stop, loses any lead, any initiative he may have had, and becomes trapped into a lagging position from which he cannot escape throughout the remainder of the throw.

The set of the hand in space may or may not contain real potential for an actual strike to uke's body - but it doesn't really matter. Nage really has no intent to strike uke at all. Instead, nage's atemi is intended to catch uke into a reactive and therefore lagging position within the technique.

Advanced Aikidoists are generally very skilled in moving quickly, precisely, and powerfully, but many are less skilled with the placement of silent stillness as part of waza. I believe it is important to understand the implications of silence and stillness, and recommend spending considerable time exploring the use of these in one's Aikido techniques.

Interestingly, when nage does grasp the importance of this 'set of stillness' type of atemi, in practicing it is common for nage to become caught into into his own atemi! For this reason (among others) it is important to spend time examining the nature of thought, and how uke's mind, as well as one's own, is vulnerable to psychological entrapment.

One might begin such a study by observing the movement of thought in one's own mind, and making a distinction between the content of thought, and the structure of thought.
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