Re: The use and strength of atemi application
The real devastating skill of ate waza is best understood where any contact point along a path can be a strike and any contact point can absorb and make a negative/ positive connection to effect change in the opponent. So when they hit or grab you- you absorb while entering in yourself. Once in- you stick and strike without the need to wind up. I call them "Two for ones." They do a thing, and I get two, sometimes three, for their one. Just the fact that there is no windup leaves them open the majority of the time. Moving from center and expressing real Aiki and in all of your contact points avoids time delays and perceptible motion for them to read. This gives you a "real time" advantage as they cannot feel any weight shift or feel the strikes and kicks coming, and they end up playing catch up to your movement. Then, when you don't move away or do the tell tale windup, but instead hit them again and again from impossible angles- you dominate.
Why and how is that pertinent to aikido? The strike in aikido is supposed to have that same quality and ability. It is soft power-the likes of which is knock out power. One word of caution I have is that impressive demo's, power releases and strikes that a high school wrestler could avoid is not the way to go. No matter how much power someone has- if they do not know the how's and where's to use it and what will actually work under stress and at speed ...well then...it can be back to zero in finding out how.
Cheers
Dan
Last edited by DH : 04-28-2010 at 08:12 AM.
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