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Old 02-16-2012, 01:10 AM   #28
Josh Lerner
 
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Location: Renton, WA
Join Date: Oct 2005
Posts: 80
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Re: Aikido, Rickson Gracie and Connection

Quote:
Budd Yuhasz wrote: View Post
I would say there's utility in using that as a training device to feel the connection between yourself and another - and it's one tactic for making a solid connection between you and someone else (center on center). But with someone that has some level of baseline skills, it will be harder to plug into their center that way - some you won't be able to find, others will use your attempt to reflect it back on you (aiki, baby).

FWIW
Or your attempts will be successfull on someone without any internal baseline skills, yet still backfire. I was training in BJJ a few weeks ago, on my back, with my left leg up in the air. My training partner was on his knees grasping my leg from the underside of it, kneeling with his left knee on the inside of my right thigh. He was trying to straighten my leg and do a knee bar, but it was relatively simple for me to transfer the force he was applying to my leg back through his frame and back into the ground. So in terms of my left leg, I felt totally safe.

The problem was that, due to our relative positions, the force that I was so skillfully sending back through him into the ground was getting redirected down into the ground through the knee (and it was a very pointy knee) that was on my inner thigh. I couldn't squirm out of it without damaging something, so I tapped. I think that is called winning the battle but losing the war.

Come to think of it, that seems to be a running theme in my attempts at using internal skills in grappling.

Josh
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