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Old 12-29-2012, 10:43 PM   #31
Cady Goldfield
Join Date: Oct 2006
Posts: 1,035
United_States
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Re: Atemi and Aikido

Krystal wrote: If aikido is the way of aiki, we might do well to know what aiki means. We can see from aikiweb that the term is still largely undefined, and is up for huge debate at the moment. For that matter, I'm not sure we're all that clear on what do means, but at least there is enough of a common consensus or the term is unimportant enough to us that we dont go rounds and rounds and rounds about it. So, what does aiki mean?

Ueshiba said repeatedly that "Aiki is opposing forces (in you)." It wasn't meant to be just a spiritual concept, it was a very real, physical one that he demonstrated again and again.

Aiki is the balance and management of created and maintained internal tension -- the dynamic tension of dual opposing forces -- within the body, in such a way that allows the individual manipulate power at will. Ueshiba stated this himself, referring to the friction created within the body by inducing and matching those two forces.

The two forces have names: In and Yo (or Yin and Yang). Or, rather, the two forces display the qualities of the Taoist concepts of In/Yin and Yo/Yang. When In and Yo are kept in complementary balance with each other, they represent the harmonizing or matching (ai) of the energy (ki) in its dual forms of In and Yo.

A person creates aiki by manipulating his or her body to create those dual opposing forces within it -- in the form of spiraling energy (the internal movements send force on a spiral path) -- and then controlling the relationship between those forces to affect the channeling of power. To do this, the body is used in unconventional ways – in part, the In-Yo of tandan and meimon (dantian and mingmen in Chinese), the spine, the "architecture" of the inner legs and femoral region, the interaction of body with the ground, the exploitation of the diaphragm and inner body cavities, and of intent as the driver.

It's a much more complex process than just using "breath," timing, stepping and turning in an external model...no matter how relaxed you are, that still is an external range of motions which can only superficially mimic what a person creating aiki is doing with his innards. It all starts inside you, which makes it invisible to onlookers until someone touches you. Then you can see the outward expression in their body's reaction to what you are doing inside you. This is where aiki and IP influence ate-waza (atemi), making it a very different game.

Last edited by Cady Goldfield : 12-29-2012 at 10:46 PM.
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