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Old 10-15-2012, 05:22 PM   #83
Erick Mead
 
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Dojo: Big Green Drum (W. Florida Aikikai)
Location: West Florida
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Re: More on Aikido and the Floating Bridge of Heaven

On the straight legs check PM for a laugh-- I'll find a better space for it
Quote:
David Orange wrote: View Post
The way you describe "driving" with your center is also not what is meant in this context. We're talking about a release of power with almost no movement (and one inch driving with the center as you describe it is a good bit of movement).

You're talking mechanical movement when we're talking something closer to electrical. It requires proper mechanics, but they're different than those used to produce the muscular power you're showing.
What you describe as "close to electrical" is a description of an involuntary reflex -- uncontrolled, in a sense -- but not undirected, in another sense. Like grabbing a hot wire -- things just happen. It can be deployed with intent-- just not in the way we would , say, pick up a chair and move it around the table. It seems to me the same thing you are talking about , because I get that sense of it when I do it.

Quote:
Your comments about undulating pendula also miss the point concerning the three dantiens. The relation of the dantiens is not the same as between pendulums singly or doubly connected. The use of the connective tissue damps out the possible oscillations, which are really just the "wobble" of an unstable body and which bleed off the power in transit from the ground to the hand. That's why "aligning" the three dantiens is important. That's why when I felt the alignment becoming self-adjusting through habit induced by awareness from training, I intuited suddenly that I could do this pulse off the wall and presented my ideas for review.
Damped or not -- they are still pendula -- and pendula behave like pendula even when damped. The "bounce" of the inverted pendula of the three dantien are inherent to our VERY odd form of stability, in comparison to almost all other creatures. There is no getting away from it, unless you go on all fours.

The region of stability is large and occurs at a variety of amplitudes and frequencies (Fig 2 in the link) . You will note that the lowest energy/lowest amplitude of the stable region at is at 10 hertz with a very short amplitude ("the spirit of bees")-- the lowest frequency is the 5 Hz bottom of the shaded region - a longer amplitude, lower frequency undulation ("the demon snake") -- These just happen to be the resonant frequency (5Hz) and first harmonic (10 Hz) of the human body and the signature oscillations of funetori and furitama, respectively.

Resonance introduced into such a system in this equation will drive it out of its stability -- and furitama is at the resonance frequency of the body -- that why it bounces everything in the body when done right -- and that's how you know when it is right. The big peak in the middle marks the boundary between the oscillation/undulation destabilizations, and large amplitude funetori actions that lead to destabilization of the freely rotating variety (most conventional waza) located in the upper right section of the graph. So waza are not outside this paradigm, they are simply only one side of the behaviors that this full understnading of what is happening presents.

Put into a person at that CORRECT resonant energy and the pulse we are playing with rings them like a bell --taking apart their stability at a level of the physics that it requires to BE stable. Ikeda Sensei does this routinely -- and to very amusing effect -- which I have felt and which was precisely the reason for my undertaking this particular line of inquiry.. Control of one's oan damping ability (an aspect of "internal" stuffs) can minimize the effects of resonance in oneself as well.

The "pulse" is the actuation of that reflexive oscillation in one go, like cracking a whip.
Furitama and related oscillatory exercises "tune in" to that fundamental resonant frequency and allow us to voluntarily actuate or potentiate it -- which is quite different from voluntary directed motor control -- and which you all seem to describe with the word "external." The oscillations also actuate the damping "fascia" smooth muscle, allowing one to sense their action, and causing the structure to strengthen and become more unified and more effective in damping.

The "external v. internal" scheme of definition seems in one of its senses -- to me at least -- to be a distinction between conscious voluntary motor control and actuated and potentiated reflexive actions that are set in motion but not directed throughout the action by conscious attention or effort. The sense -- for me at least-- is that something is happening that is not strictly under directly actuated guidance -- more like ballistic guidance -- like a whip or chain -- even when slow.

If anything, voluntary motor control serves in this capacity - as you seem to suggest -- to control the amount of damping present in the body when used in this manner of action. I see much value in many of the exercises that are shown and spoken of -- in learning to work with control by damping the body's structural responses and in learning the reflexive actuation that this pulse business is a part of. What I use my twisty balloons to illustrate -- how to maintain the same essential damping "tone" in every part of the body while also still able move more or less freely as one wishes. The only thing I am doing voluntarily is holding the reins more or less tightly as the action occurs when my structure is affected somehow. It is like a sword cut -- you don't strike with it - you more or less just unleash it.

Quote:
I got feedback and I responded to it with two extra videos for critique because I am sincere in seeking really to understand this subject, both in my mind and in my body.

I hope you'll see this comment in that light because within your incongruence I do some light of sincerity in your comments. You're just completely misunderstanding the topic.
I am in agreement with your sentiment in the first instance -- and as to the latter point, let us reserve judgment and see what we may see... shall we... ?

Last edited by Erick Mead : 10-15-2012 at 05:26 PM.

Cordially,

Erick Mead
一隻狗可久里馬房但他也不是馬的.
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