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Old 04-27-2010, 10:00 PM   #20
Erick Mead
 
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Dojo: Big Green Drum (W. Florida Aikikai)
Location: West Florida
Join Date: Jun 2005
Posts: 2,619
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Re: How do you take a step in Aikido?

Quote:
David Skaggs wrote: View Post
How would you teach a beginner how to move/ What would you tell him/her?
First, I would explain walking to them. I discovered this after I pulled a hamstring and it confirmed -- in more ordinary terms -- what I had gleaned in observing movement in practice. When we walk efficiently, we DO NOT push off the back leg. I mean you can, but it is not efficient.

When we walk we begin by a sway off the hip center from the stance leg, in a slight topple forward and as the torso recovers upright, it communicates that recovery momentum to the swing leg, which swings freely forward until it meets the ground and becomes the new stance leg. The new stance leg compresses taking up slack and then translates our weight in a pivot from the ground with the hip acting as a swivel. The former stance leg becomes a prop leg, losing weight as it also stretches out until, when it reaches its natural stretch limit a reflex causes the legal flexor arc to fire, shortening the leg allowing it to lose contact with the ground in time with the complete loss of weight, causing it to swing freely as the new swing leg... etc. etc

Martial movement compresses the stance leg more, and consequently with more spiral of the hip and torso dominating, the prop leg is slid -- dragging it, essentially, lightly from the hip instead of swinging from it freely. The stretch reflex coordination is still present, but has to be retuned to do that effectively but the basics are otherwise the same.

Cordially,

Erick Mead
一隻狗可久里馬房但他也不是馬的.
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