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A lot of our ukeing exercise concentrate on keeping contact, keeping a positive connection. Difficult to describe, and my teacher informs me -- difficult to teach!
We have a belief that to a great extent Uke determines whether or not a technique can take place.
Now this can be somewhat controversial, because what we are saying is that if someone doesn't move ‘correctly' we may not be able to perform the requested technique.
Let me explain:
Say you go to do Ikkyo (from ai hamni) and as you raise and move the arm uke turns their back on you. In the way that a lot of people seem to do when they are first learning. Now by moving round, using atemi etc we can get to Ikkyo, no question, but the when uke turns their back they present other techniques that are far more appropriate from that position, not to mention they have exposed their rips.
Another example with Ikkyo; if I begin to turn the arm over and Uke goes stiff and strong in the direction I am moving as the arm begins to lower. What do I do -- I might be strong enough to use strength to get through -- but that's not aiki -- maybe I can adjust our movement and move round the point of resistance and perform Ikkyo, but maybe it's easier since uke is so strong in one direction just to turn it around and throw them in the other direction.
So in our training we work as harder, if not harder on being in the correct position as uke as when we are doing the techniques. Not only does this improve ukemi but it begins to makes counters available.
Another advantage of this is not only the fact that not forcing techniques leads to less injuries but that you begin to learn to go into a situation think "I am going to perform technique X" but that you are able to perform a technique based on what actually occurs, something that I think is both in keeping with the spirit of aiki, and also possible more use in any self-defence situation that does happen to crop up…
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