Thread: Tenchinage
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Old 10-28-2009, 05:51 AM   #19
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Re: Tenchinage

Quote:
George S. Ledyard wrote: View Post
Mark,
It doesn't matter whether they move the feet or not. If you try this kind of technique without some understanding of aiki, the uke can and should stop you dead. Moving your feet will not produce kuzushi because uke will also move his and adjust.

You are absolutely right that it needs to be over on contact. There has to be an element in which nage receives the energy of the attack. If that doesn't happen you have a conflict and uke is letting you push him over. If that were happening, I'd look for at least a little falling forward towards nage on the part of uke just as he touched. This wouldn't be "because" of the foot movement, it would be at the same time as the foot movement. That's my take on it.
Hi George,

Not disagreeing with anything here. Just that, for me, the part of capturing center on contact is tough. Movement of hands and feet help to establish the capturing center principle. But, as I've come to find out, moving hands and feet to do that will undermine your building of that skill (capturing center on contact). At least in the beginning stages of training.

It's why we're working on static grabs to train and get that capture center on contact *before* we move. If we're moving without capturing center, we're just glossing over what should be done. And it isn't an easy thing to do. I certainly am no expert on it.

Throw in a technique like tenchinage, where you have two forces going in different directions. This is a much easier technique to accomplish if one could add movement to "help" capture center and gain kuzushi. But, that's detrimental to learning that skill. But learning that skill isn't easy. Yeah, it's like a catch-22. You want to move to make tenchi nage work, because you're having trouble getting kuzushi on contact. (Okay, for me anyway.)

Which, I think brings us to the video. If you aren't specifically taught some Internal Methods to rewire your body, then you won't understand how to start training that skill. You start moving to make the technique work. Or you move because that's what you've seen your teacher do -- except that with Internal Skills, you can't see what's going on inside. You only get the outer physical movement.

If all you've ever trained was the movements, how do you start training that Internal Skill of capturing center on contact while still maintaining regular training? Ties in with your other post about changes.
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