Quote:
Peter Boylan wrote:
I had the chance to get together with some friends a couple of weekends ago, all of whom are quite experienced and skilled martial artists. You would think we would play around with really advanced stuff with that sort of crowd. Instead we did the most basic of techniques. The weekend emphasized something I've thought for years, that there is no such thing as an advanced technique. There is only the basics done really, really well. I wrote this blog post about it.
http://budobum.blogspot.com/2014/04/...echniques.html
What do you think? Are there advanced techniques that I'm just completely clueless about? |
Categorization of the techniques (basic vs. advanced) is somehow misleading. As the techniques are simply the tools we use to do conditioning of our body and mind, it is useless to search for some particular technique as a perfect solution in our interaction with environment.
Once body and mind reach certain level of conditioning, the form how we express interaction is mean less. It is particularly important in Budo practice not to be attached to forms, because it limits the freedom of such interaction, and correct action can't be done. I'm not using expressions like ‘attack/defense'; instead I prefer to use word ‘interaction', as we don't really know in what way body/mind will express correct action.
In aikido practice, one thing is sure - once conditioning is done, most actions happens long time before first contact. When contact is made, in the same moment, basically correct action is expressed and interaction ends. Just like cutting a target with a sword.
It is quite opposite what one can see in millions of aikido video where after first contact two people execute some kind of mysterious dancing which is summarized with projection or a pin…this is not an aikido technique, it is a simple body/mind conditioning.
So yes, somehow the ‘advanced' techniques exist, in the sense, they are not conditioning anymore, they are pure, spontaneous expression of our understanding of the universe.