Thread: Atemi
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Old 06-18-2002, 04:16 AM   #21
Ecosamurai
 
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Re: Re: atemi

Quote:
Originally posted by tedehara

6. This brings me to a quandry I've always had with atemi. How do you know if the person complies with the technique because you've knocked them silly? How do I know I can even do a technique correctly unless I practice without doing atemi?
Personally I'd go with the idea that if you're doing atemi right, with the right presence and centredness, then you don't need to smash peoples heads in with them. You can injure people, but if you're doing it right that doesn't happen.
I've had a number of occasions in practising where if I wanted to I could've hit someone hard in the face, but instead all I needed to do was time the movement right in order for them to slow down, give up some of their balance and enable the rest of the technique to happen.
If I'm performing a technique that has an atmei, if I move too quickly my partner gets injured, if I move too slowly, the technique doesn't work and I leave myself with openings. It has to be timed just right, I have to harmonise with ukes timing.
If you ask me that sounds like its in the best traditions of Aiki, and there is nothing confusing about it.

Mike Haft

"Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men."
-Martin Luther King Jr
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