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Old 04-02-2010, 08:40 AM   #41
Budd
 
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Re: Internal Power (AIKI?)-- Players and Haters

Quote:
Mark Murray wrote: View Post
Put in terms of OODA, with aiki, you're going to be "ahead" and the opponent won't even know it. Well, unless the opponent has aiki.

Some of the common things I hear from people who work freestyle with someone who has aiki are:

I feel like I'm always behind.

I feel like I'm too slow.

He's too quick.

I can't get ahead of him.

Personally, I can attest to the "feelings", but mentally, I know they aren't exactly "right".

For example, it isn't a matter of speed, although with aiki the slack is removed so the body does move quicker. It's more to do with having an untrained, unstructured body which contacts an aiki body. That creates an affect on the un-aiki body which causes a host of issues in which one has to overcome before smooth movement is achieved.

As a very basic, ugly example of this, picture standing on just your right leg with your left leg up in the air. What do you have to do if you want to step forward with your *right* foot? You have to set your left foot down on the ground, shift weight to that foot, lift the right foot and move it forward.

Now imagine that your hips become just slightly out of alignment, that a light load is hitting your right side, and that your shoulders are tightening up ever so slightly -- all at the same time and all started just as you touched someone who has an aiki body.

If you want to deliver any kind of efficient attack, you have to readjust hips, settle weight, and relax tight shoulder muscles, even if it's in minute quantities. Even if that only takes 1/2 of a second, you're still behind the loop at the moment of contact. It spirals (pun intended) downhill from there. But the feeling is the same. Behind, not quick enough, etc. You are literally fighting your own body at the same time you are sparring/randori/whatever with someone else.

Where the "aiki" comes into it is that aiki doesn't require physical movement to create this affect in uke. Aiki is built entirely within one's body -- a truly internal skill. Whereas in a lot of aikido, it's a basic teaching that to create kuzushi/off balance/whatever in another person, one uses timing and physical movements.

Put another way, if you have to use some sort of timing and/or some sort of physical movement to gain off balance, kuzushi, capture center, etc, then it isn't aiki.

(Note: To make matters even more confusing, even if you have trained in some sort of internal training and you can affect an off balance, kuzushi, etc without moving, that doesn't mean you're using aiki either. But that's a completely different topic/thread entirely.)
Hmmmm Mark, I kinda want to push you to be more specific on that last point in this thread, but since I'm still developing all of my vocabulary around this I'll reserve arguing/debating it until some more time has passed or we can get hands on time in person.
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