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Old 02-14-2008, 10:00 AM   #8
ChrisMoses
Dojo: TNBBC (Icho Ryu Aiki Budo), Shinto Ryu IaiBattojutsu
Location: Seattle, WA
Join Date: Jun 2006
Posts: 927
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Re: "Soul shaking" (furitama)? A question for Mike Sigman (or other internal people)

Quote:
Haowen Chan wrote: View Post
Sounds like an interesting exercise. Did she offer any tips on what to change / focus on if you couldn't get the vibration to the top of your head? Or was it more like, if it stops at the quads, try more to relax the quads.Thanks!
I think this is kind of indicative of how I've been taught in Aikido. The test (stamping) was presented as the exercise. It was a private lesson when I was preparing for my nidan (along with a training partner who was preparing for his sandan). She perceived a disconnect between top/bottom in both of us and this exercise was her recommendation to fix that. There wasn't really any further exposition, you were supposed to just keep doing the test over and over until you got the result you wanted, then you were supposed to keep doing it to try and figure out what you did differently. I think there are a lot better ways to actually teach this kind of connection. At this point, I can basically control how far through me and where this kind of connection/vibration will go. Most of that awareness has come from the Aunkai exercises (shiko and tenchijin primarily). In the jin phase/posture (the squatting arms raised X shape, if memory serves, that's the 'man' posture, please correct me if I'm wrong) of tenchijin, when you get the structure (mostly, again not claiming mastery) right you can almost swear you feel the pressure of the mat under your heels kind of echoed (for lack of a better term) along the pinkie edge of your palms. Once you start to be able to feel this, you start to develop a sensitivity for it all the time and you don't really need a vibrational impact (like the stomp) to tell you if you're connected.

Chris Moses
TNBBC, "Putting the ME in MEdiocre!"
Budo Tanren at Seattle School of Aikido
Shinto Ryu Iai-Battojutsu
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