View Single Post
Old 10-28-2009, 10:51 PM   #147
Lorel Latorilla
Location: Osaka
Join Date: Jul 2009
Posts: 311
Japan
Offline
Re: Internal Power Development Methods

Quote:
David Orange wrote: View Post
Well, they say Mifune was "the epitome of judo technique," so you not only have to have good frame, but excellent comprehension of judo technique and finesse at recognizing when the partner is walking into position for you to apply a given technique--instantly recognizing which technique he's walked into and giving him that technique without having to reorganize the body before moving. So that's what I mean by "frame" and "relaxation"--undisturbed posture and mental clarity. Please don't misinterpret my comments to get the idea that I can do that, myself. I just began to sense it and try to develop it. But I do think that's the whole essence of judo--keep your balance and keep your cool and match the technique to the opponent's movement without interfering with him in any way. As they said fighting Kano was like wrestling an empty jacket.

He had full command of every technique in the judo repertoire and he was just completely adept at matching his technique to the other guy's movement. Mochizuki Sensei said that Mifune was "comparable" to Ueshiba in his ability to throw at will and on contact. So I think all his skills were of the higher degree in general.

It's interesting that Mochizuki Sensei's son, Hiroo, now world leader of yoseikan arts, bases everything on "wave motion" but I didn't get anything like the feel from him that I got from Ark. Not saying Hiroo Sensei doesn't have it, but what I felt from him was much more like standard aikido while working with Ark was like...grabbing a dragon.

As for the body that thinks on its own, I sometimes find my body reacting (in daily life) in a way it didn't do before and I realize, "Hey, that was like Ark does...." but I haven't learned to apply it in a "fighting" situation as yet. But the body self-correcting with a spontaneous full-body response can be pretty startling.

Did you see the early question about making the body "jealous of itself"? I hadn't heard that before. Any ideas on that?

Thanks.

David
Hi David,

Thanks for your comments. Maybe it's just me, but I don't like the suggestion that only a guy like Mifune can have godly timing, relaxation, and intuition. I don't like to talk about "this genius" or "that genius", because by doing so, we essentially distance away from the skills and "art" they expressed. All this considered, I believe Mifune's skill, whatever it is--external or internal, can be learned by whoever. He was just in the perfect position to learn it--he was at the right place, at the right time, with the right teacher, and with the right mind and heart. It is for this reason that I find Sagawa an unpleasant fella. Like Mifune, "uncontrolled" factors like him meeting Takeda through his dad, the fact that he was able to observe Takeda in every day life and essentially train with him every day, his mental aptitude,etc. set him up for the skills he had. And dude has the gall and arrogance to call people stupid, weak, or whatever even if the person he's calling is seeking truth in the form of martial arts? Whatever man.

In any case, whatever skill MIfune had, I want to know it, and would like to train it. When people will say "he just practised judo really hard", I`d ignore that statement, nod my head, and then move on to a guy like Ueshiba or Takeda, whose skills are known largely as "internal" and observe their paths and perhaps their own training regimes to replicate and gain the skills they had. We will never know whether Mifune had "internal" skill or not, but from the looks of it, he had. "matching" technique to movement suggests that he felt the balance points of his opponent and had extraordinary, and trained "listening" skills, which I think are gained through internal dynamics.

About Ark and "wave motion".

I don't much about Yoseikan training methods, but I think I have an idea of how Ark trains it. He does through opening and closing the front, and for Xingyi guys, this is done through squatting monkey. For the aiki guys, this is done through agete, where you close your front, expand lower back, to "suck" the guy in, and raise the arms to take the opponent's balance. I find Ark's system fascinating because focussing 100% on your body and increasing its range of motion will allow your body to respond appropriately to the incoming energy. Ark's deal is that we have to increase first the body's capabilities and its potential for movement, because no matter how much you want to be like "WATAH" (rip Bruce), your body has to be "ready". Insofar as this is what we want to develop, Aunkai I think is a complete system because it deals with all ranges of motions: you can see torque, aiki type of energy work, and (recently I noticed at least) entering work (through shintaijiku).

I have never heard of the comment about the "body benig jealous of itself".

Jeremy Hulley said "I think that just maintaining frame and trying to do anything with it has been a huge struggle for me. Stalemate is the word..

Working to find a way to have a 'softened' and connected practice and effect another person.".

It is good that you have that awareness. Too many people are caught up with "frame". It makes standing grappling practise much more challenging because you essentially have to weaken your frame (or depend less on your frame) on guys with frame. You"ll get dumped on your ass if you try your premature, soft skills on strong, balanced, agile guys or you will force yourself to depend more on your frame so you can "not lose". Internal arts involves a lot of "investing in loss" I think. So for me, best way to train soft skills is agete, push out, push hands or any other paired exercises like that. That way you familiarize yourself with "soft" motions. Learning it exclusively under heavy pressure right away is simply stupid. You'll never learn soft skills that way. You'd have to do it through paired practise with mild resistance (as you see in agete, push out, etc.). Also learning soft skills without frame as I said before will get you destroyed in a fight I think. Your body has to learn how to be balanced under pressure. Your body needs to be properly aligned/balanced/stable before you can make aiki appear, so when a heavy, strong guy tries to take you down, you won't be able to affect aiki on him because your body integrity will be compromised.
  Reply With Quote