LA PLATA MARCIAL 2010

Aikido: The Right Road

I failed many times trying to write this. But today I found a flat practical example that let me to pass from the hypothesis to the theory and from the theory to the practice. Then:

Hypothesis: if you do things well, the result must be the right one. I think this applies to everything in life, although some times it is difficult to see or to assimilate. The right road, as pedantic or trivial it may sounds, is the one we walk with our own feet. There is no use in retracing an already walked road. Each of us chooses the road to follow and decides what is right and what is wrong. Nevertheless, I believe there are certain general guidelines that are common to all roads (and to all walkers): honesty, work, to give yourself wholly, love… As you can see, it is difficult to speak about these things without seeming like a Paulo Coehlo imitator. Therefore, lets pass to the theory and the aikido example, which is a page of a martial arts dojo.

Theory: the ikkyo undo. This exercise, which I found boring and didn't understand at the beginning, is one of the pillars of aikido. Picciola sensei said that aikido is 90% atemi, and 10% the rest. Against that 90% of atemi we have as defense the ikkiyo undo. If we do it well, it should protect us from any atemi that may be thrown to us (at least from the high ones, kicks to the shin don't count). But to do ikkyo undo, from which are born practically all the counterattacks, techniques and counter technique, is a very difficult task. The most common mistake is that the nage, knowing the kind of attack uke is going to use, try to catch the arm (or the fist) in the air. Result: an untidy, ineffective, nonexistent technique. To do well an ikkyo undo, includes not only stepping aside of the attack line (whether backwards, toward or to the sides) but to concentrate on protecting the body; first, deviating the blow; second, using the energy received. A well done ikkyo includes this first block / deviation, from which any future counter technique is borne. Lets see today's practical example.

Practice: In today's practice, we absorbed a yokomen with kirioroshi and then we applied shihonage (omote and ura). I had the chance to practice this with Ruslan, who falls only if you do things well. Every time I misdid the ikkyo undo (that is to say, every time I tried to catch the arm) he stopped the attack. Only when I improved the start and when the ikkyo undo played its double role (block and attack, the arms extended should protect me and bother him, if it was well done) the technique had a similar form to a shihonage. Only then, it seemed something to aikido. The process I explained above, doesn't apply only to a moderately well done ikkyo undo, but to everything: years of practice repeating the ikkyo undo and listening to the sensei telling us over and over again that the ikkyo undo is in the base of all, to understand the technique, to know that there is a principle that should be respected, to practice with a strict senpai that forces you to do it right (and Ruslan is the kind of people who punishes when you're doing it wrong), etc., etc., etc.

Hypothesis, theory, practice. I've already said something similar in older posts. I don't like to repeat myself, but I'm a man of obsessions: I count with sempais that will correct my technique and they'll do my aikido a little more flowed. This in the life is more complicated, nobody will tell me how improve my road, but they never told me not to try.

Kanpai!

Patricio Pereyra

Open Aikido Class (3/3) Last Part

Last Part, I hope you enjoy it.

Aikido, My Philosophy

Sensei Picciola always says that aikido is a philosophy of life and uses the allegoric example of the ukemi to make this point: living is like practicing ukemis: you fall and raise, you fall and raise, you fall and raise… with time and practice you learn to fall smoother and to raise faster, and the blows are less and less hurtful every time. Life is like practicing falls. Sensei's example is clear and very didactic; As I'm not as good as him with examples, I'll go with a more complicated one. I'll try to explain why I consider aikido as a philosophy of life.

I should start saying that I've been using a very simple concept of Fiedrich Nietzche for a while now: everything that doesn't kill me makes me stronger. Applying this to a philosophy of life: each blow received, either kills me or doesn't kill me; if doesn't kill me, the person that will emerge after the blow will be necessarily stronger than the one that received it. I think of this as a philosophy a posteriori: one recovers from the blow after suffering it.

I found in aikido, through a reflection of Juan Fava senpai, a similar philosophy but a priori: choosing death is living (read Fava's post: Choosing Death is Living (Irimi) for a better understanding of this concept). Considering this philosophy, we can analyze it together with Nietzche's example: I'm prepared for the blow before it comes; if the it comes or doesn't come doesn't matter, I'm ready for it. If it comes, I can do as Nietzche said.
Why do I say this? Because I consider aikido has a lot to offer beyond the techniques we all like to practice. I always see in the dojo that –all of us– want to practice like the sensei, and many, in my opinion, want to practice strong like Ruslan, or with the samurai concentration and the poise that Nahuel shows, and some want to be able to elevate our ki like Son Goku and cause the floor and walls to tremble (Personally, I want to practice with the solvency of Garcia Luna, and to do the ukemis like Silvia). That's what I see. I see and hear the sensei saying that day by day he is less interested in hitting someone, and that he practices this in his life, and I ask myself: Why don't they all want to learn this? Sure anyone can have a bad day; you climb a bus and the driver doesn't hello back, and you wish you find him on the street and bury his head in the ground with a powerful nikkyo ura, but, usually, this doesn't happen. You don't walk on the street jumping the banks in squares, with tobikoshi ukemi, neither solve your problems with levers in the articulations (although, I confess, I enter to my house doing kaiten) and still, it is possible to apply aikido daily, in the every day life. The philosophy that aikido teaches (respect for the partner, irimi, ukemi, etc., etc., etc.) can be used daily.
If they paid me for practicing aikido, I'd live easier. But this isn't the case. However, there where I go, I try to put in practice what I learn in the tatami. After all, in life, as in aikido, we are all learning. That's why I say: Kanpai!
Patricio, 29 years

Open Aikido Class (2/3)

Part 3 coming soon

Ki musubi No Tachi

I see sword techniques as the dark side of Aikido, they’re the very roots of every technique, every movement, and most importantly: every principle. But what I feel is that these roots have been polishing and adapting to new times to give Aikido a place. When I practice with Ken I connect with this dark side, the brutality of the hit with the softness of the cut, a wound so sharp that is imperceptible. I feel part of those warriors who used them in battle.

This happened to me more intensively in yesterday’s class practicing Ki Musubi No Tachi, where I could understand the difference between the 6th Ken Awaze and Ki Musubi No Tachi; that was something I was waiting for, a question I needed to answer: Why do they both exist if they are so similar? The answer is that they aren’t alike at all. Even if they have common movements, the aim each of them seeks is totally different.

I want to add a comment about something that’s been happening to me since I started my Aikido practice, back in 2004 (if my mind isn’t playing tricks on me): every time I have a doubt about a technique or the practice, the sensei makes reference to it in some class. This always happens; that taught me to wait for the answer rather than go and get it, and that makes me feel very “awaze” with the dojo and the sensei.
Domo arigato gozaimasu

Juan Pablo Fava

Open Aikido Class 2009 (1/3)

Part 2 and 3 coming soon...