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