Taking Balance
Lately I have been wondering what it means to take someone's balance. My first thought was very basic. Get there center out of line with thier base and let gravity do the rest. The second thought was more challenging. How do you do that? The answer I came up with is there are four ways, additive, subtractive, destabilization, and cognitive. Additive would be speeding up a part of the body that would pull the center outside of the base. An example would be drawing someone down a line. Subtractive would be slowing down a part of the body to draw the center out of the base. An example would be a close line (I don't remember the Aikido word, but the move is to draw your hand in front of thier eyes to get them to peel backwards). Destabilization would be alteration of the base, if a biped finds only one leg to stand on in motion, balance is lost. Cognitive is essentially giving a false representation. An example would be representing strength to elicit a response of strength, however instead of meeting thier response with strength they are given weakness. The best example I can give is playing tug of war, both sides are pulling as hard as they can and then one side lets go of the rope. There are many variations and combinations of these principles. I am probably being too academic about this, but I just wanted to throw this out there and see what other people think.
Some good ideas Doug. I like the explanations.
Let me throw another idea at you regarding additive & subtractive.
Trying to destabilize your partner via methods that interrupt a regular cadence (think of marching) tends to be picked up on by the subconscious very quickly. "Hey, something's not right" it screams at us when the rhythm is broken. Additionally, we have slow down and store energy in order to speed up.
In the morning Judo class, probably 8 years ago or so, I came up with an idea I called algebra stepping. We all tend to think of algebra as those equations like "y = x + 1" or "y = x - 1". Based on this paradigm, "y" is the place your foot would land in a normal step. Simply let your foot stop short of where it would normally stop (x-1), or slide just a little after it stops (x+1). I suspect you'll find that simply changing the size of your step as little as an inch will have very noticeable results.
Destabilization is wonderful! There are a few simple ways to practice this with a willing partner. You're on the right path.
Cognitive is risky as your partner can take advantage of your energy if he reacts before you do.
The idea of a "cognitive" off balance is kind of interesting, actually. It reminds me of doing, say, gyakugamae ate (#3). Sometimes you don't even touch the person but they just see a hand in front of their face and they flinch, the top part of their body slows (or goes backward) while the bottom part keeps going. In all reality, I didn't even touch the man, but he perceived a threat and compromised his own balance. (Also know as using the "force" to all the Jedi's in the house).
Or like when Lou would just step off the line of an attack and something about that change of position would cause uke to torque a little, and his close proximity would cause uke to start falling. It was basically like doing something from the beginning of the Big Ten but without touching the guy.
What Doug describes with the bit about "tug of war", though, reminds me of what Nick calls (I think) "tension and compression". One example that comes to mind is when you do oshi taoshi (#6) and you get uke's elbow up to his ear and you encounter a little tension or resistance. Rather than keep pushing against it, you suddenly get off the tension and back around behind him (which I believe is tenkai or tenkan oshi taoshi, I can't remember which). Nick described it like those cabinet doors that have a little magnet on them, where you push in first and then let it out again. You get a slight reaction one way, then release and allow a greater reaction in the opposite reaction. (Does any of that make any sense?)
Not sure I understand the "Destabilization" part, though. Anyone got any examples? (Would it be like a kouchi gari in judo? Just taking a base out from under a guy?)
Sean Ashby wrote:The idea of a "cognitive" off balance is kind of interesting, actually. It reminds me of doing, say, gyakugamae ate (#3). Sometimes you don't even touch the person but they just see a hand in front of their face and they flinch, the top part of their body slows (or goes backward) while the bottom part keeps going. In all reality, I didn't even touch the man, but he perceived a threat and compromised his own balance. (Also know as using the "force" to all the Jedi's in the house).
This is pretty much what I meant by a cognitive imbalance. The tug of war example wasn't the best, it does have same principle, but imagine sending the CNS a signal that overwhelming force is about to be exerted on a joint. Then the body responds and finds absolutely no force present. Since the spine will react faster than the brain, there is an imbalance in perception and reality. I guess a better example would be like the opening scene from Karate Kid II, when Mr. Miyage honks the nose of Johnny's Sensei.
Kyle Sloan wrote:In the morning Judo class, probably 8 years ago or so, I came up with an idea I called algebra stepping. We all tend to think of algebra as those equations like "y = x + 1" or "y = x - 1". Based on this paradigm, "y" is the place your foot would land in a normal step. Simply let your foot stop short of where it would normally stop (x-1), or slide just a little after it stops (x+1). I suspect you'll find that simply changing the size of your step as little as an inch will have very noticeable results.
Kyle, I like the equations. I think I understand what they represent in an additive/subtractive way. If I understand the equations, y would be ideal and x would be where you find your foot. Moving it out of the ideal gives you a different sense of balance. This could be what I have been thinking about. Do you have an equation that could explain why x is plus or minus 1. One could only assume if you could make an equation to represent that idea, you could find an equation to represent other ideas.
Sean Ashby wrote:Not sure I understand the "Destabilization" part, though. Anyone got any examples? (Would it be like a kouchi gari in judo? Just taking a base out from under a guy?)
Destabilization to me is more of an energy generator I guess. One night in class I was put into a waki gatame. The person I was working with asked me if I could do anything to him. There really wasn't much I could do, but I could hit his center with my center. At the same time I did a foot sweep on him. So I destabilized his base and added energy to the system because he had to take a larger step to keep his balance. After doing this a couple of times I was able to release my arm from him following the up and down motion and stealing a little of the energy. Granted this is probably not something to do to someone who is intent on breaking your arm, but it is the best example I can give. I guess I view it as the wider the stride, the more energy is up for grabs. If I can make his base unstable so he has to use energy to regain the base, that is energy I can redirect.
Sean Ashby wrote:What Doug describes with the bit about "tug of war", though, reminds me of what Nick calls (I think) "tension and compression". One example that comes to mind is when you do oshi taoshi (#6) and you get uke's elbow up to his ear and you encounter a little tension or resistance. Rather than keep pushing against it, you suddenly get off the tension and back around behind him (which I believe is tenkai or tenkan oshi taoshi, I can't remember which). Nick described it like those cabinet doors that have a little magnet on them, where you push in first and then let it out again. You get a slight reaction one way, then release and allow a greater reaction in the opposite reaction. (Does any of that make any sense?)
I hadn't really thought about it like this, but it does make sense. I guess the question I have about this is what are you interacting with? Are you reacting with the person's cognitive aspect or the person's nervouse system when you get this type of reaction?
this is a nervous system thing which also happens to confuse the uke's cognition -- so its both
Since this is not a pure nervous thing or pure cognitive thing, could the interaction here be considered a fundamental to the "art" of aikido?
i'd call tension and compression a useful tool for aikido and judo and it may be important enough to be considered a good technical principle - for aikido, the term fundamental makes me think more on the order of "get off the line of attack" or "make harmony out of chaos"
The idea of tension and compression seems to do two things from a training standpoint. 1) It would ultimately lead to desensitization. Example, if you and I performed the same kata perfectly over and over again, at some point my nerves would become desensitized to what was going on and percieve it as normal. Same thing with the cognitive aspect. 2) Since this interaction is percieved as normal, in a way it would actually cause a greater sensitivity. My nerves and mind would actually start picking up when it wasn't done perfectly. Does that occur?