Kaze Uta Budo Kai Forum Archive

Aikido is a difficult thing to talk about. There doesn't seem to be any one exact description of the interaction taking place. Monday night I was working with a fellow brown belt (for the life of me I can't remember his name, my apologies) and Bryan. One of the ways Bryan explained Aikido to me when I was a white belt (and if I am incorrect here please feel free to modify or restate) was that it is like working with a ball of energy. The ball was created by the connection between tori and uke. And the idea was to control the ball of energy.

This really made a lot of sense to me because there really is a kinetic/potential energy relation in what we are doing. What makes this so difficult is that these two forms of energy exist independent of tori. Tori has a limited ability to create this energy, and if tori tries to create this energy he is no longer tori but has become uke. It seems the best way for tori to control the ball of energy is to not try to control the ball at all, but react to and redirect the ball. One analogy I think of is putting a weight on a bungy cord and getting it going. Sometimes the weight will go up and and down. Some times it will speed up and slow down. When the tension in the bungy cord goes slack, it is time to move or get out of the way.

I was wondering if anyone else had an analogy.

I don't know about an analogy, but I always Aikido as "lazy." Whatever is happening, the odject is to be lazy and do as little as possible. Lazy solves almost everything.

I dont think this is an analogy but here's a different spin on it....

I like to look at Aikido from the perspective of Newton's Laws of Motion. All physical objects that move follow these principles (even moving humans 😄 ), so its fun to look at it from a purely scientific perspective!!!

I just try to make my goal to be a little bit slower than my opponent. You can't always overpower your opponent, but you can sure "underpower" him! Stephen Eaton realized that trying to exactly synch your speed is almost impossible, but if you go as slow as you can, but efficient, you always match speeds as soon as you make contact with uke. He will speed you up (if you let him move you) and you slow him down.

Also with kuzushi, uke is always recovering and you move in response, in counterpoint to his recovery as it were, and you always move to another off-balance, even when throwing.

A good analogy comes from Tai Chi -- when you feel emptiness, respond with fullness, when your opponent is Full, be Empty. This corresponds to following uke's energy whether coming toward you (with power) or receding from you. Be careful not to jump in with power just because you feel an opening. The throw should just be another off-balance of uke's choosing.