Softness
The word soft is used a lot when we are working in Aikido. Yet, the temptation to go for a big throw jumps into mind every time I feel I have somene. My question is:
1)Can you get too soft?
2) What is the threshold between being too soft vs too hard?
3)If you feel a throw, what should you be working on?
If the answer to 1 is no, please skip 2.
softness/lightness serves to deprive uke of information/feedback while also giving the tori the greatest opportunity for information gathering-- the felt quality of softness is the externalization of of sensitivity--
the threshold of hard to soft is the loss of sensitivity and responsiveness-- when your own power and heavyness create too much noise, it overwhelms the signal incomming from uke--when we get heavy handed we are only feeling ourselves-- very little information gets through from our target
simple test for this theshold is to work from the failure of gripping-- we need to only hold with enough grip to do the job but without losing the natural facility of letting the grip fail without disturbing the center/posture- grip too hard and as yourpartner breaks the grip your whole body is distorted -- let go as he breaks grip intentionally and you are missing the point-- grip too light and it is difficult to effect uke from the grip-- grip only enough to do the job but still fail without suffering the distortion and you are in the sweet zone --
as to what we should be working on when we "feel a throw" --I need more context to really answer-- generally i can say we are watching rise and fall-- pull and push-- lateral sway- and timing of the foot landing on the ground-- we are accomadting all those conditions inour partner's bodies and in our own and we are attempting to exploit the distortions of any of the elements we're monitoring so as to allow off balance to come to its natural catstrophic conclusion with a minimum of energy expenditure on our part-- when we succed, we are using the smallest , lightest effects for the biggest outcomes -- when we fail we have a sensation of "making the throw happen" - in other words-- if it feels like work and effort to conculde the throw, then something was missing at the beginning of the throw-- if kuzushi and tsukuri are lacking then kake feels like a chore-- if kuzushi and tsukuri are right on, kake feels effortless
I think another we reason we preach softness is to try and get folks to take muscle out of the equation and to do things with the movement of our center. And that tends to be kind of counter-intuitive; we usually all spend our lives doing things with our individual muscles, and stopping that takes folks awhile to get used to!
And the word "soft" can also be confusing because sometimes, even when we're not using muscle, Aikido can feel pretty devastating on uke's end. A good example to me is the kote gaeshi that happens in the release series when you (tore) have waki gatame, and uke pulls out and you do a "compression" form of kote gaeshi (with your spare hand on uke's face to keep his other hand off you). My grip is light, I'm using my center not muscle, but man alive, eating that kote gaeshi, as uke, can feel like a truck running over your wrist! And if you've ever been launched--literally--into the air by gedan ate, it can certainly not feel very "soft" or "light". Shomen ate/gyakugamae ate, same thing.
Those are typically the "gake" moments, though, where eke is eating his own energy, and I'm not really adding anything. I still have to have the lightness Nick talked about (not only do I get input from uke, uke doesn't get ANY input from me!). Uke may not think I wasn't being very "soft", but I WAS soft--to me! It just didn't feel "soft" on THEIR end!
Which brings up another possible problem: uke. If uke isn't putting much into the system, he's not going to eat much of that energy, and you (tore) probably won't get much of an off-balance and probably no throw. You might think, hey, why isn't this working, am I doing the throw wrong, did I not have off-balance, should I push harder, etc. Well, it may just be that uke isn't really that committed in his attack.
I also think the soft/heavy concept can relate to making a technique happen when the situation doesn't warrant it, or before it's time. For example, I may have a perfect grip, I may be moving with my center and not using muscle, but if I'm trying to do kote gaeshi either too early, or when I think it should happen, then A) I run into some resistance, like I'm trying to MAKE it work, and it feels "heavy" (I don't have the kazushi, etc. that Nick mentioned) but also B) I put energy into the system that uke can then exploit.
As for "If you feel a throw, what should you be working on?" I would say, don't work on "throwing". In other words, think about constantly putting uke in a position of off-balance, and wait. He recovers, you put him in another off-balance and wait. You keep putting uke on the edge of the cliff and eventually, his recovery will be so big that the next time you put him off-balance he'll go too far and fall of the cliff all by hisself. Tah-dah! Effortless. I find if I start thinking about how I can THROW him OFF the cliff, all sorts of problems arise: I try to make it happen and get ahead of uke, use too much strength, etc. etc.
That's my rambling 2 cents worth anyway...
Soft and slow are related also, since everything uses the same set of muscles. If you try to go as slow as naturally possible, you will also be soft & follow. Using strength puts you ahead of your partner, and creates arbitrary movements not related to what is really happening with uke. Slow keeps you relaxed, receptive, and lets physics do its work. If you extend your step into an off balance, you accelerate naturally, at the same rate (necessarily) that uke is falling.
Remember that at the moment of transmitting power, you want your power train to be tight. Wrists back, arms straight, shoulders down, elbows down, ribcage locked to hips (this is the function of kiai).
nick lowry wrote:as to what we should be working on when we "feel a throw" --I need more context to really answer
What I meant is sometimes while I am working with people it feels as if I have connect to thier center, they are accelerating, but I am using the same amount of force and not really speeding up. It feels literally like I have a sling and could launch them. I never do because usually they are off balance and I wouldn't want someone doing that to me. At least not yet anyway. I think Sean hit it when he said
Sean Ashby wrote: think about constantly putting uke in a position of off-balance, and wait. He recovers, you put him in another off-balance and wait. You keep putting uke on the edge of the cliff and eventually, his recovery will be so big that the next time you put him off-balance he'll go too far and fall of the cliff all by hisself. Tah-dah! Effortless.
Sometimes it feels, and this could be a restatement of what Sean said, as if I could cause the terminal off-balance by placing them in a paradox for recovery, almost having them choose between bad and worse. I guess trying to induce a cognitive decision when there isn't enough time to think.
I get the threshold of soft and hard. I never thought about it in these terms. It does offer a lot of insight.
Jack Bieler wrote:Remember that at the moment of transmitting power
This is something I didn't understand. I understood the explanation, and the Idea of transmission makes sense, almost like hitting a golf ball. And this may have been what Nick was talking about when he said
nick lowry wrote:if kuzushi and tsukuri are lacking then kake feels like a chore-- if kuzushi and tsukuri are right on, kake feels effortless
Does that sound right?
great question -- sweet discussion--sounds like you are gettin it doug-- sean and jack both elucidte beautifully--
Cool. Thank you all very much.