Psychology of conflict

One of my students sent me this video on the psychology of conflict done by Richard Gannon. It is quite good - almost to a point stuff that we teach in aikido using different names. Very similar to a seminar that Steve Steed sensei taught in a seminar at our dojo in 1998. There are some subtle differences between this and what we are typically doing - but it is more similar than different.

Observation time

We frequently hear cited the “observer effect” in research discussions. This is the idea that you cannot observe something without changing it. Why is that?

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Well, among other reasons, it just takes a discrete amount of time to observe something and turn that observation into usable information. If most folks take about 2/10 of a second to make the simplest of observation-reactions, by the time you have observed it, it has changed.

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In the case of a human taking one step at a reasonable average speed of about 3 feet/sec then during the 2/10 sec that it takes just to see them moving and realize you’ve seen it, the moving center of mass has moved greater than 7 inches. If the observer is in motion too, the change could be as much as 14 inches in 2/10 of a second.

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This has some dramatic implications for self-defense:

• By intelligently synchronizing your motion with that of the opponent, you can cut the chaos and imprecision in the system by as much as half (e.g. from 14 inches to 7 inches in our example above). A 2X increase in precision is a big deal!


• If you don’t move as he crosses ma-ai then he’ll be greater than 7 inches closer than you thought by the time you see him coming – and that’s just observation-orientation time. It takes much more time to plan a response and get your body into motion.


• If you see an opening, it’s already too late to attack it because by the time you get there everything will be at least 7 inches different than it was when you made your plan. There’s a famous story (maybe apocryphal) that Joe Lewis retired when he realized he was seeing openings before he hit them because that’s when he knew he was getting too slow. He was still at the top of his game, but it freaked him out too much to realize that he’d never actually seen an opening before – he just hit where the opening was going to be.

Cheat notes in jodo

Here's a hint that has helped me in my jodo a good bit. Mark up your practice jo and bokken with a black Sharpie so that you will have significant reference marks. I thought about using marking tape so that I'd have a tactile as well as visual reference, but I figured the tape would rapidly wear off, leaving the jo gummy. Here's how I marked mine:

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For the bokken, first find the center of mass of the weapon by balancing it on one finger. Place a mark on the flat back edge right at the center of mass. It doesn't have to be conspicuous to others, but it should be highly visible to the swordsman holding the bokken. Then hold the tip end of the bokken in one closed fist and make a second mark on the back edge that is one palm-width from the tip. This marks the cutting surface (the last 3 inches) as well as marking the point to cross sword and jo to measure ma-ai. The center-of mass mark serves mostly as a reference point for your subconscious to make note of relative positions every time the jo and sword meet during a technique.

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For the jo, make a mark at the center of mass just as above. Then hold the jo in a proper honte grip and make a mark at the point that your front index finger and thumb rest on the jo. Do this on both ends. Finally, make a mark one palm-width from the end of the jo on both ends.

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These marks will be valuable references during kihon in getting your grips precisely correct, they will help you develop a more precise understanding of ma-ai distance, and they will serve as positional references for all the techniques.

A helpful handful: shomenate

Everybody who does Tomiki aikido or one of the Tomiki derivatives knows shomenate. It’s one of the first things taught, and it can rightfully be considered the foundational basis of virtually everything that comes after it. Shomenate is the essence of irimi. Here is a handful of helpful hints to get a little bit of extra mileage out of your shomenate.

• Get your distance right. You want this thing to be a mental shock to his system. You don’t get a good surprise reaction if he sees it coming from a couple of feet away. You want to be at arm’s length from his face at the end of the first step.
• Play with this technique with the idea of pushing yourself off of uke instead of pushing uke down backwards. Think of uke as a sprinter’s starting block to push off of. This will shorten the energy transfer between tori and uke and will help tori to get back outside ma-ai more quickly, even if it doesn’t knock uke down.
• It helps for tori to cultivate the attitude, “He is going to go backwards no matter what. Hit me, cut me, whatever… he’ll do in moving away from me.”
• It is more effective to bump uke’s lead arm with a straight arm as you evade just shorter than arms-length than to step aside and chop uke’s arm. Let uke feel the entire weight of your body through your unbendable arm and let that bump him into offbalance.
• Tomiki reportedly said of his aikido, “None of this stuff works unless you do shomenate first,” so, try shomenate as an entry to other techniques. For instance, enter, grasp the arm, push off the face and keep your momentum going until you hit the end of his reach. Then turn into shihonage or snap him past you into ushiroate.

Gaze angle in multiple attacker randori

A few weekends ago I taught a seminar at Starkville and we talked about and worked on the importance of metsuke (proper gaze control). We demonstrated and gave some exercises to work on how to slow down the speed of the conflict by keeping the gaze angle constant on a fixed place on uke. In order to be able to do this when uke is facing away from us and in order to be ale to get that “far mountain gaze,” I told tori to always look through the center of mass of uke’s head, as if burning a hole with laser-vision. (Bet you didn't know that turkeys were masters of metsuke, but anyway...)

Chops made the observation that this change in perceptual speed is likely part of why multiple opponent randori is so fatiguing. We’re forced to switch gaze angle from one attacker to the next to keep track of them. Good catch, Chops. Sure enough, we do tend to screw ourselves up and wear ourselves out by switching back and forth from one uke to the next. I’ve been thinking about how to minimize or at least reduce these gaze shifts.
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Consider this article from a while back about tenkan ura forms (turning backward movement like in most of nijusan) giving us a wider view of what is going on around us before we commit to smearing uke. What if we can make use of this to reduce shifts in perspective. Let’s try this…

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Everybody in class gets an uke and finds a place on the mat. Uke stands still while tori fixes his gaze on uke and then walks around uke outside ma-ai keeping eyes burning right through the center of uke’s head. Pay attention to what you can see in your peripheral vision without ever changing gaze angle. Now do some techniques from nijusan keeping your eyes focused on the center of his head but attending to what you can see in your peripheral vision. Now add a second uke at walking speed and see if you are able to keep track of the uke you are not dealing with by making these tenkan ura motions.

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I think you will find that your peripheral vision is actually enhanced by this strategy. You see, peripheral vision only picks up motion – not shape. So a relatively motionless uke in your peripheral vision would be invisible to you. But by turning in a circle with eyes fixed on a point, we’re moving our field of vision without ever changing gaze angle, thus making everything in our peripheral vision move with respect to us. So we can see the second uke even better when we are turning backward.

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Try that out, Chops (and everyone else), and let me know how your mileage varies.

Controlling the encounter distance

In a couple of articles in the past few months I’ve written about perhaps the most fundamental rule of aikido – ma-ai. The basic gist of this idea is that you never let someone within arm’s reach of you without beginning to act. If you let them build a base of support within arm’s reach then they can attack faster than you can respond. I demonstrated this with the funny Trinity video as well as the Emil Boztepe video. Here is a video of a guy playing with some aikido throws and one of the things I was most impressed with was his skill at maintaining the encounter distance, forcing uke to leap at him. Before nearly every encounter there is at least a little retreat, forcing uke to commit.

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But in a book I was reading recently, Mastering Jujitsu by Renzo Gracie and John Danaher, the authors made the impressive point that in all the history of UFC, no fighter of any style had ever been able to control the encounter distance in order to remain standing and separated against an opponent intent on taking the conflict to the ground. In other words, if either fighter wants to go to the ground then that is where the conflict will take place regardless of the other fighter’s skill or intent to maintain ma-ai. To me, this further implies that no fighter has ever been able to prevent an opponent that intent on clinching, since a standing clinch is mostly prerequisite to a throw/takedown.

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But Gracie & Donaher’s observation works both ways in a self-defense situation. Consider Karl’s interview in which he talks about covering the hands and strategically retreating (two tactics that are commonly against the rules or simply impossible in ring-fighting). Gracie and Donaher suggests (albeit in a round-about way) that it is virtually impossible to stop an aikidoka from covering (a type of clinch) and retreating per Karl’s suggestion. Indeed, we have found covering and retreating (what I call aiki brush-off) to be a spectacularly effective strategy in randori against judoka, modern-arnis guys, and other aikidoka. In fact, one of my students told us a story just last night about reflexively brushing off an attacker on the street and sailing him 8-10 feet.

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The bottom line: you can’t engage the enemy and control the encounter distance both at the same time. In order to control the encounter distance you have to be actively and strategically retreating (i.e. aiki brush-off). If you can do this while covering hands to damp out the attacker’s potential to hurt you, you can learn to be very effective in self-defense very quickly.

Right hand of the Devil

Now this is fun! But there is a lesson in this for us. Here is a great example of why you don't let someone within ma-ai distance if you can help it. In this range their hands can move faster than you can react. I figured Dojo Rat and Nathan would enjoy this clip...

Why ma-ai is a good idea

I lifted this video from the Fist of the Red Rebel site as a primo example of why ma-ai is a good idea. You simply can't afford to stand around within reach of guys like this, and when you get down to it, you can't ever tell if the guy in front of you has this kind of skill. This is why you'd better be moving as the bad guy first begins to move into ma-ai and you'd better be continually working to move away or behind him, keep him offbalance, and do not stop moving to do a technique to him. My recent matra applies here:

Do not engage. Refuse to engage. Roll the ball, brush off, and disengage.

Don't look into the Eye!

Recently Chris at Martial Development posted a comment on one of my articles about attacking in aikido. One of my suggestions was to maintain eye contact to improve the attack. Chris asked:

Didn't Ueshiba specifically say NOT to look into the eyes of your attacker?

I do seem to remember reading that somewhere (I can’t find the source) but I also seem to recall reading that Ueshiba wrote that aiki cannot be written down in a book. The gist of that is, I think, don’t take any partial written description of aikido (even Ueshiba’s) as gospel. Also, blasphemous as it might be, Ueshiba's ideas on aikido were the first - not the last.

If I remember it right, Ueshiba’s proscription about eye contact was related to something about the attacker stealing your soul or sapping your ki or something. And there is definitely something there, though it is hard to quantify. I remember a girl in high school and another one in college that had freaky, inhuman, blue-grey eyes. You couldn’t look at them but you couldn’t look away from them either. They were hypnotic, mirror-like eyes. And it wasn’t just me in my adolescent dorkiness that was affected this way. Virtually everyone did doubletakes when they glanced at these two girls’ eyes and the only way you could talk to them was to look away from them. It is also possible to look into the eye of violence or hatred and be paralyzed, but in the course of about 15 years of randori, I’ve only met one guy whose eyes freaked me out. I just couldn’t look at him. He had his way with me during the randori session too. Which hints at the value of metsuke (eye contact) in aikido.

The first tactical motion in nearly all aikido techniques is to get your body off the centerline, while occupying the centerline with your unbendable arms. When you are able to do this, uke’s attacks tend to miss and tori tends to automatically intercept uke. Controlling the centerline of the attack is key, and this centerline is defined by eye contact.

The point is to not shift your eyes from one focal point to another (i.e. face to hand to center to feet, etc…) because this constantly changes your perception of the centerline of the conflict. It also changes your perception of distances and angles. The only way to develop accurate perceptions of these timings, distances, lines, and angles is to focus your eyes on one point on the attacker’s centerline and keep them there. We actually tell people to look between uke’s eyes at the bridge of his nose- so you don’t really have to look directly into uke’s eyes and risk getting lost there.

In my post on attacking I suggested using eye contact as a sort of measuring stick to determine when tori was in shikaku, which can be defined as the ‘safe spot’ or ‘dead angle’ or even ‘blind spot’ with relation to uke. If uke can easily focus on your centerline then you are not in his blind spot and you are not safe.

So, in summary:

• Tori should look at one point on uke’s centerline, I suggest the bridge of the nose.
• Uke should lock onto one point on tori’s centerline. It makes him more of a viable threat.
• Tori, as part of his motion, should seek positions and motions that break uke’s visual lock.
• Uke, in response, should seek to regain that visual lock.

Miscellany of aiki hints

What I’ve been working on lately:

• avoid, evade offline, do not engage, refuse to engage, brush off and disengage
• kokyunage
• maintain ma-ai – regain ma-ai
• release instead of throwing
• keep moving behind or away
• if given the opportunity, cover uke’s hands
• never stop moving long enough to execute a technique

What I’m getting ready to start emphasizing in my own practice:

• Get precise parallel or perpendicular kuzushi before every technique
• Sidestep at the end of the line to avoid losing your butt

Randori day at the ABG

Today, was really a randori day. We started out with a nice, long hand randori session with various partners. It was much better than yesterday. Smooth, flowing, controlled randori. Then we worked on two things that help with randori - rolling the ball as a way out of strength situations, and kokyunage, the aiki brushoff. We worked on several forms of kokyunage, including shomenate, chudan aigamae, sankata ushiroate, gokata kokyunage, and owaza kataotoshi. We also played with hanasu #1-4 in a brushoff mode where tori releases, breaks uke's grip, and brushes off.

From here, we moved into multiple person randori to test our aiki brushoff and rolling the ball. The partners were given instructions to attack one at a time but in rapid succession and tori's goal was to evade and disengage repeatedly, completely refusing to engage with any uke. Additionally, ukes were told that they could attack simultaneously if they caught tori engaging with any one uke or trying for a technique. It was great, lots of fun, and educational. Everybody knows that you don't go to the ground with multiple opponents, but in this form of randori you can really see that it's the act of tori engaging uke (even if it stays standing) that is super-dangerous for tori. Hopefully we'll have some video of this randori that we can upload soon.

As another form of randori, we played knife randori with uke told to cut twice no matter what tori does. The first attack had to be a ballistic attack from outside ma-ai but the second attack could be stab, slash, high, low, anything. Turns out that the first attack is easy to evade, but if you engage with uke instead of brushing off then the second attack almost always cuts. Shomenate and aigamaeate are still the most viable techniques I found (other than the brush-off). If you can get tori moving backward away from you (e.g. shomenate) then his second knife attack has less potential.

This was a great, high-energy, sweaty aiki practice. Take away points:

• Aikido is about avoiding force, disengaging safely, refusing to engage - the aiki brushoff
• Rolling the ball is a great way to disengage from a strength-vs-strength grappling situation. Roll uke about 1/4 turn then brushoff.
• Aiki brushoff is the crucial skill in multiple opponents randori, followed by short, low-commitment atemi, like shomenate and aigamaeate.
• Two-stab knife randori is a great form of knife evasion that really emphasizes the importance of aiki brushoff and atemiwaza.

The Second Annual, Best Ever ABG

Well, yesterday and today we've had our second Aiki Buddies Gathering at Magnolia. Yesterday we worked on the first six techniques of nijusan, demonstrating that the longer, more flowing nijusan versions of these techniques contain the shorter, more direct junana versions just like the ura concept contains the omote concept but not vice versa. Additionally, we saw that in each of the techniques 2-6, not only do they all contain the shorter within the longer, but the all contain #6 (oshitaoshi or omote ikkyo). You might even be able to say that each of the techniques contains all the other techniques. Take away points for this class:

• The long, flowing, circular forms(ura) in nijusan contain the more abrupt forms (omote)from junana. Sometimes, though it doesn't hurt to practice the more direct junana versions so that you can recognize them within the nijusan.
• A good attack from uke includes one committed, balistic motion from outside ma-ai to within touching distance, followed by a recovery and an attempt by uke to center on uke and get his hands up between uke and tori.
• Throw uke's near hand behind your head and block the far bicep in gedanate
• Hand randori sucked today - grip, grunt, and groan. Ground randori was better.

Please stab me... twice

Today it was Patrick M, Kel and myself. We worked on rolling and falling and tegatana getting Kel up to speed on how we do class. We worked a lot on the aiki basic instinct and used it to build up hanasu 1-4. Then we chained through chain#1 for a while.

Today we worked on uke's attack. I've talked and written a lot about attacking lately but this was a different way of thinking about it. One of the big recurring problems with a lot of aikido is poor attacks. Ukes lurch forward like the living dead, hanging an arm out for tori to break. Well, today we specified that uke's attack had to be one balistic motion through ma-ai just like always, but then uke has to retract his arm and center on tori in order to bring his other arm into play. Basically this turns all of our aikido attacks into either 1-2-type jab-cross or grab-cross combinations. This simple rule adds a lot of reality back into the training and gives tori a motivation (the second arm) to shape up. We've played this way some before but I really think I'm going to specify that pretty much all attacks in my class from now on are this type of simulation of jab-cross or grab-cross.

We worked shomenate this way and then added a knife, but with a twist. Uke's job was to stab tori twice no matter what else happened. This is another excellent way to put an end to the attack of the living dead. You'd be surprised how much of what passes for 'knife defense techniques' on YouTube goes totally down the toilet when uke starts with the express intent of at least stabbing twice. (Or maybe you wouldn't be surprised.)

And guess what - shomenate still worked like a charm! Sure we all got cut up some on each attack, and we each got totally evicerated once or twice, but we did pretty good against a decent simulation of a relentless knifer - which is about as out-classed as we can get ourselves without dealing with ninja or snipers.

A hundred hanasu happiness hints

As before with tegatana, here is a list of 100 hints for your practice of hanasu no kata - the wrist releases. As before, your mileage may vary. Try 1-2 of these hints each time you practice hanasu and let me know if you see anything new and interesting. Enjoy...

1. all ideas from tegatana apply
2. uke and tori are connected (ki musubi, metsuke) before contact
3. metsuke occurs before contact and throughout
4. tori get in synch with uke as he approaches before h crosses ma-ai
5. feel uke’s motion
6. think about using your arms as “feelers” instead of “pushers”
7. match and use uke’s rise and fall
8. measure ma-ai before each technique in practice
9. when you measure, notice what you can see with peripheral vision
10. tori presents the arm low near the belt
11. uke’s attack should be equidistant from tori’s face and hand
12. at maai, tori can’t tell if uke is doing shomenuchi or katatedori
13. notice that tori is initially stepping over the hill
14. try the kata with tori rocking and uke attacking at the worst time
15. uke takes 1 step through maai to grasp tori’s wrist on the otoshi
16. uke: throw a shomenuchi attack occasionally to keep tori honest
17. tori: do a nijusan offbalance occasionally to keep uke honest
18. uke: use katatedori+shomenuchi occasionally to keep tori honest
19. perhaps uke’s attack should always be katatedori+shomenuchi
20. uke must attack in one efficient, ballistic motion from just outside ma-ai
21. try the kata with uke trying to sneak into ma-ai and tori moving to maintain ma-ai
22. try the kata with a knife in uke’s free hand
23. uke wants to get both feet back under him
24. uke uses proper grasping fingers
25. uke: relax to feel where you’re offbalance
26. uke responds to all offbalances by stepping to fix them
27. uke tries to step to a balanced place where facing tori
28. metsuke helps with uke’s attack intent and recovery
29. notice that uke’s functional reach is shorter to the side than to the front
30. tori presents the hand slightly facing uke’s attacking hand
31. metsuke defines the centerline
32. drifting eye focus creates a drifting sense of center and maai
33. tori tries to get to a place where uke can’t easily establish metsuke
34. tori tries to get to a place where uke can’t easily center his arm
35. when uke is behind tori, tori turns to reestablish metsuke and center
36. correct palm directions: duud duud
37. try the kata “uddu uddu”
38. palms all the way turned
39. Try neutral palms – in “relaxed” posture
40. Try eyes closed
41. Try limited and exaggerated attacks
42. try releases as escapes from wrist twists
43. try alternate grips (elbow, sleeve, collar, etc…)
44. try tori holding/pushing uke’s wrist
45. try with tori holding a short stick in the lead hand
46. start evading as uke crosses ma-ai
47. pay attention to the time uke’s front foot lands
48. synchronize stepping 1-for-1 with uke
49. get off the line of attack
50. move away from uke’s free hand
51. front hand and foot end up near the line of uke’s feet
52. try moving your center toward uke’s offbalance line
53. make sure you finish your ‘down’ as uke’s front foot touches.
54. ki-bump as uke is stepping on his little toe.
55. turn to face uke
56. tori’s free hand stays between uke and tori
57. don’t predetermine your step or your turn
58. attack tension decides the time and place to put the front foot down
59. hands up between your face and uke’s
60. don’t track uke’s arms, track his center
61. control uke’s center, then find his arms
62. minimize all pull at the shoulder
63. tori stays “in the technique” until uke taps
64. uke, tap after each technique
65. tori turns to center on wherever uke puts tori’s hand
66. same hand same foot for stability & strength
67. stuck hand stuck foot for mobility
68. move with uke 1-2 steps to maintain the released relationship
69. move with uke in order to stay in shikaku
70. releases don’t make uke let go of tori
71. releases release built-up tension
72. don’t release then step. Let the step release
73. don’t allow uke enough balance to let go
74. walk down the line when going front to back or vise versa
75. look for sidesteps during direction changes
76. look for nodes of neutrality between techniques
77. there are only 3 kinds of releases: walk-arounds, bypasses, and under-arms
78. these 8 releases are ways of getting behind uke & turning to face.
79. all motions should be reversible
80. extra effort shortens the encounter space
81. Try this kata close into a corner or beside a table
82. try #1 stepping out and down the line with the left foot.
83. try #1 stepping in to body drop uke on the far front corner
84. try #1 with uke randomly stiffarming vs. retracting the arm.
85. use hands to elbows as a measuring stick
86. How can a small person make small steps and still get kuzushi?
87. step through uke instead of around him on #2 and #4
88. use #3 as a prototype for the proper “releasing” feel of #1
89. notice the upward pushing motion at the end of the line in #1
90. is #4 harder to do properly than #2
91. try #2, #4, #6, and #8 after 2-3 body drops instead of after the first
92. move 2-3 steps with uke before executing #2, #4, #6, and #8
93. try #2 as response to failed #1, etc…
94. try #1-8 stepping the wrong way (inside) as in the nijusan paths
95. try the kata from suwari
96. Try the techniques in random order
97. tori, if you screw up, release from the situation you find yourself in
98. see if you can get all techniques to have that “release” feeling
99. try doing randori with both players constantly naming the releases as they happen
100. remember – these are not the only 8 releases

Attack of the living dead

One common complaint about aikido as a system of self-defense is that it looks like the uke attacks like an idiot and then jumps onto the ground to make tori look good. Sure enough, if you check out aikido demos on Google or Youtube, uke is often either running blindly at tori or is lurching slowly forward like a monster in a 1950’s movie, giving an extended arm to tori to do with as he pleases. You even occasionally see videos of Doshu or of the various “old school” “hard style” aikido folks in which ukes attack like brainless zombies. Honestly, Doesn't it look like Frank is about to execute kotegaeshi in the picture?

What’s going on here? Surely this isn’t what the founder or his prewar disciples (i.e. Tomiki, Shioda, etc…) intended aikido to become. Well, there are several things going on here…

• These are just demonstrations and the ukes are understandably reluctant to ruin the demo or make the instructor look like a fool. (Not a very satisfying answer to the question or solution to the problem)


• To artistically represent anything there has to be some degree of abstraction from reality. The same is true in the abstraction of combat into martial art. There will necessarily be distortion. (Still not a really satisfying answer.) The trick is managing that distortion such that the martial art is still artistic but also still functional and practical.


• People who are attacked violently and randomly fail to learn. They refuse to learn. In fact, unless you see the same type of situation several times in a format you can handle, it is nearly impossible to learn from it.


• If you look at the act of striking in general (disregarding the use of weapons for right now) there are at least three requirements for any striking attack. First, the attacker has to approach to within touching distance. Second, the attacker has to extend a natural weapon (arm, leg, etc…) and has to put strength in it. Third, the target for the most part has to be the victim’s center of mass. Otherwise the attack stands a greater chance of glancing off or missing.The basic attacks of aikido (shomenate, shomenuchi, yokomenuchi) are the most abstracted things that still follow these principles.
  

So, the attack of the living dead that you often see is intended to be a somewhat abstract attack that fulfils the above three requirements but is still orderly enough for tori to deal with and learn from. Where aikidoka get in trouble is when uke forgets his role as THE BAD GUY and gives the appearance of fulfiling the above requirements without ever really posing any potential threat to tori. That is what uke's role is - present a potential threat for tori to deal with. So, how can uke improve his potential threat while still using the ordely attacks that tori can deal with?

• Maintain eye contact as much as possible. If uke can look tori in the eye than tori is making it too easy for uke.


• Uke should not wallow around in a state of offbalance. If tori gets an offbalance, uke responds to regain his balance then regain a position from which to attack.


• Uke's attack should take place in one efficient, ballistic motion from outside ma-ai. If uke gets closer than ma-ai without attacking tori should already be smiting him.

It is really sort of a strategy game between uke and tori. Tori is always trying to get into strategically stronger positions and uke is always trying to regain the strategic advantage.

Easter Snap

Around here it is an old rule of thumb that right around Easter each year we'll have a short bout of cold weather - usually the last of the season. We call it, "the Easter snap." Many old farmers will plant corn on Good Friday because of this timing. Well, this year's Easter snap, beginning about yesterday and peaking about tonight is unusually cold. It is really a "30-year snap." We're expecting cold on the order of the 1971 and 1940 Easter snaps. Everybody is worried about covering or otherwise protecting their plants from the freeze and sleet tonight.

So, needless to say, the dojo was cold this morning. Not as cold as it has been this winter, but cold enough to put an end to any deisre to do breakfalls - especially when combined with delayed-onset soreness from yardwork yesterday. We repped tegatana a couple of times emphasizing different ways of thinking about the first step - pulling forward or popping up or snapping hips underneath or tightening the groin, etc... Then we worked hanasu 2-3 times emphasizing making the attacks single ballistic motions and tori beginning the technique right at ma-ai.

From here we worked on the four "neighborhoods" in which techniques live, the omote path from nijusan, the ura path from nijusan, the shortcut from ura to omote that happens a lot in randori, and the tenshin path that happens in Owaza. This started out as just looking at these offbalances and ended up being a session of hikitate geiko - a limited form of randori in which uke and tori have defined roles but uke does not fall for improperly executed techniques. Instead he flows with tori until tori is able to come up with the next appropriate technique.

Space invaders

I had an interesting talk with Karl on the phone today. Interesting on many levels. He talked about how the art has always been forced to conform to the conditions at hand. For instance, when he was in Japan practicing, physical space was at a premium so they practiced anywhere they could. Miyake found a 12x60 foot space between two buildings and had it roofed and that's where they practiced - thirty to sixty aikidoka in a 12X60 space. Karl cites this type of condition as an influence in Tomikiryu developing the linear look and feel that seems apparent in beginners.

If you look at the photos in Ueshiba's book (I don't remember if it's in Essence or in Budo) the dojo space in which some of the shots are taken is extremely small. So small, in fact, that it appears that they would only be able to do suwari and maybe hammi handachi practice in it. In such a situation, the art has to conform to the space. There are also photos in that book of them practicing outside.

In America we are used to having larger spaces around us. When I was at University I was used to roaming around on a mat space that was larger than 40x60. When I moved to McComb, all I could afford was two 4x8 folding mats. We laid them out in a line to practice rolling breakfalls and we laid them out in a square to practice Judo nagekomi (starting in the corner and throwing into the center of the mat). Eventually I saved up for an 18x36 space. This is the mat space we practice on now. We had it laid out in a room that was about 22x50 until we renovated and moved to the new Mokuren dojo. Now we have the same mat space but it is in a 20x40 room with lower ceilings. So even though the mat space is the same, it feels smaller. Even so, we had plenty of room for the 15 some odd aiki buddies at the gathering in October, and several of the buddies expressed the opinion that that was one of the best clinics/seminars/gatherings they'd ever been to with some of the best aiki...

If I understand rightly, Bryce and John in Florida are practicing in a roughly 6x8 space surrounded by couches. At University we had a similar mode of practice when we were away from the large dojo. We called it 'room randori,' and it was a blast! So, really all you need is a space large enough for uke and tori to stand and not be in each others' ma-ai. That's sufficient for room randori.

Anyway, it's interesting to me that because of space constraints we may be practicing in a manner more similar to the old masters in Japan. It's also interesting to consider the limited space conditions typical of traditional aiki practice as an answer to those folks that say that aiki is not such a good martial art for 'real world' situations because the aikidoka has to have large spaces to move about in?

Sneaking three inches

In some of the ancient sword manuals there was a cool idea referred to as “sneaking three inches.” The main idea was to stay far enough away from the other guy to not be cut but still being able to sneak in just barely close enough to put your blade three inches into him. The first man able to “sneak three inches” without being cut was the winner. The other man died.

We use this idea of sneaking three inches in aikido – we call it ma-ai. We usually think of ma-ai as a safety margin for tori, but this is really both an uke and a tori thing. It helps to examine ma-ai from both perspectives and for both partners to keep ma-ai in the forefront of their minds.

Look at this from tori’s perspective – the one we usually think of. Imagine a circle drawn in the sand around tori with a radius of about two arm lengths. So long as uke is outside tori’s circle, tori is relatively safe. Uke cannot attack without first moving forward to a position within the circle. Uke must be able to “sneak three inches,” so to speak. As long as tori begins moving as uke crosses the line there will be ample time for an evasion and response.

Tori’s internal sense of ma-ai must be pretty precise. If tori draws the circle too big in his mind (ma-ai inflation) then tori will begin to evade too early and uke can steer to track him. On the other hand, if tori draws the circle too small then uke will be able to more easily sneak three inches.

Ma-ai is just as important for uke’s success. If uke moves into tori’s circle without immediately attacking then he is at greater danger of counterattack. He has, in effect, allowed tori to “sneak three inches.” So uke must make sure to stay outside ma-ai until he is ready to attack, then attack through ma-ai in one motion. If uke’s sense of ma-ai is inflated then he doesn’t understand his own reach. His attack will die short of striking, leaving him within ma-ai and in range for a counterattack. If uke’s sense of ma-ai is too short then uke will tend to stand in range for tori’s attack before uke is prepared to step in and attack.

So, the bottom line: Tori must have a precise sense of ma-ai and must start evasions right as uke passes ma-ai. Uke must also have a good internal understanding of ma-ai or he will not be able to attack effectively and he will leave himself open to attacks from tori.

Hanasu and the 'Rule of Three'

This topic has come up several times recently in some discussions I've either had or read, so I thought I'd talk about it here. Our second kata is called Hanasu (loosely "wrist releases"). It presents eight ways to diffuse binds that come about from uke and tori being hooked together and rotating around each other in various ways.

We have used (more prominently in past years) a way of teaching hanasu to beginners in which each of the releases is done in three steps. If you look at the first release as an example, the steps are approximately:

1. as uke crosses ma-ai and grabs tori's wrist, tori evades outside so that uke and tori are in body drop at the same time.
2. as uke starts to rise and recover, tori turns toward uke while correcting the distance between them such that tori can stay centered and unbendable.
3. as uke takes his second recovery step, tori steps in behind uke's arm and follows him one step wherever he is going.

Well, since the kihara innovations that took place in the art around 1998 or so, hanasu has been somewhat de-emphasized and more emphasis has been placed on a set of exercises, called chains, that are derived from hanasu. The chains emphasize flowing with uke for greater periods of time in varying situations. This does not de-value hanasu as an exercise or a kata. We still teach hanasu as a kata to beginners and we still run through it 1-2 times per class in 'kata-mode' as a warmup for whatever chain we're working on that day. But the question of some of the folks that learned the 3-step hanasu is how come it isn't 3 steps anymore? Should or shouldn't it be 3 steps? Is the 3-step thing THE kata form of the exercise?

Well, here's how I think about it. Both the chains and the hanasu kata are approximations of randori (free play). They teach similar subsets of aikido principle. The chains are a little closer to the motion and feel of randori, which is close to the reality we want to learn to deal with, so we emphasize chains more than hanasu. But you have to start somewhere in order to learn chains, so we break the first move of each chain down into about 3 steps that tori can pretty easily emulate and learn. Then we begin to progress toward the chain (flowing) forms. Someone suggested the other day that maybe we should teach the 3-step Hanasu to beginners and only later expect to see it become more flowing like the chains as the students progress. You're right. We should and that's pretty much what we do.

Hanasu is not a complete set of the things that can happen with wrist grabs. There are other wrist release katas within Tomiki aikido, including Yonkata and Rokukata. The first two moves of yonkata are commonly known (tongue-in-cheek) in our circle as the "lost wrist releases," because they are release situations that do not occur in hanasu kata. I have started calling the grip switch that happens often in the chains and in randori the "really lost release" because it is obviously a viable and valid release option that is not explicitly explored in hanasu or yonkata, though it does pop up here and there in various kata.

Interestingly, there is a thing that was taught to me by a taichi guy that I have everafter relied on heavily in my aiki practice. He called it the "rule of three." The Rule of Three states that any motion may be broken down into three steps and practiced as steps in order to gain deeper understanding. Then you take each of those steps and break it down into three steps and so on... This is similar to a quote by Aristotle in his Poetics that says any whole is comprised of a beginning, a middle, and an end. But then, you have to look at the thing from the other point of view. You cannot ever create a smooth and perfect mirror from fragments just like you can't create a perfectly seamless, free movement from broken chunks of kata.

The bottom line: You have to find some acceptable compromise between a holistic intuitive practice (i.e. Ueshiba) and a stepwise analytical practice (i.e. Tomiki). In many ways, Kihara is that compromise.