The Turning Point
Many people think gentle and strong are mutually exclusive. They think: gentle means weak; to be strong, one has to be forceful. Takeguchi Sensei has demonstrated that such theory is wrong by practicing and teaching a style of Aikido that is gentle, yet strong and powerful.
Takeguchi Sensei often use the word "neutralization" to describe what he does when faced with an attack. Instead of accepting or fighting against his uke's energy, he directs the attack to a place where it is defuse. When the uke's attack is no attack, throwing is a piece of cake. According to Takeguchi Sensei, the essence of Aikido is to respond to your partner's movements without inflicting undesirable responses.
In a recent practice, a new 5th kyu student experienced for the first time the magic of neutralization.
I was her uke. Like most students at her level, she tried using force to push me down. The more she tried, the harder she pushed, the stronger my attack became. She was mystified and frustrated. I figured that this might turn out to be a great "orange-pushing" moment for her . . .
We were doing the basic yokomenuchi entrance. The nage's move is to mirror uke's attack -- turn her hips and raise her hands up like in ikkyo undo, and then step back. As she brings her hands down, our front hands will meet. All she needs to do is to allow her hands to go straight down until she cannot feel any power in my hand.
As a beginner, she tried to push my hand down. "Dropping your hand down so my hand cannot rise is not the same as pushing my hand down," I reminded her.
Apparently, most people find it extremely hard to ignore someone else's hand when it is in contact with our own. Yet, with practice, she was getting the hang of it. From her face 😕😦😧😮 , I could tell that she was beginning to sense the fading strength in my attacking hand . . .
Having said that, she had no prior experience to this. Like most people, she resorted to the approach of "More is Better", and continued to drop her hand. After a certain point, not only did she start feeling resistance from me again, but she also could tell that she was responsible for reviving my hand!
It really freaked her out. "What happened? Why is it like this?" She was totally stumped.
"Just like many things in this universe, there is an optimal point. When you feel that my strength has diminished, you should stop moving. Your uke would, basically, be trapped at that spot. You have all the time in the universe to move to where you want to go next and finish the technique absolutely effortlessly.
The problem was that you moved past that point. You returned the advantage to me." She was totally blown away! 🤯
Directing force towards your partner often results in resistance. As Sensei puts it, an action always causes a reaction. The best way to avoid resistance is to not trigger it. Sensei's approach to neutralize attacks achieves just that.
As a matter of fact, force and aggression from nages can result in way more than just resistance from the ukes . . .
During my recent Birthday Toss, instead of throwing me, some students ended up being thrown. I did not set out to reverse them. I was prepared to be tossed around. However, when situations called for me to step up, I would.
A couple of students became task-oriented when they were nage. Their enthusiasm and excitement had them all wired up. In additon to being stiff, they were also acting a bit too aggressive. They were supposed to be nages, but they chose to go after me.
In the typical Aikido setup, ukes and nages have their respective roles. Ukes are supposed to be attackers while nages respond by performing corresponding techniques. When nages do their techniques by pursuing their partner like an attacker, by action, they have just turned themselves into ukes. Since my nages are now attackers, I have no choice but to assume the role of nage, and proceed to throw them. It is just the natural order of things.
The students were perplexed by why they got thrown over and over. I hope the experience becomes a teachable moment for them.
When you step on the Aikido mat, what you should seek to do is to find your own strength, not that of your partner's. If you feel that you have tried everything, but you still cannot move your partner, maybe you have tried too hard, and that you should focus on moving yourself.
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