Yon Kata: The fish, observation, an aikido for educrats, and the reality of waves.

When folks think of Kenji Tomiki, they probably think of his connections.  His main two connections with the human world were Kano and Youshiba.  A lot of folks see Tomiki Aikido is a mix up of the things he learned via his connections.  This is judo, mixed with aikido, they say.  Its really the principles of kito ryu and the principles of daito ryu applied to that narrow sliver of territory where judo and aikido mechanically meet.

Educators know this as a venn diagram.  A one time interesting way of looking things that has totally been calcified into standard way of thinking by educational corporations and the educrats who serve them.


  That fish shape is where Tomiki aikido exists.  My particular Branch of Aikido tends to bulge a little more towards the Judo Bubble.  Which is frustrating for a Non-Judo player, until you can figure out enough of what is going on in Judo, and the Judo mind set.  A lot of  my criticism of my particular branch stems from my personal lack of understanding of all things Judo, which I think can be remedied for future students if we put koshiki no kata into the Aikido curriculum where it belongs.   

I would take Judo classes, but I spent the last five years practicing certain Tomiki aikido movement patterns.  Ive become more interested in seeing the permutations of these movement patterns instead learning something else new.  I wont pick up a Jo stick for the same reason.   I reserve the right to change my mind at anytime in the future.  My son is getting closer and closer to Judo age, and Pops might have to go with him.  

Folks who can learn several things at once, are pretty good at learning rules, and organizing.  Its the same thing as remembering that silverware belongs in the kitchen and not the sock drawer.  There are folks that will stop me when I start putting socks in a drawer in the kitchen, even though its closer to the place where I actually put on my shoes. 

 I have found that when you allow your self to be an observer, sometimes you gain more than you would by being a participant. You aren't burdened with how to bow, and how to hold a stick, or how to curl your foot to trip somebody.  If you look at what you observe and try to look for the overlaps, the fish shapes. then you will be better off for it.   If you look at it like a beauty contest judge, or practicality then you'll rob yourself of some insight. 

If I was really in control of my learning I could go into Jodo class and say I really dont want to learn anything that doesnt have to do with footwork and pushing with a stick  All I want to see is the footwork and pushing.  Then I could go to a judo class and say I want to see all the ways you guys grab folks, then come grab me an show me what you do when you grab.  The I could go to iaido class and say I dont give a shit about how to fold my dress under my knees,   just show me the cutting angles.  Then I could go to karate class and tell em all im interested in is the stretching and cardio and sparring.

But I'm not rich enough to get away with that kind of thing and surround myself with people who would put up with me.  It should sound familiar to you.  Its pretty much the story of Aikido.







Tomiki was just as influenced by the educratic philosophy of Waseda University as he was Kano and Youshiba.  I read that when he wanted to do aikido he had to make a system that was measurable and objective.  Basically students, and the bureaucrats at Waseda needed a format to see progress, and show progress.  That means competition.

This picture tells a big story.  Its not so much for students, as it is to for a long dead bureaucrat somewhere.  Tomiki dresses the part, he uses big dumb motions, and uses the latest in edunology: a photo with an arrow drawn on it.    Here is what I'm teaching boys.  Trust me.  I aint over here reading the newspaper, and flirting with the Co-eds.

I dont want to mix my business with pleasure here.  But anything you hear about standardized education, high stakes testing, test scores, "failing schools" falling behind other countries that you probably dont give a crap about, then you understand the waseda plan.

It was just a philosophy back then, a guide post of sorts.  Now its become a crippling reality.  We have in effect become post -war Japanese in our educational system.    I dont know who came up with it, Us or Them, or our Lizard Alien Overlord puppet masters.  But its here. 

Imagine a competition only Judo class.  Most folks would quit.  Because they can't demonstrate and actualize the standards.  Here in Texas we are going to see a tsunami of highschool drop outs in the next few years.  And they aren't your standard drop out.  They tried, but in a standardized based society there is no "A" for effort. 



Look at the Kyogi film again. Except look at it as a film to justify yourself to an educrat.    Its basically a list of Tomiki standards.  The measureable and objective building blocks.  Its not for the students so much as a show case for the Educrats. But unlike standards in public school they can actually be fun to do, until they become the only thing you are allowed to do.

I have never been to Japan, and I really dont want to go, but I heard that there are Tomiki University Clubs over there that graduate 3rd and 4th dans who never do Aikido again.  There is probably a guy over there who can blow Morty Youshiba out of the water, sitting in a cube doing TPS reports for the Nintendo corporation.   He probably got tired of being someones actualized standard.  


  But really the real check on the system is the spiritual underpinnings that lay in these two odd ball judo katas.  I came to the not so brilliant conclusion the other night that Judo katas express the Japanese connection to their environment, to their reality more than actual fighting techniques.  There is a lot of  wave actions.  Like ocean waves.

 


1. It is impossible to beat something in its true form.

2.  you can win without resisting.

3.  when two things turning meet, they continue turning and then naturally separate.

4.  A big wave comes in, and when it goes back it washes away and filters everything in its path.

5.  When two big objects collide they destroy each other, but when they never meet they will continue to exist stress free. 

Koshiki kata as far as my non-judo self is concerned holds  these principles in action.  

If you  look real close at the Kyogi video you wont see a whole lot of this going on.  Because the principles in these katas can't be objectified or demonstrated.  They are natural products. You may have to sit in a duck blind and wait for them to creep out of the tree line.  In the Shodokan world there is an attempt to objectify highly subjective things like off balance and Kuzushi.

There are good lessons for doing kata in this way.  Where a guy just puts his arm out.   If slow is the best way to learn, then there is no slower than "hold still".    objects hold still.  Subjects are relative.

The thing is that the Shodokan 17 have to look the same so they can be judged by independent observers.  There has to be good ones out there, so you can pick out the bad ones.   When two guys dance around with a foam tanto the guy who make something "look" like this is going to win.  In terms of movement the kata reflects a human idea imposing its view on the world. How things should be instead of how things really are.  Two folks that agree to what ever standard, agreed upon idea, needs to be actuallized. 

It becomes more natural in its ura waza state, where the wave actually comes in and goes back.   I'm going to have to learn those ura waza.  

Yon Kata has become my favorite koryu kata.  I think this kata is an aikidoized version of those two odd ball judo katas.  I think it reflects reality the more Artificial it becomes. The less it models actual human response in human conflict the better it actually shows how to handle conflict.  You can see the waves, and people need to see the waves.  I dont think that you can learn the deeper nature of martial arts if you get stuck on self defense and competition.  

                                                                  

Waves, Kito, and Rocks.

Miyake Sensei told the wise men of my branch that Tomiki Aikido was part Kito ryu and Daito ryu.  Most folks think that the daito ryu is obviously the joint locks and shit.  But I've been studying up on the Shodokan take on things, and what Tomiki actually did was extract the kenjutsu principles that he was sure lay at the heart of daito ryu and lay them out there.  Because in Shodokan, those guys study a lot of maai and timing, and angles. 

If you do a poor man's research, and you google up some kito ryu.  You'll find that koshiki no kata is what kito ryu is.  So lets take a look at some koshiki:

I was drinking coffee the other morning.  thinking about my releases/ 7 forms of kuzushi and trying to peice it all together.

I got thinking about kito ryu.  how its supposed to translate out to rise and fall.  Here is a clip of the main Japanese Sensei of my Texhomiki line.
Her name is Miyake.  We do this goofy finger flick on hiki taoshi that has to come from her, and I guarantee this is where we get our interpretation from. 

Anyway, I got thinking about how Japan is a sea shore kind of country.  It being an Island, and all. And I got thinking about those waves.

Then I got thinking about that other kata they mention that has a lot of influence on things. that itsutsu no kata.  the one that has two guys pretending like they are birds or something.


then I got thinking about Shinto and Japanese gardens and nature and stuff.  and those waves.  As a guy who aint seen the ocean except maybe four or five times, I imagine they can make an impression on you if you live around them all your life. 


Then I got thinking that koshiki and that bird kata didnt have nothing to do with fighting at all.  That they were just about waves and stuff being tossed around.

Then I started thinking of YON KATA. And how it has a whole different relationship with the waves than koshiki does.  In koshiki you are inside the ocean being tossed about, and in Yon its almost like you are the rocks swirling the ocean around. 

                                                                

Anyway,  I got thinking about the releases, 7 types of kuzushi.   How the waves in Jodan almost go all the way over the rock, and how the chudan goes to the sides, and how the gedan hits the rock and goes all the way up and curls back.

I dont think we are learning how to fight boys and girls.     I think the whole big lesson is about effing waves and shit.  

Square on Aikido versus Tai sabaki Aikido

I think that as far as I'm concerned there is two types of aikido square on aikido and tai sabaki aikido.  square on is related to Judo.  The tai sabaki aikido assumes you are dealling with an attacker who attacks at a certain distance and wishes to remain at that distance.  Anyway, the thing we call the walking kata had its origins with Tai sabaki, with getting out of the way, and generating ideas from how you got out of the way.  But it got changed to the point where its hard to see what it relates to. 

I came to a conclusion a few months back that Judo had a lot of Influence on my particular branch of Tomiki Aikido.  I can look at a lot of standardized Shodokan and compare back to what I've been taught and its getting crystal clear.  Most of my bitching and complaining comes from my technical frustration with trying to figure out the best way for me to do things,  the rationale behind the things that I've been messing with, and practical applications, and what kind of philosophy or mindset lies behind the techniques as they have been passed down the line. 

Every year because of my job, I have to take a 3 month semi-sabbatical, from Aikido so I do more thinking about it than practice.  What I have to do is a lot of  walking kata in the kitchen to get my physical activity in.  So to get anything out of it I have to do it like Tomiki did it, instead of slower more thoughtful approach you get in class.  It was by doing these movements over and over and essentially posed the question to question to my self, " Why am I doing this, what in the hell is this for?" 

The answers were out there and dipshit obvious.  But because I never practiced the movements in the original intent of the movement they still made little sense to me.  I'd say that the shodokan folks that happen on this particular blog might think I'm an ignorant hick for not knowing this, but I think they are subject to a lot of the same tunnel vision, I gotta do this to make my next rank, meta randori thinking that everybody else does.  Everybody is subject to looking at things so hard that they fail to notice that they've stuck their head up their own ass. 

Here is a clip that I have studied a lot.  Its basically a walk through of the whole Tomiki System.  I have heard stories that folks in my branch had studied Tomiki Aikido for maybe 15 years or more before they even laid eyes on this film.  The main question is where in the hell is the Kuzushi?  And that Tomiki is doing it all wrong.  About 97 percent of the folks in my line of Tomiki dont even recognize this clip as a point of discussion or reference.  It is an apple, and we like oranges. 

Another influence on my suspicions and notions is watching  Classical Jodo.  At the same time, I was wondering what in the hell the walking kata was for, I was seeing the same kinds of footwork principles, and evasion principles in the Shodokan line, and in the Unsoku steps, as I was in  Classical Jodo.  I was beginning to wonder why I didnt move like that in Aikido.  Seeing as I spend four months out of the year doing that in the kitchen or in backyard.

Then I started actually studying what I could about the Japanese Shodokan System.  I bought Nariyamas Aikido Randori, and I spent a chunk getting a copy of Aikido: Tradition and the Competitive Edge By Shishida and Nariyama.  I figured that I'd read a lot of hard headed stuff, this based on the fact that nearly every Nariyama Demostration shows him plowing into a very limber and resilient college kid.  But what you get between the Technical details, is a discussion of principle and rationale behind the system. 

Here's my Friend Nick showing the possibilities on Gyaku gamae ate.

Essentially the difference is in the purpose and original intent of the Unsoku.  The Unsoku is hard wired into principles of maai, evasion, and kuzushi, its tai sabaki based.   My line of Tomiki Aikido assumes a square on relationship between Tori and Uke( a judo mentality), the thing that changes this square on relationship is something Ive written about before is the cross arm offbalance. and the Unsoku steps are kinda, sorta irrelevant. 

This is why I say my line is Judo Influenced, because Japanese Shodokan will use a side step to get offline.  They dont look to change the direction of the attack through an offbalance. 

Here's another guy who seems to be on the same Judo based square on mentality wavelength. You can see his balance breaking ideas as well. 

The Japanese versions are  literally Atemi waza that have been made safe as possible for Randori.  The concept is that you hit a guy and he falls in one blow coming from one direction.  Unlike a hard strike in Karate where all your power is expended.  In Aikido you apply soft atemi with your whole body in order to conserve your energy.  You usually hit a guy with the softer parts of your arm/hand and try to fit in as far as possible for safety. Before Tomiki, Shomenate was seen as a technique that you use when confronted with many opponents.  Watch any Gozo Shioda clip and you will see it. 

The Japanese concept of Kuzushi is different on Atemi Waza.   They see balance breaking as an effect of the motion of applying atemi waza.  That certain folks will either back up, or flinch away from(thereby fitting into) the technique.  They are done with the notion that you are trying to hit the guy regardless of whether you broke his balance, but they depend on a spinelock to get the throw. 

 Here is Nariyama showing this kind of Atemi waza.  But there are Japanese teachers who teach the possibilities of slight balance breaks in these Techniques. But the common thread is vacating space and creating a lane for movement to apply the technique.  These are not done with a square on mentality where you have to veer a persons center away from you. 

My point on this is that the unsoku steps are very connected to opening lanes of movement for the techniques. Aigamae Ate depends on an open lane where you have stepping room outside of his feet.  The side steps are initial evasions that assume a certain timing in the technique but they also open up a lane. 

Heres a gal who has a lot of interesting shodokan clips on the web that shows the lane opening ideas.  Also notice the front and back steps.  Those are maai concepts.  Basically stand far enough away to where you are safe but be able to effect things with one step.  The back step gets safety back but allows a step forward.  Tomiki said you need to have a footspan between your front and back foot.  Basically this is the space you put a foot in to exert maai.  

  

The back step offers a certain type of kuzushi which is Jodan Kuzushi (yon kata 1-2).  The side steps offer the lane of movement that is needed for chudan kuzushi 1st/3rd release.  The turning corner steps offer Gedan kuzushi 2nd/4th release.  They also inform what atemi waza are available. The principle being hit with the nearest hand.

Another thing is that there are 19 basic techniques in the Tomiki Curriculum.  5 Atemi, 6 Hiji, and 8 tekubi.  Uki waza are not covered until randori no kata/ junanahon.   Principle wise everything starts with Atemi because Aikido starts from a separated state. The rationale on joint techniques is restraining an attacking arm from attacking again.  So the primary lesson is basically positioning and footwork that gives you the most leverage for restraint.  Kuzushi is always great, but thats not what is covered in the Kihon. 

The 17 kata has been called kihon, but its really made for randori.  The techniques that couldnt be modified for safety were not put into the 17.  And interesting enough 3 uki waza are included.  The Nariyama book claims that these are adapted Judo techniques,  I always wondered about this because I have seen other Aikido schools do mae and sumi otoshi. 

My basic take on these being classified as techniques from Judo is basically that you can't train Judo out of people.  Once you develop a motor pattern that makes sense and works for you its hard not to go back to it.  In fact it becomes impossible.  I figure this is why my Branch of Tomiki never got into the  competititive Randori side of things.  Because a Judo player is basically going to have to restrain himself from doing what comes naturally.  He's going to be in a constant state of crap I cant do this, and pronounce the whole process as being lame.  These techniques were basically there to allow folks who had a Judo sensitivity to play aikido.  Its my theory so I'm probably wrong.   

The main thread in the Uki waza is that they transiton from a square on position into a throw and like i said, judo is pretty much square on.

Mae otoshi is supposed to be related to  a thing called tai otoshi.  What I see is a guy with his arm extended out. Its almost like mae otoshi is taught from the stand point of: think  Tai Otoshi and then switch hands and step to the outside. When he recovers throw his ass with mae otoshi 

I'm not a judo guy so Im probably catastrophically wrong. 

I'm sure some one will mention something about its related to feet or something, but out the standard 17( not the Geis line 17) these techniques seem to originate square on. Shiho nage starts outside in the standard 17 almost with the feeling of cutting across the center instead of starting square on/

How would you throw a judo player a bone with Aikido Randori?   

sumi otoshi is an easy stretch and you can see the relation to Uki otoshi in combination. But really all these techniques are related to te waza in judo. And Te waza is probably to closest intersection between aikido and judo.

Heres a Hakama dude and his sumi otoshi.  It looks better that I could ever do, but hes probably clueless on what to do if it doesnt work. Thank you Tomiki and Kano. 






anyway, the randori kata does deal with square on ideas from judo.  The nature of competitive randori allows it.  Like everything else, I may be talking out of my ass, but I think the rules on tanto stabs are that your hips have to move through space to be legal.  That is why they sit there and dance around square on so much looking like to judo players with a judo phobia. But There are folks out there looking at taking the judo phobia dance out of Toshu Randori by using a 3 second square on rule.


Anyway, there are pretty much two types of aikido the square on aikido versus Tai sabaki aikido.  Square on wants to veer off and deflect the other guys center, while the other lets the guys center go where it wants and creates a lane of movement to the side.  tai sabaki makes the walking kata make sense so I like it better.   

Culture, Historical Environment, and the Martial Arts

I read about this experiment once where they got these young men to pass each other in a hall way that was obstructed by a filing cabinet. If I recall what I read correctly, and odds are I didnt, one dude was in on the experiment and the other wasnt.  The inside guy was supposed to shoulder bump the lab rat dude and say something along the lines of "eff you."  Then they looked at how certain folks responded, I think they had them write down their feelings,  looked at how long they took to calm down if they got pissed off, and I think somewhere down the line they took blood samples or something to see what was going on as far as pissed off hormones getting shot into the blood stream.

Northerners, especially those who came from  tight knit agricultural communities along the lines of something you'd see on Little House on the Prairie were they first to shrug it off, even think it was funny, and forget about it.  The Southerners and Borderlanders( that strip of states that separate the North from the South) epecially those whose background was more of the poorer, subsistence level, agricultural background,  got pissed off and stayed pissed off.  In fact they got more worked up the more they thought about it and talked about it.  

The explanation was that people were a product of not only their present environment, but also their historical environment.  If a group of folks live in a certain area, or under a certain circumstance, for a few hundred years then that environment is going to mold whatever human being is adaptable to whatever environment it is.  A lot of folks want to connect this do darwinism, but its just common sense.  Everybody knows that a kid who grows up in a shitty environment is going to aquire social skills and survival skills to deal with that environment.  This applies for groups overtime.  Its a social, cultural genetic environmental cocktail effect.

Anyway, Its been figured out that pretty much all of the folks that get pissed easy, and stay pissed come from Northern England/Low Land Scotland.  The cultural Label for them is Scotch-Irish.  But what they are in reality is borderlanders/Buffer people.  It used to be policy for countries to move all their lowerclass problem folks out towards the border.   That way they got messed with first when problems cropped up, and by doing so it thinned out their numbers.  For the Upperclass, it was a Win-Win situation.   This Buffering the border with problem folks goes all the way back to when the Roman's built Hadrians Wall. What arose was clan warfare.  Burning and pillaging was a way of life so folks never got a real sense of property based security and comfort.  Basically, whats here today is probably going to be gone tomorrow.  So get used to it. 

The old saying that good fences makes good neighbors applies to this situation.  What happened in this area was it got overpopulated and all the trees got cut down and their wasnt piles of rocks to make fences.  So what happened is your livestock wondered all over the place to either be stolen or to trample over somebodies pathetic attempt at farming.  There was basically no reason for anybody to move from one place to another except to steal something or recover stolen property, or settle a score, so naturally strangers weren't particularly welcome, and so people got comfortable with xenophobia. 

About the only way for you to get along and protect your stuff is through a culture of personal honor and loyalty.  When someone messed with you, your stuff. or your kin, the severity of your response built up your reputation, and in this type of environment your reputation and the reputation of your kin is your " good fence that makes good neighbors." 

This kind of cocktail brewed for about a thousand years or so and then it got exported to Northern Ireland and the American Backcountry.   In the United States it Manifested itself in Genocidal Indian Wars,  Really Pissy Guerrilla Tactics that helped to secure Independence from Britain, the irrational 2nd amendment to the Constitution, the Powder Keg in waiting that was the American Civil War, Old West Lawlessness, the Famous Hatfield and Mccoy feuds(which was really a series of back country disputes where the Xenophobia turned inward.)

Nowadays, these cultural tendencies are just hair triggers to be exploited by slick politicians to scare the "stupid" white  lower class folks into being afraid of minoritiees, or to stir up public sentiment so corporations can use the military to steal somebodies stuff over seas. Its a simple divide an conquer strategy that folks are more than  happy to blindly go along with.  It presses all the right buttons. 

Anyway,  I say all this because Historically I belong to this type of group.  I can remember everybody that has pissed me off since the 2nd grade.  I also happen to have a Native American background, and while I think the Scotch Irish shit overrides anything that my Native American genes may have to offer, I do think I inherited the my shut up and watch tendencies from the Natives.  I have always liked to watch folks, make eye contact to figure folks out, and look out the window all day long. So the Japanese concept of Metsuke makes a lot of sense to me. 

A lot of my skepticism of the Martial Arts comes from my background.  Most folks dont care to admit it, but martial arts comes from the dueling mindset.  Some body stepped over a line, pissed someone off, and two guys have "squared off" to settle things. Maai and Metsuke explain it all.  A lot of folks try to teach martial arts from a self defense perspective but self defense for me equates to 3-5 young guys jumping my ass at a time and place of their choosing.

When you make eye contact you are really seeing what folks associate you with and what opinions they have formed about you.  They either dont notice you because they are wrapped up with something else, ignore you because you make them uncomfortable, if this is the case they usually find ways to point their bodies away from you, or they ignore you aggressively by pretending that you aren't there, Teenagers, especially girls are good at this, and so are wanna be alpha males and alpha males who are slipping. 

I notice a lot of big time Akikai dudes wont look anybody in the eye.  

All that does, is set off the, " you think you're better than me." hair trigger.   Guys who wear dresses need to make a little eye contact or they are going to open a can of something. 

If a boss tells you to come to his office, and does paper work while you fidget, this is what you are getting.    Everybody, Has run into someone at wal-mart who is thrown into social Kuzushi by seeing you.  Its because you remind them of a social environment that makes them uncomfortable.  And they arent living up to that standard at that particular moment because instead of a suit and tie, or a dress, or the crowd the usually surround themselves with,  they are  alone, in sweats, and a t-shirt with a mustard stain on it. 

When you make eye contact in a dueling contest,  a lot can be said about maintaining eye contact.  If a guy keeps eye balling you it means he's either trying to intimidate you into backing out, or he thinks very little of you.  If he doesnt make eye contact its either because he's afraid of you, or either made up his mind he's going to see it through.  If he breaks and returns, he's thinking about his reputation.  A lot can be said about when he breaks eye contact, or when he begins.  But the best way to deescalate a guy is by not eyeballing him back.  Let him win the little staring match if that makes him feel better. 

Nishio said this about Atemi.  I like Nishio because he says some pretty redneck things in a very polite Japanese way.  He said that with Atemi you take their words.  Eye contact can say one thing.  But when you put Atemi on someone, they have to form another opinion about you pretty quick.  If they are already scared, hitting them once can confirm it.  If they think they are better than you,  slamming them first fractures their safe world view.   Basically, everybody has a plan or opinion until they get hit in the mouth.  

Stepping backward or forward is another form of communication.  Sometimes you can intimidate folks by adjusting the distance, other times a foot forward says a lot.  

Anyway, Atemi is a cultural mindset. Its a form of communication.  Attitude adjustment. or the Taking of words.  In a dojo, Atemi cant exist in this way.  Atemi is a mechanical, theoretical thing.  not a form of communication. 

Its hard for me to buy into a lot of martial arts ideas because of the  Scotch-irish cultural ideas of escalation and righteous assault.  A lot of folks tell me that so and so in his prime could of have kicked my ass, especially if I write about them in an unfavorable way.  But in my Universe, in the slow cooked Cultural Borderlander universe,  you can study all the Kodokan Judo, BJJ, Put your Toe through a tire,  break a block of ice with your head shit you want, but you aint got a solution for a baseball bat to the knee cap that you didnt see coming.  It's acceptable if you are the bigger asshole, and you had it coming.  It's solving a problem outside, the duelling framework. 

I can say that the Martial Arts has helped me past identify the cultural/genetic hair triggers I have.  But by recognizing my hair triggers,  I also see that competitive environment is a form of a safety valve. I recognize that what we are studying is in the framework of a two man duel, it isnt self defense. It's about two guys mutually crossing a certain line. Randori allows folks to get past a lot of ignorant ass notions with out bringing about harmful effects to everybody else.  The problem is, and a lot of BJJ guys believe this, that their ideas of gaming and dueling can fit any situation.  From assaults to guns, to zombie apocalypses, to soccer riots. 

I dont see any problem with the "game" of Tomiki Aikido.   And I'm probably going to explore the game more than the martial art side for awhile, because culturally martial thinking sets off too many hair triggers. Martial Arts is about climbing, about getting over ideas and ignorant notions,  and people dont want to take your word for it, they want to climb the same mountain you did, so they can get over it.  And "it", is different for everybody.  

suwari waza, kuzushi and the releases.

I think that a lot of folks think I'm the kid that keeps playing in the street despite warnings that it aint that great of an idea.  My daddy told me I was the most hard headed human being that ever lived and I try to live up to that.  When It comes to Aikido I'd rather just be the Uke, because I know that If I try to get something right then half the time it wont come out right, but If somebody does something that feels right to me then it gets past the hard headed noise going on in my brain.  It sticks in there for a later date somewhere down the road. 

Kuzushi is a pretty hard headed subject.  Releases is a related hard headed subject.  I like doing releases, but there are times when they don't connect up well with the other stuff going on.  The regular Tomiki crowd calls the releases the 7 forms of kuzushi.  And while I call my own form of Aikido, horse shit aikido out of frustration, when I see other schools working these 7 forms of kuzushi I have to say they look like horse shit aikido.

This first clip is a couple of guys that do the releases pretty much how I know em, and have ran in the ground like a dead horse in the desert.   They have a couple of under the arm variations that I suck at 7 forms of kuzushi crowd saves for later.  I've seen Senta Yamada do things that are in this neighborhood, and Ive posted elsewhere how the Tegatana no kata that we do is pretty much The same as Senta Yamadas.  So something tells me that My School of Aikido was born in the same room as Yamadas.  We call this Hana-somethingsu kata, but I've heard that Miyake sensei said it wasn't a kata.  It was just an exercise that yielded some sort of point/benefit.  I heard the same story about the Big10, how Kogure was surprised people were still doing it. 

This is the standardized take on it.  I bad mouth my own school, but this is just because the Horseshit usually comes from one source, and its just how one guy somewhere down the line liked to do it,  it either worked for him, or it was easy for him to teach, which is usually never the same thing.  Most folks do one thing that they cant explain and teach another. 

Standardized martial arts is horseshit not organically grown, but processed focus group approved horseshit.

I could tell you that there is one full proof way to set your farts on fire and you would probably say I was an idiot for two basic reasons.  The first is: Why would anybody want to set their farts on fire? Two:  How much trial and error does it take to find the supreme method of lighting ones farts on fire? And why would you trust someone who put so much work into lighting farts. 

This is pretty much the mind splintering zen riddle of the martial arts. Listening to people coming up with better ways to light farts.  Anyway,  its always good to look at the standardized method of lighting farts and form opinions. Sometimes folks take your word for it on farts and fire.  Just because they are impressed by farts and fire, or they dont want to take the time to test every possible method.

I give my own school of Aikido a lot of grief because they have this thing about going slow.  Yeah, just about everybody new to anything starts out slow, but my question is, "okay Ive moved like a  dude crawling on a complimentary wal-mart scooter for five years now, when do we speed up?"

Speed has a lot of bad side effects.  The first is that it masks a lot of horseshit.  Heavy metal music sounds great only with a distortion pedal. Those Japanese dudes are bouncing around so fast that they aren't breaking into any kuzushi.  They are going through the motions.  Looking cool. 

Another thing is that kuzushi is divided into three levels.  Jodan, Chudan, Gedan.  I never really got what in the hell that meant.  Gedan was easy to pick out, but because I was looking at the whole thing, in a how in the hell does this shit teach anything about kuzushi?  kind of way. I never really gave a bag of monkey crap about the classification. 

                               

But Ive been doing some suwari waza in san kata, and Eric Pearson showed us some daito stuff the other day, and I think I figured out what this whole 7 forms of kuzushi is and what the releases are about. At least in theory. The thing about Tomiki Aikido is that it doesnt mention the first two items, and starts the student on the third.  Its a pretty frustrating way to live, makes you think you're learning bullshit half the time, but if you are stubborn enough to stay with it, and assume you are finding diamonds in bullshit, then you get something out of it.  All that matters is that you have the diamond, nobody cares where you found it.

Anyway, I'm pretty sure kuzushi studies in  tomiki aikido came from suwari waza.  Judo kuzushi is different. With judo its like you are carrying a big box where you cant see your feet and somebody puts a bar out at varying levels anywhere from ankle to hip height and you dump over.  Yeah, there are asides here and there but thats about it.     

But Tomiki tried to classify things with Aikido Kuzushi. There were other elements at work.

The first is Jodan.  Jodan is like your legs aren't moving and you are reaching for something up high to catch yourself.  Kind of like you are about to fall in a hole and you notice a overhead subway handle out there. The first place I think of this is in San Kata that part where you kneel and the other guy stands.  The uke has to deal with this kind of thing a lot.  The heaven and earth throw has it.  There is a part later on where Jack teaches to take the slack out of your arm and flop your arm over the guy, and Pat Parker has a similar thing going on in Ichi kata the first standing technique where you take the slack out of your arm.  The Japanese version of Hiki otoshi works on this type of kuzushi.   Its basically when you take all the slack out with a hole waiting.  Nariyama says you have to back up to do this, but its just another way to take out the slack.

  

Chudan is illustrated in the Yoshinkan suwari waza and the two college kids going in granny mode.  its because they are going in granny mode you can catch the same damn thing that the Yoshinkan guy is doing.  A lot of people put a lot emphasis on flipping the wrist and the footfalls and stuff, but the kuzushi here is like putting your hands in the center and wiping cornbread crumbs off the table laterally.  The walk around is something else, and I'll get to that later.  But the kuzushi is pretty simple.  Ive taken to taking a side step on number 3 release, the same way the Yoshinkan guy does.  I figured that out myself, but its good to know my instincts are up there with Gozo shioda.  Really, I think number 1 and 3 should be looking for a back corner/ front corner kuzushi.  The touchdown is sumi otoshi, the field goal is control of the wrist. or hiki taoshi.   Nariyama describes this as two guys standing still.  Like it starts with an equal situation up and down that  moves laterally.  

Gedan is easy.  Its anything that pushes into your center where you have to turn.  Its the hipswitch motion that a lot of folks subscribe to a shihonage set up, but its really #2/#4 release.  Its a situation where you have to turn into something and let it slide past.   The kotegaeishi in san kata kind of illustrates this, so does the shomen iriminage and the sokumen iriminage of Yoshinkan.  They all operate in a turning movement.   Nariyama shows gedan kuzushi basically going towards your nuts, and then turning, when you turn you bend your knees and pick up what ever happens from that point.  

The thing is that Tomiki was thinking about Yield when he designed his releases/ kuzushi movements. I figure He wanted to teach three things at once.  The kuzushi is pretty much the first damn thing.  What folks call the recovery step or what I call the swing back is Tsukuri.  And then it all hangs on a wire waiting for the finish where ever it needs to go.  Tomiki also wanted to practice whole body movement which I think the Japanese do better than what I usually see, but they are clueless about the kuzushi.  

And that leads me back to Senta Yamadas walking style.  It accounts for the under the arm stuff that the two college kids are doing, and the step to the side motions could account for the lateral hand movements and turning ideas.  I dont think he's facing towards other opponents to the side, thats a karate idea.  I think he's either wiping a table for chudan, or turning to get gedan kuzushi going.  The clockwise circles make sense in this way in returning to center rather than steping from center.  It't a #4 release.  The pet the dragon/deliver the pizza movements/ maki zuki are wrist control ideas after you've wiped the table. 

I think our releases and walking ideas have a lot more ideas than the standard Tegatana dosa. But not many people talk about the 8 releases and Senta Yamada's walking being related, except me. Tomiki simplified things when he tried to find a better way to set farts on fire.  But I'm pretty sure that he got his  Aikido Kuzushi ideas from suwari waza techniques.  Morty Youshiba swore by them, and their had to be a reason.  What you see with his 7 forms of kuzushi is an attempt not to address kuzushi, but also Tuskuri and whole body movement across space. He had a lot of concepts to teach in a short time.  

That's why such a simple exercise has a lot of explanations on how to go about it.  It was an attempt to move suwari waza lessons to a standing exercise, but also tried to splice in other principles too. Teachers try to multitask.  By doing so I think some of the issues got confused.  I have never seen a link between footfalls and the releases.  I think that's supplying Judo Think. But like I said its confusing when you try to sort through it, and people tend to make their own sense of things.  Sometimes they find better ways of doing things.  I know a lot of people like that. 

 I think its a simple push/pull thing.  I'm not saying that footfalls can't be used to explain things, balance the last time I checked was heavily dependent on whatever the feet are doing, but its pretty clear to me that the 7 forms of kuzushi are suwari waza based. 

I'm a Man. I'm forty. A look at fear and anger.

My Aiki pal Pat Parker wrote a post on paranoia.  I think its pretty damn good.  The other day we had an Aiki get together over in Denton, and my other Aiki pal Eric Pearson said something like, " The unfortunate side effect of martial arts is that it makes you exercise."  Which makes me think of this particular book about one man's Aikido Legacy.  Click to see it.  

My personal take is that the unfortunate side effect of the martial arts is Paranoia.   I went through a phase at the start of my Tomiki Aikido love affair and relationship where I was a pretty angry person and didnt really know it.  Anger is usually what happens after fear.  Someone scares the shit out of you, then all the sudden you get pissed and want to come out swinging.  Its the flight response clicking over to fight once the brain orients to a problem.  

I call it my Mike Gundy"I'm Forty.   I'm a man." phase, and have been on guard against it ever since.  Life makes you angry sometimes.  But I was constantly in this state of mind, afraid and compensating for the fear with totally being pissed off all the damn time. 

I changed basically because of a J.W. Bode clinic.  He said something to me that was like one of those buddhist instant enlightenment things.  He described a situation where some dude came into my home and did horrible things to me in my family in pretty specific detail, and said that the dude took a break in between horrible things, to sit at my kitchen table and calmy drink my beer.  Then he paired that with the most brutal thing about the world is that the only thing I can control is myself.  My feelings, my reactions, my mental noise. 

What he actually did to me was get me to think about losing my family.  And it made me want to cry, and what it did was physiologically loosen up my chest and neck muscles.  We unforutnately live in a culture where a guy can't tear up every once in a while, so we vent off anger.  And nothing really good comes from venting off anger.  Learning to tear up when you need to is probably the best lesson ive learned as a man.

Anyway,  this got me thinking about what Aikido actually did for me.  I dropped my notions about self-defense, because I think most folks notions of self-defense come from Cloud KooKoo land.  Rory Miller said that one of the big problems in the martial arts is that martial arts instructors set themselves up either intentionlly, or just from  dipshit American cultural expectations to be experts with dealing with violence.  So the first thing I did was quit expecting folks to have a clue on what to do when the shit hits the fan.  And by the way, I also quit reading Rory Miller.

 What I focused on was the fitness benefits, and that made things better. The by product of feeling better is that you start thinking better. But then I got kind of pissed off when people came to class with the idea of talking shit through, instead of sweating their problems out.  I started using the analogy of shooting the basketball, when you miss the basket you dont take 15 minutes to talk about whats wrong.  You shoot more baskets, any problem solving is done inside the act of actually shooting baskets.  Martial arts, I hate to break it to you, is the same way. 

The other thing is that I adjusted my diet.  Tried to eat stuff that didnt make me think crazy.  The few bits of advice I can give you is that we eat too damn much salt, any corn product outside of the garden is satan's tool,  most of what actually makes us fat comes in liquid form, and fast food is pretty much the same as smoking crack, its addictive, and it takes only slightly longer to kill your ass. 

Anyway, the other unfortunate side effect of my Aikido explorations is looking deeply at my own line of Aikido.  Why it had this move slow, slow is good affliction.  What I made up my mind about is that it was more about dojo control, one particular dudes dojo control than anything else.  I can be a master of everything if I can slow it down to my liking. 

 I can tell you that folks in my line actually learn , for the most part from the study of Judo.  Because Judo allows them to move and sweat their problems out. And eventually they know they are getting better because they sweat less.

The Aikido, I hate to tell you, is geniune straight out of horses ass grade A shit.  Because it was engineered into a solve your problems with out the sweat model which is basically cloud kookoo thinking.  The Aikido moves the way it does because once upon a time, one guy quit seeing the value of breaking a sweat and forced that outlook on everybody else.

Every person I have met who has struggled with the no sweat horseshit for ten years or so has realized this.  This is why everybody has been forced to make it work for them, to make it serve some sort of purpose.  They are all masters of problem solving.  I can give you five or six high level aikido players in my line and tell you that their Aikido is all totally different, and definitely non-horseshit. Because they learned Aikido from a vastly different place then where most folks learn aikido.  They had too.

But they didnt have a finger pointing to the moon thing.  They had a finger poking in the eye to keep you from seeing the finger pointing at the moon.  You have to get rid of the finger to see the finger to see the moon.  Thats the zen riddle of horseshit.

The truth about the Tomiki Model of Aikido is you learn it through sweat.  Your progress is measured by sweating less and less.  You get better through the act of sucking at it over and over.  You have to locate the horseshit either in doctrine, or within the system.

I realized that my line was pretty much the victim of angry, paranoid, erratic behavior from the top down.  And that type of behavior seeks to control everything. Control is easy when you slip the world a mickey and make em slow down. 

The Judo in my line is okay. Judo because of its sporting nature has to have a prove it to me nature about it.  It has be sweated out.   But the Aikido moves like a timid, abused, red headed step child.  I cant say alot because I just dont know the particulars, I just see the splintering and the string of broken relationships with pretty much the same story.

The study of aikido is about connection and acceptance, it isnt about control, splintering, money, and paranoia.  That's why I think the Aikido from our line starts out as horseshit, and then through each individual wading through the horseshit, finds something useful.  Its the build your own aikido model.

That's why I am drawn more and more to the sporting side of Tomiki Aikido, because it isnt horseshit. It is what it is, and it doesnt try to pretend its anything else. What I mean is, to be Non-Horse shit you have to construct a Non-horseshit chamber first.  Judo does this through rules, techniques that can be done safely, and a system of randori practice that allows you to sweat.  Tomiki Aikido does the same thing. If its allowed to go there. 

sweat is its own reward.  You dont learn the hard lessons of maximum efficiency, minimal effort without sweat.  Sweat also tends to get things out of your system that make you fearful, angry and paranoid.  Randori sweat is the best kind.  Because I know tons of neurotic runners, and I wonder what they get out of it.

I'm not a proponent of Shiai Aikido because I'm just too effing old for it.  I am a proponent of honest aikido, movement based aikido to where the movements can be refined through real problems.  There has to be some rules to define what you are looking for, and to keep folks safe.  To promote mutual welfare and benefit that I have heard of, but never had to be taught because our Aikido doesnt ramp up enough for that lesson to fit into a teachable moment. 

 I can't tell you honestly what to do when you are jumped by a gang of teenagers, I can't tell what to do against a real knife.  I'm not selling that, what I do want to be in the business of selling is problems solved through sweat.  The less sweat, the better the solution.  But you have to allow the sweat, and you have to practice Tomiki Aikido the way it was designed.  Otherwise,  you should discard the name of Tomiki Aikido and call it something else.  Odds are you will still be the same person without the label, there are folks that I know that could rename what they do Wackojutsu and still be taken serious after five minutes.

Because you either know it or you dont,  and a label, and a certificate with with the name of an angry, erratic bully on it who happened to be one of the many thousands of humans who studied Judo or Aikido in Japan, doesnt take away from that.  Nobody gives a shit about that nowadays. I'm a facebook friend with guys who actually stood close enough to Nariyama and Shishida to hear them Fart.

You either know it or you dont.  You've either solved the riddle of horseshit or you havent.  You did the work, you invested the sweat.  You own it, and don't owe anybody for it, unless they allow you to be you, then you owe them everything.  Especially if they make you less afraid, less angry.  Lessons learned from fearful, angry people arent worth remembering. 

Sweat cures.  The Bohdidharma had the take that you cant be spiritually strong if you weren't physically strong. That whole shaolin temple thing and all.  Of course strength fails with age, and in steps Morty Youshiba.  Who loved to sweat so much that he became physically immune to it.  or so the story goes.  He wasnt much into the fear and anger thing either.