Principle of the Thang

Aikido I have been told is a martial art based on principles of body mechanics and balance.  In Tommy-key Aikido we have principles like same hand/ same foot, hand in the center of the body, stepping off line,etc.  Here's the Wikipedia notion of Principle:

A principle is a law or rule that has to be, or usually is to be followed, or can be desirably followed, or is an inevitable consequence of something, such as the laws observed in nature or the way that a system is constructed. The principles of such a system are understood by its users as the essential characteristics of the system, or reflecting system's designed purpose, and the effective operation or use of which would be impossible if any one of the principles was to be ignored.^[1]
Examples of principles:

• a descriptive comprehensive and fundamental law, doctrine, or assumption,
• a normative rule or code of conduct,
• a law or fact of nature underlying the working of an artificial device            

I have a rule of thumb about Principles:  If you are arguing based on principle, it probably isn't a principle.  or at the very least it is a domain dependent principle: it only works in the dojo against someone who is allowing it to happen.  A true principle has no ifs, ands, or buts.      Here is a good example of domain dependent principles.  

I would say that all martial arts are domain dependent in a way. They only work under certain conditions and when they are "allowed" to happen.  Fire is very domain dependent.   Miyamoto Musashi talked a lot about science.  Science is not domain dependent, its truthful, and it lives in the realm of IFS, ANDS, or BUTS.  He said something along the lines of, " There are only so many ways to kill a man with a sword."  We can extend that notion to:  there are only so many ways/situations to hit, throw, joint lock, pin, choke a guy to where the reward outweighs the risk, or success dramatically outweighs failure.  I think we go into dumbass mode when we think that we can achieve a state where we can start a fire anywhere, anytime.

Since I'm a Tommy Key guy and I live in the age of You Tube where observational learning is free, I like to watch Tommy do his work.   There are two excellent sources:

      

                                                              

  

watch these and ask yourself some homework questions?

1.  what is the code of conduct for the good/bad guy?  

2.  what are the assumptions of how the bad guy will act? each technique, each set of techniques?

3. what are the characteristics of the system?  

4.  what are the artificial devices?  (canvas clothing, techniques born in dojo for the dojo?)

5.  what was this system designed for?   

6.  what is the inevitable consequence for failure and success of each technique?  

7. Is it domain dependent or does it live in the realm of IFs, ANDS, and BUTS?   

Now look at this excellent video and ask the same questions:  

now lets look at this big 3 dollar word:  Heuristic and the Wikipedia definition?

Heuristic (pron.: /hjʉˈrɪstɨk/; or /hyoo-ris-tik/; Greek: "Εὑρίσκω", "find" or "discover") refers to experience-based techniques for problem solving, learning, and discovery. Where the exhaustive search is impractical, heuristic methods are used to speed up the process of finding a satisfactory solution; mental shortcuts to ease the cognitive load of making a decision. Examples of this method include using a rule of thumb, an educated guess, an intuitive judgment, or common sense.  

Now watch the videos again and look for the Heuristics and then think about just how damned smart ole Tommy Key really was.  I think we need to step back from the damned principles and start talking about the rules of thumb instead. 

Band of the Hand

My last post I talked about Musashi and his concepts of time.   My mental picture of this mythical dude is that when he hit you first then he was ahead of (your) time, if he hit you when you  wanted to hit him then he was on (your)time, and when he hit you while in the middle of  your  "I gotcha--I score!!" moment then he was behind (your) time.  We try to mystify a lot of concepts in the martial arts, especially when it comes to awareness and timing.  One common screw up we walk around with this impression that in Medieval Japan people of great import had an unnatural fear of each others hands. And consequently, most modern Aikido dudes have joined the BAND OF THE HAND. Its been described by many that people tried to grab a hand to prevent some sort of ginsu treatment by a samurai.  I would postulate that if  you had that much of a jump on a samurai why waste time with his hand?  Why not hit him on the head with one of those ornate teak tea ceremony boxes they had lying all over the place back then?

  I'm going to post the 4-5 of Koryu dai Ichi again.  Its one of those throw away moves that doesn't "apply" to anything.   Its a heaven and earth throw. It's on "I gotcha" hands down timing.                                                                                                    

Here's a karate guy I follow.  Doing a knifehand  drill,  we call it a Tegatana--handblade, but outside of wrist positioning on releases its a high reward/low risk forearm smash to the neck.  (Before you say it aint  tommy key aikido. go about 9:45 minutes into aikido kyogi I (below). and then go back and review Atemi waza 1 and 2 and imagine screwing them up in a good way )  At the end of this screwed up shomenate drill we see the guy take a heaven and earth posture and he leads right back into aikido country again.



What I see in the Koryu kata after 4-5, is projection that has veered off center and been "pressed" down.  Once your arm is being pressed down in a low(grab my hand because now its easy to grab and control) position, the rest of the kata makes sense in a non-hand grabbing sense.  Especially with all the hand positions starting high in a mutual confrontation and then for no reason we are getting grabbed while  walking down the sidewalk in our hakamas and carrying a bag of chicken mcnuggets and someone is trying to grab them.


check it out from #2 in ICHI

 

Imagine the guy pressing down and your arm and his wind up in this kind of  strange little seen before entanglement.  

    

This next one can be a press down with elbow control.  

  

Anyway,  Try to think outside the cottonballs and footfalls kuzushi models, and think about  headshot/nutshot kuzushi and you can see a lot more in these koryu katas. Hand grabbing absent atemi relies pretty heavy on the cottonballs and footfalls approach.  We do the cottonballs and footfalls because its practical, verifiable and repeatable .  You can't go up to your uke and say, " let me stick my knuckle in your eyeball and see if I can get a #6..."  but we have to look at things from the angle of the guy who wants to hit us, and why our hands are low and extended (how did they get there?)   try not to be a member of the Band of the Hand....