The Controlling Whack of Peace and Harmony

 You can imagine an ancient conversation going like this:

Student: What happens if I drop my sword?

Wise Sensei: Most likely you are effed.

Student: really?

 Wise Sensei:  well, you maybe able to improvise something?  you may have a half a chance if you...

 I think we need to realize from time to time that aikido is a  solved chicken and egg problem. By that I mean, we have gotten past the what came first, the chicken or the egg.  We all know that this stuff comes from weapons, that's sword and stick, and knife.  Jujutsu has been called the art of no sword, which is: what the hell do you do if you aint got a sword(either you dropped it, taken it off, switched it from the left side to the right) or you need to take a sword?  The simple most comforting answer is you improvise and act as though you are still armed.  Most  Grade A quality improvisation is done with a stick. 

Here is a Jodo clip.    Its kinda like what Jack Bieler, my Aiki Arts teacher does.   I like watching Jodo because it helps fill in the blanks. But I aint a Jodo guy so anything I say you should go over with a Bull-shit-o meter. 

     

  
When ever the stick dude doesnt have contact with the sword mans body, or  arm joints there is  a controlling whack of some sort.  The nice lady narrating explains it as a response to a lapse of concentration.  You notice there is a lot of kiai.

Now if we get rid of the notion of  striking atemi and replace it with techniques to take initiative and/or keep initiative.  Things start to clear up.  A controlling whack seems to take and keep initiative along with the kiai, and so is everything else we do in aikido.  If it doesnt take or keep initiative then it aint aikido.  
                                                          
This dude is named Smitty.  He's an honorary Okie along with Tommy Key, and Morty.   Smitty studied with Morty after the shit hit the fan.   If you want to clear up a lot of nonsense about atemi, you have to have to give Smitty's body of work a look-see. 
                                           
                                                                                      

You notice any similiarties between the jodo dudes and Smitty?    I noticed that Smitty employs a kiai.  He also employs a controlling whack before/after/during a joint control.  He keeps initiative by pulling a guy down or pushing a guy in once he has control(employing that stupid little side to side step we do in the walking, that doesn't show up in the releases or the 17 so we wonder why in the hell we have to do it).  Also, notice how the bad guys arm has stickified itself sometimes. 

Also, you may notice that Smitty breaks contact and does a controlling whack to the hand/sword before he clocks the guy with irimi nage( a controlling whack ).  Anything else he does is calculated to take or keep initiative, keep safe, and not have to deal with the same problem twice; its not about doing a technique. its all some form of initiative  from punching, chopping, stepping, spiraling, turning.   Its all different body mechanics meant to take and keep initiative.  Its aikido.   

Notice that middle knuckle punch?  I always have wondered why that shows up all the damn time.  Is it symbolic for a dagger, the way a yokomen strike is symbolic for a sword?  or is there a rule of thumb going on there?  (i.e.  If you break your finger the middle one is the best one because A) its the biggest and least likely to break, B) you can still grip a sword with it broken( someone test this out)...C)  it works like a jo pointed to the eye, makes you back the hell up(its not intended to get broken, its just for show) D) when you are victorious a broken middle finger keeps you humble by restraining you from flipping the losing team the "bird"

When I watch weapons people and strikers work they all operate under rule of thumb that you are safer and more effective with your feet firmly planted on the ground.  When I watch the Jodo and sword guy, the sword guy is never really off balance (except maybe once,) but he is controlled.

I think that we are sometimes operating under a dipshit assumption when we teach footfall kuzushi like its the cure all(its just one method to take and keep the initiative), like it will work against someone who has practiced for years to keep their feet planted so they can hit harder and not fall down(watch uechi ryu karate dudes sometime).  I think we've thought about the sport of judo(thanks Tommy) too damn much, and that lesson where you slow dance with another dude whilst gripping a canvas jacket to feel his steps.  That's feeling for an advantage from a state of equality.  In Jodo, you start from a inferior state. 

Jodo operates off the notion that someone wants to hit you with something aerodynamic, long, and sharp, and the longer the engagement lasts the more likely the sword guy is gonna win and you are going to have a catastrophic hydraulic systems failure with cherry blossoms falling on your dead ass in rhythm to Japanese banjo music.  

A lot of people say that hitting someone is cheating, especially in an aikido dojo.  But in the great words of J.W. Bode, the Grandmaster and originator of the term OKIE-DO: "If you ain't cheatin', you ain't trying."   Cheating in the dojo is basically refusing to give up initiative.  It's being an initiative hog. If you aint an inititive hog, then how is someone going to learn to take that initiative?     

Anyway, here's how the Ancient Converstion continues:

Student:  What if I don't have a stick"

Wise Sensei :  Then just stiff arm the dude, its the same thing. 

 In Aikido you go one step further.  You improvise twice.  You lost the sword, you aint got a stick, so now you use your arms like a stick.  Its the "Art of No Stick"