I'd say that learning and repeating the releases is probably 70% of the game of Aikido. Every Aikido branch does them, although they may not classify them the way Tomiki folks do, and even among Tomiki branches there is a variety of handgrabbing basics. Texhomiki schools tend to classify them into 8 actions and really there are only 4. 5 through 8 are extensions of the first four. I think they teach two different concepts. Reaction mechanics vs Action mechanics. They need to be taught with variety and experimentation. There is no textbook.
First off, why are they called releases? The common sense explanation is if you can keep from being grabbed then do so. Rule of thumb #1 is get your hand back. The other day I had an epiphany about martial arts when I watched a Koryu Dai San performed by Hideo Ohba. His version was a lot simpler,rougher around the edges, and had alot more Atemi concepts. My thinking is that the Old Timer martial artists in Japan knew that techniques were going to be performed under emotional pissed off/scared shitless circumstances. They are based off of reaction mechanics.It's a myth that a person can do this shit in a zen like trance. The core reaction mechanics are get off line(get your ass out of the way), get your hand/bodypart back, and/or hit the guy. Run like hell is also a core concept. The reaction mechanics wave into action mechanics.
Anyway, most of aikido functions once you have returned to an emotionally collected state where you can recognize what is going on. Most plans go to shit once someone punches you in the face. If a martial art doesnt have a way to bridge the gap between scared shitless/pissed off reactions into techniques from a collected action state of mind, then I'd have to say that your martial art is a waste of time. Like I said in another post, Its not fun to live in perpetual self defense mode. I'd prefer not too. It's a paranoid, angry way to live. But repetition of non-bullshit simple techniques seems keep a guy in a healthy state of mind. I'm talking about easy to explain, easy to practice techniques. I'm not talking about dojo koolaid.
Nick talks alot about matching footfalls. That's something that I'd say comes from a collected Action state of mind. Ask me again in a few years. It's a very high level skill that gets taught maybe too early to fully appreciate. I have never been able to make much sense of the other guys feet. Right now, four years in, I'm trying to lighten up, and quit arm wrestling. I have also started to look at my shoulders and hips. That thing Nick talks about in release #3 about locking the shoulders. I'm just now trying to deal with that. Here lately I've been trying to sort out what reactions naturally put a guy on the front foot and what puts him on the backfoot. I think our Tejazushi crossarm offbalance gets in the way of alot of natural reactions. We throw a guy off then wait for him to stand up or turn into a technique. I see a lot more reaction mechanic offbalances in other schools 17. Backing up off balances have been highly underrated, as well as simply dropping the hips. I see two hands on the ukes arm as a reaction. You see a lot of the shodokan/English schools do that. Tomiki was a two hand guy himself.
I like watching this Lady. She's an Iwama ryu person. Morty was one of those connected to the natural world shinto dudes. Iwama is country side Aikido. Akikai is city folk aikido. My dipshit theory is Morty's aikido reflected his enviroment. Anyway,They initially train from static. no footfalls. There are times when I feel that Texhomiki trys to showcase too damn much principle into eight releases. Iwama ryu working from static is pretty simple. Its reflects my scared shitless natural reaction mechanic theory. A deer in head lights. static. The rest is when you are collected enough to see things coming. Action state.
This is the biggest Nariyama freebie on Youtube. skip to about 50 minutes in and you see his notion of getting offline and hitting back. Getting offline is a rule of thumb. It works against a swing and a grab. Getting offline should be as natural as blinking your eye. If you dont get your head chopped off, then you get a turn. You either flinch left or flinch right. Reaction state.
Getting offline tends to straighten out an ukes arm. You can call that kuzushi if you want, but there are other things that crop up. Collected state aikido operates off of grip, and hand change. Have you ever noticed the ratcheting effect, the more you change grips the worse it gets for the other guy. Apparently Tomiki had a 19 kata that ran parallel to the 17. there are two standard grips. natural and reverse. They are represented as the palm up, palm down in the releases. Hand change, grip change. releases are a two sided affair. You can release a guy into another grip. release him into a technique. These are collected mechanics. Grip change usually occurs when arm is extended out, swinging low, or swinging high. Thats an action state.
This guy isnt exactly saying it, but it's there. You ever had that #3 release discovery that when you change hands and grip and you dumbass yourself into kote mawashi/nikkyo territory?
Another thing I want to talk about that comes from first order scared shitless/pissed off reaction mechanics. Is maai. That delicate space between dipshit and safety. Some call it maintaing Maai. I call it respecting maai. It maybe the first action mechanic that you can learn. Maybe reaction mechanics can be classifyed as, getting out of the way, getting your "hand" back, hitting the guy. Everything else, respecting maai, gripping, throwing, jointlocking, pinning, comes from the action state of mind. I suppose you could get attacked by a guy and flinch yourself into sleeper holding the guy. But I think we are taken more seriously when we look at reaction/action. Offbalances may be actions to you, but they are reactions to me. Maybe its because I'm just a dipshit OKIE.
No comments:
Post a Comment