I try to look at the original intent of the movement. I watch a lot of Tomiki, and Senta Yamada, and Ohba. The movements seem to be related to moving to a safe, more favorable position, while maintaining a good posture while maintaining contact with the opponent. There seems to be a lot of hand change/sword cutting movements.
I have found that the very act of doing all these things together seem to put the other guy in a weak spot to where the techniques seem to work. We worry so damn much about not applying strength. But really, aikido is about finding the best position to apply strength where you get the most yield.
There are instances where we can do techniques to where strength isnt the what makes a technique work. That's where the kito ryu/aiki stuff comes in. Its great when it works, but to think that you are going to always going to find the "kito" spot in every transaction is just plain stupid. And if you think a guy who wants to kick your ass is going to wisp around, while you patty cake his arm and do little Tim Conway steps, like an uke who drank the Kool Aid then you deserve to get your ass kicked.
A lot of folks have been looking at the kihon style of Aikido training where you do the 17 without a balance break. You step off line, keep maai, and then manipulate a guys joints and posture into a technique. I think their is merit in this kind of understanding, if you look at Tomiki in his films thats what he's doing. I've heard it said that the sporting folks assume that a guys balance is never going to be broken or its going to be broken over his dead body. So thats why they do it.
Thats where the tomiki stiff arm comes from. Its just a posture that facilitates the practice of the kihon. It's not an attack. My feeling is that you attack first, or move offline and then let'er rip. The foundation of aikido is disarming a weapon or keeping from being disarmed. that usually means jumping out of the damned way first. The moose out in front of San Kata should have told you.
The first three steps in the walking kata are the foundation for everything. If you look at the Tomiki film with the harpsicord music. You actually see him do the unsoku steps dodging a sword. That's what they are period. You get offline, grab a guy by something, and then if you are lucky he'll kito his own ass into a sling.
Here lately I have had a problem with the number three release. Truthfully, I have never liked it. And i'm about to quit doing it the way "im supposed to" because after 500 hours of aikido it should work and life is too short for training dumb shit for 500 hours. What I found is if you actually do a side step unsoku and do it like Tomiki in sotai dosa, (*thats opposite hand/foot) it actually works pretty good, and leads into a whole lot of other things.
I have never liked the tomiki stiff arm offbalance we do. It works like a charm against someone who doesnt really want to hurt you and they attack you like Frankenstein . But it aint worth shit against any body who decides to actually hit you with his fist. The stiff arm attack was just to facilitate the kihon.(you have position, and contact points so now what can you do?, what can you do if he decides he doesnt like what you want to do?) Yet we added an offbalance to a very artificial attack. It doesnt even rank up there with shomen uchi, yokomenuchi, and tsuki which are simulations of weapon attacks without the weapon.
I'm not a classical weapons guy but my teacher, Jack Bieler, is. I watch him do his stuff and it bleeds into what I am searching for. My theory of learning is that what ever you see gets in your head mixes with what you do. So the aikido that you wind up doing is eventually a product of two things. One is observation, the other is experience.
I have stated that our form of Tomiki Aikido was informed by Judo. This is the main reason why we dont look and act like anybody else. It can be assumed that in the development of our aikido, when ever a problem cropped up, the answer was always informed by how judo works because that was the well of experience. This isnt because Tomiki was a judo guy. It was because experienced Judo players were trying to solve Aikido problems. The solutions became our Aikido.
The very fact that many of our higher level instructors had practiced 10 or 15 years before they even saw a film clip of Tomiki actually doing these techniques speaks volumes. We did have infusions from senior Japanese instructors, but these infusions only filled the well of observation. There are no films of Riki Kogure teaching in Houston. Absent of the Big 10, nobody can point to a particular technique and say: "That's got Kogure written all over it." No films of Miyake in Texas. Folks saw them, did a few reps, and in their absence had fill in the blanks with something else. Memory fails. What I saw/felt, rapidly becomes what I think I saw/felt, and what I think I saw/felt eventually becomes something else. That something else is something that "worked" either in an artifical dojo sense or in reality.
It's a game of Martial Telephone. Where one dude whispers in the other dudes ear and over the Aikido/judo generations the message becomes something else. It just isnt an American problem. I would wager that Tomiki would look at Nariyama and see more Nariyama than Tomiki. I can wear one of Jack Bielers Jodo Hakama, but that doesnt make me Jack Bieler.
The 17, and all the other Kata, are just someone elses clothes. They supply the observable, more than experiential. The experiential is " "how do I get this bullshit to actually work for me." You're bull shit isnt my bullshit.
I went up to see J.W. Bode and while I wanted to come away with some technical concepts. I actually came away with some philosophical/Tactical concepts which influence my thinking more than technique. That's the observable. Something that I think I heard, felt, and saw with J.W. The Experiential comes from what Jack Bieler does, and my fellow students in the dojo.
When I worked with J.W., he talked about what he really does with folks is give them permission. We were working some techniques and doing J.W.'s form of entry. That hit the flank thing. He let me enter his flank, gave me an "atta boy." and I apoligized because I was "doing it too fast." He told me that I wasn't doing it too fast. What I gathered was that his mantra of SLOW DOWN is actually a principle of do it Under Control. When you do something over and over that high level of control you get is actually what we call "speed." But sense I was only with JW a couple of hours and only did a few reps, what JW did was fill my "well of observation."
The other day I was randoriing with Jack and he did a kote gaeshi and stretched some of my ligaments. That's filling my "well of experience." while I wouldnt want this type of thing to happen again, sometimes an Injury is our best teacher. It's a gift from the Budo gods. Sometimes being forced into rough ukemi is our best teacher. Sometimes being slapped in the nose with a rough gyakugame ate is our best teacher. I like to leave classed slightly dinged up. I like hands in my face, slaps in the nose, and falling on my ass. If you can work with someone and go over your grocery list, then you arent getting anything from it.
The ligament stretch taught me something about the fourth release. And it echoed my JW entry work. During our "slow, safe randori" we do somethings that are just plain stupid. Every time I get a mirror side grab I curl my wrist, and basically give the other guy kote gaeshi. Because I'm thinking that I should do everything slow. In reality I should quickly tenkan with the curl to get to safety. The lesson is that every hand motion has footwork, and relational tori uke position hard wired into it. There is no slow positioning. You position for safety, and once you find that dead spot. You can work a controlled "slow" technique. Tenkan and Irimi is the same thing. One is an entry into a space with your front, the other is entering with your ass/back.
I have done the Walking Kata, and sitting in seiza, and aboriginal sqauting so much my legs and knees are as strong as they have ever been. I can take big powerful steps. Attacking steps/cutting steps. All footwork is hardwired into sword or stick strike/disarm/ joint manipulation/ atemi waza. The walking trains entry. What the walking has become through a game of martial telephone is a balance ritual. Like bowing and circling up and clapping.
Tomiki did the Walking like he was entering and disarming a weapon. Our walking because it has judo influence is more of how not to screw yourself over with a judo player.
Without naming names, our style is influenced by bad knees. This small stepping thing we do. This slow postural walking kata we do. When I watch Jodo I don't see small stepping. I see controlled stepping that is as big or small as it needs to be to win. My walking kata has made my legs and knees stronger. They have become my asset. I'm not saying that age will slow me down, it will. But because of my doing the walking kata the way Tomiki did it, I now have something no one else has. I also have my wrist injury as a result of trying to placate a slow is good philosophy. When you do irimi/tenkan it should be fast enough to save you. Training it any other way is just stupid.
The other day we were doing those kihara chains. Watch the jodo clip, the Budo clips. There are no chains in budo. There is irimi. There is control. That is it. The notion of training failure, that what ever you do first wont work is a dangerous notion. The notion that we train with that "on time with uke" is a dangerous notion. Try to show up to work exactly on the dot and see how successful you are. The winner is always proactive, and always provokes movement.
You provoke movement with your natural posture, or your feet, or your hands. These are those timing's that Musashi talked about. Sen. When you provoke with your hands you are attacking first. That is ken no sen. When you provoke with your posture, by just being there, that is on time with his attack. tai no sen. You gain initiative through maai maintence which over extends the other guy. When you both attack, you provoke with your feet, that is irimi/tenkan. That is tai tai no sen.
The chains come from a standpoint of Judo competiton. A chess match. A feeling out. The best feeler wins. But Budo is about initiative. Keeping it. Regardless of circumstance. J.W. talks alot about initiative and his aikido represents the reality of initiative, and I see Jack teach it all the the time in Jodo. Chaining comes from the mentality of a controlled competive environment where there are rules of conduct. That if A happens, B should happen., or C, or D.
You take initiative with what is there. The flow chart will get you killed.
