Problems with Judo Based Aikido II

In a 1 versus 1 mat transaction, the guy who has a stronger relationship with the ground is going to win.  A judo player has the stronger relationship with the ground. He simply has more answers to more problems.  An Aikido player has a relationship with his own posture, and has to develop a relationship with  incoming motion.  All  of these motions are weapons based.  They all start out in a separated sense and become connected. This is in the form of various sorts of grabs, and weapons based chops and thrusts.
     
A person with a strong relationship with a ground will have a different take on the kuzushi/tsukuri/kake classification system than a person who trains in weapons based motions.  Weapons based ideas are simply not useful on the ground.  This is why a lot of classical aikido training deals with ending every transaction with a face down pin.   Suwari waza can be seen as a type of groundfighting, but they are really a study of the inner limit of effective maai. Punching/shanking distance. A study of  koryu kata, and prewar aikido shows that the very first lesson on this type of distancing is to provoke a movement.  That is: punch/connect first.  The real lesson is that the player who has his hands higher than the other will connect first, and set the tempo of the engagement.  Every thing else in suwari waza deals with the failure of getting your hands higher from every angle.

A judo person sees the world from a standing to laying on the ground continuum.  An Aikido player sees the world in terms of standing to seiza. The judo player maintains control sometimes by falling when he needs to fall.  He controls in totality. It's nothing for him or her to use the ground.  I see little Ju in Judo because you are not being gentle at all to the other guy.  You are just applying a  trained softened response. The end result is a very "Go" hard thud. 

Aikido techniques, If you study Tomiki's tegatana/unsoku dosa, the last permutation, you will see that every motion seems like a sword motion.  That is because it is.  Unlike earlier forms where you could see some judo like motions, (especially in the unsoku where Tomiki looks like he's positioning for a hip toss of some kind) you will only see the chopping motions.  He literally demonstrates all of these motions with a sword.  The reverse side of these motions is where the real study material is.  When everyone of these motions is over extended past its balanced center then you have a kuzushi state, a broken posture.  Compare Tomiki's last permutation of the dosa to the Senta Yamada  dosa and you will see this paired state.    Look at the sotai dosa releases, and our releases and you will see another paired state.    Look at the first 14 of yon kata and you will see a paired state. 

Every motion in the walking kata( the dosa) has it's counter movement in the walking, the tsukuri, which is done in conjunction with the a strong posture, offline movements, and decisive footwork.  The hand motions are just the connector, they aren't the enforcer of whatever technique.  They can be seen as an enforcer when you pair a grip with full arm extension or full flexion. But this is the kake state where you can grip however the hell you feel like.  The "cranking" state is really enforced on the pin, and isnt the prime reason for the throw.  once a guy is pinned in aikido he has to be provided with a reason to stay pinned. This is the "Go" state.  The thud, the realization that harmony can be enforced.   The tsukuri proceeds and facilitates the kuzushi.  The counter movement that "fits" into the primary movement.  The attempt to recover, which can be seen in terms of footfalls, steps not intended, is usually where the kake comes in.  The specific technique depends on the how the other guy attempts to recover.

The standard explanation for kuzushi that I have heard from numerous sources is making the other guy take a movement/step that he didn't intend to take.  An attempt to recover his balance.  In Aikido, most techniques originate by letting the guy take the step he really wants to take, and blending with it.  Well, this is really the tsukuri.  The kuzushi comes after.    I like this particular take, because it is very concrete.   It doesnt take long to teach a shihonage when it is taught in conjuction with a yokomenuchi, because like a judo throw it just "fits." there.

I may leave the impression that I am an advocate of competitive randori.   That's not the case.  I am an advocate of controlled randori that fits the mutual welfare and benefit principle.  The welfare and benefit depends on the two players involved.  Teenagers should not be encouraged to move like disabled old people.  Not in this day and age where sick, unhealthy people are good for the economy. Where more problems equal more money. And our aikido should not be thrown in the box with Senior Center tai chi to where it's only benefit is "balance."  

I was recently interested in exploring tanto randori as something for the young folks.  I had interweb discussion with Charlie Hudson and he told me that things are swinging toward competive toshu randori.  The Tanto was just an idea, an permutation.  It was really an attempt to take the judo out of the equation.  It seems that Tomiki knew, that Aikido and Judo techniques operated off of different principles.  That the person who had the strongest relationship with the ground would win.  That the kuzushi/ tsukuri/ kake may operate differently for both "sports."  The tanto was attempt to establish boundries.  The problem is that Tanto has become more of a game, than "real".  I take this to mean that nobody would think about messing with a highly experienced competitive judo player.  But a Tanto player is really about as scary as a  highly skilled badminton player. 

Charlie tells me that they are reworking the rules to where atemi waza mean something.  And that they are the boundary point.   A hand in the face, or other atemi, that travels accross maai and connects where it suppossed to score some sort of point, whether it effects an offbalance, or throw.  This is the separator.  Not a foam knife.  And it could hurt a little.  Another rule is that judo maai, where elbows "can" touch will be broken up after 3  seconds, and participants are separated.

Atemi waza is the real difference between aikido and judo.   The aikido player relies on it.  Pre-war pratitioners stated that it was all mostly about atemi.   Sporting atemi waza is different than real atemi waza, but structurally the atemi waza represent the "real"   My take on atemi waza is that they shouldnt be highly kuzushi dependent.  They should be easy to teach, and shouldn't need an uke to behave like a  tim conway stepping drunk on a frozen pond to realize.   Gedan ate is the same as a hammer fist to the balls.   They should be that simple. 

That's why I have grown to appreciate the kihon version of the 17 kata with out a balance break.  Everyone should be able to have practice time to structurally manipulate someone into a technique, to understand the angles and proper joint manipulations.  The kuzushi studies should come in the most fundamental levels of randori training.  All the stuff we talk about in the Karl Geis Line is really advanced study or Tomiki like exploration and research, and new students really need some "bull headed" basics in a relative sense of the word bull headed.  They need to know what the walking kata is in concrete examples.  They need to know Tsukuri, kuzushi, and Kake in concrete examples.  They also need to do Randori with the judo removed, or else you are studying mixed martial arts and not Aikido.   And some competive Randori is fine for the young folks who have never known a world with out cable TV, Fast food, and video games who have never "played outside."