Thursday, April 19, 2007

Is That Aikido?

When I do a technique which does not appear in a tiagi or on a test sometime someone will tell me "That's not aikido". On the other hand I will sometime stop a randori and say “That is not aikido”. What is the criterion to determine whether a technique is, or is not an aikido technique?

The person who challenges my technique usually takes the position that there is an official list of aikido techniques, and any technique that is not on that list is not aikido. My position is that this is a ridiculous claim. Watch any randori and you will rarely see a technique that appears on any list. The attack determines what the technique should be, and since there is an infinite variation of attacks, there will be an infinite variation in techniques. No finite list can ever be exhaustive.

If there is not canonical list, than how can you determine if a technique is aikido or not? Sometime it is clear. Every aikido student knows that aikido does not have any strikes, or does it? I once saw Koichi Kashiwaya Sensei, Chief Instructor of Ki Society USA, drive his fist into an attackers arm pit and claim that it was an aikido technique. Also many techniques involve atemi, which is striking. To farther confuse the issue, a knowledgeable person, watching my technique will see a bit of a Ba-Gua coil or a Tia-Chi role back in many of my aikido techniques. Does the Ba-Gua and Tia-Chi influence make the technique less an aikido technique?

I believe that aikido is distinguished by the principal of non-dissension. When doing aikido you let the attacker do what he wants to do. If you are trying to force him to do something he does not want to do you are not doing aikido. When doing aikido we do not throw the attacker, we let him fall down. When doing aikido we do not block a punch, we get out of the way and let it go by, or we catch it before it reached its power zone and let the force of the punch move the attackers shoulder. When doing aikido we do not try to break an attackers grip, we let him hold on as we move to a more advantageous position.

When Koichi Kashiwaya drove his fist into his attacker's arm pit he did not punch the attacker, he allowed the attacker to run into his fist. His attacker did all the work; he just put his fist where the attacker would run into it.

When we do atemi, the atemi is not intended to hurt the attacker (although it may) it is intended to cause the attacker to shift his balance to set up the technique. To make him do what we want him to do if it does not have this effect we need to change our technique or we will not be doing aikido. If you do an atemi to the face to arrest the forward motion of the attacker’s upper body, but the attacker does not stop, he may get a broken nose, but he will defiantly block your technique making you do a different technique, or stop doing aikido.

I tell all my students “When done right aikido is effortless. If you are working you are not doing aikido.” This sums it up very well. If you are doing aikido, the attacker is doing all the work. If you are working, you are not doing aikido.

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