Aiki training and Aikido training (part 2)

"Finding out about how to
connect to a partner's center
was an important step"

 

Musubi

Finding out about my own center also made it possible to find out about my training partners center. Finding out about how to connect to a partner's center is an important step. In Aikido, connecting with your partner is called musubi 1 or Ki-musubi 2. As a side note, I'd like to remark that Musubi is the foundation of more things to come. Without this foundation, the door to further discoveries wouldn't open, it wouldn't even show itself. Musubi clearly is a very important point in Aikido. It is for good reasons, I reckon, that some senseis 3 make Musubi to be one of the central points in their Aikido practice. Some have designed special training methods and exercises to teach us how to connect with our training partner, to enable us to learn about musubi and ki-musubi.

 

"unbalancing your opponent is
part of Aiki, but not all of it"

 

Kuzushi

Other senseis in their seminars sometimes stress the point that we have to do kuzushi 4 , to break our partner’s balance before applying a technique. 

So there we have it again, just like Yukiyoshi Sagawa sensei explained: “unbalancing your opponent is part of Aiki, but not all of it”. The same, but maybe not exactly the same. Some senseis are talking about “using kuzushi” or “breaking your partner's balance” and Sagawa sensei is talking about “unbalancing your opponent”. Is there a difference? Maybe not, maybe it's just a careless usage of words or a translation gone wrong that would want to suggest a different meaning, where there isn't one. But then, I think, as with most things, it's not only what has to be done but it's also about how it's being done. Regarding Aiki it's also about what's not to be done.

Looking at the nature of Aiki, being without any action directed against our partner, I'd like to conclude that the unbalancing has to be done in a manner without using force against our partner. Hence it’s not so much like breaking our partner’s balance but more like leading our partner out of balance. This all may sound like picking on words and wordings, but then again, this is exactly where I see a point of difference between the Aikido of O-Sensei and a lot of the modern Aikido of today. 

 

"this is exactly where I see
a point of difference between
the Aikido of O-Sensei and
a lot of the modern Aikido of today"

 

I think this is quite an important bit of information and we should examine this point a bit further. To unbalance someone, we need to understand where the point is reached when a person starts being unbalanced. Where is the line to be drawn between being balanced and not being in balance anymore? But then, aren't we somehow, more or less always, kind of out of balance? Sometimes more than at other times or moments of course. Isn't it like perfect balance can't really ever be achieved?

Anyway, to lead our partner out of balance, we are not allowed to go against the natural movement of our partner’s center. Going against our partner and trying to force her to go somewhere else than her movement would naturally take her, would also mean that we would go against the principles of Aiki.

Therefore, since Aiki is where our partner’s movement is naturally going, I would also suggest that omote 5 and ura 6 don’t refer to tori's position towards uke (when tori is doing a technique), but rather refer to the direction in which uke’s center of gravity is moving, to the front or to the back. But this definition of omote and ura in Aikido techniques is really just a playful notion of mine.

 

"according to the situation
we create new techniques"

 

So then, if our partner changes the position of her center, our technique has to change too. Still we have to understand, that this is all not done by reacting to our partners movement, but by leading our partners movement. What happens then is, that we change the direction of our technique, and maybe also change the technique as well. O-Sensei explained 7 : “according to the situation we create new techniques”.

Looking at O-Sensei’s Aikido, this is exactly what he always did with his ukes 8. In contrast, in today's Aikido a lot of times we can see how uke in full balance is allowed to grab tori 9 and then tori will break uke’s balance by applying a strong technique. Further more I would like to remind, that in Aikido, as there are no attacks, there's no one attacking and there's no one defending, but there are only training partners. Therefore more correctly we probably shouldn't not talk about tori and uke, but more correctly we should talk about aite 10 . Because if we speak about tori and uke we already are creating specific rolles, whereas in Aikido training really there are no such roles. In Aikido training, we are partners in a training situation.

 

"musubi and kuzushi
are essential to the
understanding of Aiki"

 

The understanding of the principles of musubi and kuzushi are essential to the understanding of Aiki. Both, musubi and kuzushi are essential to develop Aiki abilities. Once we are able to use musubi and kuzushi in our practice, we need to take a step further and use them in an Aiki way. By applying the Aiki principles we will be able to connect with our partner and to move our partner's center without pushing or pulling, but by leading our partner’s center. Likewise, we will be able to unbalance our partner, not by breaking our partner’s balance by using force against her, but by leading her out of balance.

 

"every movement done this way
is and looks easy, completely
unforced and natural"

 

By applying the Aiki principles, there might not even be a visible physical connection with our partner. Yet we control our partner perfectly. Every movement done this way is and looks easy, completely unforced and natural. 

This kind of natural body movement can only be achieved when the body movement is done with high precision regarding posture, position and connection with our partner. This can only be achieved with a completely relaxed body and a completely relaxed mind. As Koichi Tohei once explained 11 : "Ueshiba Sensei was an individual who showed what it means to exist in a relaxed state, to possess true ki, and to have a unified mind and body. His posture was as solid as a rock and you couldn’t budge him no matter how you pushed or pulled; yet he would toss me effortlessly without ever letting me feel that he was using any strength at all. I was astounded that such a person should actually exist in the world. More than anything, what Ueshiba Sensei taught me was that a relaxed state is the most powerful. He himself was living proof of that."

To get there, it is necessary to apply the appropriate training methods in order to broaden one's own understanding of Aikido and Aiki through the practice of our daily training routines. However, without having the correct mindset and following a few simple rules in our training, combined with the will to continually look for and search for a better understanding of the matter, we will most probably not really move towards Aiki. Sadly enough, we might even go in the opposite direction, moving even further away from Aiki.

 

"We should give it
all we can to make
this one more step"

 

However, as Aikidokas, we probably shouldn’t just be happy with Jujutsu techniques alone, no matter how subtle or perfectly we are able to do them. We should give it all we can to make this one more step which would eventually bring us closer to Aikido with Aiki.

 

 

1  Musubi = jap.: connect
2  Ki-musubi = jap.: connecting or joining of energies
3  also see Endo Seishiro's video series where he explains about musubi exercices
4  also see "Kuzushi: An Aiki Perspective" by Francis Takahashi as published in Aikido Journal online
5  Omote = jap.: front side
6  Ura = jap.: back side
7  Quote taken from an interwiew with O-Sensei as published in Aikido Journal online
8  Uke is the person that receives a technique
9  Tori is the person that gives or executes the technique
10  Aite = jap.: partner
11 Quote taken from an interview with Koichi Tohei as published in Aikido Journal online

 

Page first published on 29.10.2023
Page last updated on 17.07.2024

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Disclaimer: everything presented in this post only represents my personal opinions based on my personal  knowledge, understanding and experiences made regarding the matter in discussion except where quotes are made. Other opinions are highly respected as long as they can withstand the argumentation. Some of the points presented may be purely speculative on my side due to the lack of evidence known to me. Any evidence presented to help clarify the points in question is highly welcomed. The post may still undergo little changes, although the content will mainly remain the same.

Notes on Copyrights: Neither text or parts of the text may be used or published elsewhere without the consent of the author. It is OK though to quote with correct references made to this text.
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