Aikido Weapons Techniques. Phong Thong Dang

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СКАЧАТЬ awareness and experience to adapt and calibrate the extended line of attack in weapons training, both offensively and defensively.

      Everything in nature has a rhythm, and aikido is said to follow the laws and ways of nature. There is an internal rhythm coordinating body movement. The arms, torso, and legs move in unison, as if following the same rhythm. There is also the rhythm between practitioners. As dance partners move to the same beat, aikido practitioners also move together, to the same rhythm. This entering into and blending within the same rhythm facilitates a fluid exchange and responsiveness to techniques. Finding the rhythm of movement is important in weapons training. All movement initiates, avoids, or even interrupts the rhythm. In the dojo, the sound of wood against wood makes the rhythm of weapons training obvious and exciting.

      Timing is more important than speed. Timing is that inexpressible magic of being in just the right place, at just the right time, to let just the right thing happen. If one gets to the point too soon or too late, the magic does not happen. The smooth, fluid execution of aikido technique is a result of the impeccable timing that blends attacker and defender into one fluid motion, much like notes in a melody blending to form a beautiful harmony. The extended distance of a weapon attack and the danger of miscalculation make timing extremely important in weapons training.

      The center is different from the centerline. While the centerline contains the center, the center is but one point (perhaps the most important point) on the centerline. The center is very important in aikido. One must maintain one’s own center and move from it. One must also become the center of the technique and assist the attacker in losing his center of balance. The center is the imaginary, yet actual, center of the body. That point, halfway between top and bottom, left and right, front and back, is the center. It is located in the hip region slightly below navel level. Many assert that maintaining awareness in the center will make for a powerful and “centered” technique and life. In weapons training, the weapon extends in front of the center. As in empty-hand training, all aikido weapons techniques move from the center and allow awareness to settle there.

      Contact can be initiated, intercepted, or focused on the attacker’s intent. Initiating contact and intercepting the momentum and inertia of any attack— with the empty hand or a wooden weapon—can take place at several different references to space and time. Sen is the initiative taken after an opponent’s position is analyzed. Gono-sen means immediately counterattacking. Sen-nosen is taking the initiative and intercepting or counterattacking the opponent’s attack before the opponent has physically initiated it. Ultimately, this depends on subtle perceptions of minimal physical cues indicating the opponent’s intent, but it appears to happen on its own. The body detects and responds naturally and automatically. Once the intent of the attack is assessed, the action can be intercepted by initiating an attack in defense, as a counterattack to the attack, or simply in response to the intent to attack. Intercepting allows an attack to be redirected away from the intended point of impact. Contact in weapons training is not just weapon on weapon, or wood on wood; contact implies a connection, musubi,that allows intuitive as well as actual communication.

      Contact can be initiated mentally and physically. Some will talk about the initial eye contact. Eye contact—the eyes being the window to the heart, mind, and soul of an individual—sets the stage and foretells the outcome for the rest of the encounter. Others suggest that contact can be made by means of an energy or kinesthetic sense, by just feeling the attacker’s presence and intent. Contact may be auditory, by hearing the attacker’s approach. Without contact, there is no attack or defense, and there is no aikido. O’Sensei Morihei Ueshiba would instruct students not to focus their eyes on the weapon, for one can then easily be deceived. Rather look through your opponent’s eyes, using your peripheral vision and all the other senses to simply perceive and be aware, rather than focus. This is extremely important due to the extended range and potential danger of weapons training in aikido.

      Once contact is established, it should be maintained in one fluid movement, throughout the execution of the technique, and even during the resolution of the encounter or attack. Initially, techniques are practiced in a step-by-step, systematic manner or pattern. This allows the practitioner to focus on the correct form at different stages of the technique’s execution. Eventually, the follow-through of one stage, or phase, naturally and fluidly follows the momentum and inertia into the next. This ongoing flowing execution is characteristic of aikido. The weapon of aikido never stops. Defense flows into offense that flows into defense. Never stopping, all weapons training techniques enter and blend into one motion.

      The contours of the body, or weapon, provide a ready-made natural path from the extremity to the center of the body. Follow the contour. Following the contour allows one to stay in contact and maintain sensitivity throughout the execution of the technique. It also prevents one from working against the structural strengths of the body, and allows fluid, direct application of the concepts of aikido. As an attacker extends his arm and weapon, he provides a pathway by sliding his weapon along the contour to hit the target as a strike, atemi, or to provide leverage for a throw, nage, or for take-down and control.

      The position that generates the most power is one that allows power to flow from behind and beneath. With the hands and weapon in front of the body, the hips or center moves forward from behind to generate and extend full body power. When stepping and turning tenkan, in a circular step, pull the rear hip back to generate more power than twisting or turning from the front. Rather than pushing a weapon down from above, allowing the weight to rest on the underside of the weapon utilizes the force and natural law of gravity to add power to the striking motion.

      One of the unique characteristics of aikido movement and technique is the use of circular motion instead of a linear path. Following the natural laws of circular motion and force facilitates the availability and use of both centrifugal and centripetal force. Centrifugal force moves away from the center, and centripetal force moves toward the center. The circular path of aikido techniques pulls into the center using centripetal force, while those appendages on the circumference of the circle tend to move away from the center. While the center hub of the circle moves slowly, the outer rim or circumference moves faster. Pulling the butt end of the weapon into the center facilitates a faster and more powerful motion on the end of the weapon when it follows a circular path.

      Along with circular motion is the range of motion as the circle of power. Every weapon has a specific range of motion and power. The closer to the center of that circular range of motion, the less power there is. Likewise, an attack loses power beyond the circumference of the circular path of power, or beyond the attacking limb’s range of motion.

      Movement in aikido makes full use of the natural laws of momentum and inertia. Momentum is the property of a moving body or weapon, a constant force exerted by virtue of its mass weight and velocity, until it comes to rest. The momentum of the weapon allows it to continue its path along the line of attack with optimal force toward a specific point of intended impact and damage. The law of inertia states that something in motion tends to stay in motion, and something at rest tends to stay at rest. This accounts for the dynamic—versus static or stationary—ease with which aikido practitioners move, throw, and even pin larger, more powerful, opponents.

      Do only that which adds to, and is necessary for, successful execution of an aikido technique. Minimize any motion. Relaxation minimizes tension and maximizes fluidity of motion and responsiveness. In throwing an individual, it is often enough to break his balance and allow him to fall. In the application of a joint lock, just enough pressure to gain compliance and submission is enough, without the necessity of inflicting pain or doing damage. It is natural initially to feel tense while training with aikido weapons. Eventually, with honest and genuine training, one remains relaxed while being attacked by or attacking with the wooden weapons of aikido.

      The technical execution, application, and utilization of leverage and pivot points greatly enhance the power of aikido. Leverage generates more power by using a fulcrum type of pressure to move an object with less effort than if force were applied directly to the object. A slight movement СКАЧАТЬ