“Wu Wei is about acting in synch. . . .fluidly adapting to the needs of the moment, doing only as much as is needed of exactly the right things in precisely the right time. Working this way requires a very refined ability to feel, follow, absorb, interpret and direct energy. Such a sense is only possible when things are in harmony -- in balance. Such a balance is only possible to the extent one can feel, follow, absorb, interpret and direct oneself.” (emphasis mine)
--From a thread on the T’ai Chi section of the Prairie Winds website
One week recently, I managed to spend more time on a horse than on the aikido mat. When I did get back to training, I found I was particularly sensitive to the concept of connecting with my partner and leading/following the technique to a resolution. I felt like a school horse (but without the requisite patience) and it seemed my rider (training partner) was trying to communicate with me by pushing and pulling me around with muscles and tension. Only some of my more skilled and senior partners were able to blend, connect and lead me without eliciting this reaction. And when I was executing the techniques, I noticed they were most effective when my intention was to maintain a harmonious connection, patiently resisting the urge to push, pull or try to make my partner respond in a particular way.
Learning to join or blend with an attack is the foundation of aikido training. No technique can be effectively executed without the initial awareness which connects you to your attacker. Only after you have connected, is it possible to lead them off balance and neutralize the conflict. The lead is not a pulling which engages individual muscles, but a way of using the whole body organized around the center of gravity. It has a magnetic effect – a drawing in or a seductive quality. There is a kind of stillness within the movement which leaves the aggressor unsuspectingly undisturbed. Once established, I must constantly renew my attention and awareness to maintain the connection. Excess effort breaks the link between us and gives my partner something to struggle against. It requires subtlety of feeling.
Aikido is an art transmitted through touch and mastered through conscious repetition. Description and analysis are incomplete without the kinesthetic reprogramming which takes place each time I feel the energy extend through a technique performed by one of my senior teachers or training partners. At our dojo we are especially blessed to have two direct students of the founder, O’Sensei, as our master teachers. They learned through absorbing the feeling of the art from O’Sensei, so we are receiving aikido through them, and it passes through us to those we touch in our training.
Judy Cross-Strehlke repeatedly encouraged us: “reach the feeling in your riding – don’t get stuck in the information.” The more I am able to follow her advice, the more I find my aikido experience can influence my ability to connect with my horse. In those brief moments of connection, I sense my horse as I might a less-experienced aikido training partner who is relying on me for direction and gentle guidance – they need to feel my softness, timing and clarity of intent. They wish to feel my calmness under stress and they learn through me something about power without force.
So, when does the connection actually begin? Not only does it begin before the moment of physical contact, one of my favorite aikido teachers suggests that the technique begins even before we enter the dojo. Sara and Michael Stenson of Prairie Winds Equine Massage Therapy suggest that the therapeutic treatment you offer the horse begins the moment the horse notices you. Judy told us that each morning when she opens her eyes (anywhere from 4:30 am to 6:30 am) and sits up in bed, she will invariably hear one of her horses call to her from a far off paddock still obscured by mist. Their awareness so far exceeds ours -- I think this is why they captivate me and how they have seduced me.
My first small iMovie project is in progress, intended to convey some of the flavor of connection as an aspect of aikido training (coming soon). In the meantime, above are some still images taken from informal video footage, filmed during a break between aikido classes. Jaime Kahn, a longtime friend and training partner (who is also a wonderful photographer) helped me explore connection through the wrist-grab attack and a technique called kaiten-nage.
--From a thread on the T’ai Chi section of the Prairie Winds website
One week recently, I managed to spend more time on a horse than on the aikido mat. When I did get back to training, I found I was particularly sensitive to the concept of connecting with my partner and leading/following the technique to a resolution. I felt like a school horse (but without the requisite patience) and it seemed my rider (training partner) was trying to communicate with me by pushing and pulling me around with muscles and tension. Only some of my more skilled and senior partners were able to blend, connect and lead me without eliciting this reaction. And when I was executing the techniques, I noticed they were most effective when my intention was to maintain a harmonious connection, patiently resisting the urge to push, pull or try to make my partner respond in a particular way.
Learning to join or blend with an attack is the foundation of aikido training. No technique can be effectively executed without the initial awareness which connects you to your attacker. Only after you have connected, is it possible to lead them off balance and neutralize the conflict. The lead is not a pulling which engages individual muscles, but a way of using the whole body organized around the center of gravity. It has a magnetic effect – a drawing in or a seductive quality. There is a kind of stillness within the movement which leaves the aggressor unsuspectingly undisturbed. Once established, I must constantly renew my attention and awareness to maintain the connection. Excess effort breaks the link between us and gives my partner something to struggle against. It requires subtlety of feeling.
Aikido is an art transmitted through touch and mastered through conscious repetition. Description and analysis are incomplete without the kinesthetic reprogramming which takes place each time I feel the energy extend through a technique performed by one of my senior teachers or training partners. At our dojo we are especially blessed to have two direct students of the founder, O’Sensei, as our master teachers. They learned through absorbing the feeling of the art from O’Sensei, so we are receiving aikido through them, and it passes through us to those we touch in our training.
Judy Cross-Strehlke repeatedly encouraged us: “reach the feeling in your riding – don’t get stuck in the information.” The more I am able to follow her advice, the more I find my aikido experience can influence my ability to connect with my horse. In those brief moments of connection, I sense my horse as I might a less-experienced aikido training partner who is relying on me for direction and gentle guidance – they need to feel my softness, timing and clarity of intent. They wish to feel my calmness under stress and they learn through me something about power without force.
So, when does the connection actually begin? Not only does it begin before the moment of physical contact, one of my favorite aikido teachers suggests that the technique begins even before we enter the dojo. Sara and Michael Stenson of Prairie Winds Equine Massage Therapy suggest that the therapeutic treatment you offer the horse begins the moment the horse notices you. Judy told us that each morning when she opens her eyes (anywhere from 4:30 am to 6:30 am) and sits up in bed, she will invariably hear one of her horses call to her from a far off paddock still obscured by mist. Their awareness so far exceeds ours -- I think this is why they captivate me and how they have seduced me.
My first small iMovie project is in progress, intended to convey some of the flavor of connection as an aspect of aikido training (coming soon). In the meantime, above are some still images taken from informal video footage, filmed during a break between aikido classes. Jaime Kahn, a longtime friend and training partner (who is also a wonderful photographer) helped me explore connection through the wrist-grab attack and a technique called kaiten-nage.
2 comments:
Debra, beautiful post. Isn't it amazing how animals and nature are so connected to all things. Yet we as humans have to practice these connections, and even then sometimes struggle with them. Some would argue that nature does it each and every day. Well I am a mother and a wife each and every day, and at times I still feel that I loose connection and find myself struggling (wink) with my children to get them to do as I wish, Maybe the connection problems are my own. ;') Thanks for a thought provoking post. Catch you later, and I will try to work on these connections today and through the weekend.
Debra,
I recently found your journal, and I am reading through back entries avidly -- my experience with horses far exceeds my experience on the mats (I have 20 years of fairly regular contact -- and now daily -- contact with horses, and in some ways, it's a lifelong passion). I was introduced to aikikai style aikido a few years ago by a friend (a yudansha under Kawahara Sensei in BC) who thought the way I talked about horsemanship and riding sounded a lot like the way he talked about aikido.
My riding and horsemanship is changing in such wonderful ways since I was introduced to this martial art. Anyway, I am rambling on a little, but I know that there is much effort in blogging, and I wanted you to know that I am reading and appreciating what you share.
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