Wednesday, March 26, 2014
Friday, March 21, 2014
Be like water...
Came across this on le internet, which seemed applicable:
Sifu Yip Man came to Bruce and said, "Lee, preserve yourself by following the natural bends of things and don't interfere. Remember never to assert yourself: never be in frontal opposition to any problem, but control it by swinging with it."
Sifu Yip Man told Bruce to go home for a week and think about his words. Bruce spent many hours in meditation and practice, with nothing coming of it. Finally, Bruce decided to go sailing in a junk (boat). Bruce would have a great epiphany. "On the sea, I thought of all my past training and got mad at myself and punched the water. Right then at that moment, a thought suddenly struck me. Wasn't this water the essence of gung fu? I struck it, but it did not suffer hurt. I then tried to grasp a handful of it but it was impossible. This water, the softest substance, could fit into any container. Although it seemed weak, it could penetrate the hardest substance. That was it! I wanted to be like the nature of water.
"Therefore, in order to control myself I must accept myself by going with, and not against, my nature. I lay on the boat and felt that I had untied with Tao; I had become one with nature."Bruce lay back in the boat and let it drift of its own accord. He was, at that moment, at peace with himself and his environment.
Sifu Yip Man came to Bruce and said, "Lee, preserve yourself by following the natural bends of things and don't interfere. Remember never to assert yourself: never be in frontal opposition to any problem, but control it by swinging with it."
Sifu Yip Man told Bruce to go home for a week and think about his words. Bruce spent many hours in meditation and practice, with nothing coming of it. Finally, Bruce decided to go sailing in a junk (boat). Bruce would have a great epiphany. "On the sea, I thought of all my past training and got mad at myself and punched the water. Right then at that moment, a thought suddenly struck me. Wasn't this water the essence of gung fu? I struck it, but it did not suffer hurt. I then tried to grasp a handful of it but it was impossible. This water, the softest substance, could fit into any container. Although it seemed weak, it could penetrate the hardest substance. That was it! I wanted to be like the nature of water.
"Therefore, in order to control myself I must accept myself by going with, and not against, my nature. I lay on the boat and felt that I had untied with Tao; I had become one with nature."Bruce lay back in the boat and let it drift of its own accord. He was, at that moment, at peace with himself and his environment.
Thursday, March 20, 2014
Where does softness/receptiveness/sensitivity fit in?
Jonathan:
Barcelona was wonderful. The seminar was great, but short, in terms of hours trained (in comparison to other seminars I've attended (4 hours on Saturday, 2 the other two days). I trained with a variety of people, including lots of locals, some Santa Barbarians (Tinka and Christy) and Hemmings Sensei, who was giving me a little bit of a hard time (but I was engrossed in the point he was making, which was the correct application of nikkyo — the same point you were making about compressing the forearm and wrist together toward your center).
Over a couple days of group practice, I managed to get into some mostly-yudansha lines. On the last day, we did a katatedori kokyunage variation, and the breakfalls finally worked — I was tired and relaxed, and my this and the repetition helped me to be more fluid. Hemmings Sensei made the comment to Malory that I had "lovely soft breakfalls," which I hope to be able to replicate at home. ;)
To Jonathan's question, about aikido requiring hardness and softness in training, there are a couple of ways this question can be approached. As far as training goes, I think I mentioned "training hard." By that, I meant training to the full extent of your abilities, learning to take ukemi which is fast and relaxed in response to nage giving you a good hard throw. In other words, not being lazy with regard to ukemi.
I think that if you can learn to take ukemi correctly, it does stop being quite so hard, you actually work less, and it's easier on your body. But getting to that point is a challenge. Once those pieces fall into place, you can move faster — get thrown and get back up again to attack again faster. To me, that's "training hard," which is different than hardness in the technique.
Within the technique, hardness and softness do need to be in balance. I feel that the attack must be sincere, and can be hard (depending on the level of your nage, of course), but there is a turning point (this could be like the crest of a sine wave), a reversal of power within the technique which occurs at the point where uke's attack is engaged.* Once you reach that point, you must have softness in order to receive the technique without resistance. If nage's technique doesn't engage with movement and fluidity, the opportunity should still be there for uke to reverse the technique. But that doesn't necessarily require hardness, but more like elasticity.
Also, too much strength or hardness in the attack can stifle the attack, which can lead nage to explore an alternative attack, or an atemi to help redirect or get uke off balance. If you come in hard, and remain hard, he or she really has little choice but to do this. You can't grab nage's wrist with all your strength and prevent them from moving, because at that point, they will "explore other alternatives." This could be painful for uke. So uke needs sensitivity from the very beginning, along with the very sincere attack, in order to be able to connect and engage with nage so that they can be receptive whatever movement comes next.
On to the next question ("In general, people tend to focus only on their strengths, or only on their weaknesses, but not both").
True for me. I tend to focus on my weaknesses, which I feel are flexibility and responsiveness (speed of). I am actually not sure what my strengths are, maybe one. I know what a lot of my weaknesses are. I think I am "strong," but only wrt to my gender and size. But relying on physical strength doesn't count for much when people are bigger than you are, of course, which is why we do aikido I guess, and not MMA.
I guess one of my strengths is that I can feel a good trajectory in a technique most of the time, if I can get the timing right. Like ikkyo, I see a line of movement that works based on the momentum. Most of the time I can get it right. But my timing needs to improve (a weakness).
Another weakness is that I tend to attack with too much strength and not enough sensitivity. Another is that I tend to favor my knees, which often leads to not getting low enough in a technique where getting lower would help unbalance uke. Another is stiffness in the arms and shoulders. One solution to these that I talked about in an earlier post is working on strength training so that I can use these body parts without as much fear of injury. But at the same time I'd need to work on flexibility and sensitivity so that the strength training doesn't override that.
*But yesterday we worked on maintaining a connection with weight behind it, with the idea that a reversal could happen, so I'm not sure anymore about anything. I guess it's all situational.
Great start Amanda. You have a lot of good thoughts here. I like this journal very much. I'd like you to consider the following.
1) Aikido practice is a marathon, not a sprint, and the people who make deep progress are those who are able to train consistently over a very long period of time. This means avoiding physical and emotional burnout issues such as those you mention.
2) Aikido requires hardness as well as softness, and these have to be in balance---the more we have strength, the more we also need sensitivity.
3) In general, people tend to focus only on their strengths, or only on their weaknesses, but not both.
So.... in your balanced diet of a sustainable aikido practice, I'd like you to consider where softness/receptiveness/sensitivity will fit in. This is as important as hard/fast/intense, and I would like to see you prioritize both from the outset. If you wish, you can choose this topic as a writing assignment. Enjoy Barcelona---see you next week!
Barcelona was wonderful. The seminar was great, but short, in terms of hours trained (in comparison to other seminars I've attended (4 hours on Saturday, 2 the other two days). I trained with a variety of people, including lots of locals, some Santa Barbarians (Tinka and Christy) and Hemmings Sensei, who was giving me a little bit of a hard time (but I was engrossed in the point he was making, which was the correct application of nikkyo — the same point you were making about compressing the forearm and wrist together toward your center).
Over a couple days of group practice, I managed to get into some mostly-yudansha lines. On the last day, we did a katatedori kokyunage variation, and the breakfalls finally worked — I was tired and relaxed, and my this and the repetition helped me to be more fluid. Hemmings Sensei made the comment to Malory that I had "lovely soft breakfalls," which I hope to be able to replicate at home. ;)
To Jonathan's question, about aikido requiring hardness and softness in training, there are a couple of ways this question can be approached. As far as training goes, I think I mentioned "training hard." By that, I meant training to the full extent of your abilities, learning to take ukemi which is fast and relaxed in response to nage giving you a good hard throw. In other words, not being lazy with regard to ukemi.
I think that if you can learn to take ukemi correctly, it does stop being quite so hard, you actually work less, and it's easier on your body. But getting to that point is a challenge. Once those pieces fall into place, you can move faster — get thrown and get back up again to attack again faster. To me, that's "training hard," which is different than hardness in the technique.
Within the technique, hardness and softness do need to be in balance. I feel that the attack must be sincere, and can be hard (depending on the level of your nage, of course), but there is a turning point (this could be like the crest of a sine wave), a reversal of power within the technique which occurs at the point where uke's attack is engaged.* Once you reach that point, you must have softness in order to receive the technique without resistance. If nage's technique doesn't engage with movement and fluidity, the opportunity should still be there for uke to reverse the technique. But that doesn't necessarily require hardness, but more like elasticity.
Also, too much strength or hardness in the attack can stifle the attack, which can lead nage to explore an alternative attack, or an atemi to help redirect or get uke off balance. If you come in hard, and remain hard, he or she really has little choice but to do this. You can't grab nage's wrist with all your strength and prevent them from moving, because at that point, they will "explore other alternatives." This could be painful for uke. So uke needs sensitivity from the very beginning, along with the very sincere attack, in order to be able to connect and engage with nage so that they can be receptive whatever movement comes next.
On to the next question ("In general, people tend to focus only on their strengths, or only on their weaknesses, but not both").
True for me. I tend to focus on my weaknesses, which I feel are flexibility and responsiveness (speed of). I am actually not sure what my strengths are, maybe one. I know what a lot of my weaknesses are. I think I am "strong," but only wrt to my gender and size. But relying on physical strength doesn't count for much when people are bigger than you are, of course, which is why we do aikido I guess, and not MMA.
I guess one of my strengths is that I can feel a good trajectory in a technique most of the time, if I can get the timing right. Like ikkyo, I see a line of movement that works based on the momentum. Most of the time I can get it right. But my timing needs to improve (a weakness).
Another weakness is that I tend to attack with too much strength and not enough sensitivity. Another is that I tend to favor my knees, which often leads to not getting low enough in a technique where getting lower would help unbalance uke. Another is stiffness in the arms and shoulders. One solution to these that I talked about in an earlier post is working on strength training so that I can use these body parts without as much fear of injury. But at the same time I'd need to work on flexibility and sensitivity so that the strength training doesn't override that.
*But yesterday we worked on maintaining a connection with weight behind it, with the idea that a reversal could happen, so I'm not sure anymore about anything. I guess it's all situational.
Sunday, March 9, 2014
Kamiza design
A couple weeks ago, Malory Sensei asked me to think about kamiza design, and look at ones that I thought were particularly well-designed. I sent her a few, but I figured I'd put my findings here.
I think the most wonderful kamiza designs are modeled after tokonoma, and have a tokobashira that reflects the level of formality you wish to convey.
You could use the tokobashira to link the kamiza design to the dojo and it's "personality." For example, young cedar trees that reference the region and the relative age of the dojo. A larger available space would be interesting for more expressive floral arrangements.
Here is an example of one that I thought was particularly nice with beautiful live edges and recessed lighting. It's a little too elaborate and symmetrical. A kamiza like this would of course require some construction. If you wanted to place it on the back wall, the column that sticks out by the bell table could be hidden by framing a 1-foot-deep wall that extends along the entire back wall.
I think the most wonderful kamiza designs are modeled after tokonoma, and have a tokobashira that reflects the level of formality you wish to convey.
You could use the tokobashira to link the kamiza design to the dojo and it's "personality." For example, young cedar trees that reference the region and the relative age of the dojo. A larger available space would be interesting for more expressive floral arrangements.
Here is an example of one that I thought was particularly nice with beautiful live edges and recessed lighting. It's a little too elaborate and symmetrical. A kamiza like this would of course require some construction. If you wanted to place it on the back wall, the column that sticks out by the bell table could be hidden by framing a 1-foot-deep wall that extends along the entire back wall.
Some folks have made a partial wall:
Here is a beautiful minimalist kamiza from Philadelphia, with just a simple ledge (minimal construction):
Here's another that's minimalist, but very shallow alcove, with the tokobashira as a very strong visual element:
This reminds me of course of NYA's kamiza:
Goals for 2014
My goal for 2014 is to have faster, more accurate, responsive ukemi.
- Breakfall development (get lighter low-impact breakfalls back)
- More responsive ukemi (watch nage and be able to respond appropriately)
- Increase flexibility
- Use knees more
- Stop bending forward (part of using knees more effectively)
- Overcome fear of injury through skill development
- Use center more effectively (lead with belt/center, commit center to ukemi)
- Keep balance
- Don't anticipate, but respond to what's actually happening
Sustainabiltity
Before Jonathan and Malory Senseis went to Hawaii, Jonathan left me with a single word to think about, which I would need to come back to him and elaborate on.
Sustainability.
There were a number of different ways to go with this, in decreasing concentric circles:
So I fumbled through talking about it in very general terms, and later tried to get at what Jonathan was after. He was after a discussion about my personal sustainability within the deshi program. I asked him if it would be okay to write about it rather than have a conversation, because after practice I am not articulate at all. Well, never articulate, but less so after a workout.
SO, there are three mutually reinforcing parts to sustainability:
We need healthy ecosystems in order to survive. Each ecosystem has a carrying capacity (how many hours I can train without injury). Healthy ecosystems deliver goods and services (aikido on the mat practice). Renewable resources (time, endurance) should provide a sustainable yield (hours training on the mat), and waste generation (injury, burnout) should not exceed the capacity of the environment to assimilate it. The environmental impact of a community depends on the population and impact per person. This depends on how many resources are being used, whether or not they are renewable, and the scale of the activity being undertaken. The impact can be reduced by environmental management, management of human consumption.
tl;dr: I'm after growth (train more, learn more, grow) without waste (injury and burnout), use of renewable resources (time, endurance) without depleting them.
My renewable resources are:
2. Endurance: Non-renewable resources are things like physical well-being, which can be influenced by injuries that would not get better with rest (knees, for example). So my "environmental management" should include things which will prevent those injuries, such as:
Sustainability.
There were a number of different ways to go with this, in decreasing concentric circles:
- Environmental sustainability in general (I was pretty sure this wasn't what he was asking about)
- Aikido as a martial art (Also, probably not)
- The dojo (maybe)
- The deshi program (very probably)
- My own aikido practice and me in the deshi program
So I fumbled through talking about it in very general terms, and later tried to get at what Jonathan was after. He was after a discussion about my personal sustainability within the deshi program. I asked him if it would be okay to write about it rather than have a conversation, because after practice I am not articulate at all. Well, never articulate, but less so after a workout.
SO, there are three mutually reinforcing parts to sustainability:
- Economic development
- Social development
- Environmental protection
We need healthy ecosystems in order to survive. Each ecosystem has a carrying capacity (how many hours I can train without injury). Healthy ecosystems deliver goods and services (aikido on the mat practice). Renewable resources (time, endurance) should provide a sustainable yield (hours training on the mat), and waste generation (injury, burnout) should not exceed the capacity of the environment to assimilate it. The environmental impact of a community depends on the population and impact per person. This depends on how many resources are being used, whether or not they are renewable, and the scale of the activity being undertaken. The impact can be reduced by environmental management, management of human consumption.
tl;dr: I'm after growth (train more, learn more, grow) without waste (injury and burnout), use of renewable resources (time, endurance) without depleting them.
My renewable resources are:
- Time (reasonable expectation of 8 hours per week, given work and home needs)
- Endurance (the more I train consistently, the easier it will be to train harder consistently)
- Money (non-issue)
2. Endurance: Non-renewable resources are things like physical well-being, which can be influenced by injuries that would not get better with rest (knees, for example). So my "environmental management" should include things which will prevent those injuries, such as:
- Strength training
- Crossfit twice a week, Tuesdays and Fridays
- Skill building
- Improving breakfalls so that they are lower impact
- Learning to follow better
- Learning how to read nage's intent better
- More seminars, when possible
- Regular bodywork (Rolfing)
- Very careful attention to where I put myself
- Attention to my health (Kelly is helping me to avoid my occasional cigarette, which Jonathan has seen and chastised me for)
- Personal practice
- This journal
- Stretching practice
March 1-9, 2014
8 classes total
Last week, Malory and Jonathan were in Hawaii, and Greg taught the weekday classes. I started to get settled into the new routine with Pat, and had a brief talk with Pat and Malory about deshi duties, and which items I would take on. There are a number, which I won't list here, but one is that Pat will open the dojo, and I will close the dojo.
I will say that setting a concrete achievable goal of minimum 8 (but my personal goal is 10) classes has helped me to not be inclined to skip class just because I'm feeling tired or work is getting hectic. I did not make the noon classes though, because my boss scheduled some work design brownbags. I will start blocking out those hours as OOO.
Also, my friend left her car with me last week, so it was pleasant to be able to drive home after class. I try to look at the post-class uphill climb as more training, but it's still a long walk up.
I've been jotting down the things people have been telling me all week, or have heard in various spaces:
I appreciate Greg's feedback, because, like Jonathan, he comes from a very martial headspace. Sometimes I forget. I like being around aikido people, so sometimes the zanshin falls by the wayside, which it should not. That is why I am on the mat, after all.
*Of course, one can't just "train as hard as possible all the time" or they'll break down, unless they're a 20 year old. But I'll talk about sustainability next.
Last week, Malory and Jonathan were in Hawaii, and Greg taught the weekday classes. I started to get settled into the new routine with Pat, and had a brief talk with Pat and Malory about deshi duties, and which items I would take on. There are a number, which I won't list here, but one is that Pat will open the dojo, and I will close the dojo.
I will say that setting a concrete achievable goal of minimum 8 (but my personal goal is 10) classes has helped me to not be inclined to skip class just because I'm feeling tired or work is getting hectic. I did not make the noon classes though, because my boss scheduled some work design brownbags. I will start blocking out those hours as OOO.
Also, my friend left her car with me last week, so it was pleasant to be able to drive home after class. I try to look at the post-class uphill climb as more training, but it's still a long walk up.
I've been jotting down the things people have been telling me all week, or have heard in various spaces:
- Train as hard as you can.* From Lea Sadler's facebook post:
"Aikido can be really good exercise, if you train hard. Getting up off the floor faster after taking ukemi is one good way to do this — as can taking higher level ukemi. You can also increase the speed of your attacks, if that corresponds to your nage's needs. (Remember nage's needs first — Aikido is a partnership, not a private exercise routine, after all.)"
- Do not talk during training — Greg
- Don’t make faces — Malory
- The first 15 minutes of training should wipe you out. Then you become a sponge. — Greg
- Approach each new encounter as if it were with a stranger, and you do not know what that stranger will do, or if they are very dangerous or not. Do not say "Hello, how are you," just "Onegashimas," and begin to train. — Greg
I appreciate Greg's feedback, because, like Jonathan, he comes from a very martial headspace. Sometimes I forget. I like being around aikido people, so sometimes the zanshin falls by the wayside, which it should not. That is why I am on the mat, after all.
*Of course, one can't just "train as hard as possible all the time" or they'll break down, unless they're a 20 year old. But I'll talk about sustainability next.
Statement of purpose
I intend for this blog to be a journal of my thoughts and experiences as a soto deshi at Seattle Aikikai, and a place to generally document the development of my aikido practice.
I will likely add questions, thoughts, observations, photos, videos, lists, ideas for the dojo, and anything related.
Please add comments if you are so inclined.
I will likely add questions, thoughts, observations, photos, videos, lists, ideas for the dojo, and anything related.
Please add comments if you are so inclined.
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