"Adopt the other's point of view"

Reading an interview with Andre Cognard: Kobayashi Sensei: ... he would say,

“When you’re grabbed, you do nothing without adopting the other’s point of view. He’s here and looking over there, so you must look over there. If you look in the opposite direction, you’ll never know what he sees and what’s motivating his actions, so whatever you have to do, even if it’s omote, the first thing to do is to take his point of view.”

On reading up on Kobayashi Sensei, I read this, which reminded me of the things the Choate Sensei was working on when I was in Chicago.

His techniques were described as very short, powerful and precise with as little movement offline as possible. His grabbing techniques consisted of "Meguri" - literally meaning flexibility and rotating of the wrist producing subtle connection points producing the maximum result with minimal levels of effort. A memorable phrase of Kobayashi's was: "Teach everything you know/have, then you feel thirsty for a higher level." Some other words people often heard him repeat while on the mat were "Itsumo manaka" (always towards the centre) and "Ima" (right now).

Flow and mushin

I've been having a lot of conversations with people about Flow lately, so thought I'd post a little about it. I've had experiences with flow in aikido and eventing — moments where the movements or communication between me and the horse or me and the uke (same thing, essentially) becomes effortless and completely natural -- but not even that — time stands still, you get completely lost in what you're doing.
When this happens in aikido, you're not thinking about anything other than the movement. In moments like this, if I'm uke, I have no idea what just happened to me. Sensei will do a thing, and I won't be able to replicate it once she stops demonstrating, because I wasn't paying attention to anything other than where my body is in space. The idea of flow seems to be related to, or correlates with the concept of mushin, or no mind. 無心の心

From Wikipedia:

There are six factors as encompassing an experience of flow.

1. intense and focused concentration on the present moment
2. merging of action and awareness
3. a loss of reflective self-consciousness
4. a sense of personal control or agency over the situation or activity
5. a distortion of temporal experience, one's subjective experience of time is altered
6. experience of the activity as intrinsically rewarding, also referred to as autotelic experience

Mechanism of flow

In every given moment, there is a great deal of information made available to each individual. Psychologists have found that one's mind can attend to only a certain amount of information at a time. According to Mihaly's 1956 study, that number is about 126 bits of information per second. That may seem like a large number (and a lot of information), but simple daily tasks take quite a lot of information. Just having a conversation takes about 40 bits of information per second; that's 1/3 of one's capacity. That is why when having a conversation one cannot focus as much attention on other things.

For the most part (except for basic bodily feelings like hunger and pain, which are innate), people are able to decide what they want to focus their attention on. However, when one is in the flow state, he or she is completely engrossed with the one task at hand and, without making the conscious decision to do so, loses awareness of all other things: time, people, distractions, and even basic bodily needs. This occurs because all of the attention of the person in the flow state is on the task at hand; there is no more attention to be allocated. 

Conditions for flow

Schaffer (2013) proposed 7 flow conditions:

1. Knowing what to do
2. Knowing how to do it
3. Knowing how well you are doing
4. Knowing where to go (if navigation is involved)
5. High perceived challenges
6. High perceived skills
7. Freedom from distractions

A review of his book in Psychology Today (2007).

Reiner Klimke and Ahlerich:

"I have only begun to train myself"

This is a Dojo

Debunking the 10,000 hour myth

Book: Daniel Goleman, Focus

Amateurs are content at some point to let their efforts become bottom-up operations. After about fifty hours of training — whether in skiing or driving — people get to that “good-enough” performance level, where they can go through the motions more or less effortlessly. They no longer feel the need for concentrated practice, but are content to coast on what they’ve learned. No matter how much more they practice in this bottom-up mode, their improvement will be negligible.

The experts, in contrast, keep paying attention top-down, intentionally counteracting the brain’s urge to automatize routines. They concentrate actively on those moves they have yet to perfect, on correcting what’s not working in their game, and on refining their mental models of how to play the game, or focusing on the particulars of feedback from a seasoned coach. Those at the top never stop learning: if at any point they start coasting and stop such smart practice, too much of their game becomes bottom-up and their skills plateau.

 Perfect practice makes perfect? Constant dissection and examination makes perfect practice? Varying routines and constantly trying new ways leads to more effective learning.

Monday, April 19

I got annoyed at someone for stopping and obstructing in the middle of the technique that I was getting wrong. I said "I'm sort of dyslexic sometimes about techniques, but if you allow me to mess up a couple times, I'll usually get it."It's harder when uke is trying to be clever and instruct, and I've been only offering clues when they ask and are totally lost about obvious things, and then I tend to direct them to Sensei. Only times I've ever tried to tell people what to do, I've been wrong. Oh, and my job? Be a good uke, so I'm working on that and telling them to ask the instructor if ever they ask for MY help.

Week 6: March 7-13

Started CrossFit again this on Tuesday to try to get fitter for aikido. Right now I'm very sore, but I hope that this will make my legs stronger, make my knees less painful, and help me to get lower on some of the movements, like shihonage.

March 10-23

Barcelona happened. Not enough training happened, though, and too much time was consumed traveling. I was pretty jet-lagged and had a hard time re-acclimating. Met a ton of great people.

Got my registration set for Summer Camp in Vancouver.

Trained on Saturday.

Training note

I'm going to try to remember the feedback from Malory Sensei from class and add it here.

Iriminage: I am bending forward too much with weight on front foot. When the apex if the movement is reached, arm and body should be vertical to catch that movement. Right now I'm not getting that upright posture and not reaching the actual turning point of the technique. Not sure how to describe it, but I need to stand straight and the arm should point toward the ceiling.

Shown in this video of Osawa Sensei at 0:14.

Crane in the yearning twilight

Testing

I think not testing for so long has made me settle into a permanent 3rd kyu state of mind. For background, the last time I tested before testing for 2nd kyu this past winter was in 1994, and I've been training most of that time, with a few years off here and there, most recently from 2008-2012. I didn't test because I moved a lot, and changed dojos often — Berkeley Aikikai (Shibata Shihan), Chicago Aikikai (Choate Sensei, Takehara Sensei, Jionjuku Aikido (Messores Sensei), West Seattle Aikikai (McKee Sensei). Although all of those were great dojos, with phenomenal teachers, I think it's slowed my growth, made me unsure of myself, given me a permanent case of beginner's mind.

I think when you test, you grow into it, you expand into your new role, and you get this great affirmation that you're handling the material. But, when you don't test, there's no expectation of growth, no acknowledgement of what you may have learned, and I think growth retards.

I hope this changes in my brain soon. I'm sick of doubting myself. My doubt makes me nervous, and when I'm nervous, my aikido sucks.

Thinking about testing, and where my compatriots are, makes me depressed. I tell myself "You're training, you'd be training whether or not you tested, right? You'd even be working on the same exact things." "Well, yes, but it's about how I see myself as an aikido practitioner. It's embarrassing having to explain it when people ask me (and for some reason they always do). I feel like a teenager who failed so many times that he's still in elementary school."

(just venting)

Nafudakake

I think we should look at using L-screws on the nafudakake the next time around. The hook screws make it difficult to change the nametags. New York Aikikai's nafudakake uses L-screws, which are easier to use.