“It’s dark because you are trying too hard. Lightly child, lightly. Learn to do everything lightly. Yes, feel lightly even though you’re feeling deeply. Just lightly let things happen and lightly cope with them. I was so preposterously serious in those days… Lightly, lightly – it’s the best advice ever given me…So throw away your baggage and go forward. There are quicksands all about you, sucking at your feet, trying to suck you down into fear and self-pity and despair. That’s why you must walk so lightly. Lightly my darling…”
- Aldous Huxley, Island
To the best Aikidoists tread lightly.
In the old days, martial arts dojos would hang a sign in the front of the school with three symbols: a sickle (kama), a circle (wa) or rice bowl (wan) and the Japanese symbol ぬ (nu). The sign was a play on words that meant kamawanu or “I don’t care.” It was supposed to be a pun warning anyone who entered the dojo “to watch their step” because they don’t care and have the confidence to fight you if need be.
As practitioners of Budo, we must always “watch our step” because how we move our feet matters. “Footwork” in Japanese is ashisabaki (足捌き). In Aikido, there are six footworks: sliding forward, sliding backwards, stepping forwards, stepping backwards, turning, and the lesser used side stepping. Each one of these dictates how we move in or away from our opponent or how we generate or redirect power. Footwork is also what we use to set up the technique. Footwork is something that the ardent practitioner spends years, if not decades trying to perfect.
In addition to the method of moving one’s feet, we should also be concerned with the quality of our step or, rather, how we step and how it affects our balance and weight distribution. If we are ashibayai (足速い) or “light-footed” that means either we are moving our feet fast or lightly. If we are ashigaomoi (足が重い) or “heavy footed,” then our feet are heavy or rooted.
Throughout the course of the technique, there are times when our footwork should be light and there are times when it should be heavy. The trick is to know when to be heavy or when to be light. Some think that the feet are light the whole time and only heavy at the end. Others believe that it should never be heavy. One goal in Aikido training is to be able to root our “center” or tanden (丹田) but at the same time still be able to move our feet swiftly and appropriately. So, with this understanding, our footwork is then just an expression of the state of our center and thus the center is heavy, but the feet are light.
Interestingly, another meaning of ashigaomoi is “to be unwilling” which leads us to believe that having heavy feet is not a good attribute for either a good uke or nage. If the nage has heavy feet and is unwilling to move, they will get hit. If the uke has heavy feet and has to be dragged around the mat, then they will get injured.
Huxley’s words remind us to go lightly. Step lightly. Go lightly on others but, more importantly, go lightly on ourselves. It is only dark because we are trying too hard. The goal of Aikido is not to destroy others. The true goal of Aikido is to learn to go with the spirit of lightly.
Today’s goal: No matter what happens today, go lightly.