All learning is predefined and predetermined

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAA-6f0x1Vc Most martial arts exist on the platform of "If this, then that."  When they are attacked like this, then they will act with that.  From this basis, one can see why almost all martial arts at their core contain sets of kata or predetermined and predefined movement.  One might be asking themselves "Why?" and "Isn't it fake then?"  The answer to both of those questions is yes and no.  It all comes down to learning or, rather, "How does one learn to act in any given situation?"

How we act is a function of pattern recognition.  Our brains recognize a pattern then act appropriately.  The brain has the uncanny ability to adapt to any situation.  It adapts based on similarities.  For instance when you are driving a car and someone cuts you off, the circumstance isn't the same as the last time nor did you train defensively to maneuver out of the way, but you steered out of harms way successfully nonetheless.  How did you do this?  Through imprinting.  All of ones driving experience and training becomes imprinted into their mind.  From there our minds take that imprinting and lay it over the current situation and hence you came out safe.  This is also why younger and newer drivers get into accidents far more often than older or more experienced drivers.

With the kata practice, the practitioners are trying to imprint scenarios into their minds so that they may act appropriately when they are confronted.  It won't be the same each time out but our minds are extremely capable of picking out the similarities and acting appropriately like when swerving out of the other car's path.  Also, all of this needs to be done in the blink of an eye.

To say that kata or form is meaning less is to not understand how human's learn.  From the moment we are born, we are copying down patterns of movement.  I don't think any baby came out of the womb walking or talking and thus needs a form to copy.  Based on this knowledge we can see that predefined movement is how we as humans learn and are thus able to act accordingly within a blink of an eye.

Color video of O Sensei

Here is a rare color video of Morihei Ueshiba demonstrating Aikido about nine years before his passing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7mxPWyb9q0

Wonderful calligraphy and poem

Tori naite yama sara ni shizuka nari.

With the cry of a bird - the serenity of the mountains deepens.

A phrase by Chinese poet Wang An-shi (1021-1086).

Art has a way of expressing what the heart cannot.  These lines of poetry really speak to me.  As I read them I could feel its meaning without explanation.  That is what good art does.  It took me back to my childhood spent camping in the boy scouts and my fond memories.

The Power of Tenkan

Why do we do the tenkan exercise every class?  At its highest level, tenkan is an old technique that was designed to bring about or teach us how to use our ki (氣) or energy.  On another level, tenkan is a diagnostic tool which can demonstrate exactly where we are in our technique and where we are as human beings.  Tenkan brings about so many questions and answers on so many different levels that it is almost unfathomable that a human being created it. Here are but a small number of questions one can ask their tenkan:

Where are my feet? What are my feet supposed to be doing? What are my hands and arms supposed to be doing? Did I fight with the person on the way in? Did I give in to the person on the way in? Did I place too much emphasis on turning? Did I use my hips? Where did my mind go during the movement?Did I hold my breathe? Do I lean in when I irimi? Did I fall asleep for just a moment? Am I getting bored? What emotions am I experiencing? Were my steps too short or too shallow? Where are my hips and what are they aligned with? Can I get longer? Can I stretch more What am I supposed to be thinking about during the technique? What did the teacher just say? What did the teacher just correct?

The list could go on and on...

In this post we are just taking about tenkan from the standpoint of the nage.  We didn't even get into it in terms of being the uke, but the questions are pretty much the same.  The next time you are in class, please pay closer attention to tenkan or all the other techniques for that matter.  They really do say a lot about you and where you are in your technique.

Is that the right time?

Timing, spacing and the center line (seichusen) are the three main factors that one is trying to control in any confrontation.  Of the three, timing is the most intangible and that makes it one of the hardest to learn.  Think about it.  Spacing can be controlled by one's foot work, by one's strength or flexibility, by how one makes use of the seichusen and by timing.  The seichusen can also be controlled by one's foot work, by how one uses their body, by controlling the spacing or by having a command of timing.  Timing cannot be controlled by anything external and theoretically can only be controlled by how one uses their mind, their ki (energy) and/or their kokyu (breathing).

What is timing?  Timing can be loosely defined as doing the right thing at the right time.  But that definition itself is too simple and short sighted.  Timing can be thought of as the physical manifestation of one's ki and kokyu.  It is said that, "To have a command of the faculties of ki and kokyu is to be one with the universe and thus able to wield it."

Having a command of ki and kokyu and enables one to use their minds/spirit to defeat the opponent.  This domination is called kizeme in kendo.

Before one can control ki and kokyo and attain kizeme one has to follow the natural progression.  First master the body and the physical movements.  Then master the mind.  Then finally master kokyu and ki.

One can see that to master timing is the just the beginning of the internal journey in the martial arts.  How does one learn timing?  Timing is only something that can be learned with diligent and dedicated practice.  Tons and tons of practice.

Aikido - The art of peace

To confront, collide or to fight is not the Way of Aikido.  Aikido's goal is to bring harmony to not only the situation but to the world.  When a person confronts you and tries to destroy you, they are only hurting themselves.  When we live our lives on a plane of higher existence, we can clearly see the bigger picture.  The bigger picture is that this person who is confronting us is really suffering.  As we realize he is suffering, we realize that this person is human and in realizing this person's humanity we realize that they are ignorant.  They are ignorant to the true nature of their suffering and also that their action will only lead them to more suffering regardless to whom they think is to blame.  I recently read a quote from a famous criminal psychologist who summed up why murders are not evil by saying, "Most of these killers are best understood as untreated, traumatized children who inhabit and control the minds, hearts, and bodies of adult men."  We are martial artists who live our lives a different way than the average person.  Our abilities come with a certain amount of responsibility.  Once we can understand our own humanity then we can realize the humanity in others.  Therefore with this understanding we realize the only remedy for this person's attack is to giving them compassion.  Consequently, the Way of Aikido is born.  Aikido does not attempt to destroy other, but to harmonize with them, to give them compassion and hence change the world.  We are all saints and sinners and are all in need of kindness, compassion and forgiveness.  Thus, we cannot destroy others because we would only be destroying ourselves.

What it is like to train in Shaolin Kung-fu in China

I found this video on vimeo that deftly shows what it is like to train at the Tiangmenshan Shaolin Kung Fu Academy in China.  To even get to this level of training takes years because there is so much prepatory work that needs to be done.  Obviously this guy is living it and it gives us just a peek at what it would be like to devote ourselves to something for even the shortest period of time.  Enjoy! https://vimeo.com/88630748

Nobody's perfect

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LX7WrHCaUA&app=desktop Sometimes without much thought, people mistakenly equate accomplishment or skill with infallibility and thus misunderstandings occur.  In the 1970s, astronauts were seen as god like people who were infallible.  People forgot that those courageous astronauts were human being with just as many shortcomings as everyday people.   Lyricist Bernie Taupin wrote Rocket Man for Elton John during a chance encounter with a shooting star.

Martial artists are supposed to be people who live their lives at a higher level.  This higher level doesn't mean that they are infallible.  It is quite the opposite.  Most martial artist are quite fallible people.   Their greatness comes not from what they can do or what they have accomplished but in that they know they are fallible and how they deal with it.  Their fallibility makes them work harder to be better and not to rest on their laurels.  Each of us is human being and humans by nature of being human make mistakes.  It is in how we come back from those mistakes which makes us martial artists and thus great.

Should you go to practice today?

Hmmm.  Should I go to class today?  Why don't we consult the chart?

Yep, sounds about right.  When in doubt.  Go to class to train.  It is for your own good.

The Spirit of Aikido

My good friend Hiro Tateno from Japan sent this to me today.  I thought I might share this with you... The Spirit of Aikido by the founder Morihei Ueshiba

Aiki is love.

The way of budo illuminates one’s path, and with love for all beings, exemplifies heaven and earth through our own existence.

Aiki revitalizes the natural self, eliminates any spirit of conflict, and reveals a way to eradicate relativistic thoughts entirely.

Transmitting an enlightened knowledge to mind and body, the techniques combine the spirit and flesh into a single one.

The practice of Aikido leads us to the foremost example of life’s work opening the world to harmony.

Have a great Friday!

"It takes 1,000 days to forge the spirit and 10,000 days to polish it." - Miyamoto Musashi

It is said, "Practice makes perfect" but what does practice really perfect?  The things a person is trying to perfect are sensitivity and ability with regards to a skill.  This almost magic like skill can only be developed through diligent and deliberate practice.  This gargantuan amount of practice enables that learned person to gain a depth that the average person will never reach.   Please train hard so that you to can be utterly magical at something someday. Here are some videos of people who have put in their 10,000 and have so completely mastered a skill that they have almost magical like powers that enable them to do some incredible things:

Ronaldinho can do anything with a soccer ball https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k80GuGsUydA

Allen Iverson can dribble a football

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyHWyRka8to

Josh Womack can spin a baseball bat https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0D_pug7RJw

Tiger Woods can bounce a golf ball https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7bcoVfK_jw

Living the Way

Are you living the Way?  I don't know. That is only for you to know. So truly ask yourself, "am I?" Trust others.

Don't blame others.

Take responsibility for yourself.

Forgive others and that goes especially for you too.

Choose to be better.

Life is short.  Train hard.

Interesting video on how scrolls are made

This video demonstrates what it means to be called a shokunin or expert craftsman in Japan.  There is a saying, "A master has the ability to make difficult things seem easy."  Kamon Sensei is a fourth generation scroll (kakejiku) maker who's family has been in business 100 years.  You can see from this video how easy he makes it look that he must be a master craftsman or shokunin.  His level of care and seriousness for his art pales in comparison to his level of humility.  This is what it means to be a master.  He does not beat his chest with how great he is but rather how he only hopes to do a good job and continue to improve - this is true humbleness. https://vimeo.com/65808110?from=outro-local

Taiwan's last sword maker - how sad

Sword appreciation is kind of a dying art and I would think for sword making it is even more so.  I came across the video of Master Kuo who is supposedly the last traditional sword maker in Taiwan.  His most famous creation was the Green Destiny sword from the movie Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.  

https://vimeo.com/14295541

How fast are you?

Want to know how good your reflexes are?  Here is a great website with a program that tests reaction time.  The website is supposed to illustrate the correlation between sleep deprivation and poor reaction times, but we can use it to see how fast we can react.  It is kind of fun and you should do it for the entire five minutes.  At the end it gives you an average.

http://healthysleep.med.harvard.edu/need-sleep/whats-in-it-for-you/how-awake-are-you

Thank you for your hard work

A commonly heard phrase when leaving a Japanese dojo is, “Otsukaresama deshita.” Otsukaresama deshita translates as a person who is tired but the phrase means, “Thank you for all your hard work.”  The Japanese place a high amount of importance on people “Giving it their all” and thus when one is tired they must have given it their all.  To acknowledge this obvious herculean effort one says, “Otsukaresama deshita” with a shallow bow to others as they leave.  The proper response is also, “Otsukaresama deshita” to acknowledge that person's efforts as well.

Do you sudoku?

Over the past few years I have started playing sudoku.  When I started playing sudoku it was just something to do to waste time.  But, as I started playing more and more I became intrigued with how it expanded my mind.  In the beginning I played a paper based version but as I became more adept, I started using a computer based app because I needed the game to move faster and give me direct feedback.  This direct feedback is what I believe started to expand my mind. In the beginning I played using a "process of elimination" methodology where I used "pencil marks" to eliminate the improper choices in each box.  At the higher difficulty levels I started to see that the process of elimination methodology started to morph into a kind of logic where I didn't even need to use the pencil marks anymore.

It was kind of weird because I would get stuck and find myself just sitting there staring at the screen, but then something would just happen and my mind would come up with a possible logic to figure out a sequence.  It was kind of a "if this then that" type of logic which a majority of time worked out.  It would always amaze me how my brain would get stuck then unstick itself if I kept working on it.

This is kind of like Aikido training.  We get to a certain place with our techniques and start to think, "Hmm, I am starting to get a hang of this" then as we move up in ability we get stuck again.  As we keep training somehow we move through it and get unstuck but we can only do this is we keep on training.

I am fascinated how humans have capacity to unstick themselves when they are posed with a problem.  Whether it is a sudoku problem or an Aikido problem, all we need to do is keep on working on it.

Will robots be able to learn Aikido in the future?

I recently read an interesting story about a robot that has been developed that can adapt to being injured.  It made me wonder if a robot could someday learn Aikido. Here is an excerpt from that article on Fastcompany.com:

A new study published today in Nature explains how robots can use a sort of "evolutionary algorithm" to learn new ways of operating after being injured, according to the MIT Technology Review. Take out one of its legs, and the robot uses rapid-fire calculations to figure out how to keep moving.

The MIT Technology Review lays it out in horrifying detail, reminiscent of a certain Toy Story character:

In a video accompanying the paper, researchers show a spider-like robot that suffers an injury to one of its six legs. The creature starts trying new ways of moving, and in about 40 seconds regains 96 percent of its speed, looking less like a broken toy and more like a wounded animal crawling away.

The amount of speed that the robot recovers is staggering and incomparable to humans who could never regain that much just after being injured.  The robot can do so because it does not feel pain.  Which brings me to the point as to why a robot like this cannot learn Aikido.  Don't get me wrong a robot can learn Aikido or any martial art at a technical level where the moves are nothing more than perfunctory.  But, true Aikido requires one to have a kokoro or spirit (心)  and ki (氣).  These two elements make up this idea of "consciousness" in human beings.  Yoda in Star Wars deftly describes when he said, "Size matters not. Look at me. Judge me by my size, do you? Hmm? Hmm. And well you should not. For my ally is the Force, and a powerful ally it is. Life creates it, makes it grow. Its energy surrounds us and binds us. Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter. You must feel the Force around you; here, between you, me, the tree, the rock, everywhere, yes. Even between the land and the ship."  The force he is referring to is ki (氣) and the luminousness is spirit (心).  To be aware of oneself is not only how we are able to feel pain but also what makes us able to connect with other human beings.  A robot cannot make a true connection because it has not spirit or consciousness.  This connection is what makes Aikido "work."  As Yoda would say, "It is not this crude matter" when referring to our bodies.  It is our minds or our consciousness that makes it work.  Therefore in a circuitous way - no robots cannot truly learn Aikido.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMUKGTkiWik

Read the full article here: http://m.fastcompany.com/3046749/fast-feed/were-doomed-robots-can-now-learn-to-adapt-to-injuries

The Way is in training

百戦錬磨Hyakusen Renma Literal translation: 100 battles gains improvement Figurative meaning: To gain wisdom through experience

With this mindset in training is how one improves.  Aikido is an experiential martial art.  One needs to do it to improve upon it.  Sensei often alluded to  this when he said, "The Way is in training."  If we don't come to class, how do we expect to improve?

Don't do anything

In Aikido, we don't practice these techniques to be able to "do" things to other people.  What we are "doing" is effecting change in ourselves.  Shifting our perspective on what it means to study Aikido is one of the hardest things to do.  Don't try and do things to others, just do them to yourself.