(no subject)

[mithriltabby]

Had an interesting insight in aikido this evening. As an engineer, I’m used to focusing on the details of how things work, and had been trying to get individual pieces of techniques right in aikido in a similar way (the footwork is like this, the hands go like that, and you move thusly...). What occurred to me is that this is the wrong place to start: you need to pay attention to how you use hands and feet and posture, but all of that should come from moving the whole body.

The net result is that I have yet one more thing to focus on until I manage to internalize techniques enough that they’re mostly automatic (like breakfalls and rolls are slowly becoming for me). :-)

Comments

[sandpanther.livejournal.com]

Yes, that is a very important insight. Many things suddenly seem a lot easier when you work from the standpoint of the whole body moving, rather than just one appendage. (You also get a lot more force involved, since you have the additional mass of your body working with your movements.)

The trick is that sometimes when something doesn't flow correctly, you have to break it back down to what the individual parts are doing. And then remember to go back to the bigger picture. Would want to have it be too easy, ne?