Aikido and Real Attacks – Hard As Ice, Graceful As a Skater
Monday, January 2nd, 2012Imagine an Olympic ice skater. Watch how she moves, leaning steeply, pressing herself powerfully around a corner, always perfectly balanced. See how she pivots, effortlessly back then forward, never losing her stride. Enjoy the smooth arcs her arms carve in the air, the graceful circling of the legs. Now remember that she’s doing all of this on cold, hard, unforgiving ice.
Imagine, now, an old man surrounded by a half dozen attackers. On a signal from one, they converge to grab the old man. They reach the spot where he’d stood, but he’s gone, and they collide with each other. Somehow, he slipped from their circle.
Again they surround him, and again he evades their grip, disappearing like the wind. They become frustrated. They go after him, attacking, trying to grab or tackle or somehow subdue him. The old man glides among the furious attackers, unperturbed, using the energy of their attacks to throw them onto the ground. Again and again they attack. The old man flows through them, striding here, whirling there, perfectly balanced, harmonizing with his unwilling partners. He seems like he’s dancing. But his attackers don’t want to dance with him any more than the ice wants to dance with the ice skater.
Watching well-done aikido is like watching an Olympic skater: the graceful circles, the gliding motions, the flowing extension. With an ice skater, though, one can understand that it’s her years and years of ceaseless practice that allow her to move so gracefully, not a prearranged cooperation with the ice. With aikido, though, people often suspect that there is some overt or covert cooperation by the attackers.
There is no such cooperation. In our dojo, we demand that attacks be as real as the skater’s ice. Of course for beginners, we slow down attacks so they can learn to move well. Our skater didn’t learn at full speed. But still, the ice is the ice. And a punch, even a slow one, if it connects, will be felt.
An ice skater may practice her spins and jumps on the padded floor of a gym. She may practice slowly. Ultimately, though, she knows she has to perform her art at full speed on the ice.
The grace and flow of well-done aikido, too, comes from years and years of training. At its roots, aikido is a martial art. Though we may practice slowly, we train with real attacks, ones with the force and solidity of ice. The performance of our art demands this reality.
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