What Aikido Techniques Work?
Inryoku Volume 4 Issue 4
By Josh Paul, AOSB Head Instructor
A new student recently complained that the cross-hand wrist grab attack (katatekosatori) felt unnatural. It was accusatory: as if the instructions were incorrect or there was something fundamentally wrong with the art. That aikido movements feel unnatural is a common observation among new students. That’s because it is not just a feeling: aikido movements are unnatural. Well, at least in comparison to how we learn to use our bodies.
In a 1957 interview, O’sensei said, “There are about 3,000 basic techniques, and each one of them has 16 variations… so there are many thousands. Depending on the situation, you create new ones.”
Put another way, there is a limitless variety of movements and techniques in aikido. The techniques are the tools needed for practicing and studying principles of movement, spacing, and timing. The goal—the aspiration—is to cultivate the ability to move and respond to aggression freely and spontaneously. Developing that type of freedom (perhaps ironically) requires structured repetition of tai sabaki (fundamental body movements), basic techniques and all their variations, and especially practicing those that feel “unnatural.”
To respond freely and spontaneously is to respond in every possible direction. To move equally deftly with left and right, and to flow through any sequence of movements and technique, not just those that feel natural or that come easily. If we favor our right side, practicing our left is doubly important. Whatever technique, posture, or attack we think we dislike, that is the one we have to practice until it feels natural. We may never achieve true symmetry between our left and right sides or truly love specific techniques. We may always have favorites and those we find most reliable. However, pushing the limits of what we think we like or dislike, and can and cannot do, produces the possibility of unfettered movement.
BKS Iyengar. Tadanasa. (mountain pose)
Is every technique—all 48,000 plus— literally applicable in every type of physical conflict? I don't know. Maybe? What’s clear is that all the techniques and their infinite variations are vehicles for developing, understanding, and executing free and spontaneous movements. Yoga teachers often say that everything you need in yoga is in tadasana (mountain pose). The variety of poses is to engage the mind and imagination, and to experience tadasana from other angles and perspectives. Likewise, aikido. Every technique contains everything you need to know about aikido principles. (O’sensei specifically said this of shihonage.) The variety of techniques is to access, study, and experience those principles from different perspectives.
O’sensei said, “fiddling with this and that technique is of no avail. Simply act decisively, without reserve.” It’s profound advice. However, there is nothing particularly simple about it.
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