The application of Aikido requires a paradigm shift or a leap of faith so to speak. Typically accustomed to flashy Hollywood and practically most run off the mill movies that feature action heroes boxing and clubbing their attackers, most people tend to think of Aikido as an "ineffective" and highly stylised art lacking practical use.
Some even continue practicing Aikido with this nagging doubt. What is the isue here? It is simply that one needs a paradigm shift in approaching the practical nature of Aikido techniques. Unlike most "harder" styles of martial arts, Aikido uses the principles of Ki and Harmony with nature in overcoming an attacker. If a person trying to apply an Aikido technique on a real life adversary is tense either through fear or anger, he or she would most certainly fail to execute the technique or at best only end up doing a very messy and clumsy performance of it.
The most important aspect in Aikido is Ki and extending Ki. Ki is most commonly described as "life force". At this point please don't run off with the idea that Aikido and Ki are into mysticism or things bordering on scorcery and comic book super powers. Aikido is very much a practical affair that requires intense training to perfect!
An Aikidoka must first and foremost extend Ki. The four principles of Ki can be summarised as
(1) Relax completely (don't tense your mind or body)
(2) Keep weight underside (ie don't flex your muscles trying to impress or scare your opponent; quite honestly you won't achieve either!!!)
(3) Keep one point (ie bring your mind to the centre of your body, usually to a point a few inches below your navel. This usually means focussing your mind.)
(4) Extend Ki (imagine being the centre of the universe. In fact this is proved by Physics as after the Big bang everthing is racing away from each other. Therefore relative to you, everything else is racing away and this effectively makes you the centre of the universe.)
The second part is to apply the five aikido principles in executing every Aikido technique. These are
(1) Extend Ki (explained above)
(2) Know your opponent's mind (without knowing if your would be attacker is a bully trying to scare you or a maniac trying to kill you, you would be lost as to how to handle the situation. Such insight is a key aspect in developing "situational awareness" and is very important in any good self defence move. The sure way to develop this is regular practice!!!)
(3) Respect your opponent's Ki (As Aikido revolves around "Ai" which roughly means togetherness in Japanese, it is important to blend with your attacker's force. This why there are no blocks in Aikido. You simply step off his line of attack.)
(4) Take your opponents place (Here you and your attacker are in the same place. This way your attacker has to change his position to re oreint himself to this new situation and then re position himself to lauch another attack. This gives you valuable time to execute your move.
(5) Execute Aikido techniques with confidence (Anything done half hearted is bound to fail. So execute the technique with utmost confidence. This way your application will at the very least be effective if not technically elegant.)
Good luck and keep training!
