Carolina van Haperen - integrale Aikido Amsterdam

Surprises of aikido friends, yesterday in Arnhem, after my demo.

Met Aikido Advice for Women...and a Few Men – Ik ben op diens wekelijkse betrokkenheidslijst gekomen door een van de topbijdragers te zijn! 🎉

“It is through the alignment of the body that I discovered the alignment of my mind, self, and intelligence.” -BKS Iyengar

A huge part of blending involves bringing uke into nage’s alignment, the feeling is not oppositional (pressure is relieved), since we do not force, push or pull.
Once uke is in nage’s alignment there is an ‘ease’ in sensation that will appear.

We redirect uke’s intention and momentum with our arms guiding but predominantly with our hips and our base. This requires having a ‘relaxed structural integrity’, a body organization that is aligned and grounded for stability. We drop into our center as we arrange our positioning and orientation to accommodate uke - using the ground.

The mindset of moving and giving priority to the center and lower body involves a relearning and retraining of the nervous system, since we have been unconsciously conditioned to predominantly move from the upper body.

Give attention and awareness to alignment and structure, and then mindfully prioritize the sensation with the weighted lower body.
Blend this way to experience the ease.

G. Breeland, 6th dan

Hand-less Aikido Techniques:
Some clips:

HAND-LESS AIKIDO TECHNIQUES, example 1 - Integral Aikido Amsterdam | aikicontact.nl Hand-less Aikido techniques: in our curriculum of Aikido techniques...

The upper body guides technique while the lower body drives technique. Be strong in foundation whether static or in flow, drop the weight to feel solidity from the ground.

When we move we rarely think about the stabilizing muscles in the leg, the muscles that relax, sink, and balance the body to align, secure and ground. The gift of the body is that movement is so automatically accessible we give it little attention. So decide to create an awareness here.

Grounding gives us a feeling of deep connection that accesses a physical and emotional calm. We become ‘mentally settled’.
Our foundation, though ‘heavy’ is not immobile and rigid, it is dynamic and fluid.
We remain present and receptive. We can create and sense force, strength, power, pressure, and a ‘relaxing’ tension.
While we maintain the flexibility to absorb, rebound, transfer and redirect.

G. Breeland, 6th dan

The kumi tachi partner practices with the Aiki Ken teaches us to claim and defend the centerline.
We refrain from the fearful reflexive reaction of laterally pushing or hitting the attacking bokken out of the way.
In time, as our mindset changes, we learn to trust the centerline, its structure and its geometry.

In Aiki weapons, we observe the centerline between ourself and our partner.
Eventually we demarcate a realized central plane. Claiming the centerline will result in the uchitachi ending up off to the side (without being laterally ‘pushed’).
The centerline offers the shortest, most direct path to defend as well as attack.
We can simultaneously block (defend) and strike (attack) while claiming the centerline.
We can also disrupt ukes distance, balance and structure, both clearly and subtlety.

The centerline is not fixed, it changes as we move. We fluidly adjust. We sense the centerline on the surface externally as an extension, held relationally to the solidity established within our own internal central axis.
Training aiki weapons allows a more tangible study to assess this structure and positional geometry.
We identify our own centerline, ukes centerline and the centerline between the two of us.

When we control the centerline we essentially control the origin of all movement.
Come to know and become familiar with the centerline. Know it intuitively and find its importance in both weapons and empty handed technique.

G. Breeland, 6th dan