Erroneous Aikido, The Amazing Story of..

[Telfer]

The exercises that you reference in the clip at 3:30 are two of the 15 exercises that we practice in NGA and which I'm sure other forms of aikido practice as well. They aren't magical, mystical energy beams.

I wonder if it only works on humans. I mean, supposing a crane swung into position and lowered a hook to lift him up with the force of his body weight, plus one pound??? Would he still remain rooted to the ground?

Regardless of whether someone traces their Aikido back to the founder of Aikido or to Takeda Sokaku we still end up with paranormal explanations.

MacEwen's talk of an 'inner body' and redirecting force into an opponent's body without moving at all would be inexplicable to any scientist or mechanical engineer.

The stories of psychic precognition from the lives of both Ueshiba and Sokaku are also WAY out there.

 

[K-man]

MacEwen Sensei is my instructors instructor. He holds rank in several arts, applies a laser focused self defense mind set to his aikido and is someone that I really wouldn't want to have to defend against him at all. That video was done 20 years ago and he's only gotten better since then. I'm in a rush so can't respond to your post as it deserves but I'll take a moment (probably tomorrow afternoon) to give it the attention it deserves. :asian:

I spent some time on YouTube searching MacEwen Sensei. Some interesting video. If there were more instructors like him teaching aikido this thread would never have started.

 

[tempus]

When I can find time I do attend MacEwen Sensei advance classes. He is very fast and technique just flows. There is always something new to learn. My goal is to find more free time in 2010 so I can attend more often.

-Gary

 

[theletch1]

I wonder if it only works on humans. I mean, supposing a crane swung into position and lowered a hook to lift him up with the force of his body weight, plus one pound??? Would he still remain rooted to the ground?

Regardless of whether someone traces their Aikido back to the founder of Aikido or to Takeda Sokaku we still end up with paranormal explanations.

MacEwen's talk of an 'inner body' and redirecting force into an opponent's body without moving at all would be inexplicable to any scientist or mechanical engineer.

The stories of psychic precognition from the lives of both Ueshiba and Sokaku are also WAY out there.

As I've said before, they are energy redirection exercises... not energy resistance exercises. If you notice the men are able to easily pick him up at first and set him back down. Why? He's stiffening up and providing resistance straight down against their straight up energy. When they can't pick him up he's rolling his shoulders in toward his ears ever so slightly so that the energy being applied by the lifters is being shifted from lifting him straight up to pushing straight in. He simply changes the direction in which the energy needs to work to accomplish it's mission.

In the second one they are trying to push his hands and arms toward the ceiling. Were he simply pushing straight down they'd have no problem overpowering him. He's not, though. He's actually visualizing his own energy flowing from his center out the end of his fingertips and over the horizon. The folks pushing up are applying their resistance in the wrong direction to complete the task.

I have at least two engineers as students right now. Both have told me that it didn't make any sense that these things could happen... until they trained long enough to understand the subtleties of how that energy is redirected. Then it made perfect sense. Nothing mystical, nothing magical. It's an internal art and must be felt to be understood. It's like saying fire burns. You can explain it to me all day long. Just looks like light to me. I have to actually touch it to truly understand it.

 

[Xue Sheng]

Maybe this will help

redirection
–verb
1. to direct again.
2. to change the direction or focus of: He redirected the children's energies toward building a sand castle instead of throwing sand at each other.
–adjective
3. Law. pertaining to the examination of a witness by the party calling him or her, after cross-examination.

resistance
–noun
1. the act or power of resisting, opposing, or withstanding.
2. the opposition offered by one thing, force, etc., to another.
3. Electricity. a. Also called ohmic resistance. a property of a conductor by virtue of which the passage of current is opposed, causing electric energy to be transformed into heat: equal to the voltage across the conductor divided by the current flowing in the conductor: usually measured in ohms. Abbreviation: R
b. a conductor or coil offering such opposition; resistor.
4. Psychiatry. opposition to an attempt to bring repressed thoughts or feelings into consciousness.
5. (often initial capital letter) an underground organization composed of groups of private individuals working as an opposition force in a conquered country to overthrow the occupying power, usually by acts of sabotage, guerrilla warfare, etc.: the resistance during the German occupation in World War II.
6. Stock Exchange. resistance level.

 

[Telfer]

He's actually visualizing his own energy flowing from his center out the end of his fingertips and over the horizon.

One often hears this kind of explanation in internal MA, but can you imagine the response if it was repeated at any institution of science???

According to science, the type of energy must be specified, and there is no scientific evidence that any form of energy can be manipulated or redirected with human thought...by visualizing???

Ultimately, we are still left with only paranormal explanations.

Not that I'm complaining...there may indeed be some form of energy not YET known to science.

In this clip a group of researchers tries to define and establish CHI as bio-electrical energy...without much success, at least with metering equipment.

 

[theletch1]

By visualizing the flow of energy I'm not attempting to truly "flow" some etherial force. I'm simply visualizing how I want to move my energy. The trouble that many folks have with aikido is that it just takes so damn long to get very proficient with and one of the reasons that's true is that it requires very minute shifts in balance and how you move your own force. I think that perhaps I'm not doing too good a job of explaining myself when I talk about energy flow. What I'm really doing when I "flow" energy is making a movement and then extending that motion over the horizon. We're getting into one of those areas of the internal arts that are very easy for me to picture in my head but difficult for me to get across via this media. I don't view my energy flow or dropping of ki in the way that the experimenters in your clip are viewing chi.

 

[jks9199]

I think that, in many cases, the visualization is simply a tool to enable you to do muscular/skeletal alignments. For example, let's look at "extending my energy to the horizon." What I've noticed is that when I simply reach my arm out, I automatically/unconsciously include a "stop" and counter-action as I reach full extension. But... if I visuallize extending or reaching all the way to the opposite wall, or the horizon, there's a very subtle change in how I reach, and how things are aligned in my arm.

 

[Telfer]

I think that perhaps I'm not doing too good a job of explaining myself when I talk about energy flow. What I'm really doing when I "flow" energy is making a movement and then extending that motion over the horizon. We're getting into one of those areas of the internal arts that are very easy for me to picture in my head but difficult for me to get across via this media.

I thank you for your efforts Jeff.