Plan B, part 3

Example 3

Plan B Becomes Intention

Aikido can seem frustratingly nice. So many opportunities to do damage fly by during every technique, without the time to savor them, much less try them. Most techniques are designed to do no permanent damage, even when executed full force. A flickering black and white movie of O’Sensei shows him walking around flapping his arms while being attacked, seeming to expend no effort, much less give off macho malice. What fun is that?

Now and then something snaps and I toss all the peace and love and de-escalation talk out the window. Plan B becomes Plan A. I toss in light atemis to the ribs, groin, solar plexus. Oooh, sooooolar plexuuussss. My favorite! Is my angle right for gut punches? Uppish for floating ribs, straight in for compression, downish when at or just below the belt. For fun during knife practice I’ll add a few extra slices to cripple or finish uke off. While doing a standard ikkyo pin I sometimes run through my mind the many continuations that I might need to do if I found myself in this position on the street with someone I knew would not stay down. Strike to sweet spot where the jaw, ear, and neck come together. Hard knee down on the arm between elbow and shoulder to break the bone. Kidney punch. Rear choke.

These alternative plans fill my mind and make a mockery of the idea of aikido as a moving meditation. When I do this it’s more like fantasy target practice, and ultimately, as fun as it is, I feel like things have gone off the rails and I’ve erased whatever gains I had made in recent days.

A teacher once referred to aikido as “riding the dragon”. He may have been quoting O’Sensei. I don’t know. But now I’m thinking, to paraphrase a hackneyed joke about the Soviet Union, “In Aikido, dragon is YOU.”