Aikido Reminders to Self

This is a list I have been adding to ever since I started aikido. It’s idiosyncratic. You’re eavesdropping on my mind, and I might not be able to explain what I mean by a particular line. But what are blogs for? If other aikidoka have such reminder lists, please post or link!

every time

• obtain and re-obtain a signal – relax/pay attention until you get one
• continuous breathing
• upright posture, comfortably standing, centered
• retain sword posture and extension/readiness
• imagine center in motion, often below ground, as on tightrope
• imagine circular saw with gyroscope at its center
• zanshin 360 (observe, interpret, relax, be attentive, see without looking)
• whole body/mind ready
• when time to act, no mind
• when finished, leave nothing behind
• ready to guard your center
• ready to move center in any direction
• blending, you disappear, then assert, like water undermining earth
• if you know the technique well, add ki flow, i.e., smoothness of motion, fluidity, natural reaction and compensation for uke’s micromovements

rising from the mat

• should be centered, easy, solid architecture, quick, with zanshin

simple sequence
zanshin – ma’ai – invite/hiss – blend, shift, blend, shift, … – break balance – keep off balance to ground – pin – release – zanshin

first contact

• unless it is a block, should be soft and stealthy, matching speed and rotation with the attack, contacting and hijacking uke’s momentum more than half way through its natural movement, when it is too late for uke to effectively resist
• first contact can be entering–with assertion of space via arm/ki/hara/atemi

atemi

• focus briefly and intently on the target of atemi – so that warning bells go off in uke’s mind
• occasionally go slow and actually hit uke if uke is not responding (are you not convincing or is uke not paying attention?)
• with rapid small shifts, find paths of no resistance and start coaxing toward ground
• try blend with vector, then shift it perpendicular along z-x plane, then downward along y-?, etc., in wave motion
• working backward from anticipated kazushi point, intend to resist along uke’s strong axis so that uke unconsciously feels and resists, then curve vector while gradually intensifying ‘push’ to spiral into kazushi point.
• ghost atemi: you can give off an atemi without actually initiating an attack (uke will stiffen or change posture slightly as reaction); play with how much of a feint it takes

balance-taking

• occupy the good angles
• incremental variable-speed conveyor belt carrying away uke’s balance
• turn hips in direction you want to channel uke’s momentum
• let hips lead your movements
• guide uke to kazushi points
• weight is dynamic, with multiple centers, vectors, rotations
• your weight can come down via uke
• rear kazushi points are generally more effective
• incorporate ki-flow (willow/water)

pins

• knee should come down to mat with inner shoulder
• heels together, up on toes
• wrap and control at elbow
• capture hand palm up in crook of elbow
• pressure and torque can be applied in either direction along path from shoulder to head (rotational perpendicular to that axis and generally with a feeling of into the ground)
• across and uptown is usually good
• think of what you are going to do next to set up the next attack/response

after pin

• move laterally into uke’s blind spot
• initiate the next attack/response; no downtime

physicality

• arms whiplike energy (dynamic tension, but with no tension)
• hands relaxed but awake
• grip like magnetic glue, not vise, starting with pinky
• wrists and forearms like 20′ sword/searchlights
• shoulders relaxed
• cat-like, but a big cat

ukemi

• punch/strike straight with first two knuckles
• keep eyes on nage amap, even when falling/rolling
• prolong the relationship
• bend
• use nage for support in slow ukemi
• ready to protect from / avoid atemi
• bend head toward nage in shiho nage
• turn head away in irimi nage
• tuck inner leg under
• how to fall softer
• relax as much as possible into pins
• follow nage with your center, staying upright
• attack intelligently — you are practicing your strikes and ability to seize opportunity

jiyu waza

• take time with each throw
• keep moving
• keep observing attackers
• keep all attackers in view AMAP
• throw each uke at attackers
• protect attackers
• pick and attack attackers
• split attackers
• learn direction of throw that follows from each technique, starting with the atemi

ma’ai

• forced commit (if uke tries to creep forward gets attacked)
• subvert uke’s next obvious move, and the next, and the next
• jam up uke’s fighting mechanism
• prevent uke’s natural rotation
• augment uke’s natural rotation
• reestablish presence in blind spot, just within or outside of uke’s peripheral vision

principles

• keep center
• relax and smile genuinely
• continuous 360 awareness
• rotation on multiple axes
• force begets force
• elbows in and down
• invite with open palm
• occasionally do the unpredicted and observe reactions
• snake hand
• one scoop
• if too fast, ratchet back the speed and seek more details
• half speed is close to the maximum you need for daily training
• move as if holding katana, or a medicine ball, or a pack
• move as if wearing a skirt
• lose the ego
• it’s a practice, not a contest, not a performance
• keep your attention constantly moving, internally and externally

my approach

• pragmatic
• simplified
• direct and crisp
• out of the blue – no tells
• anything could happen
• highly targeted atemi
• without ornament
• based on natural analogs (climbing, drinking, catching)

the best students are thieves

12 Metatasks for the Clueless Father-To-Be

1. Get your calendar, to-do lists, cell phone, and other ‘coordinating’ tools under control and in constant use.
If you’re like me you don’t always have a very full schedule, and so your calendar and to-do lists may be rather scattered and ad-hoc. Expect that you will probably lose 50 IQ points for the first month or more. Construct your calendar and lists for a person who is that challenged. That person will be you.

2. Watch videos — there are many aspects of baby care you just need to see rather than read about.
I’m very verbal and tend to get my information from books. I’m also impatient with stupid instructional videos. I should have just rented every video in the library. Thing is, you can practically turn off the sound. Just watch how people handle and interact with their babies. It’s informative.

3. Get your insurance straightened out and mark your calendar to follow-up on the newborn’s insurance.
Most personal insurance covers the baby for 30 days after birth. Insurance companies are ruthless if there is a preexisting condition. Need I say more?

4. Clear your schedule for 3 weeks on either side of the due date.
You can cancel, postpone, and float tasks. Tell relatives to go away unless they pledge to change diapers. Seriously. “So you’ll change her diapers and watch her so that we can sleep” is a good reply to “We’re all coming to see the new baby!”, followed by “Please only one relative at a time (who is willing to change diapers). Otherwise we’ll be overwhelmed.”

5. Try all means of education early so you can see what works for you.
Go to classes, read books, watch videos, etc., but do it EARLY. By about month 7 you’ll both start to run out of time to get ready.

6. Be über-social – hang out with friends who have babies, enjoy couplehood, observe real parents in the wild.

7. Be healthy (so it’s easier for wife to do so).

8. Be understanding (you’re going to need the practice).

9. Be communicative.
Lots of guys are not very communicative. After you have a child, your ability to communicate with your partner may well determine whether or not you get divorced in a few years. Practice while it’s easy.

10. Practice the following skills (napping, doing everything one-handed, multitasking, all while your helpful partner blasts one of those miniature bullhorns in your ear).
Somewhat joking. Don’t hurt your ears.

11. Finish all preparation 1 month before due date.
I’m convinced our due date was off by at least a week. If you read up on how due dates are calculated, you can understand how arbitrary they are. Although she was technically two weeks early (though to term), our baby had super-high APGAR scores and was fully baked. Most babies arrive before the due date, the assigned due dates are guesses at best, and slightly pre-term arrivals are quite common–so at 8 months your time’s up, buddy. Of course you might still have to wait six weeks. Think of it as an arbitrarily wide finish line that you’re crossing in the dark and you’ll know you’ve reached the end when the ground disappears from beneath you.

12. Buy or otherwise obtain the gear you’ll need, or know exactly which items you want and where you’re going to get them.
It’s prudent to not buy absolutely everything, as you rightly don’t know how the pregnancy will turn out, but don’t let that stop you from shopping. Again, after the IQ point drop, everything is difficult.

Tips on Sleeping while Caring for a Newborn

1. Don’t blog. It’s an enormous waste of time. You should be sleeping.

2. Accept that you are not going to get much sleep. You are going to be so tired you feel a new kind of physical pain.

3. Nap. Oh, you don’t nap? If you don’t know how, just pretend. It’ll happen soon enough. You’ll know you’ve napped when the baby wakes you up.

4. Learn to distinguish distress sounds from annoying noises. In the beginning, just about any noise from your bundle of joy will send a jolt down your spine. After a few weeks, you’ll be able to take a bullhorn in the ear without wincing. Keep in mind that if you get it wrong and ignore distress, you’ll have that bullhorn in your ear for a while.

5. In the evening, set up your sleep area and the baby’s sleep area at the same time. You might be exhausted by the time you get her to sleep, and you won’t be capable of searching for a blanket or glass of water. You probably won’t get to sleep much, but having a nicely aranged sleep area is soothing and gives you a feeling of distant hope.

6. Learn what it takes to put your baby into a deep sleep mode. Babies have a light sleep mode that comes before deep sleep. If you put them down in light sleep mode, they are restless for most of the hour or two they could have been soundly sleeping. If you fail, remember that there will be many, many more opportunities to fail.

7. Snack, but not too much. My theory is that you’re burning extra calories by staying awake. Might as well snack on good stuff like pop tarts and twinkies. Wash down with milk. Nap while standing.

8. Change the baby when she is fed, not when hungry. This leads to the problem of additional waste elimination during changing. However, if you use the new-diaper-under-old-diaper trick, this is relatively easy to deal with compared to the pissed off how-dare-you-try-to-change-me-when-all-I-want-is-FOOD-NOW meltdown you get when changing a hungry baby. A calm baby might remain calm and be easier to get to sleep.

9. Learn to sleep when you don’t really feel like sleeping. Then do it.

10. Whenever you put the baby down and she is out like a light, say to yourself, “I could be sleeping right now.” Eventually it will sink in.

11. See #2.

Hamming

Just read a transcript of a talk called You and Your Research by Richard Hamming. He says if you want to do great work you need to tackle the biggest problems in your field. That’s not easy. Big problems can make you give up, walk away, find something easier to do. They can turn your life into a quixotic journey if you are foolhardy. But I like the way he encourages you to go for it anyway. And I think his approach can be applied to a lot more in life than just research.

Ask yourself, “What are the biggest problems in my life?” Then look for approaches to those problems. Not necessarily immediate solutions. Just approaches. Work those approaches carefully, diligently, patiently, and courageously. If you put in the time, you’ll get results.