Category: Martial Arts Principles

"No One Falls Like That" - A Discussion On Ukemi

1/18/2022

Author: Bret Gordon

Yesterday, my instructor Steven Hatfield and I put out a video together showcasing various aiki and jujutsu techniques taught in American Yoshinkan Aiki Jujutsu. It's nothing spectacular, just a one-minute highlight clip, but it's special because it's the first time we've put anything out together for public consumption regarding aiki. I'll include the video at the end of this article. True to form, our personal press corps took less than 2 hours to share the video and offer some constructive criticism.

One of the most consistent criticisms of demonstrations like this, in addition to the assumption that aiki is fake, is that the responses of the uke do not match the physical output of the tori. They are used to large, external movements being required to throw someone. The very foundation of internal martial arts, Aiki Jujutsu being one of them, is that power is generated in a subtle manner that is imperceptible to the untrained eye. There's nothing esoteric about it. It's not based on magic or anything mystical like chi. It's just a different way of transmitting force through the body (and into another person through physical touch) that is generated through cohesive body movement rather than segregating a limb from the rest of the core. I'll write more articles on the subject in greater detail, but here I'd like to focus on the uke.

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How Okuden Killed The Martial Arts (Part 2)

1/13/2022

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Author: Bret Gordon

In Part 1 (click here), I discussed how the secrecy of kata had led to the misconception that Karate is not viable for real violence. In this article, we're going to explore an even more esoteric art steeped in mysticism and tradition that most people discount as a fighting system - Aiki Jujutsu.

When most people think of the aiki arts, Aikido is what comes to mind. Unfortunately, the Ueshiba family has made it clear their vision for Aikido does not include fighting or contests of any kind. But the aiki arts as a whole are often subject to ridicule if not complete dismissal among the majority of the martial arts community. We get lumped in with the likes of George Dillman and his no-touch knockouts, which are nothing more than the power of suggestion over highly susceptible individuals.

Real aiki, on the other hand, is a set of biomechanical principles and processes. When you understand what you are looking at, everything is supported by sound principles of physics. The training methods, however, must be felt to understood. The better one is, the more fake it looks. My teacher once said "if you understand what just happened to you, it's not aiki." So again, we have another case of secrecy killing the art. But why?

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Words Matter: An Important Note On Kuzushi And Aiki

12/3/2020

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Author: Bret Gordon

Many people are probably familiar with the video of the street performer walking up a stairway of glass bottles. If not, you can view the video here. Her ability to balance on such a small surface is impressive, but that's not why I'm referencing it now. Serious practitioners normally assert the cliché that Budo is life, but that can only be true if we find educational martial value in everyday activities.

I belong to several aiki discussion groups on social media, through which I've been able to establish connections (no pun intended) with numerous, top level instructors in the aiki community. One such group is led by Bill Dockery, the author of the "Aiki Secrets" book series which I have had the honor to review and highly recommend (to purchase a copy, click here), who is the inspiration for this article. An engineer by trade, Mr. Dockery always surprises me with his ability to articulate the fundamental principles of an otherwise misunderstood and somewhat esoteric practice such as aiki.

Mr. Dockery shared the video of this performer with the following analysis:

"The two most mis-used words in Aikido: Balance and Stability. This woman was balanced the entire time (she never fell), but had extremely little stability (a good shove from a toddler would have toppled her). Pop Quiz: A flat foot on the ground improves which: stability or balance? Have you though it through? Read on...
You are no more balanced with your entire foot on the ground than you are with just the ball of your foot, or even a toe. In all of these cases, you are not falling, so you are balanced! But they do vary in their stability. Thus, Uke's balance is not broken until you throw Uke, i.e., until Uke falls. What most call a 'balance break' is actually de-stabilization, the reduction in stability. It sounds pedantic, until you ask yourself,
'How do I make Uke unstable?, How do I 'willow' them?'
'What is the measure of stability?'
'If I know, will I know better how to create it in my opponent?'
'When, or at least what happens in that 'break' between stability and falling?'"

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Real Vs. Practical

3/29/2019

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Author: Bret Gordon

With the explosion of the internet, social media is flooded with videos of martial artists from around the world demonstrating their art. This has also coincided with the rise of MMA, which has challenged the validity and practicality of many styles and their training methods (rightfully so). There are now entire websites and pages dedicated to exposing "frauds" in the martial arts. Unfortunately, because of the prevalence of MMA they don't always get it right. A common sentiment is that if you're not training BJJ, what you study is garbage. I get it, we're all partial to the arts we study. If we didn't think it was advantageous to do it, why would we? But the terms "real" and "practical" get thrown around a lot, and in this article I want to clarify the two because they are not the same thing.

For something to be real, it means that it is genuine. What you just saw really happened, and it was not faked or contrived. That said, not everything that is real is practical. For something to be practical, in a martial sense, it must be viable for self defense or survival in a live, violent encounter against another human being with malicious intent. Therefore, it is entirely possible for something to be real but not practical. That said, practicality is determined by the context something is being practiced for. You would not judge the practicality of archery by whether or not you can fire an arrow inside the Octagon. No one denies the efficiency of a side kick to the xiphoid process, except when there's a gun pointed to your head. Context is everything.

In order to demonstrate the difference between real and practical, let's look at everyone's favorite subject: "No Touch" techniques. If you don't know what I'm talking about, you've probably been living under a rock but to summarize, there are countless videos of martial artists using "chi" to move or throw another person without actually touching them. Now, there have been videos done where independent third parties have come in with medical equipment and detected measurable effects on the recipients of these techniques that otherwise have no explanation. That said, it was not able to be replicated on someone from the outside. Does this mean it was fake? No. Something happened. There was a physical, biological response to the stimuli offered by the person executing the technique. Because of its inability to be replicated with those who have not been initiated into the school, we can conclude that the response was triggered psychologically. The power of the human mind is something we still struggle to fully grasp, and if one believes they will be affected by something, they usually are.

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It's All About Balance: A Deeper Study Of The Arts

1/13/2019

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Author: Bret Gordon

One can hardly engage in any physical endeavor without hearing the term "balance." Depending on the context, this could mean anything from the way your bodyweight is distributed to making sure you're addressing all of your needs on a physical, mental, emotional, psychological and spiritual level. As martial artists, we tend to focus so heavily on the physical aspects of training that we neglect everything else. But as my last article addressed the spiritual refinement in Budo (click here to read), I want to get even deeper.

Historically, many of the most prominent martial artists were also healers. They were doctors, bone setters, massage therapists and energy workers. The truth is that these endeavors are not separate from martial arts. Rather they are an extension of them, so much so that to practice martial arts without delving into the healing arts is to never reach mastery. Unfortunately, the Chinese internal martial arts (Taijiquan, Xingyiquan and Baguazhang) seem to be the only arts that prominently feature the healing arts as a staple of their training, to the point that most people ignorantly believe that the classification of an internal martial arts signifies that it is meant solely for healing and not for combative purposes. This couldn't be farther from the truth. In this article, I want to highlight both what it truly means to be an internal martial art, what the healing arts are, and the necessity for studying them as part of your journey of Budo.

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Seishin Teki Kyoyo: Spiritual Refinement In Budo

1/12/2019

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Author: Bret Gordon

Recent events in my personal life have caused me to re-evaluate everything, which has lead me on a rather interesting journey with deep implications. In the past, I've written about how Budo is the study of life and death. Essentially, by training in the arts of war you understand both the fragility of life and your own ability to take it. Therefore, having such an appreciation for the sanctity of life should (in theory) lead you down a path of seeking a peaceful resolution to the majority of life's problems. But even this just scratches the surface to understanding Budo.

When you understand the character Do 道 (Tao in Chinese, as in Taoism), it does translate as "The Way," but the way to what? In this context, we're speaking about the path to enlightenment. When you couple it with Bu 武 (which refers to the military, war and combat) you come up with a rather interesting translation. What most people simply translate as "the martial way" is in reality the path to enlightenment through combat. Looking at enlightenment as having attained a higher level of spiritual knowledge or insight, where does the study of combat play a role in this?

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The Problem With Internal Martial Arts

8/28/2018

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Author: Bret Gordon

The deeper I go in my study of Aiki Jujutsu and internal power, the more styles of internal arts I've encountered. Lately, I seem to have gotten myself immersed in the Chinese internal arts community and have even taken up a cursory study of Baguazhang to help expand and refine my develop of aiki. The more I watch and engage with other internal practitioners, however, the more I notice a rather unsettling trend that's not unlike the rest of the martial arts community... The complete abandonment of practical martial application.

I've written countless articles thus far stressing the importance of maintaining practical and intensive training for self protection as a large part of your martial arts study, and the internal martial arts are not exempt from this. Let's not forget that the word "martial" implies a combative context and to ignore that section of the art (which in this context refers to a skill or discipline) is to do a great disservice to those who came before us and the legacy they left behind.

While it's true that most martial arts are descended from combat systems, the internal martial arts have historically held a place of significance in protecting those of high stature. In Japan, the Minamoto and Takeda clans were charged as Imperial guards. They trained in the art of Oshiki Uchi (also known as Gotenjutsu) to protect the Emperor and/or Shogun for over 700 years according to oral tradition, an art that later became Daito Ryu - the root of all Japanese aiki arts. In China, Dong Haichuan was charged with teaching his art of Baguazhang to the guards after winning patronage by the Imperial court. Even Okinawa has its own internal martial arts tradition, Motobu Udundi, that was used for the same purpose. The internal martial arts were chosen for this purpose because of their superiority in allowing the practitioner to counter conventional fighting techniques through the use of structure and respond with devastating results. So how did the elite fighting system of the historical Secret Service equivalent become the laughing stock of the martial arts today, and how do we fix it?

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Taiji Can't Fight

5/26/2018

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Author: Neil Ripski

The recent fight between a one-year MMA fighter and a Taiji teacher from Shanghai yet again demonstrates how weak Taiji has become and I am tired of it.

Taiji is not a magic pill that makes you suddenly able to fight, what you train is what you become and if you never train to pick up your hands against an opponent, not a compliant partner, you are not going to be able to use your art effectively. There are certainly many benefits to Taiji training without any fighting aspect involved, the health and longevity, sensitivity, and chance for self-work are all amazing parts of the art but realistically these things do not make a fighter. Nothing wrong with that, but deluding students and ourselves into thinking that it does make a fighter is a terrible crime. It breeds false confidence and unrealistic expectations and skews people’s visions of reality. Then, when challenged these dreamers find themselves being taken apart by beginners in arts that actually train fighting.

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"That Doesn't Work, I'll Just Let Go!"

5/9/2018

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Author: Bret Gordon

As an aiki jujutsu instructor, this is a statement I hear almost on a daily basis. It stems from both the outrageous number of charlatans floating around the internet and the overall ignorance when it comes to advanced martial arts. For those that don't know, what this statement is referring to are the wrist-grab connection drills that show an aiki practitioner effortlessly throwing an attacker without any conventional technique (to see an example of these drills, click here). This sounds ridiculous, and sometimes looks so too, but I assure you it's real. I know this because I was a heavy skeptic too, until I landed on my rear enough times to finally ask how it worked.

Before I go into the larger problem that this statement exemplifies, I want to explain how and why these wrist-grab connection drills work. First and foremost, we must understand that what is being demonstrated are not self defense techniques. They are drills meant to reinforce fundamental principles of balance, sensitivity, motion, timing and structural manipulation. Once the student learns and ingrains these principles, they begin to infuse them into conventional joint locks and throwing techniques to make them more efficient and effective. But that doesn't mean these drills require a compliant attacker either. In fact, the very premise of aiki involves receiving the force of your attacker and returning it. Therefore, you must have a committed attack to work from. The attacker must grab you with malicious intent.

The common response is that the attacker can simply let go and neutralize the technique. In theory, that's true, but the reason they don't let go is based on our natural fear of falling. Do you ever notice how when you lose your balance, you immediately reach out for something to grab onto? In order to fight this fear, the body has a postural control system that has two major functions: to ensure that balance is maintained by bracing the body against gravity, and to fix the orientation and position of the features that serve as a frame of reference for perception and action with respect to the external world. Postural control relies on multisensory processing and motor responses that seem to be automatic and occur without awareness. Our balance relies on the alignment of the vertical line. In reference to aiki connection drills, at the moment of contact the attacker is immediately shifted off their center line, giving the sensation of falling. The body's postural control system tries to correct that by anchoring itself to the only stable thing around it - the person throwing them. This gives the practitioner enough time to finish the throw by compromising the attacker's structure to the point of no return. So now that we've cleared that up, let's talk about the bigger problem!

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De-Mystifying Chi: A Scientific Explanation

5/7/2018

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Author: Bret Gordon

To start with, I promise this will not be some hokey article about a mystical force that no one can feel, see or otherwise experience. I'm not even going to talk about spirituality. The chi I'm talking about (and will be further referring to in Japanese as ki) is a very measurable force that exists within all things in nature. So what is it, and how is it applied in true internal martial arts?

Ki 気 literally means "energy," which is commonly defined as the ability to do work. In a martial arts context, we're referring specifically to the generation of force. Energy is created in the human body by a flow of electricity. At rest, the average human body produces around 100 watts of power. Electricity is required for the nervous system to send signals throughout the body and to the brain, making it possible for us to move, think and feel. Almost all of the cells in our body can use charged elements (such as sodium, potassium, calcium and magnesium), called ions, to generate electricity, and therefore energy.

All martial arts, and in fact all human movement, use this energy to generate power in their techniques. The amount of power you can generate is dependent on your overall use and understanding of biomechanics and proper structure. But this isn't an article on the most efficient way to punch or kick. Let's get deeper in our study of the arts, and specifically look at the taboo internal arts.

Most people's definition of internal martial arts comes from a rudimentary understanding of Taijiquan and Qigong. To them, the "internal" classification refers to the healing properties of these practices, and that's certainly part of it. The flow of energy through the body helps improve the circulatory and respiratory systems, which in turn promote overall health. But can you use ki combatively? Yes! There are two distinct applications of ki in the internal martial arts: disruption and connection.

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<<Previous

USAMA BLOG

"No One Falls Like That" - A Discussion On Ukemi

How Okuden Killed The Martial Arts (Part 2)

Words Matter: An Important Note On Kuzushi And Aiki

Real Vs. Practical

It's All About Balance: A Deeper Study Of The Arts

Seishin Teki Kyoyo: Spiritual Refinement In Budo

The Problem With Internal Martial Arts

Taiji Can't Fight

"That Doesn't Work, I'll Just Let Go!"

De-Mystifying Chi: A Scientific Explanation

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