Goto's Matrix

As the days have unfolded since last weekend's Memorial Day Gashuku I've found that some images and ideas have stayed with me. Of course one of the images is that of Hitohiro Saito Soke demonstrating the precise body position at the end of Tai No Henko. Another image is that of Dennis Tatoian Sensei wearing an eye patch.

But one of the most interesting ideas surfacing is from Hans Goto's Saturday afternoon class. In that day's post I wrote down the elements that Goto Sensei had in play:

1. Categories of keiko: Kihon, Yawarakai, Ki no Nagare, where Kihon is static, Yawrakai is flexible, and Ki no Nagare is flowing.

2. Elements of Aikido: Tai Sabaki, Kokyu Ryoku, and Ki Musubi, where Tai Sabaki is body position, hanmi, hips, spacing; Kokyu Ryoku is the marshaling of spiral power, and Ki Musubi denotes the blend, in which Nage merges with the body and energy of the attacker.

As I considered these factors, sort of hovering like gnats in my mind, they suddenly organized themselves in a neat matrix as though random stars converging into a recognizable constellation. I stopped and wrote down the scheme. It looked like this.

Immediately I realized that this scheme was probably what Goto Sensei was offering during class Saturday, and I was too distracted or dense to figure it out. But it made sense.

In Iwama Style aikido we tend to spend a long time working on basics of Tai Sabaki in Kihon training, since static techniques begin from a grounded set position, and it's easy to correct bad footwork, for instance. That's why the upper left cell gets developed first.

Moving down the column, a more sophisticated piece is Kokyu Ryoku, the spiral power deployed by the body to be the engine of Aikido, the physical dynamics within which Ki is expressed. Developing Kokyu Ryoku is very important for Kihon training, because without it many static techniques will never get started; the attacker is too strong and has grabbed too hard, and there you both are. Kokyu is a way to get things into motion from a static position, but only if you can command it. At Dennis Tatoian's dojo, when I was a kyu ranked student, we did Morote Dori Kokyu Ho at the beginning of every class, and sometimes uke would grab very hard. Muscle strength was useless in many cases because uke was physically bigger and stronger. Only Kokyu could move uke, and this is how, eventually, many of Tatoian Sensei's smaller students could do Morote Dori Kokyu Ho on anyone.

Even more elusive is Ki Musubi, or knotting your Ki with that of another, merging with their energy to achieve effortless execution. It seems to help if you also have good footwork and deploy Kokyu. Perhaps these elements are even necessary conditions required for the blend to happen in the first place.

Yet still all this can be progressing within the realm of Kihon training, as the diagram depicts. It's not as though we don't practice flexible or flowing keiko, we do. But these categories of training involve more movement, usually are executed more rapidly, and can become a refuge in which imprecision is tolerated simply because you move through it so fast. You just can't get away with sloppy footwork or lack of kokyu in static training. Focusing on Tai Sabaki, Kokyu Ryoku, and Ki Musubi at the Kihon level may make it more likely that your Yawarakai and Ki no Nagare Aikido will be powerful and effective too.

I remember once when Goto Sensei invited a spirited morote dori attack from me. I ran at him, got my hands barely on his extended arm, and then found myself somehow flying head over heels across the mat. I am probably 100 pounds heavier and a lot bigger than he is, but I went flying anyway. In terms of the above matrix, this throw incorporated the three elements of Tai Sabaki, Kokyu Ryoku, and Ki Musubi in the form of Ki no Nagare Aikido. Yet, I believe that Goto Sensei spent a lot of time working in the Kihon and Yawarakai trenches before he was able to effectively throw a large man running straight at him.

Saito Sensei was a master organizer who made the study of Aikido systematic and therefore seemingly attainable by anyone with enough perserverence. Goto Sensei, one of his students, seems to have continued with the tradition of organizing elements of the art to show both what is important in various stages of training, and a systematic pathway to more sophisticated practice.

Eventually, I am sure that pure Aikido, perhaps what John Stevens Sensei calls "air," transcends all systems and methods for organizing elements of the art. But artificial categories, while perhaps clunky and inelegant, can be powerful instructional tools that may end up helping many people achieve the precision, power, and ability to blend effortlessly in a rapidly changing and chaotic situation that marks true effectiveness in Aikido. It just takes time, effort, and perhaps a good road map.

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