by Nick Lowry
In Randori we are learning to perceive and react– go as slow and light as possible because the more you can stay in the slow/light frame of reference, the more information you will have about what is happening. Our own speed and internal tensions rob us of perception;speed tends to blur the distinct visual and tactile signals coming at us, and strength/heaviness numbs out our sensations of subtle activity and all we feel is a blur of gross movement.
To react with good timing means to react to the subtle; by the time a process has evolved to the gross state it is probably too late. If you are becoming frustrated at “getting got,” and you can’t figure out how its happening then you are most certainly working too fast and too heavy.
React with movement, not stasis. As forces act upon you, the highest probability for survival depends upon you getting into motion and learning to move with the force — this is the essence of aiki— as you are pushed or pulled or twisted, feel the lines of force and move into them with your whole body. When your whole body moves you use the power of hazumi that results from you center of gravity moving through space and all the equations change. Isolated movement or resistance in the body is ikioi which has limited usefulness (please remember that it is useful, but just not as your main strategy).
Understand that this is a form of play that is non-competitive. Because of the stresses of poor play, we may fall prey to misunderstanding what we are doing. Randori is a form of play that is like playing music together or dancing together or playing catch with each other; it is like having a stimulating and lively conversation; it is like two jugglers keeping a ball of “off-balance” in the air. You toss the off balance to me — I catch it as cleanly as i can (and i either fall or get into fluid motion with it). If I have moved with it well enough, i can throw the off balance back to you and its your turn to either fall or get into motion with it. Do not take off-balance personally. Off balance here is not even a “problem to be solved” but a fun thing to be played with; it is not a monster or dragon to avoid, it is an expession of reality and harmony. Become intimate with the process of off-balance in your own body and you will become intimate with it in others bodies as well.
To learn to play this way well requires that you move your whole body and accept the forces acting upon you. Moving the whole body is critical because as we start to catch off balance (act as uke “the receiver”) the temptation may be to stiffen or buck up against the effects of kuzushi with our postural muscles or with counter torsion (ikioi by definition). If I try to both resist the off balance and catch it at the same time, I create confusion and raise the stakes. I am no longer playing catch with you, now I want to play dodge ball– dodge ball hurts. I want to hit you and not get hit. I have reacted late and with power, so now I’ve turned our lively conversation into an argument. I’m shouting– it is a basically a dysfunctional one-sided game of catch. Music cannot happen now — we have devolved into mere noise.
As a side note the internal stiffness and counter torsions also set me up for sharp sudden falls — You cannot both resist off balance and take clean easy falls at the same time— Strength begets strength and in kaeshi waza (techniques of reversal) strength and speed have catastrophic results. A big part of self -defense is not just how to avoid or counter the techniques with efficient principle but also how to survive the fall. Adding energy and stiffness just makes the ground that much harder.
As the person executing technique/effecting off balance please remember to play nice — don’t crank– don’t speed up– don’t add pain or cheap shots– don’t be abusive– you can hold what you got and you can move into a throw with commitment and principle — but if you add ugly energy and unpleasantness, the laws of karma will come back to haunt you– Do not become infatuated with your own sense of power– best to “do unto others” nice because its your partner’s turn next. Sadistic application is not safe or tolerable in aiki. We reap as we sow. Stay gentle and polite even when you have the winning hand.