One thing that we’ve been working on in class is this idea of being able to feel a technique through the hand position.
I think if you really get comfortable with the “hand-taste” – I like that word: it’s as if the hand itself knows what it feels like to, say, have a proper nikyo grip – then all the techniques flow naturally.
On the other hand, until you acquire that sort of natural recognition of aiki through the hands, then as you’re making a technique connect, you tend to fumble: you try to get ahead and you go too fast… you’re always trying to get to the end, so you miss the beginning .
But if you take the hand correctly the technique is done: you’ve already changed their kamae, and you have a really powerful connection to their center through the palm contact aspect of aiki.
I think, also, this keeps you from getting caught up in arbitrary movement: if your grip is correct, then just like if your grip on the sword is correct, then the sword works… if your grip on uke is correct, then just being relaxed and centered and shizentai will of itself, and quite simply, cause the technique.
Their energy will feed into that connected system, and you will find it quite easy to know where to be.
Also, the real sense of musubi, that’s always there, makes it feel really sacred. There’s a definite sense of: “This is aiki.” And then we’re doing
something more than just harming each other, or getting good at embodying a catalogue of old techniques in order to preserve them.”
I think sometimes we miss that: the beauty which attracts us initially: while we are trying to figure out how to pass a test or get techniques, sometimes we lose that.
And, you know, one of the best ways is to soften up your hands – “hands like a baby” – and really come to understand that palm grip. Tonight, when we were working, as soon as everyone relaxed and just made sure that that palm connection was correct, then you all found that the simplest movement would create the technique. And t h e n we could go on to talk about omote and ura and all the various descriptors. What happened was that, rather than trying to make something happen, we were in the correct state all the time.
It doesn’t take long, if you just focus on these things.
And I think we’re lucky, because we do have a technique for softening the palm, that a lot of dojos don’t do any more. But you know: softening the palm really does make things better. Your hands are prepared.
– – – Kimbal Anderson Sensei