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Ignatius Teo wrote:
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Raul Rodrigo wrote:
At the higher level, a kneeling tori can absorb a shove to the chest by a lunging uke and just....bounce him away.
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Raul, I would hesitate to say that this is a "high level" skill, BUT there are varying degrees to which people can start to develop and utilize this ability, because it is based on base level skills.[snip]
The point is, the basic concept is simple to teach and once you understand the basic concept it's not hard - but it requires A LOT of practice.
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I've tried to say there are "levels and gradations" of these skills, but the 'bounce' things are probably a good case in point. It's pretty easy to teach someone to bounce someone away, once they get even a coarse grasp of jin skill. However, there are all sorts of interesting little add-ons that can go in a bounce and there is a level of conditioning that allows someone to go from a very simple mechanical bounce with obvious forces lined up to an almost imperceptible type of force in which you can't see an obvious line-up.
As an aside, while the bounce jin can be trained as a nice demo trick, the basic power is still the power that you would use in an atemi and a kokyu throw, so this really isn't a meaningless tangent that has nothing to do with Aikido.
Remember that each joint robs a little power, so the power of a push with the shoulder is going to be stronger than a push with the hand because with a push at the hand your wrist, elbow, and shoulder-joint provide slight force losses, depending upon your conditioning. Similarly, a bounce from the torso or leg has some advantage because the losses through the joints are small.
In the case of the old Bagua man in Ignatius' clip, his arms are bent and he's still generating a certain amount of force (how much, I really can't decided... obviously the people around him are deferring to him, so all I can say is that he's generating a surprising amount of force for someone in his 90's).
His force is very high... what they would call "Hua Jing", or "mysterious power". The two levels below it would "An JIng" or "hidden power" and then the lowest form, "Ming Jing" or obvious power. So you see some people do a nice "withdraw and push forward" and even though it may be something a beginner can't do, you can see the mechanics. Ueshiba Sensei was doing it at the "hidden" level, but then again, bear in mind that this type of power is not particularly a specialty of Aikido. But that shouldn't stop anyone from trying to achieve the highest level, should it? Shoot for the moon.... if you only hit the top of the mountain, so what?
Best.
Mike Sigman