kato wrote:
I find these concepts interesting. I have been practising Taiji for some time, developing different taiji forces mainly for health purposes. Especially in the past 10 years I have discovered more and more similarities between Wado stances and techniques from the south school of Taiji, various daoyins (old chinese health exercises) and also Bagua. Nai Hanchi, kihon kumite and Junzuki no tsukomi are some examples.
It would be great if you could explain a bit more how you connect and how you extend yourself, e.g. if you mostly use mind force (put your "mind"/intention in the opponents hara) or use vibrational force, if you extend your energy from hara, the ground or the arms, etc.
Hello Kato,
The nairiki no gyo kata in Shindo Yoshin ryu, which informed Ohtsuka's jujutsu training are supposedly descended from southern Chinese martial traditions. So yes, they are essentially Japanese modifications of the Chinese daoyins found in many Chinese internal training traditions (Jigong).
Talking about these things in detail on a discussion forum is almost impossible because an accurate and accepted lexicon does not exist. The Chinese and Japanese created their own lexicon based on unique cultural concepts that are very different from those embraced by European cultures. Consequently, when westerners translate eastern concepts via an eastern lexicon they frequently misunderstand or totally obliterate the context. An example of this is your use of "mind force" or "vibrational force". To most westerners this takes what is actually quite concrete and moves it into the realm most people would think is mystical or magical. This approach makes learning this stuff extremely difficult if not impossible. Why? Because there is no such thing as magic! Some stuff looks like magic and can even feel like magic, but its not. It's physical with a dash of mental manipulation thrown in. I try very hard to steer clear of mystical terminology when discussing this stuff because it has the two fold effect of hampering a good students progress while encouraging students who want to believe in magic. Sometimes a quasi-mystical term is all we have, so it must suffice, but it is not ideal. In the end, talking about this stuff is just talk. You must feel it in person to even grasp what's going on.
So......In my own lexicon I will explain it like this.
The nairiki no gyo are a series of training methods intended to create what my teacher called a budo body. This is a body capable of unified, powerful and relaxed movement that also manifests an extremely expanded level of sensitivity. So, by utilizing a properly connected body structure I am able to avoid the inherent weaknesses associated with independent muscular movement. Essentially I create a body structure capable of subtle, coordinated and extremely efficient power transfer. This type of body structure also allows me to develop a highly sensitive neuro-feedback network. I can feel not only inside my structure, but through someones else's body structure the moment they touch me. At the moment of contact I employ almost imperceptible movement to generate and project force through the attacking structure.
There is an element of mental force involved in this. I frequently use mental visualization as I steer this force through the structure of the adversary, but I must warn people. If you focus on mental skills too strongly, it will send you on a dead end detour that can upset your training for years. Mental visualization is very subtle and can be effective but it cannot really be taught. I prefer to say it is arrived at through experience. I can after 20 years mentally think right shoulder, and the adversary will fall right. I can mentally picture pelvis back and the adversaries structure will collapse backward at the hips. Maybe this what you are calling mind force but I prefer to say it is just very advanced mind/body coordination. Everyone one of us is capable of this sort of thing with enough practice. Do we mentally think, turn the door knob right? No, we just open the door. Same thing here, but its just more advanced and nuanced. I wish I could mentally think "fall down" to someone across the room, and they'd fall down, but alas, it doesn't work. This stuff is physical manipulation reinforced by the mental manipulation. (FWIW, I can throw people without touching them but its something else all togerther and is not always successful. It depends on a unique type of mental inertia or visual disruption and does not reflect any level of mental powers.)
As for vibrational force, I think I know what you mean. It sounds interesting but such terminology would confuse me as a student because I would think I needed to literally physically vibrate. I like the word "tone" better. I move with one tone. It describes the power generation and level of connection through a body structure. If you un-connect your structure and start depending on individual muscular movement, you start creating multiple tones of force. Between these tones are gaps. An adversary will intuitively perceive these gaps and attempt to exploit them. With one tone I can connect to a structure so softly that they are not aware of the connection. I can then raise the tone without increasing any force. When the adversary then attempts to move me or attack my structure, they inadvertently destroy their own structure because they were never aware that a connection already existed, reinforced by a very powerful tone. So when I touch an adversaries blade with my blade, I do it with one tone. This allows me to feel their entire structure and connect to their center of gravity. Any movement on their part except complete disengagement will compromise their structure because they run into my structure reinforced by my tone, so they die. To completely disengage will result in a blindingly fast attack, so they die.
This sort of ability is why you hear the stories of two samurai facing off all day and never engaging swords or attacking. To physically engage puts the initiator in extreme disadvantage so the best tactic was to attack through a gap, or counterattack in perfect synchronization with a weak or imperfect attack. If no one ever left an opening, there was no chance for a successful attack, and no chance for a successful counterattack. This is strategy and technique at its highest level. This is why kenjutsu is considered the king of the Japanese strategy schools. It is also why Wado ryu does not ascribe to Karate Ni Sente Nashi. In real Japanese budo, everything is sente.
Toby Threadgill / TSYR