16 September 2002: Moot

Considering what a constant presence and pervasive influence aikido is in my life, I sure don't write about it much. Today, though, I had occasion to do so, on the Moot, my Pack's ongoing open-topic email discussion group. Every now and then, I post something to the Moot that I think is worth hanging onto, for future reference and/or for future reading by those not on the Moot. I usually don't actually get around to hanging onto whatever it is, but today it occurred to me that I could just paste it into this journal.

So anyway, a fellow aikidoka on the Moot today remarked that "Trickery is central to aikido," meaning that aikido is an art that allows one to take down big burly attackers by outwitting them. Which is true enough at a superficial level, but there are enough aikidoka on the Moot that I figured we didn't need to limit ourselves to that level.

Here's what I had to say:

Trickery is central to every martial art, combat sport, and effective streetfighting technique.  As soon as one gets more sophisticated than "stand toe to toe and take turns hitting each other until someone falls down," one is into the realm of trickery.  Can you imagine how lame and useless boxing and fencing would be if it was against the rules to feint?  How about a judo or karate style where it was against the rules to try to do anything that might catch your opponent by surprise?

Actually, I think trickery is less central to aikido than it is to any other martial art.  Aikido techniques are tricks of a sort, but the techniques are just the surface.  If one makes the trickery central, suddenly one is doing a not-particularly-effective form of jujitsu.

What makes aikido work, and what makes it aikido, is a particular quality of awareness.  The deeper I've tapped into this quality of awareness, the less tricksterish I've found it to be.  If you'll pardon me for speaking astrologese, it's much more about Saturn and Jupiter than Mercury.

It is this trickery-transcending quality of aikido that gives it an unusual benefit that is rarely mentioned.  Every proponent of aikido talks about how you can use aikido to effectively thwart attackers who are much bigger and stronger than you.  But actually, my maternal grandfather, a bantamweight boxer, was just as cabable as any aikidoka at taking out big burly attackers.  What impresses me more about aikido is that when I get into the right state of consciousness, beyond the tricks, I can effectively thwart attackers who are faster and more clever than I am.

By the way, if you have the good taste to be a regular reader of this journal, and you're not yet on the Moot, I recommend joining. There's some pretty good conversation to be had there; it's a great place to initiate a brainstorm session on just about anything. You'll have to email me for information about how to join; I won't publish the list's email address here because I don't want it to fall into the hands of spammers or other subhuman vermin.

(Remember, kids, Anti-Spam Chimp says, "Track down those spammers and cut their fingers off with bolt cutters so they can't hit the Send button anymore.")