Tuesday, November 06, 2007

The Bourne Aikidoka

Here is a good example of one phenomenon that I talked about at the seminar this past weekend. In these film clips, the point of view changes rapidly from one angle to another to create the illusion of hyper-speed motion. Notice that even when Bourne is just standing still holding a gun, the camera jiggles a little bit, creating an illusion of motion and urgency.
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Well, the same thing happens in aikido. If tori allows his eyes to flit from one place to another, it changes his point of view. Not only does this spoil tori's sense of distance and angle, but it makes the conflict appear to take place at hyper-speed.
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We worked some randori with one partner assigned to lock his gaze on the center of mass of the other one's head while the other partner was instructed to constantly shift his gaze from his partner to the nearest corner of the room. Everyone agreed that this shifting of gaze angle and focus was not only disorienting, but it was physically exhausting because it seemed like the randori was going so much faster.

1 comment:

  1. Good post.

    One of my teachers was able to do what he called a "ghost punch" that I was unable to block even when he told me exactly where he was going to hit. It was very unnerving.

    What the technique relied on was a small movement that attracted the eye away from the uncoming fist, much the way that a magician diverts attention with sleight of hand.

    So what you mention in the post actual has an application.

    Formosa Neijia

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