Hip throw kuzushi by Greek judoka, Mike Nomikos

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Shomenate by the numbers

Per my last post, we've started working Junana in more of a kihon mode.  That is, static uke and explicit emphasis on making each phase of the technique (kuzushi, tsukuri, and kake) as distinct as possible.  This past week we worked shomenate and we've already seen some interesting aspects crop up in our practice.

Kuzushi, tsukuri, and kake in kihon no kata

Every teacher and organization and group and subgroup has its own distinctive practices.  Things they do because of the way they interact or the particular way that they happen to think about the art we are doing. It is easy to look at other artists doing this thing that you thought that you had the exclusive truth about and think, "That guy sucks."  If you're looking for videos of people sucking at aikido - they are super easy to find!  Heck, I guarantee I could show you a video of Tomiki Sensei and your response would be, That dude is a white belt!

Parallel evolution

When I'm filtering around the interwebs looking for things of interest, I prefer to look for the commonalities between different approaches rather than the differences.  For instance, I figure that if I look at how an aikido guy does a particular thing and how a karate guy does a similar thing then the truth might likely be somewhere in the middle.

Without this, they drop like they're shot

In my previous post I posed a question. Does aikido possess a technique or skill that would allow the aikidoka to reliably make a violent opponent stop their misdeeds immediately without necessarily causing them grievous injury?  I think I've left y'all in suspense long enough so I'll let you in on what I was thinking.

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Kuzushi is what I was thinking of.  The ability to rob someone of their balance.  Balance has been called the Mother Attribute, because without balance you cannot apply speed or power.

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So, kuzushi is not only a facilitator of technique, but it is also a great equalizer, and if it can be developed both skillfully and reliably, then it could potentially become the entirety of the art.  If you have the opponent's balance, you don't need anything else.

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To see more of what I've written on kuzushi, see this.

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Kuzushi can be done right or wrong

One can think about kuzushi in a lot of different ways, including -

• A pre-requisite or set-ups for doing a technique.  The first step in executing a technique.  (Classical judo thinking)
• Slowing/weakening uke so that tori/nage has more than enough power to effect his will upon uke. (IIRC, The Book of Martial Power calls this "shortening uke’s line."  One of my favorite instructors of all time use to hammer us with the idea that the purpose of kuzushi is to make uke slower and weaker than yourself - that is, kuzushi forces uke to work at however slow a speed you want him to.)
• Crumbling structure - if you become expert at kuzushi, you can do it so well that you do not need any of your own power to effect the kake part of the throw. Sort of like expert demolitions men that can disrupt the structure of a building so precisely that they can drop it wherever they want to, or an expert woodcutter that can fell a tree exactly where he wants to.

Watch the video above.  They're not putting external force on the tree (or at least not much - they appear to be adding wedges to keep the saw blade free.)  They just disrupt the tree's structure so precisely that it falls where they want it.  If this is analogous to an aikido or judo throw, then there is no kake phase.  They just do tsukuri and kuzushi and then wait in a safe place.

Watch the following two videos - one of kuzushi done right and one of kuzushi done dramatically wrong. 

People, like buildings, have a lot of potential energy, and causing them to fall to the ground recklessly can cause a lot of grief, so it behooves us to figure out how to do this kuzushi thing right.

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Seven fundamental off-balances

So, Nick's got a cool shindig planned for end of September at his place in OKC.  I think the way it works is everyone that shows up is supposed to bring some aiki or judo thing to play with.  The piece that I want to work on is Koryu Dai Yon  - especially the first 7 movements that some people call Shichihon no kuzushi.

The first two of these things have long been my nemesis, my aiki-arch enemy.  But what better to work on with the gurus in OKC than the thing I suck the worst at?  Should be fun.

You should come play with us - you'll either learn something or have a good time laughing at my incompetence!

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More balance training with balls

It's what it says - Ronda balancing on some balls.  Some interesting games to add to your balance practice routines.

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Rener shows how to stand on a ball

Rener Gracie talking about and demonstrating some of the things that core strength and balance training with an exercise ball has done for him.

And a great little lesson on how to get up to standing on a ball (starts at 7:30)

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Judo newaza movement with a ball

Sensei Greg Ables at the recent Winter Intensive in OKC was hyping balance drills using balls, BOSU boards, and other stability training devices.  This is valuable because there is relatively little sport-specific solo exercise that we can do to improve our martial arts, and this is (I think) some of the best. 

 Stay tuned for some more examples...

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Shikaku=kuzushi

We are indoctrinated from day-1 in judo and aikido that the pre-requisites to doing a technique include...

• you have to have uke off-balanced (kuzushi)
• you have to move yourself to the right place (tsukuri)

Most everyone buys into this kuzushi-tsukuri-kake idea, but sometimes it can be difficult to tell if uke is offbalanced - or if he is off-balanced enough that you can do your technique.  If you think that kuzushi means to make uke lean, then how far do you have to lean him?  And then you come across people that can still bust you even when they are leaning and you thought they should have been off-balance.

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For a while now I've been trying to find simple, functional, reliable indicators of kuzushi.

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Some of my betters define kuzushi as "any time that uke has to take at least one unintended step before they can attack you effectively."

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If tori is able to get into shikaku (the dead zone behind uke's shoulder) then even if uke is not obviously leaning, he is (by definition) off-balance, because to continue to attack effectively uke will have to turn to face tori.

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So, the act of moving behind uke is tsukuri for many throws, and it is also creating a condition of kuzushi.

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The systematic way that we train tori to move behind uke we call hanasu (releases) and some clubs call it musubi renshu (connection practice) and other clubs just call it shichihon no kuzushi (7 offbalances).  The objective of each release is to place tori behind uke (in shikaku) and at the same time create a condition of offbalance (kuzushi).  So, since we train releases so much, you can use finishing the release as your heuristic-

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If you are able to finish a release then uke is (by definition) off-balance and you are in position for a technique.

[photo courtesy of wikipedia]

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Broken rhythm is broken balance

How can you tell when you have someone off balance so that you can execute your technique?

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We usually think about kuzushi as making uke lean to the edge of his base so that he has to recover or fall, but I think that is sort of a correlation-not-causation thing.  Certainly we have all seen highly-ranked people that can make use of much, much smaller kuzushi - so how do they tell when they have the guy offbalance?

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They rely (at least partly) on their sense of rhythm.

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Try this demonstration - have uke stroll across the mat with a slow, steady, metronomic rhythm.  Then partway through his stroll, bump him on the shoulder.  It doesn't have to be violent - just enough to cause a pause or a stutter-step.  Or alternately, in randori watch for times when you and the other guy take 2-3 steps together in synch, and after step 2 or 3, bump him on the arm or shoulder and see doesn't the rhythm change and he leans to some degree out over his edge.

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Any disruption in uke's chosen walking pace is an indicator of kuzushi because uke must be in control of his own balance in order for him to operate at his own chosen rhythm.

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So, broken rhythm is broken balance. 

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Call me "Trim Tab Sensei"

This weekend I'm going to be talking at Union University about kuzushi (off-balance) among other things.  

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Kuzushi is a force magnifier.  Suppose, in a given situation, it would take 100 units of force to throw your opponent, and you only have 50 units at your disposal.  Unless you do something to weaken uke or make him at least 50 units more susceptible then you will not be doing your technique.

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That is not too hard to imagine, but what if you only have 10 units of force at your disposal... Do you suppose you still might find a long enough lever to do a 100 unit technique?

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What if you only have 1/2 unit of force that you can use... Is that sort of force magnification even possible?  I mean sure, Copernicus or someone said if you give him a lever long enough and a place to stand he'd move the Earth,  but I'm talking about in real-world situations.  Is it possible to get good enough at actual skills (not jedi magic tricks) that you can magnify your potential 200x or minimize the opponent's strength by 200x?

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Sure.  There are examples from physics of force magnification much greater than that.  For instance, from the Wikipedia article on trim tabs...

The engineer Buckminster Fuller is often cited for his use of trim tabs as a metaphor for leadership and personal empowerment. In the February 1972 issue of Playboy, Fuller said: "Something hit me very hard once, thinking about what one little man could do. Think of the Queen Mary—the whole ship goes by and then comes the rudder. And there's a tiny thing at the edge of the rudder called a trim tab. It's a miniature rudder. Just moving the little trim tab builds a low pressure that pulls the rudder around. Takes almost no effort at all. So I said that the little individual can be a trim tab. Society thinks it's going right by you, that it's left you altogether. But if you're doing dynamic things mentally, the fact is that you can just put your foot out like that and the whole big ship of state is going to go. So I said, call me Trim Tab."

Apparently the old dead Chinese dudes were right when they suggested that a force of an ounce could turn a force of 1000 pounds.

It's not too much of a stretch to believe that this sort of leverage exists.  The REAL trick is learning to do it on a scale that is useful in combat, without tools, in real time, and under stress.

;-)

photo courtesy of JD Hancock

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Initiative, kuzushi, and lapses

My blogospheric buddy, the Aikidokie from Muskogee recently posted this great post on the Controlling Whack of Peace and Harmony.  But you know, Japanese is a tricky language.  How do you know that should not be translated as "The Harmonious Whack of Peaceful Controlling," or maybe even something like, "Love busts in?"

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Anyway, There's a lot of principles/ideas/jargon in the Japanese martial arts that a lot of times us Westerners seem to mis-understand, mis-appropriate, or conflate (myself more than anyone, I'm sure), and some of these terms Okiedoka either mentions or suggests.  Things like...

• disbalance (kuzushi)
• initiative (sen)
• weakness or opening (suki)

These are all sort of different things that work together to be one very confusing, almost numinous idea.  I thought I'd discuss today how I understand/misunderstand/divide these concepts.

Initiative is primarily a timing or rhythm concept.  Basically who gets to take the first turn to do their thing.

Different sensei have discussed a three-part model of initiative...

• pre-emptive timing - I take my turn before you have a chance to take yours
• in-time - you and I act at the same time
• responsive timing - I let you take your turn first so that I can counter your actions.

In my mind, I sort of divide it into a five-timing model

• pre-emptive timing - To me, this is sort of a-hole or bully mode - but I guess all is fair in a fight, right?
• provocative timing - I act on you in order to get an expected response that I know how to deal with.
• in-time - This is difficult to do - We both take our turn and I hope to come out on top just because my action is better than yours.
• responsive timing - There's this eternal debate about whether the guy that wins the initiative has the advantage or if the advantage actually lies with the defender or responder - the second to move.
• victim timing -  You act upon me and I hope to be able to survive/endure long enough to eventually get a turn.

As children we are taught to take turns - I go - you go - I go - you go.  But in a martial sense, we would like to use our turn to accomplish something while at the same time depriving the other guy of his turn, so we get to take this turn and the next one and the next one...  So, how do we deprive the opponent of their turn?

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Kuzushi is typically thought of as dis-balancing the opponent or disrupting his structural integrity so that he begins to fall.  Some of my senseis have said before, "Kuzushi is anything that forces the other guy to take an unintended step."  This sort of confounded me when I was thinking of kuzushi as unbalancing uke, but when I began thinking about initiative events, If you can cause the other guy to take some random, unintended step, then he just used his turn to do nothing, so it's your turn again.

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There is also this unending debate about whether kuzushi is a thing that uke does to himself or if it is a thing that tori does to uke.  Is tori learning to recognize states of kuzushi in uke and time his turns accordingly, or is tori doing something to uke to weaken uke and make him lose a turn?  Potentially both, but this provides an opportunity to talk about a third martial arts concept.

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Suki (gap or lapse or opening).  I usually think of suki as any momentary lapse of attention or mis-positioning that I have done to myself that has cause me to be open to the opponent's attack.  Basically suki is when I offer the current turn of initiative to the other guy because of some weakness in myself.  Kuzushi, on the other hand, is when I do something to take the turn from him.

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Interestingly, it appears to me that folks from grappling-type aiki- or ju-jutsu (like those descended from kito-ryu) tend to be obsessed with the kuzushi idea, while folks from a more striking-based aiki- or ju-jutsu  (like daito- or tenjin-shinyo)tend to jive better with the suki idea.  But they are just different facets of the same thing.

photo courtesy of Paco PH

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Getting all the pieces in

There's this idea that you have to go really slow in aikido, and for practice that is generally a very good idea because it is usually safer but mostly because it allows both people to learn more and learn it faster.  It is not necessary that you go absolutely as slow as possible, but you should go slow enough that tori can get all the pieces of the technique in and slowly enough that both partners can feel the natural consequences of tori getting all those pieces in.

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There is this concept in judo that fits well in aikido practice - the 4-step technique, which says there are 4 parts to any technique, and that they generally go in this order -

• kuzushi - unbalancing uke or disrupting uke so that his structure starts to crumble - or even just catching him unaware.  The idea is that you have to either catch uke by surprise or else disrupt his balance in order to get a technique to work properly.
• tsukuri - fitting in - the act of tori getting himself in the proper position/structure/relationship with respect to uke to do the technique.  We usually say that we do kuzushi before tsukuri, but sometimes they happen simultaneously or the tsukuri causes the kuzushi.  The point is, you have to get both of them in or the technique will not be as easy as it could be.
• kake - The actual effort or exertion.  Sometimes we call this, "Pulling the trigger."  Again, the main point of this model is that you have to get kuzushi and tsukuri before you pull the trigger (kake).
• zanshin - remaining aware.  We sometimes state this as, "Watch out! because uke might have something sneaky up his sleeve."  Just because you have thrown uke does not mean that the encounter is ended.  We typically say that zanshin is the 4th stage of a technique, but it is actually a state of mind that should be a constant before, during, and after the technique.

 photo courtesy of Paco PH

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Release into kuzushi

Everybody knows, you pretty much have to have some kuzushi before you can do a technique on someone.  But there's this seemingly eternal debate... Is kuzushi something that tori does to uke or does uke just become unbalanced because of the way the world works and tori's job is to spot and make use of that kuzushi. I personally think the answer to that question is, "yes" but that's sort of a topic for another day.

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My interest for today is in how does tori effect kuzushi upon uke (if you will allow me to take that side of the previous debate)?  Does tori effect kuzushi by exerting (pushing/pulling) against uke, or does tori effect kuzushi by becoming conspicuously absent from the relationship, by creating a void to lead uke into? (Again, I think the answer is, "Yes.")

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A lot of American Tomiki folks have this set of 8 or 10 exercises that we call "releases" or "Hanasu."  The Europeans and Japanese tend to call these same exercises "kuzushi."  So, what we call Hanasu, they call Shichihon no kuzushi (7 forms of off-balance).  We differ in what we call these exercises, as well as how many (7 or 8 or 10...).

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But, the two names for this one set of ideas/movements are not accidental.  It turns out that they really are the same thing.  Releases are off-balances.  

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The mechanism that appears to be happening in most all of these releases is that as uke grasps the wrist, tori (usually) steps off-line and pushes back against uke.  This push creates a natural resistance in uke - a directionality to the conflict.  Then, as smoothly and instantaneously as possible, tori changes the direction of push by 90 or 180 degrees.  This creates a void, or a weak direction, into which tori directs uke.  This type of 90 or 180 degree change is what we call "releasing" and it produces what the Japanese call kuzushi - a moment of dis-balance and weakness in uke.

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We release uke into unbalance.

Photo courtesy of Paco PH

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Patrick Parker
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Who gets to be the boss?

In judo and aikido, we are basically pushing/pulling our opponents so that they fall down.  If you get a partner and push them 100 times, like in randori, sometimes they will fall and sometimes they won't.  Sometimes the other guy is able to choose not to fall down.

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So, what determines who is the boss at any given time?  What determnes who is going to be uke and who is going to be tori?

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Here's a hint - it is not kuzushi (offbalance or posture destruction).  Kuzushi determines who is not going to be the boss.  Kuzushi is meant to weaken and slow the opponent so that they cannot be the boss of you. Kuzushi gives you a chance to enter into a technique without being murderized.  Kuzushi gives you the possibility of becoming the boss, but it is not the deciding factor.

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It is timing or synch or kimusubi that determines who is the boss in a given encounter.  The person who is able to get even a little bit of kuzushi, but do it at exactly the right time - that is the guy who will usually be the boss.  The guy who is free to exploit kuzushi for a throw at any given moment (because he is in synch) - that is the guy who will usually be the boss.

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Anyone out there ever asked their teacher, "How do I do this throw?"

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Maybe a better question would be, "When do I do this throw?" or, "How do I get to the right time and place to do this throw."

[photo courtesy of Singapore2010]

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Patrick Parker

www.mokurendojo.com

Great dynamic judo action!

Looks like yokogake or hizaguruma begging to happen!

[photo courtesy of Elise D. Parker]

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Patrick Parker
www.mokurendojo.com

Pushing uke over the edge

My long-time readers know that, when translating Japanese martial arts terminology to English, I usually prefer looser translations over more literal translations.  I do not so much care if I get the exact same connotation as a native speaker.  What I want is for my students (and myself) to have an easily-understood, evocative, coloquial name for the thing.

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Traditionally, throws are said to be divided into four phases -

• Kuzushi - breaking uke's balance
• Tsukuri - fitting yourself into the throw
• Kake - the momentary effort of throwing
• Zanshin - remaining aware

But I realized today that I've got a metaphor that I like a lot -

• Kuzushi - placing uke right on the edge of the cliff
• Tsukuri - standing next to them
• Kake - tipping them over the edge
• Zanshin - watching them all the way down

Ha, that tickles me.

[photo courtesy of TristanF]

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Patrick Parker

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Make uke live on the edge

We usually try to spend most of our time in middle conditions instead of living on the edge of cliffs.  When you're on the edge, any fluctuation might send you over the edge.  When you are in a more moderate condition, you have some room for fluctuation without necessarily falling off the edge of the world.

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This condition of being so close to the edge that you have no slack for choice - that condition is called kuzushi.

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Kuzushi is the first phase of a throw in either judo or aikido.  You can think about kuzishi in different ways...

• catch uke standing on the edge of the universe,
• put uke on the edge of the universe,
• help him up to the edge of the universe,
• or at least refuse to help keep him away from the edge of the universe.

Doing more than just positioning uke at the edge of the cliff is not kuzushi - it is kake (the momentary effort of throwing), and it is often doing too much.  If you push/pull too hard to try to throw uke off the cliff then you can end up moving him past the edge to a position of greater choice/stability.  I think a lot of folks (maybe all of us) get too wrapped up and invested in kake - we want to smash and destroy! HARD, FAST, HULK SMASH!

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Try getting some practice at positioning uke right at the edge of the cliff - the point of no return - and letting him live there for a moment without trying to push him over the edge.  I think you'll find that your tsukuri becomes easier and your kake is often near effortless if you are able to begin your throwing action from the edge of the universe.

  

We see this sort of action in junokata and gonokata, but this is also a great mode in which to play nagenokata.

  

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Patrick Parker

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