Aikido Techniques and Women: Promoting Harmony with What You Learned on the Mat

Aikido Techniques and Women

The key to effective Aikido techniques is to utilize certain key principles. Blending is a critical element since one does not want to meet force with force. By this harmonization of energies, one is in a position to redirect this force so that control can be achieved, which is the ultimate goal of Aikido techniques.

An excerpt from the TV series “All in the Family” gives us a glimpse of a negative personality and negative encounters…all in fun.

Using the Same Aikido Techniques to Slip a Punch to Control a Verbal Encounter

The natural question revolves around how one might look at slipping a punch and determine how to neutralize a potential argument with a loved one. This stretch is not so difficult if one tries to imagine that an angry comment is not that different from someone trying to punch you in the gut. Both are aggressive actions directed at you. It is important to point out that in order to control others in a conflict situation, one must first be in control of themselves and their emotions. If this control is achieved, then there will not be a hostile response, which is the most common outcome when we feel threatened.

Aikido Techniques: Blending and Redirecting

The following video is a demonstration of how energy is blended with and then redirected in Aikido techniques. Watch this video and imagine how in attack is like a verbal disagreement, and the redirection is the peaceful discussion and resolution of the conflict.

In Aikido techniques, redirection of energy is how control of the attack is achieved. In a verbal encounter redirection is not achieved in a physical sense but can take several forms. In Aikido, the redirection may unbalance uke and thereby weaken the power of the attack permitting nage to execute a control technique such as shihonage. In a verbal encounter this a similar unbalancing effect can be achieved in a mental context if one simply sits down and actively listens to the loved one with a divergent point of view. If at the end on the tirade you can verbally state the point of view possibly better than your “opposition”, the effect would satisfy the need to be heard and understood, thereby creating a disarming effect and reducing the desire to be force one’s point of view on the other.

Using what we have learned on the mat, blending or harmonization with what begins as negative energy is the first step. Controlling yourself and your emotional responses is the key throughout. Redirecting the redirecting the initial argument into a proactive discussion is the way we achieve control of the situation ultimately turn it into a win-win scenario. In the words of Master Morihei Ueshiba, founder of the martial art of Aikido, “True victory is victory over one’s self”. If we can use our training in Aikido techniques to master ourselves and our responses, we can then hope to achieve the ultimate goal – a peaceful resolution of every conflict.

Click here to read one of the articles dealing with the Aikido technique of kiatsu – ki extention to promote the body’s intrinsic power to heal itself.