Technique that has no kime are often times when the heel of the foot rises off the floor, or when the hips don’t snap into place at the right time during punches. Techniques with no kime are where body flab puts you off balance. Technique with no kime may be when your back is not straight as you stand in zenkutsudachi. Technique that has no kime may be when the retracting hand is weak, when the punching hand over-extends unnecessarily, when the shoulders are too tight and makes technique tentative, or when the course of the punch is not straight and is shaky and bobbing at the end of your arm.
Those are some of the physical instances where kime cannot be “activated” because the body through which karate technique is trying to be performed is ill-fit, or misaligned, or presently not a good “conductor” to technique which possesses it. Kime is primarily physical, so if the body is “out of whack” there is no real way for the karate practitioner to “finish” or have “decisiveness” in anything. Fix your stance, relax your body, move slowly to make sure you are moving correctly.
Kime is sudden. Kime is a technique which is “finished to completion”. Perhaps a physical description may be of some service here. As I have been teaching karate more and more over the years I have noticed a common problem with karate students in being too “stiff”, too “hard” in their shoulders and necks as they stand in zenkutsudachi executing various technique. Excellent karate stances are strong, but they primarily utilize only the muscles needed for stances. Their shoulders are relaxed, fluid, and ready to move.
The fundamentals of punches and kicks that your instructors harass you about are for your own development of karate physique and mentality. They are, if they are good instructors, gearing you up for developing kime in your karate. When you are able to consistently have kime in your punches, blocks, and kicks and have “mastered” some of the basics of our martial art, then you can start to deviate from the text.
Maybe karate is quite a bit like music. You need to develop your basics of scales, tone, and rhythm. Once you have some of that material cold you can start to deviate and experiment with your own style based on your own body, temperament, and sensibilities. Kime may be something like hitting the perfect note, full and heavy with tone and meaning. Perhaps that is one of the best ways to consider kime. Perhaps kime is better described as a “punctuated note” in karate. Exact, perfect, and in synch with your whole body.
The translation for kime is focus, but in reality it also includes the concepts of synergy or teamwork as well. The physical expression of kime is the ability to analyze and implement several separate motions that come together at the same time and place, creating maximum efficiency. Successful execution of this concept allows a small individual to deliver a technique with sufficient power to defeat a much larger opponent. Examples of different actions that are included in delivering maximum focus of energy in a strike include hip rotation, forward movement of mass, snapping and rotation of the striking limb, and the tightening of all muscles at the spilt second of impact. Breaking down the action into individual components is a mental exercise and each element is developed based on priority of importance. Once each element is developed, the key becomes one of timing, allowing all of the elements to come to bear at the same split second.
This same process occurs when the successful person identifies what it is they truly want and creates plans of action making it happen. It is commonly understood that 20% of your actions create 80% of the positive results you are trying to accomplish. By identifying which actions will create the maximum results and focusing on them, while at the same time minimizing or even eliminating wasteful actions, you will be applying the concept of kime to living a successful life. This is why people with clearly defined goals and written action plans can achieve more in a few years, than most people do during their entire lives. Wilfred Peterson once wrote, “Success is focusing the full power of all you are on what you have the burning desire to achieve.”
| Action | Plus | Minus |
|---|---|---|
| Scolding | for the sake of the other | emotionally |
| Pulling | with one point | with arm power only |
| Holding | with relaxation | with whole power only |
| Standing | with relaxation | without any power |
| Pouring | with weight underside | with weight upperside |
| Pointing | with extending Ki | with hand only |
| Closing eyes | with extending Ki | with stopping Ki |
Ki No Kenkyukai H.Q.
http://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=A0geu8Z06FxJjcoAVuBXNyoA?p=ki+%2B+mind&fr=yfp-t-802&ei=UTF-8
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http://hapkiyoosool.com/ki.htm
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It symbolizes the physical body. To achieve 'ki'
means that the
mind is surpassed
and the spirit directly controls the body.
Thinking is no longer necessary (emotions do not get involved) when it becomes reflex. We all know that "reaction" is "thought before action". Reflex is absent of thought, like when you touch a hot stove. There is no though involved, you reflex according to your body's natural self-defense system. The heart may be the strongest physical muscle in the body but, it is also the most deceptive, it leads us by emotion. Emotion can take you farther thatn you want to go and keep you longer than you should stay. The tongue is the most versital muscle in the body but it can cut deeper than any sword. Emotion is not needed in combat. Only training properly everyday can ready you for that.
Training properly should be the training of the spirit and the body will naturally be conditioned to support the task. That is spiritual training in the martial arts, not religion. Religion has no place in combat, it does effect how a warrior trains and fights however. We don't join the military to become a priest but, to become a warrior. Your religious beliefs are best when expressed through example and action. Actions speak louder than words.
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ki-maek (secret mutual understanding, communication, connection)
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The electrical energy travels in two directions in the body along the nervous system,
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kime => ki transforms the mind
rather mind is expressing th waza to uke (ki aikido)
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In Japanese martial arts, the term atemi (当て身, atemi?) designates blows to the body, [1] as opposed to twisting of joints, strangleholds, holding techniques and throws. Atemi can be delivered by any part of the body to any part of the opponents body. They can be percussive or use 'soft' power. Karate is a typical martial art focusing on percussive atemi. The location of nerve and pressure points, such as might be used for certain acupressure methods, also often informs the choice of targets for atemi (see kyusho-jitsu).
Some strikes against vital parts of the body can kill or incapacitate the opponent: on the solar plexus, at the temple, under the nose, in the eyes, genitals, or under the chin. Traditional Japanese martial arts (the ancestors of judo, jujutsu and aikido) do not commonly practice atemi, since they were supposed to be used on the battlefield against armoured opponents. However, there are certain exceptions.
Atemi can be complete techniques in and of themselves, but are also often used to briefly break an opponent's balance (see kuzushi) or resolve. (For example, this is the predominant usage of atemi in aikido.) [2] A painful but non-fatal blow to an area such as the eyes, face, or some vulnerable part of the abdomen can open the way for a more damaging technique, such as a throw or joint lock. Even if the blow does not land, the opponent can be distracted, and may instinctively contort their body (e.g., jerking their head back from a face strike) in such a way that they lose their balance.
The development of atemi techniques arises from the evolution of the Japanese martial arts, in particular jujutsu. Early styles of jujutsu from Sengoku-era Japan were created as a means of unarmed combat for a samurai who had lost his weapons on the battlefield. The purpose of jujutsu was to disarm the opponent and use their own weapon against them. As such, strikes to the body were limited as the intended victim would have been wearing extensive body armour. However, in later styles of jujutsu from Edo-period Japan empty-handed strikes to the body became more common as full-scale military engagement began to decline. This meant that the jujutsu practitioner's opponent would not have been wearing armour and the vital points that form the crux of atemi-waza were more exposed. Thus atemi began to play a pivotal role in unarmed killing and restraining techniques.
The use of Striking (Atemi) in Aikido - A relevant piece by George S. Ledyard
The use of striking in the performance of Aikido waza or applied technique is not well documented and is even the source of quite a bit of conflicting information.
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Does “Aikido” Even Exist?
a very well put together piece by George Ledyard
What is Aikido ? One could simply say that all Aikido, regardless of style, has a certain basic set of techniques and movement principles which make the art “Aikido” as distinct from aikijutsu or jiujutsu or any other martial art. But, as any person who has trained widely in the Aikido community can tell you, there is such a wide range of interpretation with regard to how these techniques are practiced and executed that the surface similarities get outweighed by these inherent differences.
In Japan there is the traditional faction that believes that the art is the sole creation of Morihei Ueshiba and that Aikido is essentially the
property of the Ueshiba family.
Whereas, this might be the attitude of certain members of the Aikikai Honbu Dojo in Tokyo, I don’t think one can effectively maintain this as a point of view. Unlike the koryu, or classical martial styles of Japan, Aikido has had no set curriculum or any narrowly defined standards for the certification of its teachers. Even before the term “Aikido” came into common usage in the 1940’s, a wide gulf existed between the interpretations taken by various early instructors. The Yoseikan, Yoshinkan, Shudokan, Aikibudo (later Shin’ei Taido) systems emerged as distinct styles of what was just becoming known generally as “Aikido”.
The family claim to “Aikido” stems from its origin with the Founder whom we refer to as O-Sensei. Yet, even before the death of the Founder in 1969, his son, Kisshomaru Ueshiba, had secularized the philosophical underpinnings of the art and begun the process of simplifying its techniques, de-emphasizing the use of weapons and the more martially oriented techniques of the system. The Uchi Deshi who took Aikido abroad after WWII took varying elements from the Founder, the Nidai Doshu, and the Honbu Dojo Cho (Chief Instructor), Koichi Tohei Sensei, not to mention varying influences of the other senior instructors at the Honbu dojo. Saito Sensei, the caretaker of the shrine at Iwama, also had a degree of influence over the teachers sent overseas as virtually all of them had spent considerable time accompanying the Founder on his lengthy visits to the shrine and dojo.
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When Tohei Sensei left the Aikikai after the death of the Founder he created his own style of Aikido which focused heavily on ki development as well as waza (technique). His ideas on this were derived from the work done by Tempu Nakamura rather than anything he had learned directly from O-Sensei and despite a painful rift with the Aikikai, many prominent teachers both in Japan and abroad left the organization to do the new style called Shin Shin Toitsu Aikido. Over the decades that followed, the majority of these teachers have struck out on their own, setting up their own organizations and adding further to the wide mix of interpretations that exist in contemporary Aikido.
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http://www.aikidonewzealand.co.nz/images/KoruDojo.mov
http://www.fotonewzealand.co.nz/galleries/aikido/3/
http://www.aikido.co.nz/Dojo/pgeKoruDojo.htm
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To be appreciated, aikido needs “space,” i.e., spirituality, psychological depth, aesthetics, compassion and enjoyment. Not to mention love! (There seems to be a tacit agreement not to mention love in the martial effectiveness arguments, which is curious in view of the importance O-Sensei placed on this, and his insistence that love was the essence of aikido.)
Not that aikido’s “spiritual effectiveness” is any easier to prove objectively than any of the technical arguments are. There are no guarantees, anyway. I am not convinced, however, that someone’s inability to perform a technique from, say, a strong Iwama-style morotedori grip testifies to a lack of spiritual development. The link between spirit, mind and body is more complicated than that.
The learning curve is a broad one, and one may reasonably expect to spend a lifetime working on oneself without being able to boast of full enlightenment, aikido or no aikido. This is no reason to abandon the effort, and practicing aikido with a spiritual goal in mind, rather than technical effectiveness alone, is a good start.
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The representation of Aikido principles by the geometrical shapes triangle, circle and square are taken from the Shinto cosmology theory of "Gogyo Gogen" where the elements of existence, Liquid, Solid and Gas are all shown to be transmutable and interrelated.
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...Understanding the Theory: Conflict Styles
In the 1970s Kenneth Thomas and Ralph Kilmann identified five main styles of dealing with conflict that vary in their degrees of cooperativeness and assertiveness. They argued that people typically have a preferred conflict resolution style. However they also noted that different styles were most useful in different situations. The Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument (TKI) helps you to identify which style you tend towards when conflict arises.
Thomas and Kilmann's styles are:
Competitive: People who tend towards a competitive style take a firm stand, and know what they want. They usually operate from a position of power, drawn from things like position, rank, expertise, or persuasive ability. This style can be useful when there is an emergency and a decision needs to be make fast; when the decision is unpopular; or when defending against someone who is trying to exploit the situation selfishly. However it can leave people feeling bruised, unsatisfied and resentful when used in less urgent situations.
Collaborative: People tending towards a collaborative style try to meet the needs of all people involved. These people can be highly assertive but unlike the competitor, they cooperate effectively and acknowledge that everyone is important. This style is useful when a you need to bring together a variety of viewpoints to get the best solution; when there have been previous conflicts in the group; or when the situation is too important for a simple trade-off.
Compromising: People who prefer a compromising style try to find a solution that will at least partially satisfy everyone. Everyone is expected to give up something, and the compromiser him- or herself also expects to relinquish something. Compromise is useful when the cost of conflict is higher than the cost of losing ground, when equal strength opponents are at a standstill and when there is a deadline looming.
Accommodating: This style indicates a willingness to meet the needs of others at the expense of the person’s own needs. The accommodator often knows when to give in to others, but can be persuaded to surrender a position even when it is not warranted. This person is not assertive but is highly cooperative. Accommodation is appropriate when the issues matter more to the other party, when peace is more valuable than winning, or when you want to be in a position to collect on this “favor” you gave. However people may not return favors, and overall this approach is unlikely to give the best outcomes.
Avoiding: People tending towards this style seek to evade the conflict entirely. This style is typified by delegating controversial decisions, accepting default decisions, and not wanting to hurt anyone’s feelings. It can be appropriate when victory is impossible, when the controversy is trivial, or when someone else is in a better position to solve the problem. However in many situations this is a weak and ineffective approach to take.
Once you understand the different styles, you can use them to think about the most appropriate approach (or mixture of approaches) for the situation you're in. You can also think about your own instinctive approach, and learn how you need to change this if necessary.
Ideally you can adopt an approach that meets the situation, resolves the problem, respects people's legitimate interests, and mends damaged working relationships.
Understanding The Theory: The "Interest-Based Relational Approach"
The second theory is commonly referred to as the "Interest-Based Relational (IBR) Approach". This conflict resolution strategy respects individual differences while helping people avoid becoming too entrenched in a fixed position.
In resolving conflict using this approach, you follow these rules:
Make sure that good relationships are the first priority: As far as possible, make sure that you treat the other calmly and that you try to build mutual respect. Do your best to be courteous to one-another and remain constructive under pressure;
Keep people and problems separate: Recognize that in many cases the other person is not just "being difficult" – real and valid differences can lie behind conflictive positions. By separating the problem from the person, real issues can be debated without damaging working relationships;
Pay attention to the interests that are being presented: By listening carefully you'll most-likely understand why the person is adopting his or her position;
Listen first; talk second: To solve a problem effectively you have to understand where the other person is coming from before defending your own position;
Set out the “Facts”: Agree and establish the objective, observable elements that will have an impact on the decision; and
Explore options together: Be open to the idea that a third position may exist, and that you can get to this idea jointly.
By following these rules, you can often keep contentious discussions positive and constructive. This helps to prevent the antagonism and dislike which so-often causes conflict to spin out of control.
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