Day 42 of writing every day.
I managed to fall asleep before midnight and got around maybe 9 hours of sleep to make up for the sleep deprivation I had with only 5 hours or so Saturday night.
Sunday was not an ideal day to be sleep deprived but it couldn’t be helped with the schedule. To make things harder I stubbed, over extended, or sprained my pinky toe on my right foot during a demonstration where I had to be the one who gets thrown by techniques. It’s sore and has some internal bleeding but I won’t have time to get it examined by a doctor until a few days later if I can’t take it the day off work.
Aikido Demonstrations
Aikido when done expertly is safe and has low risk of injury. It is when the execution is done poorly that the risk of the one receiving the technique getting injured gets higher. That is why most of the time when possible, it’s usually the higher ranking and younger more physically fit get assigned the role in demonstrations as opposed to older counterparts.
The ability to move, initiate, and react with perfect timing is quintessential to good technique demonstrations. The ability to execute throwing techniques repeatedly with sharp precision and the partner(s) being able to get up again and again unharmed every time until the end of the demonstration is maybe what awed those who first witnessed it in the very first public demonstrations many decades ago.
Nowadays Aikido demonstrations are performed by people who don’t have nearly anywhere as much experience and quality instruction. On top of that, many trying to prove their techniques work and trying to show off rather than demonstrating the result of their practice with humility.
At my dojo my skill level with taking falls is recognized as the best and I’m one of the younger members in the dojo. That means I get called on to get thrown quite often.
Conversely I have a tendency to be “too nice” when I review videos of my demonstrations, but it’s something I feel like I can’t help but hold back. After all, everyone else is basically middle-aged and far from being in the best physical shape. If I perform techniques for one minute non-stop on the same partner they’re more than just out of breath. Going any harder wouldn’t prove anything besides further exhausting them or increasing their chances of getting injured from a bad twist or fall.
Add in the fact my partner has to receive techniques and get thrown for others in demonstrations further down the program, and I’d be inconsiderate of both them and their next partner by leaving shared demonstration partners panting and heaving or possibly injured because I wanted to act like I’m some badass who can mess up my partner. A demonstration is not a fight to show how I can effortlessly toy around with someone without ever getting hit.
I believe part of the goal of self-improvement that people seek in martial arts and other practices is to overcome their ego. I don’t claim to have come anywhere close to accomplishing such a thing and it is something people might wonder is possible at all. It’s those that say they don’t have an ego that you should be aware of and evaluate carefully I say.
Feeling tired, however, gives me a different perspective and I hope I’ve been able to reflect on things differently today.
Thanks for reading!
One Chance Works 