Reviewing What Was Taught

Day 133 of writing every day.

With Aikido and other activities where you have to perform an action with your own body, the primary learning method is watching a good example of how it’s done, and mimicking the motions yourself. Unlike activities where the output is a concrete object that can be compared, it’s difficult for one to verify by themselves whether they’re doing things right or way off the mark.

For example, if you’re learning to draw, how closely your own drawing resembles the object you’re looking at. If you’re careful you’ll notice how your drawing is different from the model with regards to angles, lines, depth, and so on. When it comes to cooking, it’s not just the looks that is being compared, but also the taste. A bite of food can tell how well someone got a recipe right or how they best brought out the ingredients they used.

With Aikido, it’s not quite as easy to tell whether you’re doing things right, and even harder when you’re not being brutally honest with yourself. Some people’s pride just gets in the way and they’ll muscle their way through and call it a technique because they don’t want to feel weak and ineffective.

When done right Aikido feels effortless and smooth, but some teach that pain is the answer and focus on ways to break the human body rather than work with it. Working with the body only goes so far in regards to what you can tell with untrained eyesight. It takes a truly trained eye to be able to notice what’s really happening, and even more training for your body to replicate what you get taught correctly.

The weekend had a lot of content that I’m still trying to wrap my head around, but more importantly, trying to reproduce myself after witnessing and feeling the technique numerous times. It’s not something I’ll get right away, but I feel like I’m making steps in the right direction.

Thanks for reading!