Patrick Parker has an interesting post about O Sensei Morihei Ueshiba and his parlor demonstrations of ki and aiki.
“He seems to have had a fondness for demonstrations of what looked like superhuman strength or spirit magic…”
My former taekwondo instructor picked up a similar application from his time in hapkido. He called it the ki shove. I would describe it as a short series of rhythmic relaxation movements that ended in a simultaneous step and push.
For the life of me I could not figure out how it worked. Despite trying to resist, the shove moved me back several feet. He tried teaching it to us the night he demonstrated it, however, none of us could learn the technique in a five-minute lesson.
I always suspected it was just a matter of practice. After having spent time in a hard/soft Chinese art, and after dabbling in aikido and tai chi, I am now certain that’s the case.
One person’s ki is another person’s body mechanics and time in practice!
“I’ve learned that there is nothing mystical about the internal arts. They are based on physical skills and developed in a culture where chi was as prominent as Jesus is in our culture. It doesn’t mean you have to believe in either one.”
-BCP
I remember one of the first days that I arrived in my current dojo. The sensei would I would end up learning from for the past 4 years was demonstrating an Aikido “punch” (atemi). 3 guys were were lined up behind each other, all of whom were at least 5’10″, 180 lbs+; my sensei being only 5’4″ ~ 120 lbs. It was not a punch that you’d see in TKD for example. I don’t remember the fist making contact (it probably did), but I DO remember the first two guys simply crumpling up and falling down and the 3rd guy was pushed back a few feet.
How it was explained to me is that atemi is solemnly practiced correctly with most people simply practicing it for years and years without actually getting the mechanics, form, presence, and body+mind balance.
Hi Drew,
Great story! For sure I’ve seen some pretty incredible stuff and I’ve only been at “all this” halfway seriously for the last 10 years.
That quote at the bottom is probably the best quote I have ever heard in regards to the mysticism in martial arts. Good find!
I am convinced that Ueshiba was a master showman. He dazzled people with mysticism in order to get them to practice good mechanics. Or it could be that he just didn’t have the right kind of background to understand the mechanics of what he did.
It is the case, however, that when this stuff is first done to you, it does seem like magic.
My tai chi teacher, despite being Chinese-American, never used the word “chi” to describe anything. He translated it into English as “energy”. And “energy” can mean many things. Some take it to be mystical, but it isn’t. A deep and intuitive understanding of this can produce effects that seem magical, but they are no more magical than some of the physics demonstrations you can see on YouTube.
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