Patrick Cassidy Sensei, 6th Dan Aikikai, Henshin Aikido Course

Henshin Aikido at DefendU Ireland recently hosted Patrick Cassidy Sensei (6^th Dan Aikikai) for a weekend course.  To practice aikido for a whole weekend and perform but a handful of techniques might make most aikidoka balk, but exploring and feeling the natural, responsive movements that underlie the techniques and occasionally tasting the principles for ourselves was a hugely rewarding experience.  We have a lot to digest.

Techniques, it has been said, account for the last 5% of aikido in action. The rest consists of whole body movements that embrace the attack, blend with and direct whilst keeping uke off balance and one’s self in a safe place. Then there’s the unseen, the principles at work within the movement, the spirit of uke and tori both, gravity, unconscious reflex, ki, connection, the martial creative.  In aikido all this happens and then you apply the technique.

Cassidy Sensei introduced us to the weekend by describing aikido in terms of Technique, Principle and Perspective.  Using a conversation as an analogy, the words are the technique, the listening is the principle and friendship the perspective.  The perspective aspect of this concept could perhaps be looked as the context or relationship which frames the action. Friendship on the mats may be antagonism on the street.

Another analogy is that of a building. The top floor of it is technique and it extends to infinity, the infinite amount of techniques possible in aikido. A lot of teachers and so practitioners of the art will explore this level their whole aikido careers. There’s nothing wrong with this, it’s fascinating and martial and fun but there’s another level.  One day you’ll find the elevator that takes you deeper to the second floor, principle, also extending to infinity.  More to explore and it all educates you for your next trip up to technique. Then the ground floor, perspective, deeper still and forming a foundation for the levels above.

Simpler yet: Technique is How, Principle is What and Perspective is Why.

So, putting it into practice! We practiced slowed down fighting. Tori throws the punch very slowly, choosing a target on tori’s body and throwing straight at it. Tori at first waits until he feels the pressure of this attack on his body and absorbs it, folds around it as if they we wet clay. When the attack reaches its conclusion, uke attacks from this position. Tori again receives, moulding themselves around the attack, leaning, bending or folding until they lose balance and have to step. Uke attacks again from this new position.

Moving on from this, tori next imagines that there is a force field extending around the punch by about an inch, tori blends around this field instead of waiting for the punch to make contact. We extended this practice after a while to applying appropriate aikido footwork and blending around the attack and linking, as Sensei put it. Allow the attack in, blend with it, move around it appropriately and link with the attack, over extend uke and place them off balance.

This was great fun. Like a slow motion bar brawl, and produced some brilliant pictures. We look like we were beating lumps out of each other! Until you see the big smiles on all involved of course.  The next step up from this was tori practiced with eyes closed.  Tries to sense the attack before it makes contact and move to avoid it or blend with it. At times I felt my body saying ‘move now here!’ and I’d move and sometimes avoid an attack almost magically. Other times my mind would interrupt saying ‘Why? What are you basing that on? I’ll look like an idiot!’ and I’d get hit.  Lesson learned there – heed your body’s advice.

Whilst practicing with bokken I found something similar. Starting with bokken connected and facing each other in ai hamni, I found that with my eyes closed I moved better blending with the thrust when it came in, stepping out and counter striking.  Eyes closed I’d feel the attack and move appropriately and attacked pretty much on target. Eyes open and I anticipated the attack, responded slower, put myself in a poorer position.

Patrick Cassidy Sensei threw me repeatedly over the weekend and gave me the opportunity to hit him repeatedly (mostly in slow motion).  He was encouraging, funny, philosophical, enlightening and flowed like water.  And of course, like all good aikidoka, you knew underneath all that there was a bad ass martial artist ready to kick your ass (and a couple of the throws he occasionally blitzed me with confirmed this without doubt!).

I’m glad he will be guiding our aikido practice under the CAA, he’s got a lot to teach us.  So I’ll sign off by paraphrasing the man himself.

Don’t be soldiers. You’ll want to be a good little soldier, but don’t.  I could sit here all day drinking coffee and telling you what it’s like but you’ll have to drink some yourself to know what it’s like. Have a cup of aikido.