Zyaga Writing about whatever the hell I want, cuz it's the Interwebz!

Tuesday Tips: Amplifying Energy

Earlier today I went home to take my dog for a walk during lunch time as I often do. Today it was quite cold even though I was bundled up with my coat, gloves, etc. The worst part about it was that the wind was blowing at a considerable speed. When walking, one would almost be thrown off one’s balance as a step was taken.

Anyway, I came to a very short but narrow path, where I take my dog through because there is a hill on the other side. The path is surrounded by bushes, small trees, and all the rest of the usual things. The branches in the small trees often get in the way as you’re trying to pass, so usually I just push them out of the way with my hand and keep walking. However, today as I was pushing a branch out of the way, the wind immediately picked up as the branch cleared my hand and it came whipping back and smacked me in the side of the face. At first, it surprised me a bit because of how much speed and force it snapped back at me. Obviously, this didn’t injure me at all, it was just quick and sudden. What’s interesting is that it wasn’t just the force that I had pushed onto the branch that sent it back that fast. It was also the wind.

It was immediately brought to my attention exactly how much more force can be generated when one force(the wind) works with another(the force of me pushing the branch back and out of the way). Lately, I’ve been reading a book called Aikido and the Dynamic Sphere. It’s a great book if you haven’t ever read it or heard about it. When I understood how the force of the branch could be amplified by the wind, I realized exactly why Aikido uses the principles it does.

I like to take occurrences like this as a challenge. Basically, I’m going to challenge myself to little by little, use less strength and rely on amplifying the energy my opponent is already lending me. I don’t believe that this applies only to Aikido(or Aikido related Martial Arts), I believe it applies to ALL Martial Arts. In fact, most(if not all) of Aikido’s principles, or rather the science behind it, can be applied to most(if not all) other Martial Arts as well. There is an Aikido dojo pretty close to me and I’ve been considering going so I may sign up if I’ve got the time.

Will I then rely on Aikido as my foundation for everything? No, of course not. For those who don’t know, I’ve never been partial to any Martial Art, nor will I ever. I believe each Martial Art has aspects about it that allow you to enhance yourself beyond where you are already. There should be no questions such as “Which is the best?”, the questions should be “Which will enhance the areas I’m weakest in?” and “Which one do I want to take?”. A friend once asked me if I ever studied Aikido further would I then rely on it more than the others to which I responded, “Of course not, I’ll use those skills to take down my opponent gracefully, then chain punch his face in.” Everything is important, nothing is useless, it just has to be used in the right situation.

It may be a round about way of saying it, but I’m just trying to get an informal challenge out to you guys( and girls ) to try working on using technique over strength. Strength should be used as an amplifier, not the source of power(energy).