Both in static posture or dynamic posture we use the feet to take power from Earth and transfer it to the arms and hands.
Gravity
Gravity is the force through which a planet or other body attracts objects toward its centre.
What else does gravity do?
Why are you landing on the ground when you’re jumping rather than floating in space? Why does everything fall when you throw it away or let it fall? The answer is gravity: an invisible force that attracts objects together. Earth’s gravity is what keeps you on the ground and what makes things come down.
Anything that has mass also has gravity. Objects with more mass have more gravity.
The gravity of the Earth comes from its entire mass. Its entire mass creates a combined gravity attraction over the entire mass of your body. That’s what gives you weight.
Gravity and martial art
Gravity is necessary to create the equilibrium of your posture. If you fail to act on the concept of balance, gravity becomes your worst enemy and you will fall.
What is balance?
Balance is a situation in which your body has stability. It does not take much effort to keep your position. All forces that apply to your body are canceled out. When you are in balance, it is very hard to throw you or move you. This is true standing.
Gravity applies to everything in the body. If you combine the effect of all gravity forces, you can summarize it as a force applied at a single point, the centre of gravity. Put another way, “Hara” is the centre of your physical being. If you can put your mind in “Hara”, you are a balanced person, physical and mental.
Exercises used in training should consider the concept of gravity. Without a good body structure, you will not be able to use the power of the earth and you rely only on the local muscle power. And even if you use local muscle power, earth mass and gravity are needed. Sadly, it is not the most effective way to move the body and use power.
Practical exercises
There are many practical exercises to train in martial arts. Some have a direct advantage in martial art applications, others have an impact on body structure and power generation. Some exercises are directed towards improving health.
Since you don’t always have a partner to practice, solo training may be an option. Most practitioners are familiar with the basic solo exercises of their Aikido method. Tomiki Aikido isn’t the exception.
The objective of this article is to explain certain exercises with a “creative touch”.
All the exercises has 1 important concept: we have to use the power of the earth.
Gravity is the greatest source of power by touching the opponent. During solo training, the adversary may be in your mind, but maybe you can use a boxing bag. It is also possible to use various weapons as a tool to enhance your body movements including the use of gravity.
The moving body
A moving body has 3 main methods to generate force:
- Taïjū no idō – using footwork
- Taïjū no dendō – using body weight
- Tenshikei – diagonal tension
Local muscle power is not used during the 3 metods. The use of gravity is an important source as well as the solidity of the Earth. Without control of the body centers, local muscle power will replace the flexible and elastic power organised by koshi and kyokotsu.
Moving koshi forward and back
Push with the hand (backside) on the sacrum forward. Let the body return and start over the pushing.
After some practise, you will notice the movement of “koshi”. This is an important step forward in the concept of using “koshi” or hip-power.
Oshi taoshi exercise
Move the arms up with the dynamics of lifting kyokotsu. Dropping kyokotsu into koshi and feet.
While we say “use kyokotsu”, this is not the power source. Kyokotsu is the controller which sends the power to the arms. When kyokotsu returns to the original position, it controls the downward power to the legs via Koshi.
Rowing exercise
Body moves forward before the arms. This is controlled by kyokotsu.
Tenshikei, diagonal/coiling power
Sometimes a comparison is made between tenshikei and wringing a towel. Of course, if you don’t know about “tenshikei”, this conversation is ridiculous.
Tenshikei is the rotational power generated with a body skill using gravity. If there is no gravity, you will have probably a difficulty to generate tenshikei or diagonal power.
Role of the knees during tenshikei exercises
Think about a ball between the knees. There is a certain tension (opposing forces) between the 2 knees.
The example shows a ball when adopting “shizentai – mugamae”. The same feeling must be experienced during a forward posture or a 2x shoulderwide posture (kiba-dachi or jigotai)
A simple example of Tenshikei movement
Between the knees, an image of a ball can be used when performing uchi-mawashi and uchi-gaeshi/soto-gaeshi.
Using waist and hips during tenshikei skill
This topic is a difficult one. In martial art the waist is a part of the koshi. Koshi is mostly translated as hips, but this is partly wrong. The hips are a part of koshi.
Our waist usually turns only from five degrees to thirty degrees. Occasionally, it turns forty- five or ninety degrees. Many practitioners use their hips instead of their waist without realizing it. This is because it is much easier to use our hips than our waist. The waist gives power for the push and also functions as a rotational tool. This action is basically “tenshikei” skill.
The hip joint is used to push down into the leg.
When moving forward or back, the ball of the front foot is used as the rebound tool or as a shock absorber. The heel of the front foot is slightly lifted. Using power for moving forward comes from the back foot. When moving back, the front foot is the driving foot.
Taïjū no idō – Taïjū no dendō
Taijū no dendō or body weight transmission (body weight conduction) is a skill to transfer power into the opponent by using body weight and gravity.
Taijū no idō or body weight shift creates “power transfer” in the body of opponent by displacement of the body.
Both methods are basically dependent on the use of gravity with or without footwork.
There are many kinds of footwork. Most of them are based upon using losing balance and regaining balance. Using gravity is the main source for this kind of footwork. An example is “rolling foot movement during pushing”.
Not all the foot movements have “losing balance – gravity” as the main source of movement power. The driving power of the leg can be used to move forward or back.
Driving leg – receiving leg
Moving around is a matter of using koshi, knees and ankles. The pressure between the feet and the earth has also to be taken into account.
There is always a leg which is doing the action – the driving leg. There is also the receiving leg with an absorbing function, but also a rebound action.
Where is the pressure in the foot?
Both in static posture or dynamic posture we use the feet to take power from Earth and transfer it to the arms and hands.
Mostly, the pressure will be on the ball of the foot. Triangle formed by 1-2-3
But it can also move more in the direction of the heel without losing the pressure on the ball. Triangle 1-2-4.
Point 1 will act as a kind of pump to transfer Earth’s power up. During breathing exercises, the mind can use the “pump” image to bring Earth”s power to the koshi and further to the arms when inhaling. When breathing out, point 4 will receive the down power.
The mechanism of pump and switching from point 1 to point 4 is very useful during Taijū no dendō or bodyweight shift.
Although we speak about points, we have to consider the image of the triangles. Using triangles makes a better use of the feet soles surface without forgetting the different points marked in the picture.
An important point of attention is the stability of the knee. Keep an imaginary ball between the knees.
A simple exercise to introduce the foot pressure skill. When moving up, use the ball (point 1 – pump) to take the Earth’s power up by breathing in. At the end of inhaling, push the breath down end let it sink into the heel (point 4). After a while you will feel the action of the pump.
Grabbing the floor with the toes
Sometimes you can read this advice. And this advice is not only for martial arts, but also other sport are involved like weightliftting and sports with a squating action. Grabbing with the toes has to be viewed as grabbing with the plantar fascia. Find here a nice animation:
When you start using the triangles in the foot, the plantar fascia is the driving element in the use of the Earth’s power along the body structures. If the plantar fascia is not correct working, the rest of the body will act accordingly mostly with a faulty structure. The result is a damaged knee or hip joint. Even the neck will have a negative impact.
The importance of the plantar fascia
Plantar fascia – the longest ligament of the foot. The ligament, which runs along the sole of the foot, from the heel to the toes, forms the arch. By stretching and contracting, the plantar fascia helps us balance and gives the foot strength for walking.
Regularly shift weight from one foot and leg to the other stretches the tight muscles of the feet. Thight muscles often contribute to plantar fasciitis pain, also called heel spurs.
One basic move simply puts your body weight from heel to toe with a rocking motion. This promotes balance along with foot strength. (pendulum exercise)(rolling feet movement)
This will also actually massage the foot by applying different pressure in a graduated fashion along the foot.
Another move allows for a rocking motion from the outside of the foot to the inside of the foot.
This will strengthen the lateral muscles and medial muscles of the leg. Your weight will shift from the arch to the outside of the foot.
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