Old dogs DO learn new tricks

In the years since I last wrote about martial arts on any of my blogs, my practice has changed drastically. After (altogether) eleven years of aikido training, I decided for various reasons (not least of which was too frequent injuries) to switch over to the Russian martial art of Systema. It was easy because my aikido teacher of three years (Dániel Kati) began running Systema training. Then, about a year ago, Dani’s martial arts career also took a serious turn. In his fervent quest to track down the inner essence and true heritage of aikido (Dani is a japanophile, who has studied the Japanese language and knows his martials arts history) he came across Dan Harden, a man who teaches classes in the “inner arts” of Daito Ryu Jujitsu. If he is to be believed (and over time I have become somewhat of a believer), he has tracked down the “juice” that gave aikido its amazing power when it was introduced by Morihei Ueshiba. And Dan contends it's a secret sauce that teachers failed to pass down to subsequent generations of aikidoka. What’s more, Harden teaches that the principles he has discovered are applicable to a broad range of martial arts. Harden has also trained in other martial arts, including fighting in MMA matches. After attending a Harden workshop in Germany, Dani was enthusiastic about teaching it to everyone, including our Systema class. We did some of the exercises in one or two Systema classes. It came about that for a stretch of months during the last year, I was the only student showing up for Systema class (one student changed shifts at work, another got pregnant, etc.). I knew how enthusiastic Dani was about the things he was learning from Dan Harden (he went to a second workshop, at considerable expense). So I made him an offer. I told him it didn’t matter if we were doing strictly “classical” Systema. My only interest was in getting good martial arts training and healthy movement. If he wanted to experiment with me in applying Harden’s principles to Systema, I would gladly make our one-on-one trainings into his laboratory to see what we could cook up. We’ve recently begun making videos of various exercises we do, and one we made last week sort of struck me as “proof of concept” For those with eyes to see, I present you our work in progress. Let me give you the context for this video. The exercise we are doing consists of generating a particular state or consciousness called “heaven-earth-man”. Anyone who knows their Far-Eastern metaphysics will recognize a concept that exists in several philosophies. Through movement, breath and visualization, you establish a connection with the three axes that run through your body -- up/down, side-to-side, front-to-back -- and truly feel them as forces governing the movement of your body. Then you begin to move, focussing on every movement originating from your “hara” (energy center located below your navel, or “Tan Tien in Chinese). Only then do you engage with the person who is attacking you. There is more going on here than meets the eye, but you can see (I hope) how the mental/physical state gives you both the stability and fluidity to anticipate and flow along with the opponent’s intentions. There are moments when you’ll hear one of us make a noise and suddenly exhale. That’s when the "opponent" saw a clear opening in the other’s defense and gives the other a whack. It’s an odd thing. Since Systema teaches you to take a hit and absorb it, getting hit is sort of “funny”. It makes you laugh! It’s like hearing the punchline of a joke. “Oh! Good one!” Anyway, rest assured that The Dream Warrior isn’t just occupying himself with the dream side of his moniker. I am most definitely still maintaining my martial training.