UCHI KOMI

Uchi komi is an exercise whereby a clear opportunity to attack is presented to allow for repetitive and correct training to recognize an opening and to strike. In Aikiken, the basic uchi komi exercise opens with both uchidachi and shidachi in seigan no kamai.  Uchidachi then lowers to gendan to invite shomen and when shidachiContinue reading “UCHI KOMI”

JODAN

Funes the Memorious by Borges, for me, is a poignant reminder of the dangers of specificity – missing the forest for the trees. Funes focuses only on the details to the point that everything is unique – he has no ability to form connections to extrapolate a general pattern. There is a deep lesson here. Concentrate too heavilyContinue reading “JODAN”

OODA LOOP

I was introduced to John Boyd’s OODA loop when taking a defensive fire-arm class. Boyd was a successful fighter pilot in the Korean War – he also had an analytic bent and distilled his experiences in a series of briefings. Boyd never wrote down his ideas about the OODA Loop in a formal paper; he onlyContinue reading “OODA LOOP”