The Power Of Relaxation

Something that has surprised me over the years in my Aikido practise is how much people are cutting themselves off from the real power they have.

While practising various techniques, even with very big and strong people, I often sense that they are not accessing anywhere near the potential of the power they could generate in the technique.

Often this is because people don’t realise that they are tensing up their muscles in such a way that their body is not co-ordinated. Instead of co-ordinating body and mind together in each movement, their body is disconnected, tense and therefore in a weakened state.

When we tense up, we feel like we are using all of our strength. We feel like we are trying as hard as we can. But we have to learn that despite the fact it feels that way, it is often not the case.

Instead, often to generate more power in a technique we have to learn to relax, drop or shoulders, become centred and develop mind and body co-ordination.

Perhaps here is a lesson we can take from this for life.

Sometimes, we are trying too hard, doing too much and not getting the result we want. In fact, we might feel like we are working as hard as we can to move forward only to end up moving backwards.

We often need an outside pair of eyes or a partner to work with to let us know how to improve. A simple readjustment in our strategy or in our technique can make all the difference. Sometimes we have to give up what with think is making us strong in order to start to embrace the potential we really have.

We don’t realise because we dont realise the power we have in us. We may think that tensing the muscles of our arm is the way to go, but co-ordinating all of the weight and power of your body together in your technique will always be far more powerful.

Imagine a javelin thrower only using the stregth of their arm. They would not come close to how far they could throw the javelin when their whole body goes into the technique.

The same with golfers, tennis players, boxers and so on. Their whole body moves together in one quick, intense movement and they generate tremendous power with little tension.

This is similar in Aikido, where we learn to develop a co-ordinated body, that is centred and relaxed. The more tense a partner is, the more predictable their movements, the easier they are to counter the more likely they are to throw themselves off balance.

We have more power than we realise, we just have to learn to access that and a lot of that comes down to being truly relaxed.