Ki is a subtle energy that some Aikido groups and practitioners work with.
However, in my experience, the presence of Ki within Aikido training is relatively rare. This is the case even within Ki Aikido groups.
What often happens is that a training modality (no matter how it started) ends up devolving to being technical and physical in nature. Many Aikido teachers are focusing on hand position, body position and posture, use of angles and forces and many other things to generate maximum efficiency and power in their techniques.
There are other teachers focusing on particular ways of training the body in order to generate more power or dissipate the force of others.
Both of these types of training are good training. But this is not Ki training.
It seems to me that sometimes a teacher emerges who has a gift to work with Ki. The students train with the teacher and never quite take what the teachers has. They get some of it or perhaps quite a lot. As the generations go on, less and less people get it and a different type of training (one that makes more sense to the mind) takes place.
Training in Ki is counter intuitive in many ways. The mind tends to resist it. In some of my encounters with my teachers I could not accept the level of softness they were bringing to their technique. They seemed to be doing so little and perhaps I was just going along with it out of politeness or respect? I instead went back to focus on working on technique.
More and more now I am grasping slowly the training that I have been given from the start. A lot of it is very confusing to people and for that reason many people prefer a more technical style.
Ki really stretches the mind and peoples boundaries. When you encounter it is quite clear when you are training with it or not.
It seems a lot of the scepticism around Ki is the feeling that this should be something that can be done to a person. That someone send a force at them that makes them collapse. For me I don’t see Ki in this way. I will perhaps write another message about this.
Is it martial or relevant in martial arts? That’s another question that requires a separate answer.
If you are interesting in learning more about Aikido you are welcome to come along to the class tonight at 7.30pm in the Palace Of Art, Glasgow.
Find out more here:
http://aikidoforglasgow.com
Keep Extending Ki
Sensei Ronnie Smith
Aikido For Glasgow 