Deep thoughts on aikido

Kata, waza and natural movement
To me aikido is a martial art. As such the techniques must possess a potential for brutality, being designed for maiming or killing the opponent. Aikido training is not childish play. The required frame of mind is somewhat like that of combat training in the Army.
        If you have had such training you remember how at first you and your unit practiced without ammunition, then with blanks, until finally your unit practiced with live ammo and artillery support, moving through terrain attacking and firing at active, but nonhuman targets. These exercises were prearranged typical situations and you walked through them before actual training. (In budo this kind of training is called kata). To enhance safety, orderliness and discipline was stressed, just like in the dojo.
        Such training methods have proven effective since they have allowed humans to function effectively even under the extreme stress of risking death or mutilation.
        There are five basic human needs sieved out over time by evolution: violence, sex, food, social recognition and sleep. As resources are limited and peoples´ wishes differ, conflicts arise that may lead to violence.
        Conflicts and violence is the subject of aikido. Let us use the yin/yang concept. In a real fight/conflict there are two opposing wills. This is a yang-yang situation where none of the combatants wants to yield. And there are no rules.

        Aikido training, on the other hand, is always kata (prearranged form). This is yin-yin. As nage you are not throwing or subduing uke, but uke lets himself be thrown or subdued. You are both performing, in cooperation, your respective part of the kata.
        Your objective is to perform the kata, not to overwhelm uke. Some people think that they should resist being thrown or pinned. They transform the kata into a struggle.
        Then two things happen: 1/ the objective is moved from performing kata to overpowering uke, and 2/ rules are implicitly applied as uke expects nage to force the technique. But from an aikido perspective this is no longer yin-yin, but dangerous yang-yang and accordingly no rules apply. Anything goes. Nage could change technique in an instant, subduing and possibly hurting uke real bad.
        Do not fool yourself by thinking that dojo training is fighting or that a real fight is like dojo training.
        At first the movements of the kata feel awkward, but by time they are internalized and finally they can be performed automatically. The movements have become natural and kata has become waza.
        We see that kata is a vehicle for learning waza. Waza is techniques that can be applied to real fights. Lessons learned in real fights are, after much reflection put into kata. This is how aikido was created. Yin becomes yang, yang becomes yin. Study and practice intertwined, one going over into the other. Only as long as we see that one bears the seed of the other and keep the right frame of mind, will we progress.
        After all aikido is very much a mind game.

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