Ki - green belt

What is Ki?

This is a question that could be discussed by aikido practitioners for hours, particularly those in the lower Kyu grades as it's so difficult to understand.  Ki literally means steam or vapour but in the sense of aikido it is your energy and life-force.  This sounds simple and I suppose it is.  What isn't simple is channeling it in every day life and manipulating it in your aikido techniques.

Ki for beginners

When I started Aikido in 2011, Ki was (and to an extent, still is!) very difficult to comprehend.  As a green belt, I'm only now beginning to pick up the basics of what my Ki is and how to use it.

One of the 4 principles of Aikido is to "extend Ki" but it's not immediately obvious how you would extend your energy.

The first Ki exercise I was taught was "unbendable arm".  This is where you put your arm out in front of you (while extending Ki) and someone tries to bend your arm at the elbow.  This sounds easy right?  Just stick your arm out and don't let them move you... but the point is to relax, keep weight underside and don't use physical strength.  Doesn't sound so easy now does it!  However, we're taught that the more you relax, put your weight underside and extend your Ki, the more difficult it will be to bend your arm.  I was taught to extend my mind as far as I possibly could while holding my arm out in front of me.  Imagine an invisible thread stretching from your finger tips and reaching as far as the mind will let it.  I was also advised to allow gravity to do it's job.  When we're relaxed, our weight naturally goes underside but this takes a lot of practice as it's easy to tense up when someone invades your personal space.

As a white belt all this was just about impossible to understand and I was unable to extend Ki while practicing my techniques.  My advice is to be patient.  It might take a while, but as you develop your Aikido, your Ki will gradually become easier to understand.

Ki as a Green Belt

I had one of those light bulb moments almost immediately after my Orange Belt grading.  There are a lot of Ki tests in our gradings and the higher you go, the more you're tested.  I had thought that the Ki tests had gone well but the sensei who was grading me had a different opinion.  He described my Ki as "disappointing" and I will talk about that in more detail in a future blog.

However, upset though I was about that negative feedback, it made me think!  Clearly, Ki is a natural life-force.  I have it (we all have it), I just don't understand it.  So I did a bit a soul searching and reflection which actually gave rise to this blog!

Very often Sensei Wilson has talked about attitude and intent.  I've never understood what he's been talking about until I had a good think about it.  The way I understand it is that if my attitude is defeatist, angry or afraid, then I will be defeated.  If I do not show the intention of being able to hold off and/or deal with an attack effectively then the attacker will prevail.  O Sensei Ueshiba once said "... the wise win before the fight while the ignorant fight to win".  If my attitude is one of peace, calmness and confidence then I will not be defeated.  If I show my attacker that I have the intention of stemming his attack and neutralising it then he may not attack at all but it will, at the very least, weaken his advance.

This attitude and intent can be portrayed by posture.  If weight is underside then I'm relaxed, I have my one point and I'm looking straight into my attacker's eyes while being aware of my surroundings.  This is the start of my Ki being extended outwards.

My personal aim before I go for my Blue Belt is to make this attitude and intent, before the attack, a natural part of my Aikido practice.   Once I've made this a natural part of me and my behaviour, I can then concentrate on continuing it into the full technique.

An example of Ki in a full technique would be when applying an Atemi (which is a blow to a part of the opponent's body with the intention of knocking them off balance and/or making them doubt their resolve).  The point of the Atemi is the intention to land a blow on the attacker (for example in between the eyes).  The blow will be quite painful if you make contact but that's not the main point of the Atemi as you would expect your uki to get out the way!  The intention of the blow will put them off balance and will allow your technique to be more effective.  Your attitude in delivering this Atemi will make the difference.  If you intend to hit your opponent in between the eyes but you're afraid that you'll hurt them, then it won't work.  If you intend to hit your opponent in between the eyes and you don't care if you hit them, it'll work.

That's not to say that you want to hit them!  Aikido is a peaceful martial art and aims to neutralise the attack so that both you and the attacker are safe.  Your Ki is what knocks them off balance and makes them doubt themselves, not an actual hit between the eyes.

As I said, it's difficult to comprehend and even more difficult to explain which is why my advice is to be patient.  It will dawn on you one day!

When I was a yellow belt, I was taking part in a course which is run by my club twice a year after grading.  We were practicing fifth form cuts with the bokkan and one of the 7th Dan Senseis was going round the groups helping us to develop this movement.  Sensei stood in front of me and said "5th form cut to the head.  GO!"  I couldn't.  I tried to pull the bokkan down and aim for his head but without moving a muscle the man was able to stop me dead in my tracks!  "What's wrong?" he asked.  "I don't know!" I squeaked.  I moved to the back of the group totally flummoxed.  A Brown Belt took his turn and made the bokkan move slightly further than I had but Sensei still didn't feel the need to get out the way.  Instead the Brown Belt moved to the side as if it was Sensei who was doing the cut!  I still have no idea how he did that.  But as I've gone from yellow to orange to green I'm beginning to understand what he was doing... using Ki!