Practical Examples of Aikido In My Experience I. Kuzushi One night when I was a brown belt, I went to a club called Tommy's in Dallas' Deep Ellum district. The band was Devo, and they attracted a crowd of mostly adolescent or formerly adolescent middle-class white people, including a large contingent of college students. The band played what they call music, which I happen to enjoy, sitting down, to show that they still could after getting screwed by the music industry for so many years. The audience responded well and it was a good show, droll yet energetic. I was standing on the stairs to the left of the stage, on the second step from the bottom. There were two girls behind me on the next two higher steps. I decided to let the crowd thin out before I tried to leave, so I stayed put, letting the people from the floor seats file past me. One extremely drunk teenager couldn't quite make it up the stairs and stumbled into me. I sort of propped him up so he could be on his way. When he looked up, there in front of his eyes were -- breasts. Remember the girls were on the stairs above me and their chests were just about eye level. He got a gleam in his eye and reached out to grab a double handful. The women became discomfited at this prospect and began to cry out. However, I did have a hand on his arm, and I had been training in Tomiki Aikido for about a year. Without thinking, I simply straightened my arm, guiding him off balance. Predictably, perhaps due to his rather hopelessly inebriated condition, he instantly lost his train of thought to concentrate on not falling on his face. He stumbled off into the crowd with his buddy and was never seen again. The two ladies behind me were quite agitated, but I assured them that I had had a hold of him and there was nothing to worry about. That was it. I use this as an example of the principles of harmony and maximum efficiency. I was not attacked violently, so a violent response was not called for. If I don't do this off-balance instantly, however, he grabs the girls, they scream, bouncers and bartenders come flying in, there's a huge fight, and I'm in the middle of it. This was the minimum action I could do, and also the maximum required because it was done at sen-sen-no-sen, before the fight had even started. I am fairly sure that I prevented injury to several people, surely saved the women a mauling, and probably lost the opportunity to try out my Aikido in a real combat situation. I am still waiting, but when people ask if I have ever had to use my martial arts in a real fight, I tell them about this incident. This is how I apply Aikido in practical situations. II. Dancing My first Aikido teacher told me that a big bruiser type came in to see what this Aikido stuff was about. He wanted to spar, really get it on, see if this stuff really works. My instructor told him that we don't fight. We were just dancing. He had a black belt in dancing. Sorry. The guy went away. It would have been no contest, and we would have just had to explain it to the police, or the recreation center staff at the least. That type of person is not interested in learning -- he is only interested in proving his ego against yours. Sometimes it is necessary to defend yourself, but if you can deal with the situation by shedding your ego, why fight? He was no great loss. Perhaps one day he would be ready, but not that day. III. Kime I used to follow a band called New Bohemians when they played the nightclubs in Dallas. One night I was out trying to find the right dive and I noticed I was low on gasoline. I had a passing knowledge of the area and I knew there was a gas station across the street from Fair Park. It was about eleven o'clock, and anyone who knows Dallas knows that Fair Park is not a place to be at that hour. The gas station was fairly well lit, but instead of a walk-in convenience store, there was a booth with thick rusty bars across the windows. Window, I should say, and there was just enough room for a drawer to slide out to take your money. There were about five people loitering in the lot as well. I drove up to a pump and three men converged on my car at once. Each had his own style - one picked up the hose, undid my gas cap and started pumping gas for me. Another was trying to sell me a stack of beat-up records. The third had several interesting stories about how he was driving to Louisiana and his car broke down and he needed me to give him some money so this other guy standing across the lot next to the broken-down car would fix it for him so he could go and he had his family and could I please just give him two dollars and he would leave me alone. I was a little apprehensive. Perhaps the fact that I was in an MGB with the top down had something to do with my feelings of vulnerability. I had been in Aikido for about six months, and I had little confidence in my ability to take on three men if they decided to attack me. The gas-pumper was polite and unthreatening, but the two aggressive ones were crowding and haranguing me with spirit. I took control of the pump and finished filling my tank. When I went to pay I walked carefully and suspiciously. The two point men followed me about halfway and then hung back, waiting for me to come back with the change. Perhaps I should have given it to them, but I did not want to do so under pressure. As I got back in to my car, they flanked me again. The fellow with the reject record albums reached in to my car and started stuffing the records under the passenger seat and demanding money for them. At this point my paranoia started to feel grounded and I seriously began to think I was in physical danger. It was now that I realized I might have a real fight on my hands. I might have to bust somebody up. At the instant I made this mental decision, the whole mood changed. I was ready to grab onto a wrist and tear it up, break arms, faces, whatever. With this fatalistic resignation to the possibility of violence, my fear went completely out of me. A hand was just a hand, and I knew how these things worked. I looked up at the guy with his face in my car and told him in a calm, serious voice to take those records out of my car. All of a sudden he just melted away. He and the fellow on the other side of me apparently decided that this wasn't going to work out anymore. They all kind of drifted back away from my car and I started off on my way. This was an example to me of winning a fight with attitude rather than force. As long as I was meek and fearful, I had victim all over me like a sign. When my attitude changed to readiness, they lost their interest in me as a target. I try to teach students that they must be aware of their surroundings and keep an attitude of readiness at all times. An attacker who picks at random will prefer someone who can be intimidated, for that person is already defeated. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright (c) 1993, Jack Bieler.