Redirection and Balance Breaking

Now that we’ve discussed some aspects of a strike we can move on to Aikido’s solution to having a strike thrown at the practitioner.

Aikido’s movements have often been described as dance like and flowing and these quick evasive maneuvers are often used to position the defender in an optimal place to “take the opponents balance”. This means the practitioner moves to manipulate the attacker’s center of mass.

Photo Credit: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-agseDnVBXlc/U0faykXkuuI/AAAAAAAAFyw/KQQOwKYFaLk/s1600/HardToKill-04-sg.gif
Steven Seagal, while perhaps not the best actor is a distinguished martial artist and a highly trained Aikido practitioner. As seen the guy with the sword is thrown and rotates around his center of mass while Steven performs no blocks or strikes. If you focus on just below his navel there really is no movement in the x or y direction, only his limbs have movement.

To better visualize the center of mass for a adult human look at the chart below.

Photo Credit: https://physicsoftkd.files.wordpress.com/2016/02/center-of-mass.jpg?w=660

By targeting the center of mass (the “center”), the Aikido practitioner does not lose energy dealing with flailing limbs. Where the center of mass goes the limbs will follow.

This focus on the center allows the Aikido Practitioner to expend very little energy as once the attacker is off balance, gravity acts to bring them down to the ground (similar to slipping on ice, once you lose your balance falling becomes much easier).

This is why Aikido practitioners will avoid and “dance” around their opponents until they move in and take the balance of the attacker. This usage of gravity allows very little energy to be expended as opposed to using energy to block a strike or to strike back. Aikido takes advantage of the force of gravity to do the work for the practitioner.