Do you often get yourself upset and feeling less than fully confident, as part of your preparation for facing a daunting challenge? You can improve your performance if you let your somatic intelligence lead
way."You move too much to be effective." Tamura sensei softly shouted at me. "You need to give your opponent a clearer target to strike at."We were in middle of studying how to defend ourselves from multiple attackers in an Aikido class for senior students in Japan.
Five young college students rushed at me once again, and once again I struggled to cope with them.
"OK, take a break." Tamura sensei said. "In order for five attackers to actually hit you they have to first reach you. Your job is NOT to run away from them. You need to create a spacing that leads them to all try and grab or hit you at same time. Think of attackers as needing to pass through a gate. If they all try and rush through gate at same time they will block each others efforts. Move less, do less, and be calm. Give them a clear target that they all reach at same time."
I had heard similar remarks in past, but accomplishing this in heat of moment requires a moving calmness that takes a while to get hang of. You know in your head what you are supposed to do, but once your heart starts beating faster and your opponents are bearing down on you, you find it really hard to believe in what you are being told.
"Think of it this way." sensei said. He pulled out a cloth that he used to wipe away his sweat and said, "Here, take this away from me."
As I grabbed for cloth, he more or less handed it to me. Just as I was beginning to get a good hold on it he let go of cloth and grabbed onto my wrist and placed me in a painful hold. I immediately let go of cloth, and he picked it back up with one hand as he continued to keep me subdued with his other hand.
