Learning Violin-Playing Posture in Kokikai Aikido

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I'm at Kokikai Aikido Summer Camp this weekend. I'm very happy to see people I've known for many years and to work with instructors, including Maruyama Sensei, who are able to give me advice that really applies to my body and my practice. One great nugget of teaching came early in the weekend, when Veronica Burrows Sensei, (my teacher's teacher) talked about a way of moving my arms that makes throws both softer and more powerful.

It's a bit hard to explain "on paper," but I'll try. I learned in yoga that if you hold your arms over your head with your thumbs pointing towards the back of your body, and then rotate your arms so that the elbows come toward each other, you are externally rotating the shoulders. When you do this you can feel that your shoulder blades settle over your back. Most of us sit, stand and walk with our shoulders hunched i.e. internally rotated.

So, as you stand normally, if you lift your arm with your shoulders externally rotated (think of letting your shoulder blade settle nicely over the back of the ribcage) it allows the chest to be more open, and you can lift your arm more softly and naturally. Then the movement of lifting your arm can more easily originate from the center of the body rather than the top of the arm.

Roni Sensei then held her arms out as if she were in position for ballroom dancing, saying "You can hold this position for a long time, because it's comfortable."

Aha! (Music-Aikido moment!) I have difficulty holding the violin for long periods of time and her posture gave me a clue as to what to do to help that!

I knew I was on the right track when, a short time later, Sensei stood up in front of the class, demonstrating a completely different throw, and held his arms out in the same way. Then he made the motion of playing a violin with his arms.  

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