Half Power vs. Full Power

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Last week I attended a class with Kokikai Aikido founder Shuji Maruyama Sensei. I'm still absorbing some of the ideas Sensei gave us to improve our practice. This particular idea sounds like it's specific to aikido technique, but I think it applies to people who don't practice aikido, too.

We practice an exercise called zengo undo, where we raise our arms as if to respond to an overhead attack, and then turn 180 degrees and do the same - as if we had attackers both in front and behind. The challenge of the exercise is to remain centered and calm while changing directions very quickly.

Sensei's point was that when we turn from one direction to the other, we need to shift our focus 100%. If we are still thinking about what just happened, or anticipating what's about to happen, we have only half of our power.

This sounds very simple, but it's difficult to practice in aikido.

It's even harder to practice in daily life. 

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