Kihon Dosa - The building blocks of life

With the exception of breathing there is one thing all living creatures have in common – ‘movement’. All living things move be it to catch food or to escape from prey. Movement is quite possibly the most important defence mechanism that any one of us possesses.

Take the martial artist for example: He may be strong, powerful and have immense technique but when it comes to a situation that may require him to defend himself he is effectively rendered defenceless without the power of movement. You could have the most incredible blocking skills but if you stand there and give a person enough shots at it they will eventually hit you (yes even if your name is Bruce Lee)!
For the majority of us who are every day people that are not strong powerful warriors that are carved out of granite wielding immense technique, how do we manage to survive? Well my moving of course! For one and probably the best lesson of self defence is to never put yourself in that position in the first place.

However when that option is removed and we are likely to be set upon we need to turn to our natural assets. By maximising those natural assets we can in fact transform into very strong and powerful beings.

Now we talked in an early article about the basic stance – Kamae (posture). From this basic stance a lot of power can be generated and it all comes down to body mechanics. But in order to survive a person must effectively move and somehow remain strong while doing so.

The founder of Yoshinkan Aikido (Gozo Shioda aka "Kancho") knew this. Gozo Shioda was a mere five foot nothing, he was not carved from stone, he was not a giant. He was by all intensive purposes an everyday man like you and me but he controlled other people while generating immense power using very little effort.

There are countless videos on Youtube of Gozo Shioda being pursued by three, four sometimes five people, all of which are bigger than him, all of which are younger and stronger than him, yet when making contact with him they encounter a sensation similar to that of running into a brick wall! You can watch these videos and when you do it is certainly with a sense of disbelief as it all looks so unreal – fake even.

But believe me when I say that if you have ever experienced the power of effective kamae you will soon become a rigid believer in what you see. “Don’t believe me?” Well get yourself down to your nearest Yoshinkan Aikido Dojo and find out for yourself! Now while Gozo Shioda had mastered both movement and technique for himself how could he effectively teach others to do the same? The answer – the invention of something called Kihon Dosa (basic movements).

Kihon Dosa comprises of three basic movements ‘Hiriki no yosei’, ‘Tai no henko’ and ‘Shumatsu Dosa’. Gozo then broke them down even further into 'ichi' and 'ni' (one and two) giving a total of six movements. The practice of these movements not only gives a person power through their posture but it also teaches them the movements required to learn effective technique. The kihon Dosa are the building blocks of everything that you do in Yoshinkan Aikido. Over the up and coming weeks we will look at them in more detail. Until then stay alive and keep on moving.