The following clips cover three inter-related drills we use to refine key principles at a spontaneous level in beginning students.  These principles are Metsuke, Angle of Deflection, Outer Rim, and Shikaku.  To be sure, there is much more being cultivated within these drills, but these principles are at the heart of all of them.  These principles are central to the spontaneous expression of the art.  As such, the cultivation of non-attachment and the unfettering of the body/mind are two things that connect these drills with all of the other drills we use to reconcile form and non-form at Senshin Center.  The tendency for ballistic action to stress our capacity for non-attachment is here used to cultivate a viable tactical base – one upon which more advanced spontaneous actions can be supported.  Restrictions, and/or limitations, are placed upon the practitioners to further provide ballistic action with an even greater tendency to fetter the body/mind.  Later, in other drills, these restrictions and/or limitations are removed.  Once a practitioner comes to demonstrate a cultivated level of non-attachment and thus the capacity to maintain proper Metsuke and Angle of Deflection at more sophisticated levels of training and application, training progresses accordingly.

In the first drill, seen in Clip One, practitioners are to steady their gaze in a place of calm awareness.   The gaze, in this case, is used to cultivate and measure a centered body/mind.  The centered body/mind is necessary for a true spontaneous expression of the art.  As the striking practitioner is loosely familiarizing themselves with the textures and angles that are particular to a human body in motion, the receiving practitioner is to not lose Metsuke due to spiritual, physical, or emotional fettering.  With Metsuke firmly established a practitioner has his/her first real chance of addressing the unknown knowable with a tactically viable response.  This drill is designed to bring awareness to one’s habitual tendency to cling to things, ideas, and/or feelings, even a sense of identity, while in the midst of an act of violence.  The body/mind that clings is often most visible in the loss of Metsuke, as the gaze becomes erratic, fixed, and/or even absent altogether.  This training scenario acts as an intensified microcosm, one wherein we can see how our body/mind is attached and/or becomes attached to things, ideas, feelings, and/or our sense of identity.  Toward this end, the receiving practitioner places his/her hands behind his/her back while the striking practitioner strikes the receiving practitioner, making light to moderate contact from various angles with various weapons and timings. 

In the second drill, seen in Clip Two, receiving practitioners are to provide as little Angle of Deviation as possible – instead making this drill very akin to the first drill:  the development and/or the maintenance of Metsuke while it is being challenged ballistically.  This drill continues however by attempting to utilize Metsuke as a tactical base for Angle of Deflection.  In this drill, the point is not to make the striking practitioner miss.  The point of this drill is to keep one’s Angle of Deflection within one’s Outer Rim – to not have it dangerously pulled away from one’s body because the body/mind is attached to something out of ignorance, fear, or pride.  The limiting of one’s Angle of Deviation, and the restriction of one’s own Yang energy (e.g. strikes, Irimi, etc.), push one’s Angle of Deflection to the extreme point of likely failure.  There, more than any other place, the fettering or the unfettering of the body/mind is revealed.  If the body/mind can remain centered and unfettered, the technical failure of one’s Angle of Deflection is pushed further and further up the scale of viable tactical responses.  With the unfettered body/mind, one’s Angle of Deflection comes to adopt an extremely high level of sensitivity, one wherein the attacker’s ballistic strikes are not only checked and/or countered more frequently but checked and/or countered before they are even thrown or seen with the eyes.  This state of sensitivity allows us (at the same time that it requires us) to drop the anti-center of egocentrism and firmly establish a connection with our attacker.  It is via this connection that more awakened responses and reflections can be practiced in regards to our opponent and ourselves.  Toward this end, the receiving practitioner seeks to maintain the integrity of his/her Outer Rim while the striking practitioner attempts to nullify that integrity by employing various levels of target penetration, rhythm changes, fakes, feints, distractions, etc. 

In Clip Three, one will see a contrasting, or, more accurately described, an early learning stage of the second drill.  In this example, the relationship between the fettered mind, the loss of Metsuke, and the failure of one’s Angle of Deflection is made obvious as fakes, feints, misdirected gazes, timing changes, etc., plague these things to the point of total failure.  The inability to “sense” what is happening is one thing of many that makes the reconciliation of form and non-form impossible.  The loss of Metsuke and Angle of Deflection grows in the fertile soil of a mind that is plagued by attachment and its own tendency for the anti-center of egocentrism.  Through direct mentoring, via drills like these and participation in other aspects of Budo culture practiced at the dojo, etc., deshi are led to a place where form and non-form are reconciled.  Form and non-form are reconciled in a place where true spontaneous expression erupts forth, where the body/mind remains centered, where one establishes a refined sensitivity and connection with everything around him/herself - even with an adversary that means to do us harm.    

In the third drill, seen in Clip Four, practitioners are again to limit their Angle of Deviation and restrict the application of Yang energy for the purposes of increasing ballistic action’s tendency to fetter the body/mind.  Continuing on with employing Metsuke and Angle of Deflection under circumstances that are more challenging to the body/mind (in regards to the cultivation of non-attachment), the receiving practitioner is to govern both tactical principles by the fulfillment of entering into Shikaku at the back of the striking practitioner.  The adoption of a tactical “goal” – as a future event – further increases the likelihood of the body/mind becoming fettered by things, ideas, feelings, and our sense of identity.  Thus, through such training we penetrate deeper into the body/mind’s tendency to habitually practice attachment.  Alternately, a practitioner whose body/mind can remain centered will not feel restricted by the additional tactical objective nor by the manner in which it must be achieved.  The body/mind that is purified of egocentric tendencies does not experience the workings of the world, which includes the parameters of these drills, in any sort of negative and/or restrictive sense.  Such a body/mind gains the capacity to remain creative, and/or on the side of creation, at all times and within all worlds.  To further cultivate this sense of ultimate freedom and/or of martial creativity, an even greater restriction is placed upon the receiving practitioner regarding his/her entering into Shikaku.  While it must occur naturally (i.e. in an unforced manner), it must also occur fully.  What is sought is a clear placement of one’s own body in the “dead angle” at the back of the striking practitioner.  Therefore, receiving practitioners are instructed to attach themselves to both hips and the center of the striking practitioner to mark the complete fulfillment of the tactical objective of entering into Shikaku.  Toward this end, striking practitioners continue in the same fashion as they did in the second drill while receiving practitioners allow their entry into Shikaku to happen of its own accord – as something natural and in harmony with all things.

The capacity to physically find Shikaku via an unfettered Metsuke and an unfettered Angle of Deflection is central to Aikido tactics – tactics such as Irimi, etc.  Later, as ranges, attacks, levels of aggression, etc., are varied and/or intensified, and as receiving practitioners are rearmed with their own Yang energies, and their Angle of Deviation, etc., the virtues cultivated within these three drills will go far in making the spontaneous expression of the art more accessible and/or realizable.  This will remain true under all circumstances – both martial and spiritual, both violent and intimate, both profane and sacred.  In this way, the body/mind will become more unfettered and one’s Aikido will become a deeper reflection of the inner being we share with all Mankind.

The fifth clip is video of the same drill but performed at an intermediate level. At this level, contact is more pronounced so protective gear is worn to reduce injuries.