TAE Journal, Edition 14, How to Use Principles to Improve Training Quality. By Tomas Nord

FROM EDITION 14 OF THE TRADITIONAL AIKIDO EUROPE JOURNAL – WINTER 2025

In the past I have written about how useful I find it to reflect on how to learn effectively. This can very much help in not just making the training fun but also assuring good progress and development. One of the topics I often come back to is the difference between whether you are practicing the forms in the curriculum or if you are using them. This might seem like only a slight wording difference, however, the difference is quite large. In the first case the goal of the training would (hypothetically) be to learn the forms, or maybe even as many forms as possible since it might get boring after a while to not have new ones to learn. In the second case the forms would be a tool to learn something. One obvious follow up question would be: “to learn what”? The good news is that there is a whole section in the curriculum that describes this, which I would also call: “the key section of the curriculum”. To quote the starting piece of text from it: “The Syllabus can be understood as both a roadmap to acquiring the basic techniques and as a check on one’s level of progress in the understanding and embodiment of the Principles of Aikido.” The first part of this sentence means that there is a pedagogical plan embodied in the set of techniques chosen for each level. The second part of the sentence points to the purpose of the use of the forms, i.e., the understanding and embodiment of the principles.

Technique, Form, Principle

It might be good here to pause and look at the used terms. I use the word “technique” for the relatively narrow functional and technical aspect that uniquely identifies what is happening in uke. This means we can distinguish ikkyo from nikkyo, but it does not say anything about how it is applied. I think of the word “forms” in the curriculum, however, as small partner katas with predefined roles for uke and nage. Gyaku hanmi katate dori ikkyo omote waza is a multi-step partner kata which provides an example of how the technique ikkyo can appear in a certain situation. It should also be trained as a kata, i.e., uke and nage performing the kata together. Here I use “form” and “kata” interchangeably but distinguish them from “technique”.

Now back to the principles. The principles are the essential characteristics of the system. The forms in the curriculum are examples of applications of the principles in given situations. The pedagogical idea is that the forms should be descriptive and clear enough to put you close enough to what you would do if you had embodied the principles, and in this way hopefully give you as good a chance as possible to gain an experience of the principle in action instead of as a purely technical execution of a form.

From Abstraction to Practice

A next question could be: “If this now is the pedagogical idea, what does it actually mean for my day-to-day training? This whole stuff seems very abstract.”. To make it practical: avoid empty training, i.e., just mindlessly repeating forms without a purpose. Instead, use as much as possible of your current knowledge of the principles to guide you into improving how to execute the forms. If you, for instance, notice problems with balance, maybe pick a body use principle you are aware of, such as weight underneath (relaxed centered heaviness) and focus on what this principle tells you about how it should feel at each point in the form. Break the form down into parts where you can stop, gauge the quality of your embodiment of the principle, correct yourself, and then move to the next stop. Feel free to be creative.

“The goal is not the form. The form is the tool.”

This kind of mindful training will in the long run beat out “end-gaining” type of training where you just focus on finalising the execution of the technique by any means necessary in order to get the partner to the floor.

Finding the Principles to Work With

Next question then: “How do I know which principles there are to pick from?”. This is a good question, since there is a circular loop in that we gain knowledge of the principles through training the forms and we use our understanding of the principles to improve the quality of the training. The good news is again that “the key section of the curriculum” actually mentions the most important ones to focus on and at what stage in the learning development to do so. For basic practice I think it can be a useful starting point to work with 3 main groups of principles: body use principles, time and distance principles, and functional principles. For more advanced training there can be more groups or different ways to slice and dice principles, but let’s leave that out for the moment. For the pedagogical levels I tend to simplify it to:

• 6 Kyu to 1 Dan - focus on basic form learning with a broad-brush focus on functional and body use principles. This prepares you to be able to train in a much deeper way at shodan and above.

  
  

• 1 Dan to 2 Dan - focus very little on forms and instead deep dive into body use principles. An improvement in the quality of body use (i.e., better embodiment of the body use principles) is what takes you from katai to yawarakai. This is especially related to improving “functional grounding”, “centered coordination”, “power through extension”, and “connecting to the partner’s center”. As the embodiment of these improves you use less upper body tension movements (such as pulling, etc.) but rely more on the centered and grounded weight of the body to be behind and extended into the contact points with the partner. When the techniques are performed by more relying on this refined use of the body it will look smoother, mainly because your whole-body weight cannot “jerk” around as it might when relying on upper-body strength pulling or pushing your partner.

  
  

• 2 Dan to 3 Dan - deep dive into time and distance principles. This is where the partner starts to become more of the focus. The body use developed above now needs to be maintained while moving, and that motion needs to be in relation to a moving partner, i.e., “distance”, “timing”, and “connection” become the development points.

  
  

• 3 Dan to 4 Dan - deep dive into functional principles. Here the game of the partner is stepped up. Explore through counter techniques, variations, and applied techniques, the principles of what makes the techniques work or fail. Function, Body Use and Timing Functional principles describe what makes a technique succeed or fail. 

Function, Body Use and Timing

Functional principles describe what makes a technique succeed or fail. These principles involve aspects such as identifying the directions in which a partner’s base is strong or weak, disturbing the center (i.e., the ability to coordinate the body), or the partner, misleading them, or denying them access to power from the ground. This is a large and complex topic that deserves its own article. While the following principles also have functional aspects, distinguishing purely functional principles for pedagogical purposes allows them to be introduced and developed earlier in training.

Body use principles can be one of the hardest things to change or improve in training. I think this is because during our whole lives we pick up various body use habits and along the way most of us pick up some bad ones, which get ingrained through daily use. These bad habits tend to be what feels right, and any change for the better has a hurdle of feeling wrong to get over. Even though body use is a very large topic that can be sliced and diced into a large number of principles, I find that starting with three that are very central to the style can make a big difference: “functional grounding”, “power through extension”, and “centering”. Functional grounding, or to make a car analogy, the “quality of the suspension”, here refers to the ability to have the weight of the body (and potentially the power of a partner) go to the ground in a functional way. Power through extension refers to the way we transmit power from the ground through the body, and especially how we transmit it into the contact points with the training partner. Centering refers to the idea that all of this is coordinated from the center. The center has to have a functional connection to the ground, and power through extension refers to extension from the center.

There are many ways of training body use principles. One of my favourite solo exercise tools is the swinging arms exercise. Using the whole body to swing the arms (which should be 100% relaxed) is a great way of working on the grounding and the centering and provides a very good setup for later working on power through extension. I often use a “pre-suburi” step-by-step practice to build up to bokken practice, however, sharing that will have to wait for a separate article.

Distance and timing principles relate to where and when you should be. Note that this can be either “inside” a technique, i.e., where to be in each step of the technique and the timing of these steps, or in a bigger sense in relation to your partner as an attack is happening. If you relate back to the discussion on technique vs kata above, you can see this as there being timing both on the level of technique and on the level of kata. While practicing techniques, begin by focusing on distance, that is, consider where you need to be. Get into the habit of moving yourself to the place you should be during training rather than using extra strength to pull the partner as a compensation for not being in a good place. If needed, break the technique down into steps and make sure you are in the right place at each step of the way. Once you can chain the steps consistently being in the right place you can add the “timing” aspect of connecting each of the steps. Try to notice how the partner reacts to leaving different sized gaps between each step of the technique. This also overlaps with the “functional” principles and is important to make the techniques work well. There is a certain “rhythm” to how a body reacts to your techniques.

The Split-Second Sequence: Align, Center, Extend

When practicing forms in motion you need to have the technique related timing and distance in good shape. You will also need to have the body use principles in good order, which is where it often gets difficult. Part of the timing necessary for nagare work relates to body use principles happening in a certain order and with the required speed. In general, when an attack happens you will have to 1) align your body and find grounding, 2) move your center to be “behind” the direction you are extending your partner, and 3) mobilize power through extension. This sounds like a long affair; however, it needs to happen in a split second. “1, 2, 3” in almost one go. For instance, if you are training tai-no-henko in nagare form, you first need to find the ground close to the partner’s front foot with your foot already partly rotated. You then need to have the freedom of body use to have your center move past the point where your hand is grabbed (without moving it). This almost has a feeling of “rolling” over the partner’s hand. This is not possible with a stiff body. Then you need to apply the power through extension in the direction you were attacked. Finally, you can change the direction of the extension from your center to lead the partner in a new direction. If you skip 1) above, you have no ground to get power from. If you skip 2) above and turn in front of where you are grabbed, you cannot use power through extension. This would create a collision with the partner. Instead, you would have to use tension in the arm, shoulder, and upper chest to “pull” the partner. These two ways of doing the form might look very similar, especially in motion, however, on the inside they are completely different.

I hope that you might find some of these thoughts interesting or something to come back to during your own training. Do you know some principles, and do you use them when you train? As always, have fun while training.