Numata sensei’s training session at Balmain was a little different from your standard Aikido training (if there is such a thing). He introduced us to some “body awareness” type movements that at one point made the Dojo look more like a drama class than a martial art training.
It was quite funny to experience the change in atmosphere as everyone watched in enjoyment as he proceeded to demonstrate this “funny” walk with arms entwined above your head and prancing along with exaggerated hip movements to really get everything going. Everyone then glazed in disbelief as he motioned for us to line up and do the same.
It didn’t take long for everyone to get into the spirit of things and start “prancing” up and down the mat in a most unorthodox way that simply made you feel good (either because you were secretly laughing at the way you must look, or the fact you were learning to use all of your body to walk. Something we probably don’t think to do everyday).
He also explored two quite simple shoulder exercises to increase our awareness throughout the upper body.
Firstly, with clenched fists and biceps bulging (a bit like a boxer shaping up but with his guard way down low) rotate the shoulders slowly in a large circular fashion. Try rotating in both directions but bringing the shoulder up and back then down and forward definitely seemed to feel a little more natural than in the other direction. Pay attention to the distance from your ear to the shoulder joint while rotating.
There’s not really much structural in there connecting the arms with the torso. In fact the single point of connection is the where the collar bone joins to the top of the breast bone. This is the pivotal point for the rotation. The scapula (shoulder blade) is not actually connected to the ribs at all but rather should move freely over the ribs with lots of space as you rotate the shoulder.
Continue with the rotations and expand your awareness to the whole muscle group that drives the shoulder (and therefore the arm). It really starts from more than halfway down the back to right up under the ear. So the rotation should really involve the entire spine as well. Even the hips come in to play somewhat so you can maintain your balance while rotating.
The second exercise was a further exploration of the connection (or disconnection) between our arms and the body. With arms outstretched like Da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man one hand is turned palm up and the other palm down. Now continue the rotation of the downward palm until the arm has gone full circle and the palm is facing up again (not so easy at first but persist a little). Slowly swap rotations from one arm to the other engaging as much of the upper body as possible. Don’t be afraid to let your hips join in as well.
This rotates the whole shoulder and begins to lift the scapula from the ribs giving a real sense of space under there. Something we probably don’t realise too often as the tensions build up throughout the day. It’s such a simple exercise the can be practiced almost anywhere and only takes a few moments to open up the space throughout the shoulder disrupting the habitual tension patterns we may have acquired during the course of our day.
I can’t remember his exact words but the benefits as Numata sensei suggested was “old man who can do this very well, grow very old, but still look young”. I tend to believe him.
Trent Adamson
