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Most people think
that aikido training happens in the body.
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But after decades of practice,
what I've come to understand
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is that the real training
comes in the nervous system,
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and that changes everything
about how you think about progress.
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So Aikido is nervous system
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calibration, not technique collection.
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So many people these days
want to learn more cool techniques.
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Great.
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It helps with the brain,
and it helps keep us flexible
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so that we can learn new things.
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And there is something to be said
for that.
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But the real training, the deep training,
the principles that you can then apply
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to whatever technique you're doing that
has to be done with the nervous system.
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So every repetition rewires
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a neural pathway,
And this is why progress feels invisible
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for long stretches, often times
until it suddenly isn't.
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Suddenly you feel like,
oh, maybe I am making progress.
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But there are long stretches
where you feel like there's nothing,
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and sometimes
there's even a stretch of time
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where you feel like
you must be regressing.
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You feel,
oh my goodness, I'm not just on a plateau.
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I'm actually getting worse.
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I actually went through that one time.
At least one time.
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One time was like really pronounced.
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I, I had been feeling for weeks
or maybe months
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that my aikido was not just on a plateau,
but I was actually getting worse.
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we got to the pub after class and one of
my sempai said, hey, guys, did you notice
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Leah is like, all of a sudden on a roll,
she's at a breakthrough.
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It's like, what?
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What are you talking about?
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And all my sempai went,
oh yeah, yeah, I noticed that.
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I noticed that,
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and I said, oh my gosh,
I felt like I was getting worse.
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And they said, oh no, no, no.
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You know,
you're just going to the next stage.
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So everything feels wrong
because it's all foreign.
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You just moved up to the next rung
on the ladder.
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Amazing.
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And then I talked with my my friend
and colleague Thomas Crystal, our sensei,
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and he's a retired AI professor.
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So I don't have a scientific background,
but he certainly does.
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And he said, oh, yeah,
in order to learn something new, the
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the brain actually has to destroy
some of the neural pathways.
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Thomas sensei, if you're watching this,
please correct me if I'm misquoting you.
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But to paraphrase,
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he said that in order
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to create new neural pathways,
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which is what progress is,
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the brain actually has to destroy
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some of the existing neural pathways.
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So that's why it is absolutely necessary
to get worse before you get better.
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Isn't that interesting?
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So anyway, that's that's what's going on.
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If you feel like you're on a plateau
or actually even getting worse.
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Another thing that I need to mention,
the body gets quieter
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because the nervous system
is getting smarter.
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when you talk to people in different
sports, different activities,
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and they continue doing,
doing their sport, doing their activity
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to the later years of their lives
and their training,
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maybe they're playing basketball
with people who are half their age,
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or they're doing Ichido with people
who are 15 years younger, them or whatever
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it is.
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There's a way that we can economize
with our muscles
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if we've done the proper
training with our nervous system.
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So we become more and more and more
economical in our physical exertion.
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So then, of course,
we have to ask ourselves,
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what does this nervous system training
look like on the mat?
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So first of all, sensitivity to
your partner
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is your nervous system reading.
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There's not a skill
that you just add on top.
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The sensitivity
requires that you loosen up
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so that you don't miss any signals.
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It requires that you quiet the mind,
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and one of the first steps to quieting
the mind is quieting the mouth.
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So this allows you
to pick up more information
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tactically from your partner
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then removing tension.
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What?
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Like I said, loosening up, removing
tension.
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That's reprograming your stress response.
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Not quite relaxing.
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That's not quite the right word.
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And a lot of people in aikido
use that word.
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I don't, I say, to loosen up
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or to remove the unnecessary tension.
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oftentimes when we get stressed,
we've got unnecessary tension,
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and that gets in the way of our
sensitivity and our muscular economy.
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Calm under pressure.
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This is the other thing
that that is happening on the mat
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when our partners attacking us over
and over and over and over,
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and we practice the movement
over and over and over.
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This is cultivating calm.
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So calm under pressure,
isn't just a personality trait.
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Some people have it and some people
don't know it can be trained.
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So we train our nervous systems
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to be able to summon up calm, Right.
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So even when part of you is going,
oh my gosh, if you can summon calm
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or even just make it reflect
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calm in your body, then that's really,
really a huge advantage.
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And in fact, I talk about
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some of these things
in my weekly videos, my training videos,
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if you want to, to get some of those,
just jump on the list.
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There's a link down below
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The next point that I want to talk about
is why it takes so long.
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Why can't we just like
somebody explain it to us?
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We practiced it for ten, 20 minutes,
and we've got it doesn't work that way.
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So the nervous system adapts
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very slowly by design.
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And this is a feature, not a flaw.
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Right.
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So we have been programed for our survival
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to be stressed
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if, if a stressor occurs
and then if that stressor happens again
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we have already learned
oh this is a danger sign right?
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It's survival
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right.
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It's biological.
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So to break this and change this okay.
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Somebody is hitting me on the head.
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I don't have to run away.
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I can enter and turn.
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This takes a long time
because it's not in our nature.
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We have to train it.
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And Western training culture
once those really quick results.
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Yep. Give me the instructions.
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Got it.
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But understanding is not embodying.
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We must do the repetitions.
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Okay. Got it.
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I'll do it for an hour.
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Now. How about doing it for ten years?
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At least five years.
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You know, it takes a long, long time.
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So Aikido requires
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the opposite relationship with time.
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Then what
we have now, in general, most Westerners,
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it's our nature to want it quick.
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So we've got to get rid of that
sort of time frame that we have.
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don't worry, just keep training
and one day it'll happen.
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That's dangerous
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because in a way, it's true.
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And in a way it's not true.
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be patient. Don't worry.
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It'll come. It'll happen.
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A lot of people take that to be like,
oh, okay,
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I don't have to try too hard.
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I'll just kind of keep showing up
and doing my thing and it'll happen.
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She told me it'll happen, right?
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But it does require hard work.
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It does require discipline.
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You've got to get to the dojo
and do your reps,
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and you've got to really, really focus.
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You know, you can't do it half heartedly.
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You can't be tense and doing your reps.
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Okay. Got it.
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You got to take all of the tips
from your teacher,
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keep them in mind, practice all of it.
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There's a phrase
you get good at what you do.
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My teacher told told me you.
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You get good at what you do.
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It's a little bit different from practice
makes perfect.
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You get good at what you do is be careful
what you do,
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because that's
what you're going to get good at,
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if you practice cultivating
calm and embodying
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calm, you're going to get good
at that eventually.
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Not this week, not next month. You'll
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get that much better at it this week,
that much better at it that month.
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But then you have to keep going.
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Yeah, it's it's hard work.
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Hopefully it's fun work
and the payoff is great.
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And then you can take this calm
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out of the dojo.
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You get to a stressful situation
or somebody insults you.
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Whatever. Okay. How do I summon up calm?
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How do I not explode at this person
or flinch
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run away kind of kind of thing, right?
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And if you practice in this way,
keeping in mind that you're training
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your nervous system,
you're not just collecting techniques.
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If you train in that way, then
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you will be able to pick up
new techniques more and more easily.
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So let's say, for example,
that you're just not liking this video
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and all the things that I'm saying,
you're like,
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but I like practicing
different techniques.
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I like learning all the variety.
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Great, great.
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But also try to think
about your breathing, try to stay loose,
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try to keep the alignment,
keep the shoulders down and back.
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And this
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way you'll
also be training the nervous system
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so that okay will accept that
you are one of these people who just loves
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to collect techniques, but
you'll be able to collect them even faster
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and on a deeper level
if you train in this way.
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So actually, it's a win win.
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Everybody's happy.
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Both kinds of people,
the the technique collectors and the,
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how do I go deep and practice principles
that will serve me off the mat?
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Those people too.
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So for whichever camp you're in, training
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with the intention of training
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the nervous system will really,
really benefit you.
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In conclusion,
you're not collecting techniques.
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You are rewiring how you inhabit
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your own body,
the techniques or the method.
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The nervous system is the result.
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This calm or nervous system.
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So go for it.
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Do your reps looking forward
to training together.
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I want to also remind everybody,
right now I'm in Boston.
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We just finished a really nice
talk to the public at a local church.
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And also very soon,
July 15th through 19th,
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I'll be giving a seminar in Los Angeles
at my dojo.
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Registration for that closes on
July 11th.
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So just send a message
if you, if you've got questions about it.
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And there should be a link
in the description leading to that.
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It's the 30th anniversary
of the organization that I created
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when I came back
after about ten years in Japan.
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So it's a big it's a big deal,
and we're very excited about it.
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Also, I'll be taking
a small group of people with me to Germany
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and I'll be in Germany approximately
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September 14th through 27th.
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very soon you'll be able
to join the waitlist for that.
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it will be a small curated group
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And we will have some seminars
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in different cities in Germany Heidelberg,
Bonn,
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Dusseldorf and Zenda.
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But we'll also have some sessions
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off the mat
for those who really want to go deep.
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So be on the lookout for a link
to join the waitlist.
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And, I'm looking forward
to training together with you someday.
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Somewhere soon. Bye bye.
