Like any journey...this one begins with eight steps (Shomen Ashi and you!)?

I've recently decided to try to outline what I know about well...Aikido.

So let's stop with the beginning! Something most people find banal.  The building blocks of Aikido!
The first eight steps of the walk.

Oh my...well that's a bit simpler than the Foxtrot but a bit more complicated than the Twist.   Maybe It would be more clear if I explained like this:

Note: Alas you have to actually click through to view the animated gif!

Well hopefully that clears things up a bit.  But there are some very simple observations within these steps

So Much Paperwork!

We keep seeing the returning to a stance of feet shoulder-width apart. Think of there as a sheet of paper between our feet to make things easier.  In every odd numbered step we are getting off that piece of paper, while on every even numbered step we are returning to our "neutral" stance.

 Step X is the same as Step Y

 Step 2 has the same motion as step 7, 

Step 4 has the same motion as step 5, 

Step 1 has the motion as step 8

Step 3 has the same motion as step 6. 

Well that's jolly good and all...but what does it mean?  Our steps forward are the same as our steps backwards.  The only difference is the foot relationships at the beginning and ending of the step.  But of course that's going to hold true, we're moving!  These first eight steps are reinforcing the basic mechanics of drawing

Tumbling Down

Every step is a fall.  We rest on the balls of our feet to for the shortest mode of travel.  Now it's funny to actually consider this process. In Aikido we have a fall followed by a rise.  Normally bipedal motion dictates a rise THEN a fall.  

My challenge to Headlong:  How is the diagram wrong?

Aikido and I

I have a confession: I do Aikido.

Up until recently, I never fully realized the contradiction inherent in that statement; or maybe it is that I never fully realized the ramifications of correcting said contradiction. While the solution seems obvious to me now, it is no less daunting. If anything, it is even more so:

There can be no "I" in Aikido.

Now those aforementioned ramifications start to fall into place:

1) The name of the art is much less euphonic.
2) Within an altercation, not only can Tori not do or try to do any certain technique, but Tori ceases to exist as anything outside of the system of motion.
3) Uke ceases to exist as anything outside of the system of motion.

There is no Good Guy or Bad Guy; there is no intent; there is no defeat.

There is only motion, only Aikido.

H. Long