IP/ Aiki Striking

[Aqui]

Hey guys,

I just saw this video of Salahuddin Muhammad (trained in Aiki by a student of Yoshida Kotaro) showing and (to some extend) explaining Internal striking

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=618364914939116&theater

Has anyone here an idea what training you have to go through to be able to produce such skills?

Do you guys think this would work against a noncompliant attacker?

Thanks,

Aqui

[Wanderingdragon]

It is simply true work, it will work against non compliant partners, to defend against it you must understand the force, the direction of force and extent of the force, as well you must know how to match the force, in this way you balance it and you then can neutralize it. To begin to develop it, practice Jack Dempsey's " falling step ".

[C.J.W.]

I think the teacher obviously has aiki skills, but the reactions from the student are usually only observed in novices with little or no internal training. Against someone who has superior structure and/or knows how to neutralize, the effects would most likely be much less dramatic.

[Oliver 101]

I think the teacher obviously has aiki skills, but the reactions from the student are usually only observed in novices with little or no internal training. Against someone who has superior structure and/or knows how to neutralize, the effects would most likely be much less dramatic.

+1

The teacher uses some form of wohle body connetion/power, but there is absolutely no reason to react like his student did.
Like willywrong said in another thread, these guys are just conditioned or subconciously willing to push against the attack and give up their balance at the same time.
Somewhat ridiculous.

[allen2saint]

I've gotta disagree with some of these assessments. I think he's just taking the shot and describing it....in perhaps overly articulate ways....but I don't think it's a psych job.

[dspyrido]

Do you guys think this would work against a noncompliant attacker?

Maybe something like this?

[dspyrido]

Has anyone here an idea what training you have to go through to be able to produce such skills?

Not to disparage Salahuddin (that's one cool name) but what he is showing is all found in hsing-i 5 elements - bung, tsuan etc. Even WC has (had?) this sort of movement and used to sometimes get magicked up into a bullshit term like thought force.

In the end it has to do with body coordination and connecting the structure that can redirect and push through. You can learn it by understanding the connected movement and repeating it over and over. Then find someone and start doing the same sort of tests against them like in the video. An additional training tactic is learn the movement and grab a hand weight an start doing the movement with a weight on - over time increase the weight and no one under heaven and earth will be able to repel you bung.

It works well against a guy wearing a fedora, cap or any other hat because it takes away from their internal structure . It also does not help if the person is floating, light weight and disconnected.

Against beasts, people who can just get out of the way, people who can also adapt and flow or those with a good connected structure applying this is a lot harder but for the general populous it works well enough.

[D_Glenn]

Do you guys think this would work against a noncompliant attacker?

Maybe something like this?

That's hilarious!

.

[Interloper]

Just saw this old thread.
I have met and trained with Salahuddin Sensei and with his student, Jesse (the training partner in the video). Jesse is not being a compliant uke; he really is getting bounced back with great force after giving the demonstrator some honest energy to work with.

Internal training, peng, aiki, etc. are meant to work on the internally-untrained. Once you have internal skills you quickly learn to neutralize it from another person. That's why teachers in the internal Chinese and Japanese arts have always been so secretive - because to give the stuff away means to give up an advantage. Internals work very, very well against people with conventional "external" training. However, even among internal stylists there are ways that you can condition your body to get your internal power in before the other guy can change and neutralize it. And that's where the fun and games of the "Internal Arms Race" come in.

But back to Salahuddin Muhammad: he is an excellent martial artist with genuine skills. Again, this video was intended to show concepts and principles, not street apps. If anyone is interested in aikijujutsu, Salahuddin Sensei lives and teaches in Philadelphia, but is often in NYC and also travels to his study groups in 4 or 5 locations around the US. You can find his organization, the Koden Bugei Kyokai, on Facebook, and contact him via that page.

[Interloper]

A few more recent videos:

[Interloper]

[Bhassler]

Really nice movement. Nothing he shows requires anything exceptional in terms of body mechanics or secret special powers, internal or otherwise (which is not to detract from him in any way). Great stuff.

[Interloper]

He is using mainly jujutsu (aiki, too, extant in his structure and its effects are quite visible when he handles the very large new student) in the last two videos, but in the earlier ones he actually is utilizing subtle internal body structure and power to effect his techniques. When you see him referring to using the hips, for example, it's not the torso muscles that are driving the hips as one might expect.

Anyway, I agree with you that it's great stuff.

[amor]

He is using mainly jujutsu (less aiki, but still extant in his structure) in the last two videos, but in the earlier ones he actually is utilizing internal body structure and power to effect his techniques. When you see him referring to using the hips, for example, it's not the torso muscles that are driving the hips as one might expect. He is not explaining the deeper processes, in part because the people he is speaking to are students familiar with the methods.

Anyway, I agree with you that it's great stuff.

Nice videos, thanks for posting
I do not know of Salahuddin Muhammad's students but I remember that David Falcaro used to be be under him, if I'm not mistaken. Now it looks like David is doing his own thing and looks to be quite successful from his youtube vids.
Do you know if David still practices the art he learned from Salahuddin or has David veered of in a slightly different direction. I mean, and I admit I might be mistaken and incorrect so please do point this out as I dont want to be spreading incorrect information but, it looks like Salahuddins internal style is more based on 'the structure' whereas David's is on 'the hara'?

Also, what about the style Saladdin practices, is the body-method similar to Dan Harden's style which I assume is Daito-Ryu.

[Interloper]

Hi amor,
My understanding is that David Falcaro heads his own system now, drawing from the jujutsu he learned previously. Looking at a number of his videos, he doesn't have any appreciable aiki though he has some of the very elementary rudiments.

Salahuddin Muhammad's teacher was Okazaki Shuji, who was a student of Yoshida Kotaro (who received a teaching certificate from Sokaku Takeda but also trained in a number of koryu). Salahuddin Sensei has carried on the art since his teacher's death in 1991, and now calls it Hontai Hakkei Ryu Aikijujutsu.

A lot of people have made similar comparisons between Salahuddin Muhammad and Dan Harden. They do share a lot of similarities in their approach to aiki, especially for pragmatic applications. However, the two differ mainly in that Salahuddin''s focus is to carry on his teacher's neo-classical art, while Dan seems to have largely diverged from the Japanese tradition and has developed new approaches. Both excel in their own ways.