Techniques

It has a lot to do with being yourself, and overriding your limbic system's instinct to fight, flee or freeze.

​1. Extending Your Mind

Like the Boy Scout Motto "Be Prepared", meaning “You are always in a state of readiness in mind and body to do your duty”.

No doubt 'do your duty' originally meant 'duty to the King and your superior officer, or employer'.

Today, in Aikido terms, it is a duty of care to yourself and others (even if they attack you), and of the environment.

Therefore a technique begins with paying attention to everything happening around you.

Aside from people, this includes objects on collision course or just tripping hazards.

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2. Know Your Partner's Mind

Read the intentions of those who are close, before they reach striking distance.

(This could be in the broader sense in of suspecting an online or mobile call scam)

3. Respect Your Partner's Ki

Have you got the measure of them?

This means in simple terms to anticipate how much physical effort the Uke is sending toward you, and to which part of you is targeted.

After this its 'horses for courses' territory.

- If it's a weak even limp attack you might not move at all, or just 'brush it aside'.

- A strong focused attack might mean you need to faint an Atemi strike to arrest their movement.

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4. Put Yourself in Your Partner's Place

More advanced students learn to control the lightness of their touch according to

“ Encounters in Yoga and Zen - Meetings of Cloth and Stone”

Cloth against cloth, or stone against stone:

No clear result, and it is meaningless.

Catch the flung stone in the cloth,

Pin the wind-fluttered cloth with a stone.

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5. Perform With Confidence

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General skills taught.

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Falling safely.

This skill begins with rolling backward from a cross-legged seated position, and then from standing.

This gives confidence to attack intently knowing that, if thrown, you can not only fall safely, but feel emboldened to attack again!