Our mental representation of a man attacking or defending is a visual process based on the conception that we have of the human body when it is resting but this static vision is fundamentally flawed. Even though the human body is indeed a composed of a torso fitted with four limbs and a head in the way that has been immortalised in so many statues around the world, this representation does not translate the reality of the dynamic aptitudes of our body. This is however by this motion that we must represent our adversary.

This is where the sphere analogy comes of use. The periphery is in motion relative to its centre and the centre can move back and forth, laterally and vertically, leading the periphery. The centre is located within the abdomen, very much in the way Leonardo da Vinci represented it in his Vitruvian Man drawing.

Engaging oneself into the adversary's sphere can only be achieved if the potentiality of his attack has been annihilated within a certain radius of action. This is why Aikido seems essentially like an art of slipping which results in putting the defendant within a zone where the limbs of the attacker cannot reach him. This is the result of a perfect execution of taisabaki which allows the creation of a vacuum before the attacker, and then to attack his vital points.

More tan any other forms of defence; Aikido uses the attacker's own strength as an opportunity to defeat him. In fact, contrary to Judo, an Aikido practitioner seldom grabs the attacker and sometimes not at all. In Aikido, the attacker dashes forward, directed in one single direction, until he looses his balance.

André Nocquet at the Aikikai Hombu Dojo in the late 50's

The general idea is to use the most peripheral part of the sphere of action such as the opponent's hands or wrists and to use it in order to rotate this sphere in the same direction as its initial, voluntary motion. In effect, we don't block the blow, we don't redirect it from its own course but instead, we force this atemi to complete its spherical motion or its most extreme axis. In other words, we seek to get maximum lever power. The body of the adversary turns because of the motion at the extremity of his limbs. We must only penetrate into the opponent's sphere at the moment when the radiating expansion of the adversary has been driven away.

Aikido is the art of tangent action

Action through flexors and extensor muscles is the main attribute of boxing and wrestling and more generally, of all the competitive sports, even Judo. Instead, in Aikido, we seek the extreme imbalance that allows the opponent to use neither his flexors, nor his extensors, which are the only way that humans have to act on things.

The rotating aspects occur on three dimensions and of course, are combined with changes in rhythm within the movement's acceleration.

André Nocquet

Editor's note: I recently gained access to a number of items that used to belong to Master André Nocquet, 8th Dan and the first foreign uchi deshi of O Sensei Morihei Ueshiba. André Nocquet was also a 4th Dan Judo instructor, direct disciple of master Kawaishi. Most of these documents have never been published before outside of France. I will regularly publish translations of his essays as well as parts of the extensive video archive he gathered. Once he returned to France after spending over three years in Japan practicing with the founder, Nocquet made great efforts to spread Aikido and explain its concepts to the public. The following article is one of these efforts where he describes Aikido's fundamental physical singularities compared to other sports or martial arts.