Finding Kokkyu

This is about one of those amazing discoveries in my world of Aikido.

I'm walking fairly fast to reach home before the Simpsons start on TV. I get to an underpass to get to the other side of a large busy road. I have a 5-year-old sitting on my shoulders, let's say about 20 kilograms. I have my techno-backpack on my back, let's say another 10 kg, for a total of 30 kg concentrated on my neck and shoulders. I am also pushing a buggy with a 1-year-old, for a total of, say, another 10 kg. The underpass, by definition, routes me downhill at first, then across, then uphill, and it's during the uphill phase that I start struggling.

Instinctively, I simply stretch out my arms to push the buggy, and compensate the additional weight on my neck and shoulders by tensing the muscles in my upper body.

WRONG! That's hard work!

Then it just dawned on me: I relaxed my shoulders, dropped my weight towards my hips, energised my forearms, putting just a tiny bit of zanshin on each step... and there I was, cruising uphill without noticeable effort!

Aikido will never cease to amaze me.

M.