This video was made a few days after an exploration into the nature of connection lead by Patrick Cassidy during a section of the Joshua Tree "Evolutionary Aikido" seminar with Miles Kessler and Dave Goldberg. My partner and I were investigating the nature of the attacker's connection and the difference between connection to the central core and connection to the outwardly extending connector. In our ukemi we extend to the energetic center as an attacker would because if the attack doesn't penetrate the core the attack is not effective. We reduce the intensity so when accidents or lack of connection produce an impact it is not injurious. But lack of intensity does not mean lack of intention to penetrate or impose a connection. The slower attacks give us an opportunity to become conscious of our hardwired and programmed responses to the perception of threat caused by the imposed connection to our core.

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