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Ueshiba spoke of it as ‘reading your opponents mind’

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It’s fairly easy to do with drunks, not so easy (at least for me, at this stage) to do with competent, sober fighters.

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Ouch!... you have to ask if the drunk is holding on to the lamp post for illumination or support... no such mystery to competent, sober fighters. They provide all the energy you'll ever need if you're doing Aikido correctly, and they fly so well... Drunks just kind of "fall over" or stumble...

To be serious, if you want to take a quantum leap in your training, spend some time learning to do a sword step to avoid your opponent, and use it as deeply as you can move comfortably, and you will find those drunks fall on their own, and the competent, sober fighters aren't nearly as formidable as they once were... just a tip after 24 years of doing just that...

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Ed,

We have sensen-no-sen in Hakko-ryu (Dentokan). These waza involve tori executing atemi or other distraction, then applying the technique prior to kake/uke initiating the attack.

As Ames can confirm, there are similar techniques in the basic Daito-ryu waza as well (118 shoden)--at least in the Tokimune lineage. Similar techniques were also practiced by Ueshiba sensei in pre-war Aikibudo (reference the Noma Dojo photos and the Asahi film) and the late Shioda sensei also taught similar waza. Many Aikido dojo that have a strong law enforcement influence also maintain such techniques, such as Bernie Lau’s Aikido derivative, Icho-ryu.

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Thanks for the straightforward reply. Thats interesting to note the pre-war Aikibudo distinction. It's a simple concept. If you notice someone is about to do you harm, the trained-for instinct would be to preempt it before it gains full momentum.
We can think all the love and peace we want, but action is what matters in an unprovoked attack. non-action means you get hit. and, unfortunately, naiiveness and always looking for the peace in people would leave a defender in disbelief for a critical split second before reacting. Although on the other side of the spectrum, paranoia and over-sensitivity is probably more destructive than anything.
clearly, being balanced is key to 'sen sen-no sen' action.

I think thru the action of training over years is where the balanced peace comes from as a residual of training...it's not a pre-requisite to the Arts. therefore describing the concept of sen-no-sen as a mindset of 'not fighting' (as mentioned earlier) puts the cart in front of the horse.

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Never did find out what wristtwister meant by "sword step"

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