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ASOCIACION AIKIDO KEITENKAI

THE SPIRAL FORM IN AIKIDO

Aikido keiten Ryu.

AUTHOR

ANTONIO PADILLA

The spiral form Is located in the context of the most common shapes in nature, both as object and

as physical phenomena associated with optimization processes in natural form and identifies and

describes their frequent presence in the techniques of Aikido. Thus demonstrating the close

relationship of Aikido with nature and linked to optimal processes on their techniques.

October 2012 - Lima – Peru

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1. INTRODUCTION. FORMS IN NATURE.

In nature many geometric shapes are identified and found that some of them are repeated

more often than others, the reason for this is not known, but through research in different

fields of human endeavor are finding some answers. It is mentioned (1, 2) that the forms which

are more common in nature are the sphere, the hexagon, spiral, helix, the angle, the wave,

the parable, fractals, the catenary. To understand them, they are modeled idealizing them

mathematically:

These forms have some quality that makes them occur in nature, associated with specific

functions in the physical or biological processes (3), so for example, the sphere is the form

which protects because it has minimal surface for a given volume, the spiral presents

maximum length in minimum space for this reason it is said that the spiral packages.

The presence of the spiral form in the objects that constitute nature, physical phenomena,

and even non-physical processes, for instance financial, is abundant, which indicates that this

form is important.

In the case of Aikido, is important because it is in the path of many techniques during its

execution, so that we approach it in this paper.

SPHERE CONE HELIX WAVE

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2. THE SPIRAL FORM IN MATHEMATICS (4)

Spiral: There are several types of spirals, but, their common feature is that is formed by a point

revolving around a reference point and going away from it, in a plane:

It is also appropriate to mention that the helices are spirals in space:

3. SPIRAL FORM IN NATURE

The spirals are present in the kingdoms of nature; we will carry out the presentation of some

examples that demonstrate their presence:

Spiral of Archimedes Logarithmic Spiral or

Growth Spiral Fermat Spiral

Cylindrical Helix

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3.1 The Spiral Form in Vegetables

It is present in its inner structure in plants in more than 85% of them in the distribution of the

leaves on the stem, as seen in the treaties of phyllotaxis, that are distributed so that they all

they are located spiral forming a helix, in positions following a distribution according to

numbers series of Fibonacci(5), which occurs admirably very frequently in nature, this

distribution allows the leaves receive sunlight optimally without interference as possible:

There are many other examples of the spiral in nature:

SPIRAL ALOE

SUNFLOWER FLOWER presents

spiral in both directions

VINE TENDRIL

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3.2 The spiral form in animals

In the animal kingdom, we find this form for example on snails, on the horns of sheep in

humans; in the cochlea of the ear, in the human heart muscle fibers are observed conical

spirals:

The Nautilus Pompilius, has its shell in form of logarithmic spiral, allowing it to grow without

changing its shape. Was studied by the biologist and mathematician D'Arcy Thompson, in his

classic work On Growth and Form, 1917. I got the image on

http://www.laputanlogic.com/articles/2005 / 04/index.html, in this image we can see the

cutting of the shell of a nautilus, in which the cameras are seen forming a logarithmic spiral:

The spiral shape can also be observed in some animals:

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In the human being is, for example in the pinna or when it is formed a fist:

It is also in the DNA structure related to life, because that's where the information is stored

that governs the development of an egg to an adult organism-

3.3 The spiral in physical phenomena

3.3.1 In the high-energy phenomena, played on the European Research Centre (CERN):

It is observed that after the clashes between charged particles spiral movements are

performed in the presence of electromagnetic fields in the bubble chamber, which

permits to visualize these phenomena:

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3.3.2. In phenomena such as eddies in rivers, into the sea. In tornadoes:

Satellite image showing a depression centered in the Denmark Strait between Iceland

and Greenland. The winds, attracted by the low pressure area in the center, under the

effect of the Coriolis force, rotating counter-clockwise, which give the appearance of snail

from space (in the southern hemisphere would rotate clockwise of clockwise. taken by

NASA in 2003, the source is located in http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/view.php?id=68992:

3.3.3. In the movement of the earth around the sun and the center of the

Milky Way galaxy in which our solar system is part:

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3.3.4. On motion of spiral galaxies around its axis:

The spiral is also found in large structures in the universe, and we find the spiral

galaxy M74, 30 to 40 light years from Earth, this image I have obtained from

http://www.ing.iac.es/PR/science/m74_high.html, its size is similar to our Milky Way

galaxy about 100, 000 light years across:

4. EL MOVIMIENTO ROTACIONAL EN EL AIKIDO

the rotational or spin movement is key feature on aikido techniques; in the physical basis of

this movement, exists parameters that determines it; thus by example:

m = mass of the body which revolves

V = tangential velocity

w = angular rotation velocity

r = radius of rotation

v = r x w

v

r

m

w

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It can be inferred that if we want to give more speed to the body to which we apply a

technique, we have two alternatives, one is increase the turning radio or we could increase

the angular velocity of the rotating body. In this opportunity we will not extend the

treatment of these technical aspects.

5. LAS FORMA ESPIRAL EN EL AIKIDO

The spiral form in aikido is used to dissipate the energy of the attack, for example to an attack

with yodan shomen uchi (hit with the edge of the open hand (Shuto) to the head, responds

with age uke with taisabaki, describing a helical spiral, whereby energy is dissipated and

controlled the attack of the attacker.

I show the trajectory of this technique performed in an image captured by a digital capture

program presented in internet in the direction http://www.adaptiveperception.com/ , and the

application of which we have agreed on youtube, red is the path the wrist of iriminage

shomenuchi executor:

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TSUKI KOTE GAESHI

I show the trajectory of this technique executed with an j, with images captured by the mentioned digital application :

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Finally, in the photographic sequenceof the iriminage ura technique used as a defense against katate dori, executed by Michio

Kanai sensei and sempai Henry Landa, you can see the spiral path of the technique:

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6. CONCLUSIONES:

Aikido techniques are closely related to the laws that govern nature, as

demonstrated in regard to the spiral form, so join it through its principles, is part of

it and ensure its successful execution.

The spiral shape is linked natural optimization processes, as in the case of

sunflower seeds in which the double spiral arrangement allows better utilization of

the circular space available, both in the ability to contain large lengths of material

in small spaces, as in the case of DNA whose length in a human cell is 2 meters,

its length is hundreds of thousands of times greater than the cross, in aikido, can

dissipate the kinetic energy of an attack in the spiral path of defensive technique.

7. BIBLIOGRAPHY

(1) Y Después fue… ¡La Forma! Author: Obra Social Fundación “La Caixa”, 2007

(2) La Rebelión de las Formas. Metatemas 84. Author: Wagensberg, Jorge. Tusquets

Editoress, 2004. The autor holds a PhD in Physics.

(3) On Growth and Form”. Cambridge 2003. Author: Thompson D’arcy.

(4) http://simetria.dim.uchile.cl/general/contenidos.html Project referred to the spiral

symmetry.

(5) Serie de Fibonacchi: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 11, 19, 30, 49 … he next term is formed by adding

the previous two. When dividing each two terms of this series it tends to take the value

1.618 ... which is the value of the golden ratio.

(6) Aikido and the Universal Spirals,” by Marco Rubatto

http://blog.aikidojournal.com/2011/04/09/aikido-and-the-universal-spirals-by-marco-

rubatto/

(7) The Art of Aikido Kisshomaru Ueshiba

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8 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

My deepest thanks to those who shared their knowledge of Aikido with me, which allowed

me to see from the perspective of this wonderful art that seeks to integrate man to nature.