How does kuzushi REALLY work?

So, we've been discussing how kuzushi (unbalancing) works in general and in the context of aikido and judo especially. In a desperate attempt to get more commentary on these blog posts (HINT) I put up a PollDaddy poll so y'all could tell me how you think it works. Well, with a sample size of 10, 80% said that uke is always unbalanced, 50% followed that up by saying that tori has to learn to recognize and use uke's perpetual unbalance and another 30% said that tori has to actually work to keep from putting uke back on balance. Only 20% said that they thought tori had to do a specific thing to uke to get them off balanced.

Interesting results. I would have bet that more folks would have answered, "Tori has to do something to get uke offbalance." I mean, come on. Look at the Tomiki system - it teaches the shichihon no kuzushi (7 forms of offbalance). The Kodokan guys outline happo no kuzushi (8 forms of offbalance). Karl tells us Fugakukai guys to 'bump' uke perpendicular or parallel (2 or 4 methods of offbalance, depending how you look at it) These are pretty bright guys explicitly telling us, "Do this to get uke offbalance - then throw."

Well, the correct answer to the poll is... ( drumroll, please ), "Yes." Or maybe, "mu." All of these responses are different facets of kuzushi. Uke is a two-legged, moving thing, so of course he is inherently unstable. But we are wired to be very good at compensating for that unbalance to avoid falling, so tori typically hs to do something to accentuate the offbalance or to make it happen in a specific way at a particular time so it is usable. Tori also has to watch out for uke trying to use him as a crutch to regain balance. So, all the answers are partially right. Look back at yesterday's shomenate example. If you follow along with the sequence of events in that technique, I said that the explicit, technical execution of proper kuzushi was secondary to the evasion and the actual execution of the technique.

Now hold on! Before y'all get to screaming 'heretic,' let me finish. I agree that kuzushi is crucial to a good technique. You can't do a throw unless a condition of unbalance exists beforehand. That must mean... You guessed it! If tori can do shomenate without first doing a kuzushi that must mean a state of unbalance already existed - without tori doing it. Now, I also said in the previous post that tori could often make the kuzushi better, or use it to effect a better throw if tori does something to create a specific offbalance before the throw.

So, you're all right. Sorta. I promise the next poll won't be a trick question!

Here's y'all a decent basic reference video on how to do shomenate.