A Woman's Center

[Kiohiko]

I've just been wondering if any women out there find it hard or unatural keeping thier center and focus in the hara, or lower abdomen.  I think a woman's center of gravity is higher up, more like the upper abdomen or solar plexus.  What do you women think about this?  If anyone could try this out in practice (keeping one point in the solar plexus area), I would be happy to hear of your experiences and opinions on this matter.

-John Matsushima

[Adam]

Hmmm... I'm no scientist or a woman, but I think there are different ideas on what a 'center' is. Does gravity have a center? Or do you mean center of mass? Or center of balance? Also, as I understand it, the one point is where the upper body naturally rests and/or is balanced upon.

I often think of the image of balancing a jo (or broomstick) on it's end in the palm of my hand, where the jo represents the upper body and the balance point in my hand represents the one point. You move your hand in such a way as to keep the one point under the jo (or jo over the one point) at all times to maintain balance. Does the one point change if the jo is weighted more to one end or the other? Or does the one point just require a bit more attention (finer control) to maintain balance?

Keeping one point higher than where the upper body naturally bends at the waist/hip area, seems to me to be unnatural.

[RickB]

My understanding of "one point" (as expressed by Tohei Sensei) is that this is not really intended to refer to your physical "center of gravity."  After all, the center of gravity continually changes as body moves.  Even bending over shifts the physical center of gravity.  On the other hand, the one point is a place to calm the mind down to.  Its precise location is not  all that important so long as it is low enough that you can't really put any tension there (below the abdominal muscles).  The reason for this is precisely so you will do nothing to the body while maintaining one point.  I understand "one point" as a principle of  mind (like extending ki).   On the other hand, relaxing completely (putting all unnecessary tension out of the body) and keeping weight underside are principles of the body.  Of course, the whole purpose is to unify mind and body and become one with the universe (to become more conscious of that).   I don't  think your center of gravity is intended to be one and the same as your one point (although they may be seen as "overlapping" in different movements).

[Selkie]

A woman's center of gravity is actually quite a lot lower than a man's and so is our one-point.   One of the experiments we did in my dojo was to play with raising the one-point and see what effects occurred - detrimental, to say the least!   Just bringing my one-point up to the level of a man's (2" below the navel) destroyed my mind and body coordination, whereas at its natural low point, I am quite immovable.   All the women in the dojo found this was the case, so I wouldn't even want to try bringing my one-point up as high as my solar plexus.

Is mise le meas
-==- Selkie