Balance vs. Imbalance

Kinkō [均衡] Tai [対] Fukinkō [不均衡]

“A person’s unbalance is the same as a weight” - line 4 ken-po goku-i

In reality it should say, “A person’s imbalance is the same as a weight.”

So, as nature intended and as we are taught as we grow up, we tend to react badly when our balance is disrupted as one can tell when a person starts to rotate their arms in the body and mind effort to reestablish overall balance, to get our feet back under our bodies.

Balance established is critical to proprioception, our awareness of body position and orientation is also out of wack when balance is lost.

Overall, this means that one must be trained to continue acting during imbalance which helps keep you defending during balance-imbalance-and-reestablishing balance.

If your dojo doesn’t teach Judo-esque falling and throwing methods it behooves one training for self-defense to train in this system to learn how to deal with imbalances.

Kuzushi [崩]: is a Japanese term for unbalancing an opponent in the Japanese martial arts. The noun comes from the transitive verb kuzusu, meaning to level, pull down, destroy or demolish. In Judo: consists of pulling or pushing an opponent to destabilize him / her. Once the opponent is destabilized, the Waza can then be applied with only a small force.