TAKING THE CENTER; IRU

 by Phillip Starr

Iru is the character meaning “to enter, to penetrate, to step into...” and it bears a close to the character for “eight.” It is frequently used in martial arts terminology, such as “irimi-nage” in aikido but many students have difficulty in understanding and/or applying the real meaning of the term.

The objective in combat is to control the opponent's center of stability (or what is often referred to simply as his “center.”). Just how is this to be done?

To begin, imagine your foes as the hub of a large wheel. It moves and the spokes of the wheel (his arms and legs) are like spokes. If you remain at a distance from the hub, you are easily within striking range of the spokes and you have little hope of overcoming your opponent. You are constantly at risk, having to evade or block the spokes.

It's a question of timing and courage; you must penetrate to the center by entering between the spokes at just the right moment. You are entering into your foe's personal space and “taking the center”, causing him to be “on the outside” amongst the spokes.

I think it's important to bear in mind that it's also very important to learn something from this when interacting with others on a day to day basis. This doesn't mean that you must overtake the other person; rather it infers that you should learn to figuratively evade those nasty spokes and penetrate to the core of their words or actions rather than remaining at a distance...