WVMark wrote:emptycloud wrote:
what I practice is so dull and slow, its as if nothing is going on...
I know nothing of dancing Gods, and yin or yang...( this is Scotland pal...)
Rich1. Aikido Today Magazine; #31 Dec.93/ Jan. 94
Interview of Henry Kono sensei by Virginia Mayhew and Susan Perry.
ATM: When you had conversations like these with O'sensei, what would you talk about?
HK: Well, I would usually ask him why the rest of us couldn't do what he could. there were many other teachers, all doing aikido. But he was doing it differently - doing something differently. His movement was so clean!
ATM: How would O'sensei answer your questions about what he was doing?
HK: He would say that I didn't understand yin and yang [in and yo]. So, now I've made it my life work to study yin and yang. That's what O'sensei told me to do.
So, Ueshiba's physical skills and abilities were different. When Kono asked why they were so different, Ueshiba answered ... "I didn't understand yin and yang".
Ueshiba is seen in demonstrations time and again, twirling his shortened spear calling it the Dance of the Gods.
Ueshiba commonly had people push and pull on him in all sorts of different ways.
Modern Aikido ... lacks all of this ... and more.
I really don't know what you're practicing, but it sounds like you aren't training the founder's aikido. In your own words, you don't know what yin/yang mean or the Dance of the Gods. This isn't about you as there is a whole world of people out there who were never shown these things, either. Their teachers told them what they were told. And the Japanese shihan coming out of Tokyo ... many of them didn't get it either. Those that did ... well, how many of their students started to equal them in skills/abilities?
There is a proven, verifiable training methodology to pass on Ueshiba's skills and abilities. If you're training aikido and you aren't starting to stand out from everyone else in five years ... something's wrong. By starting to stand out, I mean that when you play with judo or bjj people, they should have a much harder time with you than anyone else. Doesn't mean you're going to excel or be unstoppable but you definitely should be giving them a much harder time of it than anyone else ... by just training Ueshiba's aikido.
Ueshiba's aikido is a body changing method, not a technique oriented martial art as Kisshomaru created. If you think going to BJJ and you're going to use this or that technique ... you're not doing Ueshiba's aikido. Joint locks weren't techniques but part of the body changing method of training. Ueshiba truly meant what he said to Kono. Yin/yang is a foundation for aiki. No yin/yang, no aiki. Ueshiba showed his understanding outside of techniques and waza by having people push on him and remaning unmoved. Why? He knew the secret of aiki. Body changing method.
If you don't understand how yin/yang creates skills and abilities like Ueshiba had ... you aren't doing Ueshiba's aikido. If you have to move and use timing to replicate yin/yang, you aren't doing Ueshiba's aikido.
Modern Aikido has a lot going for it. There are millions training it. It has validity to them. However, I think they do a huge disservice to Kisshomaru. It's his picture that should be on their shomen. He not only held together his vision of aikido (when he really didn't want to be part of aikido), but he grew aikido to a worldwide audience right after World War 2. That wasn't an easy task. He created Modern Aikido. It should be to him that aikido people point and uphold. Morihei Ueshiba's aikido is vastly different.
We have people from other aikido clubs and martial styles drop by occasionally. They are usually pretty baffled by our set up.
No warm up exercises, no bowing or Oriental terminology. No sensei, no photographs or calligraphy hanging around.
The class kind of spontaneously begins, no particular thing in mind, someone might kick it off with a punch or perhaps a knife might appear, or a certain movement gets noticed... the practice will just unfold from there, problems will arise, we will study why is it a problem, who or what is causing the problem...
We had two aikido teachers from Germany drop by recently, they asked how many members we had, " 6 maybe 7 " was the answer, how many in your club, " over a 100 " they replied.. wow..what a nightmare..
The teachers really struggled to understand what was going on, they couldn't understand that an aikido class could have no structure or sensei or grades or exclusive technique training... it was chaos for them, and they graded in Japan...
From experience we have learnt to be careful with visitors they can get quite angry and think you are making fun of them. This is where the danger comes in, unable to use technique and confused with whats going on they tend lunge or try to crank things on, which is never pretty. Now we tend to explain to visitors that we are not your regular aikido club, and take things slowly.
Are we training in the founders aikido, who knows, if the founder studied " form is emptiness, emptiness is form " then perhaps we are, if he didn't then perhaps we are not.
It really doesn't matter to us, this kind of thing we are doing predates Aikido. It informed Aikido...its a human thing, its there if you interested in it.
Aikido is a name we should probably change about our practice, but because we do not seek newbies or advertise the class we don't really care.. its not something anyone has thought about round here for decades..
as for body changing methods goes....transformative, beyond anything I imagined..mind changing as well... life changing.. all freely given..
we just roll on.....into the mystery of it all...
Rich
