There is only one *TRUE* style of Aikido. . .

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[msorses]

Now I know this has your attention and I know it will get a lot of views but I just want to pose and ask something to all who read:

The way I see it (and this is my opinion only so please no bite-backs on this one) there is only one style of Aikido, regardless of teacher, sensei, attacker, school etc, the only style is that of YOUR OWN. No one (or at least 99.9% can't) can emulate exactly what O'Sensei did, not everyone can fall the same, not all of us apply ikkyo/ikajo, kote gaeshi, shiho nage the same, but surely, if you get out of Aikido what you want, then is that not the true style? If you don't get what you want then you either change it, look for other guidance or move on, but is Aikido not just simply Aikido? The effectiveness etc is only really down to the individual (disregarding poor instruction/miscommunication on learning etc), the goals are down to the individual, the progression is down to the individual, so is not the style down to the individual also? Until you are at the level of the heiho sha (where I guess you develop your own art in some ways) are you not just doing your own thing (guided of course in different directions).

Aikido is Aikido - simple!

I hope I have got this across in as simplistic a way as possible and not ruffled anyone's feather as that was not the intention of the post, I have also tried to negate any/some backlashes with what lies in the brackets etc.

Just curious to see what people think on this one.

Chris

[Mark Uttech]

This is just a clever way of saying nothing.

In gassho,

Mark

[Qatana]

nothing is everything

[Roman Kremianski]

Aikido is Aikido - simple!

Shuffling around the mat clumsily is also Aikido? Great!...who here wants me to teach them this special style? Hm?

[Aikibu]

nothing is everything

Form is Emptiness and emptiness is form? :D

William Hazen

[crbateman]

The statement is, IMHO, pure rhetoric. It can be neither fully rebuked nor defended, any more than the statements "There is NO true style of Aikido" or "There are 20 million true styles of Aikido". Pointless.

[Gernot Hassenpflug]

CM wrote: "No one (or at least 99.9% can't) can emulate exactly what O'Sensei did"

The simplest expedient is to say that what we are doing is not aikido. To save face we say instead, "we're TRYING to do aikido (the way O'Sensei did it)" even if we have no clue whatsoever how to go about getting to where he and others like him got to. Some of the threads in the Non-Aikido Martial Art discussion forum may be of interest to you in that regard.

[KamiKaze_Evolution]

O Sensei has claimed that it is the only one real Aikido

[mwible]

my sensei has told me that when you teach you can only impart upon your students the way that you see the elements of waza coming together and how they apply to the given technique. so if this is truth (which i believe it to be) then we all study aikido through our teachers eyes and our teacher through his teachers and so on and so forth. so yes there is only one aikido, and yet we all do it a different way. one is infinit in this case. it doesnt cut out the possibility of difference it just states that they all revolove around the same principles and techniques.

or thats how i see it

-morgan

[stan baker]

the reason why we are not doing o sensei 's aikido , his level is higher
end of story.

stan

[Russell Pearse]

Hi:

The way we train is that we learn the kihon or fundamental forms up to nidan. It is only above this level that we can branch out and start to develop our "own" aikido. But sensei insists that while we can explore our own aikido in training, we must teach kihon to junior students.

It is like a tree - we must develop a strong root structure and trunk before we branch out into the variations of techniques.

Russell

[kironin]

Don't confuse waza with Aikido.

[Russell Pearse]

Hi:

You have to start somewhere. And waza teaches principles.

Russell

[Keith Larman]

Don't confuse waza with Aikido.

Amen.

[Keith Larman]

Besides, everyone knows exactly how many forms of Aikido there are... 42. There. Now, on to other productive discussions... ;)

[xuzen]

There is only T3H R34L Yoshinkan (TM).... Yeah, Y0SH1N|<4N 4EV4!!!!!! The rest are just well, er... just... aikido.

Boon.

[Dorisu]

the reason why we are not doing o sensei 's aikido , his level is higher
end of story.

stan

Hmm, I would rather say, we don't do o'sensei's aikido because we're simply not o'sensei

Aikido is not something exact. It is a system that needs to be adapted to the person doing aikido.

For example: I'm a student of Tomita Sensei. He's rather small.
I'm rather tall. That's not the same, is it ?

If I just copy his "style", off coarse it doesn't work.
This is why we need to understand the principles, and adapt those to our own body and situation.

So there's only one "style"? I don't think so ...
There's a set of basic principles (the laws of nature), that are the same for everything. But as long as we don't adapt these principles to our own situation, they don't work. Which is quite logic I think ...

[crbateman]

For example: I'm a student of Tomita Sensei. He's rather small. I'm rather tall. That's not the same, is it ?
This reminds me of watching Lynn Seiser Sensei (6'3") and Dang Thong Phong Sensei (5'nothin') train together. Each does adapt similar technique to suit their specific body type, but it works. And the main reason is that they LOVE to train together. Start with joy, end with joy, and everything in between takes care of itself.

By the way, you are very fortunate to train with Tomita Sensei. I have seen videos of his Aikido, and he is truly remarkable. Make the best of your time together.

[Edward]

Besides, everyone knows exactly how many forms of Aikido there are... 42. There. Now, on to other productive discussions... ;)

What happened to the remaining 9,958 techniques? :)