20 year technique?

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[marcus]

Hi!
I've read in a couple of places that iriminage also is known as the 20 year technique. Does anyone know why?

Peace,
marcus

[Erik]

All of them are liars, liars, liars, liars, and all of their pants are on fire too.

I don't see a prayer to whatever god you choose (my current is gord, due to a recent spelling error which I liked) of my learning this puppy in 20 years. Still a few to go but recent studies are proving it unlikely that I will nail it in 20 years unless something radical happens in the next few years.

I liken my recent experiences with this puppy to pushing a car around with the emergency brake on (actually I understand a recall is pending on my Ford's e-brake so it might be better than it sounds). I suppose if I got in the car and started the engine...but that seems a long way off because someone keeps moving the door on me.

Perhaps O'Sensei was referring to good students?

PS: In case my missive was unclear, 20 years is how long it's supposed to take you to learn irimi nage.

[Edited by Erik on November 7, 2000 at 11:46pm]

[Mike Collins]

Ikkyo must be the hundred year technique.

This stuff is an optical illusion, the farther I go, the farther this stuff gets away.

And these teachers who are supposed to help me learn only show me what I don't know.

Frustration is good for the soul, I guess.

[akiy]

Mikey wrote:
Ikkyo must be the hundred year technique.
I've actually heard it called "the lifetime technique."
Frustration is good for the soul, I guess.
"Builds character."

-- Jun

[JJF]

I have this sneaking sensation, that it is called the 20-years technique to give us the impression that if we 'just' practice for 20 years then we will be able to perform it expertly. The catch is however that we will never be experts, but if we are tricked into practice for 20 years then we might realise by then that it dosn't really matter. ;)

Just me expressing my conspriacy-theory

[marcus]

...and what is meant by practice anyway? Is it training solely iriminage, 7 days a week? It certainly feels so! However, thanks for the answers.

marcus

[akiy]

marcus wrote:
...and what is meant by practice anyway? Is it training solely iriminage, 7 days a week?
If so, you'd be practicing iriminagedo, not aikido...

-- Jun

[Mike Collins]

I don't know, I just spent most of the weekend doing ikkyo, and no one called it ikkyodo.

[akiy]

What I was trying to say is that if all we did was practice one single technique for the entirety of our training, 7 days a week, it wouldn't be aikido...

-- Jun

[Mike Collins]

I got that.

By the way, nice stud ukemi.

[akiy]

Mikey wrote:
By the way, nice stud ukemi.
Ah -- so that was you at last weekend's seminar! You should have let me know...

-- Jun

[Erik]

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ....

Otherwise known as why I wasn't there on Sunday. Next time you think you could get that guy to work in the evenings? I mean an evening where I'm not already committed elsewhere. You'd think he would do this just for me. WHAT'S WRONG WITH HIM?

;)

[Edited by Erik on November 8, 2000 at 03:41pm]

[andrew]

akiy wrote:
What I was trying to say is that if all we did was practice one single technique for the entirety of our training, 7 days a week, it wouldn't be aikido...

-- Jun

That depends on the technique......
andrew

[ian]

I hope it is only 20 years!

O'Sensei is supposed to have called it the 20 yr technique himself because it took him this long to perfect it.

I think the difficulty arises because in it's basic form it appears to be a whole arm strike to the throat like you'd get in wrestling (a 'clothes line'?). The difficulty (especially in irimi versions) is getting ukes forward momentum into a very tight circle where it goes back against himself and down to the floor.

I've been doing Aikido for 12 years, and although I can do it, it definately isn't the blending technique that I would hope for.

Only 8 years to wait?

[akiy]

andrew wrote:
akiy wrote:
What I was trying to say is that if all we did was practice one single technique for the entirety of our training, 7 days a week, it wouldn't be aikido...

That depends on the technique......
Please explain.

-- Jun

[Richard Harnack]

When I first started training, I was told that Shomenuchi Kokyunage was the 20 year technique. After my first 10 years of training I began to suspect that all Aikido techniques are "20 year" techniques.

Now that my 20th year of training has long since passed and my 25th year is staring me in the face, I can say with great certainty that the "20 year" aspect is not that it take 20 years to master any technique, but 20 years to accept that you can only improve and that "mastery" is relative. My students are often amazed at the "ease" with which I do things. I, on the other hand, despair that I am still so "rough".

Remember, O'Sensei said something to the effect that it takes at least 10 years to master the basics.

Yours In Aiki,
Richard

[akihiko42]

I've always been told that it was called the "20 year technique" based on a comment made by O-Sensei that was something to the effect of "This technique took me 20 years to master."

Knowing that everyone is different, I believe that everyones' "20 year technique" is probably different. After all, we all have different strengths.

-David

[BC]

akiy wrote:
marcus wrote:
...and what is meant by practice anyway? Is it training solely iriminage, 7 days a week?
If so, you'd be practicing iriminagedo, not aikido...

-- Jun

What would it be called if you spent 20 years doing crappy technique?
Aipoodo - The Way of Crappy Harmony :p