Means to an end......?

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[Kensai]

I was just wondering whether ALL the Aikido styles produced Aikido masters that looked the same?

What I mean is that Tohei Sensei and Shioda Sensei trained very differently during most of their lives, but did their Aikido (in demostrations etc) look the same?

Training methods in Ki and Yoshinkan, for example, are very different, but if we got a 3rd Dan from each art and asked them to proform say a Shihonage, Ikkyo and tenchinage would they look all that different?

[Goye]

well,... a very difficult question !:freaky: ,... ikkyo is ikkyo everywhere,.. but maybe a different style makes the technique look different since there is more emphasis in some aspects in each style.

About doing the same technique by two different style sandans ,.... sometimes I feel that every technique is different it depends of the style, uke, nage, ,…

:rolleyes:

[Alfonso]

I've been told that at at the top, for all their differences in pedagogical methods, the masters do look very similar.

The terminology though may be different.

I'd have thought someone else might have mentioned, but some schools have really different names (japanese too) for the same techniques. Just look at at a shodokan syllabus..

[sanosuke]

to me they look different only at the basic, when it comes to randori or jiyuwaza they looke pretty much the same.

[SeiserL]

IMHO, they apply the same principles but often look different in application due to their personality and physical characteristics. So they are both the same and different. If you pay attention to the "means" or principles in training, the end will take care of itself.

[C. Emerson]

I doesn't matter what style your talking about. At the core there all the same. But because of body size and height, and even strength, people will tailor make the art for them self. A good example is Seagal, he has a very upright style of Aikido. A shorter person that was not as powerful as he is, could not be as effective in Seagal's upright style of Aikido. When your 6'5 you change the art alittle, so it still works well. There is no possible wasy that O'sensei and Seagal could execute techniques exactly the same. And the biggest difference would be body size.

-Chad

[akiy]

A good example is Seagal, he has a very upright style of Aikido. A shorter person that was not as powerful as he is, could not be as effective in Seagal's upright style of Aikido.
Interesting. The most effective people whom I have personally felt in aikido have had pretty much immaculate posture, regardless of whether they were 6'3" or 5'2". I'd posit that the smaller you are, the better your posture better be -- otherwise, all you're doing is relying on muscle power to get things done...

-- Jun

[Veers]

My sensei was just talking about this last class. We've been doing the basics as taught in a book like Best Aikido, since they're more straightforward, sensei said. At the seminar I recently attended, I got to see a different way to do a standing kokyu-ho, several variations of the ikkyo and nikyo pin (the pin, not the way to get to it), and alternate movements for kote gaeshi.

I think it also has to do with, like said, posture and how you carry yourself off the mat. I'm not going to name names or insult or anything, but there's a guy at our dojo who's kind of stiff in his movements. He has a powerful technique most of the time, but sometimes it feels robotic when I take ukemi.

Also, there's another person generally flops around like a rag doll...and he's constantly throwing himself as nage simply by doing a technique on me. Not saying they can't do it, just that we've all got our own physical and/or mental nuances that either help or get in the way. (Like for me, I analyze myself too much and tend to stop mid-way through and start over...and it's not just an aikido thing...I did that when taking piano, and I do it with math sometimes...)