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Nobleronin4 01-25-2004 05:32 PM

Video training
 
Since there are no dojos within reasonable distance to my location- (50 miles)- to facilitate regular training. I was wondering has anyone out there ever trained exclusively with Aikido videos? I have often heard that is near impossible to unlearn bad techniques or habits and I don't want to start down this path. Lastly could a Video (DVD) be recommended?

akiy 01-25-2004 06:48 PM

Hi Mark,

I'd say that books, videos, and such serve as auxiliary tools in learning aikido; in other words, they should be used in conjunction with regular day-to-day training -- not to replace it. I don't think you can learn aikido through books and videos.

-- Jun

Jorge Garcia 01-25-2004 07:43 PM

Re: Video training
 
[quote="Mark Jackson (Nobleronin4)"]Since there are no dojos within reasonable distance to my location- (50 miles)- to facilitate regular training. I was wondering has anyone out there ever trained exclusively with Aikido videos? I have often heard that is near impossible to unlearn bad techniques or habits and I don't want to start down this path. Lastly could a Video (DVD) be recommended? [/QUO

In the beginning, Aikido looks like a million different moves and it takes the repetitions in a regular class with people to even make sense of the movements. I say that because I was given an instructional video when I started but it was useless to me until a year had passed of regular training.

Also, the dynamics of Aikido are such, that you have to work over and over again with different kinds of partners to be able to improve.

Stay open though and keep your hopes up. Good things happen to those that are awake to the opportunities.

Best wishes,

PeterR 01-25-2004 08:35 PM

I got a question.

Is it possible for someone with a Jujutsu (Judo included) background to learn Aikido techniques reasonably well from tapes?

Quick qualifier - no Budo experience and tapes are a really bad idea. Shades of home learning courses. I am talking about people trained from the tradition where Aikido sprung in general terms - not specifically Daito Ryu.

Misogi-no-Gyo 01-25-2004 10:19 PM

Riddle me this, Batman.
 
Quote:

Peter Rehse (PeterR) wrote:
I got a question.

Is it possible for someone with a Jujutsu (Judo included) background to learn Aikido techniques reasonably well from tapes?

Quick qualifier - no Budo experience and tapes are a really bad idea. Shades of home learning courses. I am talking about people trained from the tradition where Aikido sprung in general terms - not specifically Daito Ryu.

Peter-San,

Good question. I think, in general terms, there is only so many ways to twist a wrist. Watching videos is probably one of the easiest ways to see the myriad of variations of aikido waza born from the depths (or more literally, heights) of takemusu aiki. However, what one observes is merely the outer technique only.

Many years ago I filmed some wonderfully generous classes that were conducted by Seiseki Abe Sensei. Of course, from an outward appearance the waza was truly magical. More than a decade later, much of the mystery has unraveled and made itself aware to me. However, there are portions which, no matter how much I train, how hard I train, how often I train, or how creatively I train; I simply cannot access what I see in these tapes

I have watched sections of these tapes so often that they are blurry from over-viewing. Still the secret to the magic is remains a mystery. I have traveled back and forth to Japan ten times, been allowed to ask every question that my western mind could come up with -- even some that, if one were Japanese, would NEVER be posed, and received lengthy answers that more closely resemble discourses in religion, culture, language, history and dare I say the secret teachings that make up the inner teaching of O-Sensei's Aikido. For the life of me, the answers still evade me.

It reminds me of something that was said by one of Abe Sensei's long-time students who traveled with him on one of the occasions he came to visit us in the United States. He said, "In all of these years that I have been training, (more than twenty by that time) I have not had the depth of explanation that you have received in just two weeks." He was very thankful for the opportunity, and his technique, already at a very high level, was so much enhanced from when I had last seen him just a year or so before, that I was clear he had spent much time working on what was revealed to him during that trip.

The point I am alluding to is both two-fold, and along an obvious theme. One; even when we are talking aikido to aikido, no matter how much you already know, we can not know what we don't know we don't know. Two; there is no way for us to know the intention behind the movement, and this may take years, or even decades of study and practice to uncover without the direct guidance of a master level teacher. The obvious part is that Aikido waza is only the outside of aikido as an art. What is at the center, at the heart of the matter, if you will, is how the waza is directly related to the heart and mind of the practitioner. I have always said that you can not discover aiki by yourself, as it is born from the relationship between two individuals. Since this is not present in an instructional video, because the master is not there to gently guide one back to the path from which, as students, each of us will often stray, it will be absent from whatever small knowledge of wrist-twisting one may take from it.

I think that a well-written guide from one's own teacher can enlighten a well-meaning practitioner more effectively. That along with a video, may provide a way to traverse the hidden pot holes that lie along the somewhat dimly lit path we have chosen to travel. As for judoka, or more specifically as you asked in your post, ju-jitsu practitioners who have made their way through my door, I most often find that they are furthest from the path of aiki because of the baggage they carry from the other arts in which they have extensively trained. However, having said that, I think the baggage is better equated to a heavy tool box containing the very good tolls that they have acquired over the years, to which they are intimately attached. Once they are able to consciously and emotionally put it down and completely let go of it, they are better suited to understand the subtlety that aikido is. Once they have achieved that goal, they are then free to open their tool box, and deposit in its depths the tools manage to learn to use from the "aiki-workshop." When and if they choose to move on, they have more tools to choose from given the myriad of interactions to be experienced in each one of our wonderful and variously diverse lives. We all know that it is wise to choose the best tool for the job. Having more options may just possibly make life's interesting little moments, a bit easier.

jgrowney 01-26-2004 09:46 AM

This is why I continue to travel 6 hours each way twice a month to see my teaher. The small amount of time spent together is simply invaluable. This does not mean that I wouldn't like to see more video however:-)

Who are some of the best aikido teachers within a 90 or 100 mile radius of Macon, GA?

Anyone?

Jim

SeiserL 01-26-2004 12:22 PM

I am a big fan of videos and books. There is a lot of great information out there. So many great teachers and so little time, its impossible to be exposed to all of it. I think I have learned something from almost everything I have been able to read or view.

Personally, I favor the Ueshiba tapes and books.

I also agree, it's the training under the watchful eye of a great Sensei that makes all the difference.

IMHO, I can learn about Aikido for tapes and books, but I cannot learn Aikido without the formal training.

Bronson 01-26-2004 12:27 PM

There is a Nihon Goshin Aikido school 61 miles away in Conyers. Here's a link to their website. All this info was had by using the handy-dandy radius search on AikiWeb's dojo search engine.

Bronson

Bronson 01-26-2004 12:34 PM

Mercer University, in Macon, also has a Wellness Program that offers aikido.

Bronson

Bronson 01-26-2004 12:44 PM

Mercer University, in Macon, also has a Wellness Program that offers aikido.

Mercer also has an aikido club. Call (478) 301-2368 for more info.

Bronson

Larry Feldman 01-26-2004 03:07 PM

I started in Ju Jitsu, and while it did help my study, there is no way I could have learned Aikido from a book. (There were no videos around at the time).

The wisdom at the time was that you couldn't learn the martial arts from a book - (today substitute video). However I have found video to be an invaluable help or reference, once you know what you are doing, especially for learning weapons kata's.

Mark - Use the dojo search engine on this site and you will find a variety of Aikido schools in the Atlanta area. There is someone listed in Newnan, probably the closest to you, but it is a style and affiliation I have never heard or or seen elsewhere. (I teach in the Perimeter area).

After 8 years of Aikido, I found the 'right'teacher and style for me, and drove 3 hours to practice 1 weekend a month, with a teacher, and on my own, (with a few students) when I got home. It is not an uncommon story, as you can see from one of the other posters. My teacher used to go see his teacher for 4-6 weeks a year over his winter break, and then 'take the lessons home'. He did this for 10 years, probably still paying off the student loans he used to finance the trips.

How bad do you want to train? Do your homework, and check out your options. Maybe there is a great Tai Chi teacher in Macon, and that is a better thing to do for now.

Good luck.

tedehara 01-26-2004 04:07 PM

Quote:

Bronson Diffin (Bronson) wrote:
Mercer University, in Macon, also has a Wellness Program that offers aikido.

Bronson

If Shaner Sensei is involved, you've got a good beginning.

;)

Nobleronin4 01-27-2004 04:03 PM

Thank you guys for Mercer University Aikido club recommendation; however, the club no- longer exists.

Bronson 01-27-2004 06:41 PM

Quote:

Mark Jackson (Nobleronin4) wrote:
Thank you guys for Mercer University Aikido club recommendation; however, the club no- longer exists.

Poop :(

How about the Nihon Goshin folks?

Bronson


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