AikiWeb Aikido Forums - View Single Post - Poll: How helpful is feeling techniques in learning aikido for you?

giriasis · 12-14-2005, 10:57 PM

When I first started aikido I found it very frustrating being told that I had to feel it. That was the way it was in my first school, and I just interpreted it then as a lame excuse for not understanding how to teach the technique. I'm way more analytical and step-by-step instructions is what works for me, at least to learn the technique. But these days, now that I know the basic mechanics of most techniques, getting feel and flow is really helpful. For example, Donovan Waite was visiting our dojo and he taught a class for the night and whenever I tried to break things down my techniques just wasn't right, but then I just watched his overall movement and imitated his movement. And, voila! There it was and everything came into place. Of course, I wasn't able to duplicate it.

12-14-2005, 10:57 PM	#12
giriasis Dojo: Sand Drift Aikikai, Cocoa Florida Location: Melbourne, Florida Join Date: Jun 2000 Posts: 823 Offline	Re: Poll: How helpful is feeling techniques in learning aikido for you? When I first started aikido I found it very frustrating being told that I had to feel it. That was the way it was in my first school, and I just interpreted it then as a lame excuse for not understanding how to teach the technique. I'm way more analytical and step-by-step instructions is what works for me, at least to learn the technique. But these days, now that I know the basic mechanics of most techniques, getting feel and flow is really helpful. For example, Donovan Waite was visiting our dojo and he taught a class for the night and whenever I tried to break things down my techniques just wasn't right, but then I just watched his overall movement and imitated his movement. And, voila! There it was and everything came into place. Of course, I wasn't able to duplicate it.
	Anne Marie Giri