Quote:
Ron Tisdale wrote:
While I like the article, and respect the author greatly, I think there is still a great deal of misunderstanding why some of us look under the hood. And try to change, enhance, and improve the way we train. It has nothing to do with being better fighters. Oh well, life is full of misunderstandings.
Best,
Ron
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Ron,
You've read my stuff over the years... I am the FIRST (not literally) one to advocate doing other training to enhance one's skills. You and I were at the Expos, we both continue to seek out training which will make our Aikido better. But, unless I am mistaken, you are an Aikido man to the core. Outside training is to make your Aikido better. The same with me. I continue to get as much exposure as I can from folks who can show me things that will make my Aikido better.
But all along I have appreciated what Aikido has that none of the other arts has. Much of what folks from other arts make fun of in the impractical nature of much of our kihon waza is precisely what sets Aikido aside. It is misogi, it's a form of moving meditation, it's the pure joy of movement. The doing of it changes us in various positive ways. O-Sensei and his son, Kisshomaru understood this. Folks from other arts looking at what we do don't get it. Aikido folks who don't get it, leave and find something more appropriate to their temperaments. But after all these years, we are still here. Lately, after doing all sorts of other training, I have come to increasingly appreciate what Aikido has to offer. It is not in any way a rejection of what we could and should know that some folks from outside can offer. It's just an appreciation that we shouldn't lose what we have that is so unique, just to try and get to something else which will lose the essence of what Aikido is all about. Aikido should be better than it is, improving it will entail some help from outside, but we don't want to lose track of the point as we do this.