Quote:
Dan Harden wrote:
Aikido simply needs to adopt internal power / aiki-it is *thee* single greatest advantage, and is all but lost or else exhbited in a diluted state in the art. If it adopts more live training on top of that via jujutsu It will become one of the most powerful arts of the world.
Until it does it will forever be victim of other arts superior technical training, or internal power / aiki approaches.
It's just the way it is. It's really not that complicated.
Everything is a judgement based on the level of understanding of those offering opinions.
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It makes sense that folks with superior aiki training would be better at aiki than our hypothetical Aikidoka. However, I believe the techniques were probably intended to be the primary exercises through which internal power manifests, and I believe with a good teacher one can learn aiki by using waza as the vehicle of exercise. You and others may well have some great exercises which focus on some serious internal strengthening and alignment shaping/conditioning, but my sense is that practicing Aikido waza
properly teaches aiki also, if not as well, and that with this level of aiki one can do pretty well. I'm hardly a measure, but as a smaller guy with bigger friends I've got something of a practical sense of how to over-power a guy who's stronger than me. That said I have to agree with Mark that studying Aikido teaches aiki. Obviously my level of understanding shapes my view, but I think the point is that I have an understanding that is of aiki, slight though it may be.
As for my own evolution, I plan on training again very soon and always looking for ways to improve my insights, be they getting a taste of other arts or styles or even just some supplemental exercises to reinforce what I've already begun to learn. Application is what it's all about, so the question every Aikidoka should ask themselves is what am I getting out of this and what is the evidence of that?"