AikiWeb Aikido Forums - View Single Post - How Long and In What Manner to Great Mastery?

rob_liberti · 09-13-2008, 04:35 PM

I'm finding that people who come in with wrestling backgrounds do the best in terms of catching on to aiki skills.

I have a lot more years in previous training than Tom H (who had zero) - but I would NOT want to go punch for punch with him.

Face it, what we learned was great! But...it was NOT aiki in depth.

The problem is that the bar is set way too low in terms of the scale people outside of the "know" are measuring with.

You see some strong aikido teachers who are WAY FREAKEN STRONGER in terms of body skills than the 3rd and 4th dans attacking them and you think wow that is maybe a 7 on a scale of 1 to 10 in terms of power. In fact given my opinion, these teachers are probably a 2 where everyone else in class are 1s and 0s.

I have experienced my share of powerful teachers. I've jammed the stink out of some shihans BEFORE I met Dan. I'm telling you, it's an entirely different scale of power.

This scale issue is what is confusing Erick. Decades of training after you are already (almost immediately) far off the scale that he must be using.

Trust me - or if not, go find out for yourself.

Rob

09-13-2008, 04:35 PM	#11
rob_liberti Dojo: Shobu Aikido of Connecticut Location: East Haven, CT Join Date: Jul 2004 Posts: 1,402 Offline	Re: How Long and In What Manner to Great Mastery? I'm finding that people who come in with wrestling backgrounds do the best in terms of catching on to aiki skills. I have a lot more years in previous training than Tom H (who had zero) - but I would NOT want to go punch for punch with him. Face it, what we learned was great! But...it was NOT aiki in depth. The problem is that the bar is set way too low in terms of the scale people outside of the "know" are measuring with. You see some strong aikido teachers who are WAY FREAKEN STRONGER in terms of body skills than the 3rd and 4th dans attacking them and you think wow that is maybe a 7 on a scale of 1 to 10 in terms of power. In fact given my opinion, these teachers are probably a 2 where everyone else in class are 1s and 0s. I have experienced my share of powerful teachers. I've jammed the stink out of some shihans BEFORE I met Dan. I'm telling you, it's an entirely different scale of power. This scale issue is what is confusing Erick. Decades of training after you are already (almost immediately) far off the scale that he must be using. Trust me - or if not, go find out for yourself. Rob Last edited by rob_liberti : 09-13-2008 at 04:39 PM.