Quote:
Mary Malmros wrote:
I'm going to pick at the use of the word "way". Just what does that mean, anyway? And can something you do for an hour four times a week be considered a "way"?
(and now we'll get the flood of posts of people talking about how they use aikido to ride the subway and order a burrito and send email...sorry, not buying it, unless you can show me a lot more than people have done heretofore when making such claims)
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Hi Mary
I'm not sure it really requires you or anyone else "buying it" in order for it to be true.
I was training it...while reading an engineering review just before I got on line.
From training in the early days Ueshiba noted;
"You can not learn this by just doing it in the dojo, it must be in everything you do."
Hisa who trained with Takeda and Ueshiba
"I practiced all the time, even walking through the crowded street learning to turn the shoulders"
Hint-he was learning to keep the hips aligned and pivoting from the waist while maintaining an upper / lower body connection (something which involves a central pivot, which I have never seen done well in any modern aikidoka I know)
Add to that soooo many stores of budoka through the ages who said essentially the same things (not aikido, granted- but how far do you want to go in believing aikido is that unique?)
Last, you may freely ask ...oh about a dozen or so aikido teachers with decades of experience who train with me who all say they practice while:
Standing and giving a presentation
While driving
while talking to their friends
while waiting in line standing still
while standing and teaching
at meetings
opening doors (a good one)
liftng anything...everything
and in all forms of budo
How can that be and not fall into what you might consider to be "bull...shido" when people say they train all the time? Well, it was new to them. The idea was something they knew of-they were just never handed the tools and overview to make it real and worthwhile. Most will tell you how much fun that "Way" of training is. It can be a blast!
So, when I read these doubts I ask ..how can you ask that?
My personal view; Aikido, done correctly, holds the potential to be one of the most powerful arts in the world. But, Aiki must be trained in certain ways. The chief goal of which is to change the way you carry your body (even when ordering a burrito). And the best way to do that-is to train all the time-particularly solo. Thus making it "a way."
Cheers
Dan