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George S. Ledyard wrote:
Technique is the earliest stage of ones development. In the "aiki" arts this stage may take quite a bit longer than in something like mixed martial arts because the training requires so much reprogramming of what the mind / body starts out with as the default setting. It takes quite a bit of work to reprogram all those reactions.
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Means you need to learn technique by heart before moving on. Means effectiveness and winning and not losing.
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George S. Ledyard wrote:
There's nothing wrong with having great technique. We keep working on that our whole lives. But one finds that, as ones understanding increases, the rules change. Things you were told NEVER to do become ok because you are operating on another level. Look at Mohammed Ali, dancing around with his hands down at his sides. If you did that at a lesser level, you'd get knocked out so fast you wouldn't see it coming. His work had progressed to the point at which it was more mental than physical. His ability to feel what his opponent was going to do, even as he had the thought of doing it, was fantastic. So he could violate the basic rules because he had moved to another level. But it wasn't about physical technique at that point. Everyone he fought was a master of the same techniques... jab, cross, hook, uppercut, etc But it didn't matter because no one could touch him... not when he was in his prime.
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You are making my point. You REACH that level, not BEGIN at that level. Besides, are you saying that Cassius Clay was not interested in winning and not losing or effectiveness for that case?
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George S. Ledyard wrote:
O-Sensei focused on connection. His Aikido was largely focused on integration.
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From which he could DEFEAT all of those guys.
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George S. Ledyard wrote:
The whole internal power discussion directly relates to his spiritual outlook and how he saw its relation to Aikido technique. O-Sensei's primary focus was on himself. How does one bring the forces one is using into balance? What flows outwards must be in balance with what flows in. As in the Chinese arts, this is multi-dimensional... up-down, forward-back, right-left, all in balance. The accomplishment of this over time changes ones psychology. It has to because there is no separation between mind-body-spirit.
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That's great. That's what makes Aikido great. That's what made him never losing to an opponent.
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George S. Ledyard wrote:
I do not think that it is an accident that both systems, although Aikido has been less successful in this regard in my opinion, focus on relaxation and non-resistance. When the training is what it should be, the focus is on removing all tension, mental and physical. This inevitably results in a psychological dimension of practice because the majority of our tension is directly related to our mind and how we think about what we are doing.
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And that leads to success and prevalence.
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George S. Ledyard wrote:
The internal power training which has been discussed at length is about focusing on oneself and bringing the various components of the mind-body into an integrated state. It is largely a solo endeavor, although I really appreciate the way Dan H teaches many of the exercises under load with a partner. Anyway, you are not trying to do anything to anyone else. You are integrating yourself.
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For fighting effectiveness.
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George S. Ledyard wrote:
The more relaxed you get, the more you release your tension and integrate the various components of your body, the more sensitive you are to outside forces. I am not saying that the spiritual side of this comes automatically, I don't think it does. Takeda, Sagawa, and Ueshiba all were masters of the "aiki" skills but only O-Sensei had the spiritual bent that led him to change the art from one devoted to fighting to one that allowed one to manifest the principles that govern the universe in ones body via technique. It's not that these principles weren't in operation in Daito Ryu, they certainly were. In fact these principles operate in all places at all times, in all arts because they are so-called "universal" principles.
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That's not an argument against my opinion. He still could defeat you and me
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George S. Ledyard wrote:
But O-Sensei changed the form of the practice to focus on these principles and the trans-formative effect on the individual of integrating oneself with these principles. It was meant to be a spiritual practice.
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ONCE he became proficient technically speaking.
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George S. Ledyard wrote:
So, O-Sensei kept developing throughout his entire life. At the very end of his life he stated that he was just beginning to understand Ikkyo. You can't say that he kept changing on a spiritual level but didn't develop technically... there is no separation.
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There is for me and I'm not O Sensei. Do you really believe that it took him 50 years of rigorous training to begin to even understand Ikkyo? Was he that bad?
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George S. Ledyard wrote:
Anyway, you become what you train. If you take the idea that you can just focus on technique and spiritual thing will come later, you will inevitably hit a dead end in which your technique stops progressing because the limiting factor will no longer be something physical. You can see this in innumerable high level practitioners. Their stuff hasn't changed in years and years because the focus of their training was outward on technique and how one could apply it to defeating an opponent outside oneself. A inward focus, both technical and spiritual, gives one the freedom to keep developing technically indefinitely. That's why O-Sensei's Aikido at the end of his life didn't look like what he did in his fifties and didn't look like what most of his students ended up doing. He kept changing, they didn't. They never understood his spiritual ideas and how they related to the practice and chose instead to master the form but not the content.
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I cannot agree with you here too. So I need the spiritual to keep progressing in my technique? Does it work too for Chess or Civil Engineering? Sorry but no. No.
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George S. Ledyard wrote:
Of course, there is a continuum I am talking about. Some teachers freed themselves more from technical restraints of form and pursued some notion of a spiritual underpinning and others seemed almost entirely uninterested. But it is clear to me that O-Sensei's Aikido was meant to reveal the truth of non-separation, of the essential interconnectedness of things. Technique was a tool for that study. If ones interest is in fighting, all ones training starts with the fundamentally dualistic mindset that virtually precludes understanding this fact that way the Fonder understood it.
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You mean then than prewar students did not understand a thing. Frankly, what's the different between those prewar deshi's techniques, the pictures of Noma Dojo, and Iwama Ryu's? Where is that technical progress?
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George S. Ledyard wrote:
Frankly, if ones only interest is in fighting and applied technique. I'd quit Aikido and go train with Dan H. Skip the Aiki-Do and just pursue the "aiki". He'll get you to fighting effectiveness much quicker and you won't be saddled with all sorts of Aikido techniques which were created for an entirely different purpose altogether.
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For what purpose were Aikido techniques created? Were they created by O Sensei? Or they predate him by hundreds of years? Were they not created to defeat and prevail in armed and unarmed confrontation?
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George S. Ledyard wrote:
I keep repeating these things over and over because this is what I was taught by my own teacher and I think it is important that someone be "fighting the good fight" so to speak. Rather than shrink this amazing art of Aikido to fit ones "little mind" of all of our psychological issues why not try to change ourselves for the better and tap into a "Big Mind" understanding of the art? Of course that is far more difficult. Letting go is the hardest thing we can ask of ourselves. But don't try to make Aikido into just another system that emanates from the fearful mind, that will never change anything for the better because it simply buys into the essentially fearful, oppositional mindset that we all have. Technique alone is not the answer. There are folks out there who could tear you apart with their Aikido whom I wouldn't for one second wish to emulate on a personal level. I hope people will look for something greater than that.
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This part is just preaching to the core. I believe, understand and share with you that last part. But that's not about Aikido. It's about being a better human being. Or are this kind of Aikidoka morally superior to Judoka, Kempoists, F-1 racers or Architects? That part is all about ego.