As a qualifier in the discussion, IP/aiki does not validate fighting skill. Fighting skill validates fighting skill. So any reasonable guy can say....so what?
Interestingly enough you have Rickson Gracie the families greatest fighter with a winning record ten times greater than anyone else in the family. He credits his power and conditioning to solo training, breath training, yoga, and taiji.
Ricksons choice of conditioning is but one component to his overall skills...skills honed by MMA...and fighting,
Do you think the guys who train for three years and lift really care or will listen? Do you think they even have the capacity to figure out the componants that beat them, when all of their coaches are into western methods?
Methods and conditioning
For the naysaers like Tony, they have their own very valid points. Why invest in a method that has not been proved? I had a guy-a serious MMAer from California- come to my teaching Seminar. He liked it alright, but he came to my dojo after, and wanted to put the gloves on and go at it with me.
Why?
He... didn't want to invest in a method that could not be vetted.
Why is that not to be considered intelligent as well?
Now,, I beat the ______ out of him in front of everyone there,.but what if my fighting skills were not up to snuff? Would it have invalidated Ip/aiki? Sadly to him....yes...it proably would have. It would have been a mistake in judgement, but I think he would have walked away.
If Rickson wasn't a good fighter...do you think we would be discussing his conditioning? That any one would care?
Takeda was a legend and killed people as well as fought many fighters.
Ueshiba was a good fighter in his middle years.
If they were not... do you think we would be discussing IP/aiki in the 21st century
That any one would care?
Wang Chu shins I.P. impressed Draeger, Relnick, Smith Blumming, Chiba, but apparently, only two of them were bright enough to actually go train with the man.
With IP/aiki too many people confuse it and think you are talking about some namby pambie aiki nonsense. I don't fault them at all. If I had not tested this and tested it time and again, you couldn't have gotten me to look at it twice. Hell, two years in.... I QUIT.
Why?
I couldn't get it to work when I sparred with my crew. Would I EVER go back now? Not on your life. This is the superior way to move and hit.
IP/aiki is unusual enough that you can do things normal people can't do. I show that and then leave it up to them to decide if they think they can use it in their arts or in fighting. Otherwise this turns into a Wild Wild West show with the fastest draw
I am willing to coach, I am not going to travel around fighting people anymore.
The poster boys that the kids see on the TEE VEE are the ones who get the fame, while the ones who made them...
their coaches and trainers are the real stars. They were there before them and will be there after them. I thought it was great that in a program to laud Anderson Silva...Silva chose to show his family and his coaches and talk about them.
Methods and conditioning like MT, BJJ, Judo and Boxing are learning paradigms, greater than any ..one.. player; IP/aiki is greater than any..one..person, no matter who that person is.
Most intelligent Martial artists know this already.
IP/aiki is not needed to learn to fight and it does not teach you how to fight. As a conditioning system for knockout power and being hard to throw and for overall power it is superior and doesn't fade like normal strength. More importantly it is the cornerstone of what made the asian arts great.
And most intelligent people are listening and learning that as well
All the best
Dan