Mary Eastland

You say that in public, Dan, yet when invited you let it drop maybe because we are not asking you as an authority but to share ideas? You can disagree all you want about what is right and what is wrong. Aikido with competition makes it no different than any other art to me.

The spiritual part of Aikido is not to compete and yet grow stronger yourself. One can tell how they are growing without having power over someone or by throwing hard. Correct feeling is like Graham described.