Quote:
Lee Salzman wrote:
And if someone comes along who is better than Morihei Ueshiba? Who is better than his teacher? Who is better than your current teacher(s)? Does that make all those other people suddenly wrong, and the new guy alone right? What if the new guy can show you how wrong you are in some contexts, but not others? Does that mean now he is just wrong? Saying things are right and wrong does not make something objective, it makes it self-defeatingly subjective because no one will agree with you. You need a benchmark to measure performance, that allows people to determine for themselves if something is failing them and needs improvement in some way, otherwise it is just online dick measuring.
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Good questions, Lee. If we look at what these people said and trained, we find underlying commonalities. From Morihei Ueshiba talking about spirals to Hong Junshen talking about spirals. Martial arts themes of Heaven-Earth-Man that are found throughout history.
Even in Chen style taiji, we find that Chen Fake disagreed with other martial artists on how they "translated" the martial concepts and ideas.
Anyway, if you look at history, it's pretty clear and evident there is a correct way of training and an incorrect way of training.
Morihei Ueshiba trained for how many years and was seen as an outstanding martial artist? It wasn't 40 years. Now look at the entire aikido world, from every country, and tell me how many people have trained 30-40 years and are not at Ueshiba's skill level. Yet, they are doing the same techniques, the same warm ups, and some are doing the same spiritual training. Or at least they were told that they are.
Sokaku Takeda trained how many students that ended up being outstanding martial artists? We mostly know the popular ones of Sagawa, Horikawa, and Ueshiba. But, how about Yoshida, Sagawa's father, Hisa, Sue (his wife), not to mention Kimura, Okamoto, and others. What about Sagawa saying that near the end of his life he decided to teach his students the secrets and they started getting better?
Correct training and incorrect training. As someone recently brought to my attention in regards to the Chinese martial arts -- how many Grand Master level non-Chinese people are there? How many Grand Master level Chinese people are there?
On Rum Soaked Fist, someone posted a very remarkable story about how they were trained in a Chinese martial system separately from the rest of the group. He did different exercises and watched through a doorway as the rest of the group practiced forms. Literally an indoor disciple.
A lot of hard style iron shirt practitioners were taught to do exercises with tightness, hard muscle tautness, etc. And a lot of these practitioners had strokes and other medical problems. Chen Fake didn't do that kind of training but was regarded as being a very exceptional martial artist.
It isn't me that's saying what is correct or incorrect, but a whole lot of history that's stating it.
Edit: Okay, I'm way off topic. I'll stop there.