Quote:
Mary Eastland wrote:
I am not sure about bizarre or empircal...(I barely know what that means.)
For me Aikido is a co-operative practice between uke and nage. Nothing has to be proved to anyone. The connection is discovered as we train together. We fall when we are thrown. We practice Ki exercises together so we both develop correct feeling.
The goal for me is find the off balance of uke so they can be thrown. I don't force it...I pay close attention to each uke in each moment and the throw presents itself....right along with the Fun and Joy!
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Hi Mary,
Please don't take this as an attack. I just want to clarify.
'Empirical' means that a thing can be measured or tested. I understand and approve of a lot of what you have said about how you train. However I believe the crux of the matter is how do you know when you have "correct feeling"? Is there a way to measure it? What if someone's feeling is more correct than another's? What Dan et al are saying is that they are able to test when their feeling is correct, and show how that feeling affects themselves and others in their training. What Graham is saying is that he knows within himself that his feeling is correct and he doesn't have to prove it to anybody. That is fair enough in my book, however it begs the question of why he is trying to convince us all of this fact? Why bother?
Now, I have no idea whether Dan's or Graham's claims are true. I have never met either of them. However, I do like my aikido to be demonstrable and repeatable. I know I have mistakenly thought I had "correct feeling" several times, when it turned out not to be the case. This was promptly demonstrated by my sensei as he joyfully introduced me to the mat.