ChrisHein

Nice post Matthew.

From my perspective (which is basically what I think you are saying, but please correct me if I'm wrong), the IP-crowd is saying something like-

Aiki is this specific thing we know about, and if you haven't touched an IP guy, you can't understand it. So if you use the word "Aiki", we are going to correct you, because we don't believe what you are saying is correct.

When I talk (I will only speak for myself), I am saying that "Aikido" is the way of "Aiki". There is a thing that I call "Aiki" this concept was introduced to me through training in Aikido, given to me by my Aikido teacher, who got the concept from his teacher, who arguably got the concept from his teacher, who was the founder of Aikido.

So to me, it's natural to believe, that this concept, that I learned about through Aikido training, have called Aiki for years, and was told directly came from the founder, is in fact "Aiki". I have not seen enough evidence yet, to change my mind as to whether I am using the word correctly or not. I am however reading more and more historical information every day, trying to understand this problem, because it's important to me. I also find it a real bummer, when I can't use the word to describe the concept, that I believe most people in the Aikido community call Aiki- with out being bombarded with posts telling me I'm wrong. Especially when it comes from the same eight or so people every time, and my email gets loads of emails from quiet supporters who also don't see a reason to believe "Aiki" is something different then they have for years.

On the football video I posted, I wanted to talk about the thing in the video that I call "Aiki". The ability that the ball carrier was using to understand and work with the physical actions of those trying to tackle him. I call that thing "Aiki" I don't know if that's what the founder meant by the word or not, so I simply said what I meant by the word, so we could talk about the thing I was trying to describe with the word. But then the thread got turned into a- you're not using the word correctly- argument. Bummer.

There is not enough "proof"/historical evidence out there yet to say what is, or is not, "Aiki", in my opinion. I'm cool with letting people who practice Aikido call whatever they like Aiki, as long as I can understand what they are talking about, and they will do the same for me.