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Dan Richards · 03-27-2013, 11:04 PM

Robert, Ralston and his work entered my martial arts headspace when I started aikido. One of the first books I bought was Cheng Hsin: The Principles of Effortless Power. I've read and worked from all the material I could find written by him, and he was a major influence early on in my training in gearing my attention towards inner work that wouldn't have trained in most aikido dojos - outside of some of the Ki Aikido groups. It's interesting to hear Ralston, even not too long ago, talk about how he was frustrated by trying to take what I knows and describe it and translate it into writing.

Cady, I agree with you not only in its important, but that it's not something to have an entire curriculum built up around it. And that's exactly where I think the snag is. What's needed are let's say "a suite of tools." And I agree they're out there. But they're inside entire curriculums, and it's often difficult for people to decipher what is what.

There is no reason the idea of something like Internal Alignment can not be a discrete and identifiable and stand-alone suite of tools and that give quick verifiable results. Use it as part of an ongoing maintenance kit. And you can stop there if you like. If you want more performance, then you go to the kind of people and systems - like what AMG does for Mercedes.

The automotive industry has a huge niche market with one-stop places that do nothing but check the fluids, connections, and alignment. That's all they do, and it's a complete service. And you're good to go. Your car will drive better, you and others will be safer, the life of the car will be extended, the performance will increase, the experience will be more enjoyable...

Before people even look into getting into an echelon of higher performance, there's a more accessible step - that's available - that they can take to get them back at least to a natural level of alignment and performance.

A simple and complete suite of tools and concepts that are easy to understand, and available freely online. Something that could sit on a 10-20 website.

03-27-2013, 11:04 PM	#5
Dan Richards Dojo: Latham Eclectic Location: NY Join Date: Oct 2007 Posts: 452 Offline	Re: IA - Internal Alignment Robert, Ralston and his work entered my martial arts headspace when I started aikido. One of the first books I bought was Cheng Hsin: The Principles of Effortless Power. I've read and worked from all the material I could find written by him, and he was a major influence early on in my training in gearing my attention towards inner work that wouldn't have trained in most aikido dojos - outside of some of the Ki Aikido groups. It's interesting to hear Ralston, even not too long ago, talk about how he was frustrated by trying to take what I knows and describe it and translate it into writing. Cady, I agree with you not only in its important, but that it's not something to have an entire curriculum built up around it. And that's exactly where I think the snag is. What's needed are let's say "a suite of tools." And I agree they're out there. But they're inside entire curriculums, and it's often difficult for people to decipher what is what. There is no reason the idea of something like Internal Alignment can not be a discrete and identifiable and stand-alone suite of tools and that give quick verifiable results. Use it as part of an ongoing maintenance kit. And you can stop there if you like. If you want more performance, then you go to the kind of people and systems - like what AMG does for Mercedes. The automotive industry has a huge niche market with one-stop places that do nothing but check the fluids, connections, and alignment. That's all they do, and it's a complete service. And you're good to go. Your car will drive better, you and others will be safer, the life of the car will be extended, the performance will increase, the experience will be more enjoyable... Before people even look into getting into an echelon of higher performance, there's a more accessible step - that's available - that they can take to get them back at least to a natural level of alignment and performance. A simple and complete suite of tools and concepts that are easy to understand, and available freely online. Something that could sit on a 10-20 website.