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Yannis Mousoulis wrote:
So...now credentials reflect ability and skill...?
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They should, yes. This being an imperfect world, they don't always.
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Yannis Mousoulis wrote:
Since when?
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You're being disingenuous, and that is no basis for a discussion. Neither is a grinding axe. You want to rant about the state of the world today, which is a cheap and easy form of entertainment. It is not discussion and it does not arrive at the truth.
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Yannis Mousoulis wrote:
A beginner should be willing and able to commit his life into the art in order to learn, that's the onlything he is in position to know.
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Commit his life? That's a bit much. As you yourself say, the beginner is in no position to know; therefore, how can he know that this is something worthy of him "committing his life"?
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Yannis Mousoulis wrote:
He has no filter to judge a teacher or a school and that's why he can get lost by being...impressed for the wrong superficial reasons...
Who is the beginner to demand the "right aikido dojo" and what has he done to deserve it? The only thing that counts is the effort he is ready to make in order to become something better. If that is nothis motive then he needs not to worry about the "right dojo"!
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Here you are partially right. A beginner (in aikido, or anything else) cannot understand the advanced topics of the subject they're just beginning to learn. They cannot and should not demand that their instructor make all things plain to them -- that's like a beginning algebra student demanding that a professor explain differential equations. Regardless of his/her skill and knowledge, the professor can't explain, because the student lacks the background to understand the explanation. But that does not mean that a beginner has no basis for judging whether the dojo is right for him/her.
When I first stepped into the aikido dojo, I did not have any understanding of aikido at all, and I did not try to. I had studied karate for about six years (guessing, I honestly did not keep track) and shindo muso ryu jodo for maybe five years, but I had moved and was not training in either at the time (and had not for a few years). Aikido had no particular attraction to me; I was simply looking for a good dojo in any style near my new home. I walked into the dojo during a Saturday morning class and was greeted by one of the senior students, who talked to me briefly about the dojo and answered some questions about schedule and so on. As we talked, I was observing the practice. "Would you like to sit down and watch the class?" the student said. "No thanks, I've seen what I want. I'll be back," I said. I came back the next Saturday and started training. I knew nothing about aikido, and could not judge whether this was a "good aikido dojo"...but I did have enough knowledge to judge that for me, this was a good dojo. I didn't "commit my life"; I didn't understand this stuff; I didn't try to understand it. All I committed to was to train; if it started to make sense, great; if it started to feel wrong, I'd leave. I've been there ever since.