View Single Post
Old 10-01-2001, 01:03 PM   #7
Mike Collins
Location: San Jose
Join Date: Jun 2000
Posts: 189
United_States
Offline
In my opinion, the concept of no competition in Aikido is "cute". I think Osensei set up Aikido as a non -competitive art just because he understood that he couldn't possibly eliminate competition between training partners, so he wanted to limit it as much as possible.

I've been training in this art for twelve plus years, and I still find myself in contests of strength, wills, technique- almost all the time. I would love to report that I had transcended such low behaviors, but I gotta tell the truth.

I understand that the real contest is between the part of me that wants to understand the art, and the part of me that wants to down my partner; understanding and making a change is not the same thing.

Maybe Osensei figured that establishing shiai would take our minds off of the real contest we all need to be working on, and in the process, lessen the intensity of our training in principle.

Last edited by Mike Collins : 10-01-2001 at 01:05 PM.
  Reply With Quote