Ellis Amdur

To be absolutely clear, Joep, you are close (and this is aside from what my personal interests are). You write:
"if you're interested in internal strength, why bother with aikido?" -- UNLESS you love aikido for itself (as a movement system, as an art, as a spiritual training, as a community, as a martial training as it is, etc.). But if your primary fascination is the internal training, then, yes, even in the best of circumstances, aikido is a circuitous route. UNLESS the particular nuances of internal training you are interested in are most directly accessible in the circuitous path of aikido. Which begs all sorts of questions I tried to address in that chapter.

Ellis Amdur