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Janet Rosen wrote:
Chris, thank you for your reply. I've been thinking about them (letting them simmer on the back burner while I"m cooking dinner, actually, and writing while actual food simmers....).
From my perspective and mine alone, FWIW:
The exercises I'm working on plus others I hope to learn are all aimed, for me, to the goal of developing a very specific skill set.
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What is this specific skill set? What can it achieve that other forms of training you've experience cannot?
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I'm not aiming to throw people harder or faster but to work on a way to connect with my partner and then undermine him without the types of muscling I have felt in a lot of mainstream aikido.
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becoming athletic doesn't mean that you have to use brute force when applying technique. Being stronger, more coordinated, and better conditioned are all assets that can only help you. If you choose to use them to physically force your opponent down, they could be used for that. If you want to use them to move smoothly, in time with your partner, effortlessly bringing the situation to a natural conclusion, being athletic can be used for that.
There is an idea about being athletic that disgusts me. It's the idea that being physically strong makes you stupid, brutish, and thuggish. Nothing could be farther from the truth. An athlete is elegant, graceful, and powerful. Training in athletics develops the mind, strengthens the the will and calms the body. Athletics training teaches one how to completely integrate the body and mind into one coordinated person. Too many of us think back to the high school jock who bullied everyone; you won't turn into him by training athletics.
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You have provided in answer to me a list of skill sets under the heading of athletic training. Some I know, some I don't. But it strikes me that they are disparate and have different goals, build different types of skills. And I don't see how any of them work on what my understanding of internal power is.
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This is at the heart of what we are talking about. What is your understanding of internal power? What will training in it give you that you cannot get from athletics training?