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Old 02-01-2012, 07:31 AM   #25
chillzATL
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Join Date: Jul 2000
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Re: testing (skill) aikido

Quote:
Alec Corper wrote: View Post
I like Amir's posts. This style of practice is very similar to the external aspects of sparring in Chinese boxing all the way from light tap to out cold or busted ribs. I probably missed the point of the OP, so I went back and read it again. My understanding of pressure testing is more akin to what Dan does and also what is done in Chen CMA. Before you get into any kind of combat testing you first need to lock in the internal structure. I have fought with many good fighters in the past who now I would consider to be lacking in internal skill (Aiki or Jin, names not so important). They could still kick ass and take names so to speak but I thought we were seeking something else. To me all the pressure testing of combat is only useful after the internals are mastered or you lock in bad habits which will get you a long way but eventually stall. Without those kinds of practice most of us would learn more about combat from the street than from the dojo.
Thanks Alec. I would say that I agree with everything you said here. For the thread, which I probably wasn't descriptive enough in my OP, I was hoping to get some discussion of what sort of pressure testing went on in the old days, not so much about what we think it should be today. Though that's actually worked out great. If the people that are considered to have gotten "it" from O'sensei and most of the ones who are more highly regarded in a general budo sense came from this period, what were they doing differently? There is little evidence to support the idea that their mode of practice was any different than ours today, repetition of techniques. So what was it? Was it feeling O'sensei regularly? I doubt that they understood him any better. Was it that combined with a progression of physicality or aliveness in the training? The way aikido is practiced is often dogged on both the external and internal fronts, but in both cases the "old days" seem to be the bright spot in aikido history and this thread was my round about way of digging into that.
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