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Old 04-07-2014, 09:04 AM   #13
Keith Larman
Dojo: AIA, Los Angeles, CA
Location: California
Join Date: Apr 2005
Posts: 1,604
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Re: YouTube: Aikido Highlight - Shirakawa Ryuji

Quote:
Peter Rehse wrote: View Post
I understand demonstration - but I felt uke was working just as hard as tori.
Yup.

As I sit here thinking about it -- no critique is really intended by that comment. And the following is really more about my own thinking -- so consider this thinking out loud about myself, my own perceptions, my own understandings, etc.

The demo is how a lot of demos go in many arts quite frankly. The issue of ukemi is always a bit of a sticky one and frankly I will run away screaming if the discussion goes that direction.

All that said, I realize that the demonstrations I'm usually most intrigued by are either the ones that are quite, um, well, have a sense of power and violence as well as the ones where it seems like almost nothing is happening but you watch uke collapse like a stack of plates that's been subtly shifted from down below. Of course both extremes are often BS demos ("huh, the guy really isn't broken or dead" or "Give me a freaking break!"), but sometimes not as there is a huge amount of skill, timing, trust and experience on display.

After all these years I see some degree of merit in both extremes with a lot less interest (personally) in the ones that have neither. Interesting... Must think more...

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