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Old 12-10-2011, 02:19 PM   #10
Thomas Campbell
Join Date: Sep 2006
Posts: 407
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Re: Internal study - recommendation

Quote:
Thomas Campbell wrote: View Post

One other consideration is which approach best fits into your goal of integrating the internal strength practice with aikido. I haven't trained aikido in many years, but if you check with other people you will find differing opinions as to which approach fits better into aikido. Try to find someone who's had some success with integrating one of these approaches into their aikido.
For example, reading his post below, Hugh Beyer might be able to share some insights into baguazhang training and how it works with aikido:

http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showpo...3&postcount=11

Quote:
Hugh Beyer wrote: View Post
Taking all the caveats above as given, and not knowing anything about this specific school, I found bagua highly enlightening.

If they're at all decent, and if you absolutely can't get on the mat with someone who has certified IS skills, I don't think you'd be wasting your time there.

What I found is the basic exercises all the way up to the circle walk made it very hard not to practice some of the basic body skills that are useful in IS. You can't mechanically do the exercises without practicing such things as moving the dantien independently of the hips, coiling, bowing (bowing as in bow-and-arrow, not as in rei), and moving the parts of the body individually but connected. Also some good breathing work in there.

It made me very impatient with most of the exercises I've encountered in Aikido. If you aren't going to teach me internals along with the exercises, at least teach exercises that will force me to do something useful rather than let me putz along wasting my time.
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