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Old 03-27-2007, 06:40 PM   #2
Josh Lerner
 
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Location: Renton, WA
Join Date: Oct 2005
Posts: 80
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Re: Ki-Aikido or Taiji - effectiveness in developing Qi?

Hi Howard,

I'll just state the obvious, before the firestorm starts. Figure out what kind of skills in particular you are interested in, see which instructor actually can demonstrate them in a way that is convincing to you, look at their students to see if the instructor is both

a) willing

and

b) able

to teach the skills to others, and go from there. If you are interested in body skills more than styles, make a choice by the instructor and, more importantly, by the quality of their students. Is the instructor actively trying to make his or her students better than the instructor is? Do they also have the skills, or are they merely satellites orbiting around the charismatic and powerful Sun, happy to be basking in its beneficient warmth?

Be aware of the fact that if you don't have experience with these skills beforehand, you don't really know what you are looking for, so you are in a bit of a Catch-22. To learn the skills, you need a good teacher, but in order to know if the teacher is actually good, you need some skills yourself. Don't worry too much about that now, just keep it in the back of your head. Keep your eyes open, and get ready to start sucking at these things for a long time, like the rest of us.

Josh
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