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Old 07-20-2007, 09:55 AM   #5
Mike Sigman
Location: Durango, CO
Join Date: Feb 2005
Posts: 4,123
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Re: Different training methods . . . same skills?

Quote:
Thomas Campbell wrote: View Post
Akuzawa's basic drills involve a heavy emphasis on contradictory tensions along specific planes, much more than any of the taijiquan styles I've been exposed to. Yiquan, a Chinese martial art involving a variety of standing practices as well as friction-stepping and postural strength testing, comes the closest (just my opinion) to the approach that Akuzawa's methods seem to emphasize. There are also basic practices from Shaolin and other arts and Chinese neigong systems (like the Muscle-Tendon Changing Classic) that feel in practice something like Akuzawa's basic exercises.

Some of the people contributing to this forum have experience with or have at least some knowledge of Chen taijiquan or Akuzawa's exercises. For example, Mike Sigman knows Chen taijiquan and has been introduced to Akuzawa's exercises when Rob John visited the D.C. area last spring.

I was just struck by at least superficial similarities in the demonstrations by Liu Chengde and Akuzawa Minoru in these clips:
Actually, the similarities tend to permeate the Asian arts in an unmistakeable way. If I had to compare what Akuzawa does to any particular styles, it would be the southern Shaolin styles. Of course, they in turn derive from the Yi Jin Jing (what doesn't, for all practical purposes? The basics are always the same.) Akuzawa's exercises look to me to be most related to the "Dynamic Tension" exercises of many styles in the south.

There's a Bajiquan guy turned "Chen-style" guy (I don't consider Feng's Chen-style pure enough to comfortably credit what he does as truly representative of the Chen style) that Feng Zhiqiang uses (used?) to handle challenges. How does a Baji guy suddenly become a "top" guy in a purported Chen-style? The basics are close enough to fake it, even if the Baji guy is not really all that skilled in reeling-silk movement compared to a real Chen stylist.

What can an instructor like Ikeda Sensei learn from a karate instructor? My point is that even though there are notable differences at some levels in terms of training approach, philosophy, and so on, the core principles have to be the same.

I've seen videos of Liu Chengde before and his Taiji is different from what you'd normally see in Chen-style, IMO. But his basics are the same because the basics are spread all over Asia, albeit with many permutations. I'm assuming that Liu had some training in some other art, watching him move, and a Chen-style purist (not me) would object to a number of things, but what's important to the people who are just trying to get the basics? Just getting the basics. Until they do that, all they can do is an external parody of some internal-strength-based martial art. As Ushiro Sensei commented once: "No kokyu, no Aikido". That's true of most Asian arts, not just Aikido.

FWIW

Mike
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