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Old 05-16-2007, 01:19 PM   #21
Chris Li
 
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Dojo: Aikido Sangenkai
Location: Honolulu, Hawaii
Join Date: Dec 2000
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Re: Poll: Would you consider aikido without a physical practice component to still be

Quote:
Christian Moses wrote: View Post
Short answer, No.

Longer answer, I think very few people who go to Aikido dojos and pay dues actually DO aikido. It's a physical art. It has to be a physical art. The art teaches through the body. It's easy to read what aikido teaches us, but until I can see and feel someone apply those concepts, they're not doing aikido. I'm kind of draconian however, hell I don't even thing *I'm* really doing aikido anymore...
Is teaching method inextricably linked to goals? If I learn how to read with whole language methods am ending up with something different than if I had learned to read with phonetic teaching methods?

One of the interesting things about the essays in Morihei Ueshiba's "Take Musu Aiki" is the almost total lack of discussion of anything related to physical practice. He does, however, discuss his concept of what the goals for Aikido are, and none of them seem, to me, to be specifically dependent upon physical training. In fact, at one point he even admits that fact, although he was at a loss as to what other methods would be practicable.

Now, physical training is certainly the engine that drives intensity in standard Aikido training, but there are certainly other ways of creating intensity, at least in theory.

Best,

Chris

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