jonreading

I think when push comes to shove, there is a lot of similarity between Aikido and Daito Ryu Aikijujitsu. Probably, there is an argument somewhere that Aikido is an offshoot of DRA. DRA still includes exercises specific to training center. Its interesting that Aikido struggles to produce exercises of the same nature. I don't think the argument is that internal power does not exist, or even that it does not exists in Aikido (to some extent); I think my observation is that somewhere along the line we obscured those elements from our aikido.

We are now trying to figure out what we are missing and how to integrate that back into mainstream aikido. O'Sensei's aikido did contain internal power, probably learned from Daito Ryu. Since O'Sensei, Aikido has not produced a comparable icon to the founder. Post-war aikido is different than pre-war aikido (aiki budo). "Modern" aikido is different than pre-war aikido. I do not think at this time it is even conceivable to argue someone will meet or exceed the status and ability of O'Sensei. Yet we cling to this notion that if we train the way we want to train we will eventually be like O'Sensei. Most of the exercises we have we not even given to use by the founder, but from the uchi deshi trying to make sense of things.

So we are looking for something, but we don't know what. We don't know how to replicate it and we cannot explain it. We are creating a culture of coorelative explanation because we do not know the causes of why excellent aikido works. "Well, I thought about hugging puppies when I turned and since there was no resistence from my partner, then thinking about hugging puppies is non-resistence." This is a ridiculous example or coorelative argumentation, but we make these arguments all the time in aikido. This means justifies the ends BS is hurting our training. "Well, I want aikido to be about non-resistence, so how can I retro-fit the curriculum to justify my end believe that aikido is non-resistence."

Students who let their teachers snow them over with vague instruction and reasoning hurt aikido. Ideologues who fit their training to prop a ideology hurt aikido. This was my point that we need to get specific about what we are doing and why we do it. The poor aikido will correct itself or dissolve...