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Old 09-05-2009, 02:00 AM   #53
rdavid445
Dojo: Shobu Aiki Dojo - OKC, OK
Location: Norman, OK
Join Date: Aug 2009
Posts: 19
United_States
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Re: Inefficiencies in the Aikido Training Method

I think the idea of classical aikido being rococo as a technical system has a lot of merit. However, let me say this: have you ever seen rococo architecture? How about rococo painting? (Rococo meaning, in this case, in the style of 18th century French art and design) How about the art of the Italian Renaissance, which could be said to be ornate and complex?

Absolutely gorgeous. Transcendental, even.

Let's use art as the metaphor. Bear with me, as it may be a little reductive of the subject at hand.

I could break out the crayolas, grab some printer paper, draw a stick figure with the words "MY WIFE" written above it, complete with an arrow pointing towards the stick figure and hearts all around. This would take me all of a minute and thirty seconds, at most, and would perfectly convey the message that I love my wife, and wanted to draw her picture. I could squeeze the dogs and the house in there, too. It doesn't take long to teach a child to draw this sort of picture. Maybe a year or so after they start kindergarten, they can produce something similar. Simple, direct, done in two shakes of a lamb's tail.

Or, if I were capable, I could buy top grade materials, and stretch a beautiful, white canvas for myself. I could pick up expensive oil paints and the finest horsehair brushes. I could spend months, maybe years, perfectly rendering the light as it hits my wife's skin, the color of the satin sheet she's laying on as it is hit by rays of sun and hidden by shadow. There would be hundreds of colors just in her hair. Everything would be perfectly modeled, not a thing out of place. This isn't easy to do. In order to do her beauty justice, I've had to study with a master for 15 years, working tirelessly everyday to replicate his techniques, and make them my own. It's been my life's work to reach this point. And through the subtlety of my work, you can fully feel how much I love my wife, how every corner of her body thrills me, how I couldn't be more in love.

Now, it seems to me (and I'm only one man), that suggesting that aikido is rococo as a technical corpus implicitly compares it to other arts, which can be a little unfair. Is every art capable of giving every one of it's practitioners with what they need, no matter what that may be? In my estimation, they don't all do the same things for everyone. Some people are concerned largely with technical veracity, i.e. can I use it to fight someone in a given situation, etc. Were I asked, would I suggest aikido based on that criteria alone? Probably not. I would tell that person to find a decent Krav Maga teacher (while I have to real experience with it, I understand Krav Maga to be a system that emphasizes a low number of simple, proven techniques and a ferocious mind set). I would say, however, that if they would be willing to give aikido a try, they may find a system that may take quite a bit longer to learn, but the results could open up a whole new world to them, while teaching them self defense (albeit at a slower pace). Maybe they would have to study for 10 years before they had developed to the point where they could use aikido in a combative situation. But what else will they have gained?

I don't mean to dismiss simpler, combatively oriented systems such as Krav Maga, MCMAP, etc. They most certainly were created to serve a purpose, and they seem to do so quite efficiently. Within a small amount of time, a person can be equipped with tools that will allow them to survive in many combative situations.

In my opinion, the ornate nature of aikido is one of it's strengths. It's our own version of 手解き te-hodoki, "untying the hands", a principle in koryu bujutsu that Ellis and others have written about, where new students in jujutsu schools were first taught grab-escapes, and other simple techniques, so that if they left after a short time, they wouldn't have any of the school's true techniques to spread amongst non-members. You've got to stick with aikido, at least for a while, to get anything out of it.

Sure, you could accomplish what took a rococo painter four years of constant work to accomplish in a few minutes. But, were you to compare the two pieces of work, which would stand the test of time? Which would be looked at in 250 years and thought to be a masterpiece?

Last edited by rdavid445 : 09-05-2009 at 02:07 AM.
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