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Old 06-16-2010, 05:15 PM   #10
Peter Goldsbury
 
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Re: Transmission, Inheritance, Emulation 18

Hello Niall,

A few comments.

Quote:
Niall Matthews wrote: View Post
Thank you, Peter. That is a formidable review.

If I have understood you correctly it looks like the conclusion is that Ellis Amdur has bought into the whole IS thesis. He doesn't seem to be writing as an aikidoka - whether that is a flaw or an advantage is a different question.
PAG. I think Ellis himself will post here and join the discussion. He usually does. He spent a few years in Japan and trained for some of this time at the Hombu. However, he acquired some expertise in a few other arts, besides aikido. The book is a presentation / distillation of a whole range of issues previously discussed in Aikido Journal blogs, which I am not sure are still available to read.

Quote:
Niall Matthews wrote: View Post
Outliers is a cool word but I think it is our job as teachers to teach aikido in such a way that outliers shouldn't really be necessary. That's one of the points of our own journeys after all. To do the work so that our students don't have to.
PAG. Well, I think that this was one of Gladwell's aims in writing his book--to explain what outliers really were, so that there could be many more of them. However, putting in the training hours required is utterly necessary, for both teachers and students.

Quote:
Niall Matthews wrote: View Post
And who would say to Saotome Sensei, say, or Tamura Sensei - to take two great teachers at random - that what they are teaching isn't adequate for an understanding of aikido.

Maybe I should read the book! But thanks again for your scholarly analysis, Peter.
PAG. I think one of the issues raised by Ellis is whether any postwar teaching is adequate for the aikido that Ueshiba himself practised.

Best wishes,

PAG

P A Goldsbury
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