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Old 06-26-2013, 03:45 PM   #18
James Sawers
 
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Dojo: Oak Park Aikikai, IL
Location: Chicago, IL
Join Date: Apr 2012
Posts: 157
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Re: Post Modern Aikido?

My thanks to Mark and Corky for bringing up this topic for discussion. I have been attempting to expand my aikido practice slowly over time to include other aikido styles and viewpoints, but have run into some difficulty when I try to incorporates these differences into my home dojo, especially when I am tasked with occasionally teaching a class. I am told to only teach our style when I teach, which, to be fair, is only right. We have a responsibility to our students to teach in our home style, preparing them for their respective tests and allowing them to properly mingle at seminars with their peers from similar dojos in our association.

My question is, at what point can such outside ideas, with sometimes radical differences in approaches, be incorporated into an existing dojo curriculum, without endangering the "purity" of that dojo's teachings? Do we need to set up an "Aiki Lab", as suggested, where advanced practitioners (who know enough not to confuse these new approaches with their currently accepted curriculum) can come together and try to incorporates these new ideas and approaches into their individual training?

Have others run into this? If so, what was the outcome?

Thanks.......Jim

Last edited by James Sawers : 06-26-2013 at 03:51 PM.
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