Thomas Campbell

Mary, while I am not exactly new born, Dan's hands-on work is not all blood-and-guts dominance. He can be very soft and subtle, "ghost-like" to use an imprecise adjective, neutralizing pushes, holds, and attempted leveraging for throws. And then he can erupt substantial power with no wind-up, just a little sense of compression and release. It's the practical range that aiki skill gives that is so impressive.

Regardless of online impressions, in person these folks are good people. Dan pointed out some specific postural corrections that have helped strengthen the musculature and heal connective tissue around where I'd crushed four thoracic vertebrae. Aspects of a couple of Akuzawa's exercises have been adapted by a Ph.D. physical therapist after I showed them to her, in connection with strengthening and rehabilitation of people with injured backs. Mike Sigman emphasizes the soft and subtle nature of becoming aware of the internal fascial/connective-tissue links, and tying it in with the breath--he took the time out from a group get-together to work one-on-one with a woman recuperating from a badly-injured hip and lower back, to suggest specific things she could do with the work he was showing that would be helpful to her particular case.

Sure, these on-line discussions can turn into screeching matches between highly-competitive, testosterone-addled alpha males. But the pearls of body/mind training insight that occasionally fall out of the clouds of flying feathers (forgive the mixed metaphors) have been tremendously useful, sometimes even inspirational, to me and some others who are honest about our own lack of these skills--to the point where we've quietly sought out training experience with these gentlemen and taken what we've been shown home to cogitate and practice. Ultimately we're all personally responsible to put in the practice, invest in loss, go "a-ha!" and repeat the cycle endlessly. That's what it takes. Few may ultimately get "it," but no one would get it if these folks weren't putting their hard-won insights out there to share with others genuinely interested in learning and cultivating internal skills.

There is always some friction in the best of blending. I'd encourage people not to lose sight of the considerable substance being offered, though it may be obscured by on-line style.