Thread: Ueshiba's Aiki
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Old 11-12-2011, 12:19 PM   #224
gregstec
Dojo: Aiki Kurabu
Location: Elizabethtown, PA
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Re: Ueshiba's Aiki

Quote:
Ken McGrew wrote: View Post
I'm getting tired of this slightly veiled insults.

I am not angry. I have not had my Aikido world shattered by the unsupported claims in this discussion made by yourself and others. I have trained with many master instructors in various arts. You have no idea who I am or who all my influences have been. I have even trained with people who were obciously showing Dan's influence in their Aikido. I understand the claims that are being made now that more explanation has been provided. The grandious claims that Dan makes are simply not supported. All this machismo BS gets old. All the comments by Dan, for example, that if people had Aiki they would prove it it combat and so forth.

You people keeping stating that aiki is absent in modern Aikido. Your definition of aiki is the problem. If you don't think Ikeda Sensei and Saotome Sensei have aiki in their Aikido, or not adequate aiki as claimed by many here who say that's why people seek out Dan, then you don't know what aiki is.

I posted the footage of Daito-ryu and people have not responded. I see so much more in the footage of O'Sensei than what is visible in Jujutsu. I layer out some of the obvious differences. Here's another. In Daito-ryu there is also a tendency to threaten the joints with injury. Aikido moved away from that. Not just to be nice but also to minimize the tendency of Uke to struggle.
Well, Ken, you finally hit on the core of the problem in this discussion - the definition of Aiki. The topic of this thread is 'Ueshiba's Aiki' - Dan, and others, have stated that those in modern Aikido do not manifest aiki as Ueshiba did - if they could, how come no one has duplicated his power. You disagree with that because you have a different view of what aiki is - OK, that is fine. Regardless of how direct and blunt Dan can come across, the bottom line is that he can walk his talk, and those that have felt that, are all still training with him to learn more - and there is progress among his students. Now if you can come up with someone that can manifest the same level of soft power that Dan can, we will go check him out - period.

In summary, unless there can be an agreed upon point of reference for discussion, there can be no discussion - no agreed upon definition of aiki, then no logical discussion; just arguments - which has become very apparent in this thread.

Greg