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Old 05-31-2012, 06:36 PM   #14
Adam Huss
 
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Location: Ohio
Join Date: Jun 2005
Posts: 710
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Re: switch to yoshinkan or stay with aikikai??

Steve,

sorry to hear about your dojo closing...I've been through that myself and its never fun (the dojo I went to from age 9 to 24 closed when I was away as an uchi deshi, found out when I got back home). I really don't want to give to much of my personal preferences on 'style this' and 'style that.' One thing I would recommend, though, would be to give whatever place you try a good solid look. Sometimes people will pop into a prospective dojo and catch on a 'bad' or 'slow' night and take that as the overarching experience. It may be better to try a couple places out for a week or two to get a better scope of experience.

I will say that I come from an independent aikido federation with both aikikai and Yoshinkan based teachers. With that experience, if I had my own dojo, I would probably teach students nothing but the Yoshinkan kihon dosa; solo, partnered, and prac app to new students for several months before getting into detailed waza or worry about fluidity. Oh, and ukemi. Lots of ukemi. With that, I doubt I would have any students, lol. I guess my point is, please be patient when checking out these new schools....if, as you alluded to having some concern, the Yoshinkan school seems a little frustratingly different I would advise that their careful, precise, approach to movement pay dividends for aikidoka of any style who practice it. Good luck!

Ichi Go, Ichi Ei!
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